Mattress upgrade sure to support camp romps

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.

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.

A deep debt

The paddlewheeler from Minnesota nudged the shore of the Red River at the forks of the Rat River and lowered its gangplank. When my ancestors — the very first of a coming wave of international migrants — stepped onto terra firma, they had no idea of the history of the land on which they walked. They had been offered free land to till — 60 acres per family — and freedom to follow their Mennonite faith. Like their salvation, the land truly was free: free to them. But in both cases, it cost someone else dearly.

The Anishinaabeg were the caretakers of this corner of the country. The Creator of the land, Gitche Manitou from whom our province would get its name, had given The People everything they needed to live here. The rivers were given them to travel and to fish. The bizhiki and waawaashkeshi — buffalo and deer — were given them to hunt. And then, through a treaty that would be repeatedly eroded with time, the Anishinaabeg were told that the land was no longer theirs. Three years before the arrival of the Mennonites, they were told to choose a block of territory equivalent in size to… 60 acres per family. They chose two areas: the Roseau River and the Brokenhead First Nation Reserves.

From time to time in those early days, the Mennonite settlers were visited by hungry Indigenous visitors asking for food. The settlers had no idea that when they offered braut and vota to their guests, they were serving those who had once been lords of the land that bore these gifts; that by so doing, they were serving the One who had been Lord of Heaven, but came down to identify with the brokenhearted.

My feelings are deeply mixed. I am so thankful that 146 years after my ancestors landed here, I have a wonderful place I can call my home. Yet I am so sad that my gain came at such a loss to those entrusted by our Creator as stewards of the land. In planning our oxcart trip, I realized that the Red River Trail passed right through Roseau River First Nation. Could this be my opportunity to express my debt and gratitude? About 30 of us outsiders were graciously invited to have a ceremony with some Anishinaabe leaders on a piece of sacred ground right where the old trail crossed. With gifts and faltering words we visitors tried to describe what our hearts felt. Chief Craig Alexander humbly received what we had to offer and showered us with gifts and blessing in return. Afterwards we shared a feast of bannock, forma vorscht and stories. An old wall had started to crumble. Hugs, selfies and new bonds of friendship were filling the gap.

Bach says Russia ban is to protect athletes, not punish them

The truth is that many of the ingredients that led to Jason Kenney’s demise are — at least so far — winning staples of the ongoing federal Conservative leadership campaign, Chantal Hébert writes.