What’s wrong with a fun summer sweetheart?

Schuler issues mea culpa on untendered contracts

Manitoba Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler says it's his fault two untendered contracts worth millions of dollars were awarded last year for roadwork without proper government oversight.

The Free Press has learned two road-repair contracts totalling $11.2 million were awarded to two Indigenous entities, with private partners, without approval of Treasury Board, a cabinet committee that reviews government expenditures.

A March 15, 2018, "advisory note" prepared by Manitoba Infrastructure for Premier Brian Pallister said the department acknowledged its error and "has put in place measures to ensure future compliance" of proper protocols.

"Those responsible have been advised of the error and received remedial training," says the note by a senior departmental official, which was obtained by the Free Press.

Poilievre’s lips moving, but Canadians aren’t interested in what he’s saying

Pierre Poilievre’s biggest political challenge right now isn’t Prime Minister Mark Carney’s popularity.

It’s the fact that he still seems to be campaigning against a political landscape that no longer exists.

More than a year after the 2025 federal election, the Conservative leader is still relying on the same message, the same themes and the same attacks that defined his party’s campaign before voters went to the polls.

And Canadians appear to be tuning it out.

Hockey’s long-overdue #MeToo movement

ANAHEIM -- As much as we celebrate the game in this country, as much as we romanticize it, there is a cold, hard truth -- hockey culture can be extremely toxic at times. And as we're being reminded again this week, the claim that "Hockey Is For Everyone," while certainly an admirable goal, remains a major work-in-progress.

Like all forms of abuse -- physical, sexual, mental -- it often starts at the top of the proverbial food chain and targets those who are seen as the weakest, which is how the perpetrators get away with it so long.

Just ask Akim Aliu, the Nigerian-born former pro who dropped a bombshell this week that current Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters hurled racist remarks his way a decade ago, while both were in the American Hockey League.

The revelation, which Aliu first disclosed on his Twitter account, will likely spell the end of Peters' tenure behind the bench. It hasn't happened yet, as the Flames along with the NHL and NHLPA conduct an ongoing investigation which I suspect includes plenty of lawyers pouring over contract law, but the writing appears to be on the wall. And justifiably so.

Family hopes police alert will bring missing woman home

The family of Ashley Arason has made a desperate plea for her to come home.

The 41-year-old last had contact with her family on April 6, 2019, which was her 34th birthday.

“I’ve got a place for her,” said her older sister, Pamela Arason, through tears on Thursday. “She has a place to go, a home to come to.”

On Thursday, Winnipeg Police Service renewed the call for help from the public to solve the missing person case.

Public health orders require simplicity, logic

It was splitting hairs. Or, more precisely, splitting droplets.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief public health officer, took time out of his daily COVID-19 briefing on Monday to once again remind Manitobans that larger viral droplets, and not smaller aerosolized emissions, pose the greatest risk of transmission.

Roussin's clarification appears to have been prompted by new research published late last month in The Lancet, and a decision by the World Health Organization last week to tweak its guidelines based on the growing body of evidence showing airborne transmission of COVID-19 is a much larger threat than previously thought.

The re-think has been building for months now, ever since it became clear the sheer numbers of confirmed COVID-19 infections could not be explained solely by close-contact inhalation of larger viral droplets. Much smaller, aerosolized emissions — which travel farther from an infected person and hang in the air much longer than droplets — had to be playing a role.

Olympics Overnight: Monobob bronze for Canadian Christine de Bruin as Kaillie Humphries wins gold for U.S.; IOC clears Russian figure skater to compete

Here’s what you missed overnight at Day 10 of the 2022 Beijing Olympics.