Stick to firm sked for your popular Halloween ‘show’

Uncanny acting and bittersweet script a fitting tribute to Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy, arguably one of the greatest comedy teams ever to grace the Vaudeville stage and screen, enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership. In fact, it lasted so long, it might as well have been a marriage.

That is the dramatic gist of this film by Jon S. Baird (Filth), who examines the duo in their career twilight, touring the music halls and theatres of England, circa 1953.

The Lancashire-born Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) has the advantage of being on home turf. Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly) is hobbled by health issues. While their routines are very much rooted in the English music hall tradition, they are past their prime. Feature films are the medium of choice for comedy duos. Laurel, who has a plaintive moment staring at a freshly installed billboard for the latest Abbott and Costello movie, is trying to cut a deal for a new film based on the legend of Robin Hood. It becomes increasingly obvious that the English producer he’s trying to contact is avoiding him.

Hardy is under different stresses, including failing health and an unhealthy penchant for the vices of drinking and gambling.

City, province, Ottawa strike task force to battle meth

The city, province and federal governments are teaming up to create a tri-level task force that will fight distribution of illicit drugs and address the root causes of the province's meth crisis.

"As far as we know, this is the first collaborative initiative like this in the country and it’s something that I’m very proud to be a part of," said Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman, who had been calling for such a task force (with unanimous council support) since September. 

In interviews last week, officials from the three levels of government told the Free Press they hadn't yet met in the same room to discuss the surge in meth-related problems.

By Tuesday, it seems they managed to clear their schedules.

All-Japan committee meets to promote Sapporo Olympic bid

TOKYO (AP) — Yasuhiro Yamashita, the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee, acknowledged the biggest stumbling block to holding the Olympics is the billions in costs.

However, in another breath on Tuesday at a so-called “All Japan” meeting to promote Sapporo's bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics, he said that if the northern Japanese city lands the Games, little new construction will be needed — a major expense for every Olympics.

“From both inside and outside our country, there are many views about hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Yamashista said, among politicians and business leaders online — and in Sapporo — talking up the bid. “I realize there are also concerns about the huge costs involved.”

The official cost for last year's delayed Tokyo Olympics was $13.6 billion, although government audits suggest it may have been much more. At least 60% was public money.

Fraudster gets six years in Shoppers Drug Mart case

A Calgary man has been sentenced to six years in prison for his role in a fraud ring that targeted Shoppers Drug Mart stores across four provinces.

Carlo Deguzman, 50, pleaded guilty in a Winnipeg courtroom Monday to six counts of fraud, forgery and identification theft for offences dating back more than four years.

Deguzman’s guilty pleas came on what was to be the first day of his trial — the third to be set and cancelled since his initial arrest in 2022. During that time, he hired and fired seven lawyers.

“These matters could have been dealt with years ago, but for the actions of the accused,” prosecutor Kathy Bueti told provincial court Judge Heather Pullan. “He was hoping delay would make the case harder to prove. That’s not the case. The charges weren’t going away.”

Norway's Ruud wins Olympic gold year after father's death

The decorated alpine athlete was disqualified from her first two races in Beijing, but still has plenty of events to come.

MPI lowers speed limit on tech upgrade with ‘IT roadmap’ following Project Nova debacle

Manitoba Public Insurance is now using an “IT road map” and phasing in new technology and systems after pulling the plug last year on its failed $164-million overhaul known as Project Nova, its annual report says.

The Crown corporation’s 2025-26 just-released annual report says lessons learned from Project Nova helped shape its “new path forward for modernization,” calling it an “IT road map” allowing systems to be changed in “smaller, lower-risk increments.”

Chief executive officer Satvir Jatana said in the report that the public auto insurer is in “a favourable position” — reporting $55.6 million in net income after losses of $19.7 million in 2024-25 and $130 million the previous fiscal year. Jatana said income would have surpassed $100 million if not for writeoffs related to the closure of Project Nova, which was intended to modernize outdated business and information technology systems, with a projected cost that climbed from $85 million in 2019 to an estimated $435 million in March of 2025, before it was cancelled.

Jatana has stated previously that Project Nova was doomed from the start with ineffective governance, major changes in MPI leadership, a global pandemic and a labour dispute that led to delays and cost overruns with many starts and stops to the project.