Mental Health Commission launches free mental health tools for essential workers

Nine more deaths, 107 new COVID-19 cases in Manitoba

Manitoba is restarting its COVID-19 vaccination efforts, following a five-day break — and amidst questions about the delay.

The planned pause over Christmas was in the name of efficiency, a provincial government spokesman says, offering no other explanation on the reasoning behind the decision not to vaccinate anyone Dec. 24-28.

On Monday, the province announced nine more pandemic deaths and 107 new cases of the novel coronavirus.

As part of Manitoba's vaccination plan, the most recent immunization clinic happened Dec. 23; the next was set to start Dec. 29.

Walkout creates chaos at St. James Smitty’s

Gordon Sharpe wanted to eat a meal at the St. James Smitty’s Wednesday, but he got a helping of bad news instead.

He saw several workers walk out of the restaurant, at 1017 St. James St.

“(The waiter) came back about 10 minutes later and stood over the table, looking a little distraught and said, ‘I’m quitting right now and so is everybody else,’” Sharpe said. “He said, ‘This is my last time serving you,’ and he was quite choked up.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said, adding that the managers scrambled to serve patrons.

The long and winding road

As theatre goes, it sent a strong message.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, standing in front of microphones and television cameras, holding up his Indigenous status card and saying that he didn’t feel Canada should have “a race-based form of identification in this country, but that is a reality,” adding that it was time to abolish the Indian Act.

“I think it’s time to abolish the Indian Act, get rid of the Indian Act, move past the Indian Act, and it needs to be done with First Nations people and First Nations governments, of course. I think it’s long overdue that we have a relationship with Indigenous Peoples in Canada that reflects who we are as Canadians today,” he said.

The Indian Act — the name alone suggests how out-dated and out of place the law has become. Originally dating from 1876, the law was put in place to “amend and consolidate the laws respecting Indians” and gave the Minister of the Interior the responsibility to “control and management of the reserves, lands, moneys and property of Indians in Canada.”

A profile of one of Winnipeg’s worst-kept secret singer/songwriters

Roman Clarke lives in the last house on his street, with the silently shimmering Seine River as his next-door neighbour. Seated at the picnic table in his backyard are knee-high piles of snow. In the window sill by the front door rests a can of Labatt Blue, the leftover sips frozen by the mid-November chill.