Neighbouring restaurants make Canada’s Top 100 list

4/20 party organizers lose their mellow

The organizing committee behind the subdued 4/20 cannabis celebration expected at the Manitoba Legislative Building this Saturday has been torn apart by internal political rifts over the past year, as former participants accuse head organizer Steven Stairs of embezzling money meant to fund the event — allegations Stairs vigorously denies.

Tracey Cecchini, who identified herself to the Free Press as a member of the Winnipeg 420 Organizing Committee, said other committee members and event sponsors "all pitched in money" to help fund the event last year.

"Unfortunately the money was never put into the treasury, the money was mishandled," said Cecchini.

"He was using it to throw parties at his house, he was paying his rent, he wasn't putting it back into the 420 (Organizing Committee) for our permits, and (for) what we were going to do for this year."

Ready to launch: Inside the massive undertaking to revitalize the beloved Nonsuch replica

For 44 years, the Nonsuch has been enchanting visitors to the Manitoba Museum, bringing a whiff of adventure and the romance of the sea to our landlocked city.The jewel in the crown of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection, the replica of the 17th-century fur-trading ship takes those who board her back in time.

Decades’ worth of schoolchildren have clutched the rails at the side of the rickety gangway that leads you onboard and descended the narrow stairs — backwards, please, for safety! — into the fo’c’sle, where they could marvel at the tiny bunks — how short men were back then — and peer out the round portholes, imagining them being lashed by salt spray as you crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a grand adventure to find a new trade route for England.

Few of us on long-ago field trips ever stopped to think about why this Prairie city was honouring a British ship that never actually visited Manitoba — let alone why we had built an entire museum wing around a replica that, while it sailed more than 14,000 kilometres in European, Canadian and American waters, was hauled into Winnipeg in pieces.

As the first phase of its $17.5-million Bringing Our Stories Forward capital campaign, the museum has spent about three years planning its refurbishment of the Nonsuch exhibit, which has remained largely untouched since it was installed in 1974, in part to better tell that story.

Esteban Jaramillo

Ottawa earmarks another $60M for national sport organizations

Another chunk of cash earmarked to increase participation in sport and develop homegrown athletic talent is being wired across the country.

On Thursday, the federal government announced an additional $60 million in financial backing for national sport organizations (NSOs).

Some extra wiggle room on mid fiscal-year budgets was not expected by Canada’s 63 NSOs, which were slated to receive a combined $112 million in core Sport Support Program (SSP) funding, and will now see north of $150 million in total.

“Sport has the power to shape lives and bring people together in a way few things can. Today’s announcement reflects a new era for sport in Canada, one where more kids have the opportunity to get out and play, and Team Canada athletes have the support they need to compete and win,” Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden said in a statement.