Winnipeg-shot biopic as daring as its subject

Simultaneously huge in its biographical breadth and intimate in its scale, Patrick Wang’s film A. Rimbaud is a portrait of the 19th-century poet Arthur Rimbaud, a grand, 175-minute biopic that eschews the genre’s convention with the adventurous spirit Rimbaud applied to the written word.

For example, while we follow Rimbaud travelling the globe, the film was shot entirely on a Winnipeg soundstage.

Also, Rimbaud (portrayed by charismatic Australian actor Blake Draper) is always alone on camera. The voices of other characters are filled in by a series of musical instruments, inevitably recalling how the same technique was employed by Bill Melendez in Peanuts cartoons, wherein adult voices were portrayed by a muted trombone.

The film ended up being shot in Winnipeg thanks largely to producer Evan Johnson, a filmmaker in his own right with shared directing credits on various films with his brother Galen Johnson and Guy Maddin, including The Green Fog (2017) and Rumours (2024).

Researchers: lights at Henderson crossing ‘long overdue’

Six months after a fatal collision at a crosswalk on Henderson Highway, two traffic safety researchers question why the intersection remains an outlier that is missing key flashing lights.

The City of Winnipeg is being urged to install “backflashers” to better protect road users moving in all directions at the intersection where a 32-year-old father died in the spring.

“It’s these little, mundane, non-sexy engineering problems that can cause everything right up to fatality,” said Curt Pankratz, an associate professor at the University of Winnipeg who studies traffic engineering and policymaking.

On April 19, shortly before sunrise, Gabe Beardy was struck when he was crossing the six-lane thoroughfare at Neil Avenue.

Hydro eyes EV charging mitigation amid electricity shortfall forecast

Manitoba Hydro is looking to stagger electric vehicle charging as it anticipates future electricity shortages.

The Crown corporation is considering “managed charging” pilot projects. Details aren’t available; Hydro is in exploratory phases, spokesman Peter Chura wrote in a statement.

Alex Chiang, Hydro’s vice-president of customer solutions and experience, addressed dozens of electric vehicle industry members during a national conference at The Fort Garry Hotel on Wednesday.

Around 300 people registered for the conference, hosted by Electric Mobility Canada.

Thompson terminal ‘will help unlock’ North

After decades of planning and years of construction, Thompson Regional Airport has opened its new terminal building.

At 40,000-square-feet, the structure is almost three times larger than the facility it replaced. The project cost approximately $125 million, which included the terminal building, a new parking lot, apron and water treatment facility.

Airport staff began operating out of the terminal on Oct. 4.

“It’s a special moment for us all to be in this space,” said James Lindsey, president and CEO of the Thompson Regional Airport Authority. “There’s a lot of opportunity in the North and this is the right piece of infrastructure at the right time that will help unlock the North.”

Mayoral candidates snipe over safety during radio debate

Public safety took centre stage during a sometimes fiery mayoral debate Wednesday in which Kevin Klein revealed he would have to raise property taxes to fund his plan to make Winnipeg safer.

The CJOB debate also included candidates Scott Gillingham and Mike Vogiatzakis, who were selected as the top contenders in the race based on polling data.

Klein noted he has promised to strike a task force on public safety and to hire more police, if he’s elected Oct. 28.

“We are 100 police officers short of the very bare minimum of the per capita (number) right now. We have to replace those officers,” said Klein, a former city councillor and Tory cabinet minister.

Suspect with lighter, torch arrested, released four days before accused charged with murder in fatal arson, trial told

Four days before Alex Courchene was charged with murder for a North End blaze that killed two people, police arrested another suspect who was released that same day without charge, a jury heard Wednesday.

Courchene, 30, has pleaded not guilty to arson and two counts of second-degree murder in the Sept. 14, 2024, deaths of Zenabu Gula, 38, and Geda Wodisso, 49.

Prosecutors allege Courchene set a fire shortly before 3 a.m. in the stairwell of a building at the corner of Main Street and Atlantic Avenue that housed a church and apartment suites.

