Grieving competition anything but healthy

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: After 3 a.m. there are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The moon is in Cancer.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Tread carefully when talking to family members, especially female relatives, as well as partners, spouses and close friends, because confusion is rampant. It’s easy to misunderstand someone. It’s also easy to innocently mislead people. Yes, it’s that kind of day.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

As it turns 79, Cantor's Quality Meats and Groceries going strong

It’s Monday morning at FreshCo on Regent Avenue, one of three stores, a number that will soon double to six, that the Ontario-based, discount grocer has established in Winnipeg since May 2019.

We’re waiting our turn to get some luncheon meat when we notice a fellow ahead of us in line pointing toward a red-and-white sign reading “Cantor’s Express” affixed to a refrigerated display unit loaded to the hilt with steaks, ribs, pork chops and assorted cold cuts.

“Cantor’s?” he remarks to a masked employee reaching down for a chub of salami. “Is that something new?”

Er, not exactly.

Police conduct code long overdue

It may come as a surprise to many that Manitoba does not have a province-wide code of conduct for police officers. Most other provinces do. Manitoba has had the authority under the Police Services Act since it was passed in 2009 to establish formal rules around policing activity, including mechanisms to respond to allegations of officer misconduct. For reasons neither the former NDP or current Progressive Conservative governments have explained, none was ever put in place.

What Manitobans are left with is a patchwork system that differs from one municipality to the next. It is neither open and transparent nor does it provide the public with an effective process to hold police officers accountable for their actions. Some allegations of non-criminal misconduct are heard by the province’s Law Enforcement Review Agency. However, most complaints made through LERA (a process that has been widely criticized as dysfunctional and ineffective), rarely receive full hearings and almost never result in officer discipline. Allegations of criminal behaviour are investigated through the province’s Independent Investigation Unit.

Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen says the province intends to create a new set of rules that will govern the conduct of all police officers in the province. The minister introduced Bill 30 last week, amendments to the Police Services Act, which among other things restates government’s ability to establish a province-wide code of conduct.

The wording in the bill is similar to what already exists in the act. The difference now, at least according to Mr. Goertzen, is there is a stated intention to move forward on creating a province-wide code, although it remains discretionary under the proposed legislation.

New lab a win for Winnipeg’s long game

It would be easy to overlook the announcement this week that the federal government was green-lighting a quarter-billion-dollar expansion of the National Microbiology Laboratory’s Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health on Arlington Street.

Easy to overlook, in part, because it will take a decade to build the new 140,000-square-foot laboratory specializing in medical countermeasures.

But make no mistake, this latest investment from Ottawa galvanizes Winnipeg’s reputation as a global leader in the research of the world’s most infectious diseases. It also confirms that a wager made by Manitoba political leaders nearly 40 years ago is paying off in spades.

The existing NML was, to be frank, hastily conceived compensation for one of the most egregious examples of political pork-barrelling ever seen in Canada.

Manitoba NDP secure star election campaign manager

The mastermind behind the historic 2011 “orange wave” that elevated the NDP to the official opposition in Parliament, then helped Rachel Notley in 2015 end 44 years of Tory rule in Alberta, is coming to Manitoba to join the effort to unseat Heather Stefanson’s Progressive Conservative government.

Watching while we work

For many employees, the idea that their employer might be tracking how long they spend at their keyboard, how often they move their mouse, or whether they are actively working throughout the day feels unsettling. For many employers, however, workplace surveillance is increasingly viewed as another management tool, particularly as hybrid and remote work become more common. The recent news that TD plans to monitor certain employees’ activity during the workday has reignited a conversation that has been quietly growing for several years: where is the line between legitimate oversight and excessive monitoring?

The reality is that workplace surveillance is nothing new. Employers have long monitored attendance, reviewed security camera footage, tracked company vehicles using GPS, audited expense reports, and reviewed internet usage on company-owned devices. What has changed is the sophistication of the technology. Today’s software can record login times, monitor application usage, track keystrokes, capture screenshots, analyze email activity, and even generate reports ranking employees based on their perceived productivity.

This naturally raises an important question. Does increased surveillance actually make people work harder?

The answer is not nearly as straightforward as many organizations hope.