Forged at the fest

Standing up for what’s right takes courage

Two days after International Holocaust Memorial Day (Jan. 27), Nazi symbols were brandished openly in Canada — and nobody stopped it. That’s the most important message about the convoy this past weekend, in which just over 10,000 protesters shuttled to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, calling for an end to vaccine mandates and COVID-19 public health restrictions.

With Roe v. Wade set to fall, this doctor’s clinic and others like it may emerge as America’s safe havens for abortion

As the sun sets on abortion rights held up by Roe v. Wade, it’s a patchwork of determined medical providers who are holding up abortion rights for the U.S.

Firefighters faced dangerous working conditions but didn't get enough respect

A new exhibit now being planned at the Fire Fighters Historical Museum of Winnipeg will tell the story of firefighters and the Winnipeg General Strike. The museum, a designated heritage site that served as an active fire hall from 1904-1990, is the first stop on the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike Driving and Walking Tour: 100th Anniversary Edition.

The Fire Fighters Museum is located at 56 Maple St. near Higgins Avenue and the former Canadian Pacific Railway station, which today is the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg. This train station was a major point of arrival for tens of thousands of newcomers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because of this, the fire hall was planned as a showpiece for the burgeoning city of Winnipeg. The building features ornate stained glass windows and pressed tin ceiling tiles decorated with firemen’s speaking trumpets. It is one of the oldest and most beautiful fire stations remaining in Canada, and its collections, which date to the days of horse-drawn carriages, steam-powered fire apparatus and bronze fire nozzles, are second to none.

Winnipeg firefighters were no strangers to labour activism in 1919. Their working life fostered a culture of caring, and they had been protecting one another on the job since the city’s first volunteer fire brigade formed in 1874. It was a time before universal health care, employment insurance and pensions provided any kind of social safety net. And so, like other workers, firefighters contributed to their own mutual benefit plan — the Winnipeg Firemen’s Benevolent Association. This society provided financial assistance to its members in times of sickness, injury and death.

Firefighting was difficult and dangerous work. Firemen, as they were called at the time, were required to live, make their meals and sleep at the fire hall. They worked 21 hours a day, seven days a week. They were admired for their bravery, skill and dedication, but they received little pay and could be fired for any reason. The rapid growth of Winnipeg’s population — from more than 40,000 residents in 1900 to almost 180,000 by 1920 — and the expansion of the city’s industrial and retail properties during these years made the demands of the job even harder.

St. Boniface CEO’s commute from COVID-19 hot spot ‘career-limiting move’

Because of COVID-19, Manitobans face many restrictions when visiting loved ones in hospitals and personal care homes.

An adult who seeks care in a hospital emergency room cannot take someone with them for support unless they have cognitive issues or require a translator.

Restrictions apply to hospital visitors who have recently travelled outside Manitoba to Eastern Canada.

So, when the president and CEO of St. Boniface Hospital, Martine Bouchard, travelled to Manitoba from Montreal this week without self-isolating for two weeks, it stunned observers.

Column: Russia skates again in fight against Olympic doping

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron stayed for another four years after being edged out by Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir at 2018 Games.

The dream of the ’90s is alive in summertime

This is a ’90s summer, from someone who was five in 1990 and 14 in 1999:

Bikes. Scraped knees. Playing mermaids. Running through sprinklers. Going outside in the morning and returning when the streetlights came on. Staying awake at sleepovers until the streetlights went off again. Hydrating not via garden hose, but by spraying water directly into your mouth with one of those translucent green plastic waterguns. Chasing down a Dickie Dee bike.

Thunderstorms, streaking the sky with lightning. Watches and warnings in white text on the red, green and blue Environment Canada weather channel.

Wading pools. Hot plastic swing seats. The feeling of flight, metal chains snapping you to earth. Chalking out impossibly long hopscotch grids on the sidewalk. Daytime TV. Scandalous talk shows. Carrie and Austin. Bringing in groceries from the car wearing any shoes but yours.