Gula and Wodisso were unable to escape their second-floor suite and died from smoke inhalation.

E.K. resident able to get away after confrontation with knife-wielding thief who broke into his truck

Winnipeg Police Service property crime investigators are searching for a suspect potentially tied to several concerning incidents in East Kildonan in recent days.

Doug Vance, a homeowner on Dunrobin Avenue who lives with his wife and two sons, woke early Tuesday and noticed the lights were on in his truck, which was parked at the rear of his home.

He was soon face-to-face with a man armed with a large knife.

“Something, I figured, was up, so I went to go find my keys and lock the (truck) door… the light didn’t go out, so that meant the door was ajar,” said the 47-year-old.

Gillingham says Portage and Main underground should stay open

Scott Gillingham said he hopes to keep the circular concourse beneath Portage Avenue and Main Street open, if he’s re-elected mayor next week.

“I would like to find a way for it to stay,” said Gillingham during the mayoral debate hosted by CJOB Wednesday.

The downtown intersection reopened to pedestrians at street level in June 2025.

When he first supported that hotly debated reopening in 2024, Gillingham called for the underground mall to be closed. At the time, the city estimated it would take $73 million and up to five years of traffic-snarling construction to repair the leaking membrane under the street that protects the properties below.

Breaking bread, building bridges

Last Friday, as the setting sun shone into the high windows of Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, Cantor Leslie Emery opened a pair of sliding brass doors at the front of the sanctuary to reveal six scrolls wrapped in coverings embroidered with Hebrew letters.

Five of the scrolls contain the complete Torah — the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — handwritten with a quill and ink on parchment. Some of the scrolls are more than 100 years old.

The congregation reads aloud from these scrolls several times a week.

“When we read the stories of the Bible, when we read the stories of the prophets, when we observe Jewish holidays, we’re actually recounting the history of our ancestors,” Emery said.

Flood mitigation project in neighbouring Interlake First Nations underway

The federal and provincial governments are moving ahead with a $61.1-million flood mitigation project aimed at protecting hundreds of homes and critical infrastructure in Peguis First Nation and neighbouring Fisher River Cree Nation.

The first phase of the long-term initiative will see clay dikes constructed to protect central Peguis and up to 500 vulnerable homes across both communities, along with road improvements to maintain access during flooding.

Federal Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty and Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor announced Wednesday that work is underway, with Ottawa reimbursing eligible provincial costs through its Emergency Management Assistance Program.

The province previously approved $15.9 million last spring for emergency flood protection and road repairs in both communities, which have faced repeated flooding and evacuations.

Word test

TESTING

Premier Wab Kinew is an imported Manitoban, born in Kenora and raised on Onigaming First Nation in Treaty Three (in northwestern Ontario) before his family moved to Winnipeg. He’s the son of well-known Anishinaabe leader and traditional knowledge keeper Tobasonakwut Kinew and Kathi Kinew.

These are the words we provided feedback on: Boniface, Cockburn, Dauphin, Dene, Hellebuyck, Iafallo, Íslendingadagurinn, Kinew, Kildonan, Malak Abas, Métis, Newfoundland, Orlikow, Pembina, Portage la Prairie, Premier, Regina, St. Vital, Samyn, Schiefele, vínarterta, Wiebe, Generation Z.

U of W, former professor sued over alleged sex assault

A woman who studied and worked at the University of Winnipeg has filed a lawsuit against the post-secondary institution and her former professor — a convicted sex offender — who she alleges drugged and sexually assaulted her.

The woman, a former international student from the United Kingdom and teaching assistant at the university, claims her professor and “mentor,” Derek Spencer, put a date-rape drug in her drink and groped her following a Christmas party for professors and graduate students in 2019.

“The assailant secretly placed a date-rape drug in her drink without consent and sexually assaulted her while she was in an altered and vulnerable state,” reads the woman’s statement of claim, filed in the Court of King’s Bench earlier this month.

“She suffered grave psychological and physical harm as a result.”