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Is everyone in Winnipeg sick right now? It sure feels as if everyone is down and out with something. This week, I came down with some sort of virus: whether it was a cold, the flu, RSV, it’s hard to say. Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious, just a couple of miserable days.
But it’s interesting how much more sensitive I am to the idea of being sick as a time for social responsibility, than I was before the pandemic. In the Before Times, I would have ventured out to the store to forage for cold medicine; this week, I wouldn’t leave my apartment until certain that I had recovered. And with respiratory viruses surging, and Manitoba not considering mask mandates, I guess considering our own responsibility to each other is really all we can do to make this winter virus season a little more bearable.
Moving on, to the week in local news. The biggest story, in my mind, was one of nostalgia: we learned that after almost 100 years in Winnipeg, KUB Bakery was set to close its doors forever. Truly, that’s the end of an era; I don’t even like rye bread that much, and yet I felt real grief about it, too. The good news: as it happens, a new bakery is set to open not far from the KUB location. Maybe we can shift some of our love in that direction.
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Elsewhere: people are frustrated about a pile of rubble that just isn’t moving. A new provincial plan to tackle teacher misconduct is getting very good reviews from child advocates. And the city’s most beloved hockey-playing Finns were sure glad to be here and feel the love again.
Former Winnipeg Jets’ Teemu Selanne (left) and Teppo Numminen drop the puck Thursday after their induction into the Jets Hall of Fame. (John Woods / The Canadian Press)
Finally, the World Cup kicks off Sunday in Qatar, a country with a long list of labour and human rights abuses, which FIFA does not want to discuss at all. As soccer writer Jerrad Peters notes, we’ll “never know its full human cost.” If nothing else, one hopes soccer fans will make their voices known.
Stay warm, and have a good weekend.
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