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For 50 years, the Festival du Voyageur has celebrated francophone culture

In 1967, the chamber of commerce of St. Boniface, then still a separate city, came up with the idea of having a winter festival that celebrated French-Canadian culture and heritage.

The chamber presented its plan to then-mayor Edward Turner, who told members to hold off until 1970, when Manitoba would be celebrating its centenary and more funding would be available. So, three years later, a tenacious crew of Franco-Manitobans took over Provencher Park for the inaugural Festival du Voyageur.

During that first four-day event — which took place Feb. 26-March 1, 1970 — more than 10,000 people attended and were treated to snow-sculpting contests, snowshoe and snowmobile races, hay rides, bannock baking, street dancing, historical re-enactments and a costume ball, among other events meant to highlight the recreational and work lives of voyageurs in the early 1800s.

Turner said Festival was “intended to create the romance, fun, courage, endurance and explosive fun and frolic of the voyageurs,” as quoted in one of the Winnipeg Free Press’s first articles about the event.

One year later, George Floyd’s murder has left an indelible mark on the United States

The Black Lives Matter movement did not start with the death of George Floyd, but something about his killing by a police officer on the curb on a relatively quiet Minneapolis street was galvanizing, Edward Keenan writes.

Police across US speak out against Minneapolis custody death

LOS ANGELES - Murder. Brutality. Reprehensible. Indefensible. Police nationwide, in unequivocal and unprecedented language, have condemned the actions of Minneapolis police in the custody death of a handcuffed black man who cried for help as an officer knelt on his neck, pinning him to the pavement for at least eight minutes.

But some civil rights advocates say their denunciations are empty words without meaningful reform behind them.

Authorities say George Floyd was detained Monday because he matched the description of someone who tried to pay with a counterfeit bill at a convenience store, and the 46-year-old resisted arrest. A bystander's disturbing video shows Officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on Floyd's neck, even as Floyd begs for air and slowly stops talking and moving.

“There is no need to see more video,” Chattanooga, Tennessee, Police Chief David Roddy tweeted Wednesday. “There no need to wait to see how ‘it plays out’. There is no need to put a knee on someone’s neck for NINE minutes. There IS a need to DO something. If you wear a badge and you don’t have an issue with this ... turn it in.”

Surviving, healing in the aftermath of violence

It's not that Melody Sinclair wanted to die, she didn't. As the ambulance screamed towards Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre, she tried to breathe, tried to hang on, and prayed to God she would make it: Jesus, please save me, she thought. Please don't let me go.

There was no escaping the pain that arced through her body, radiating from the two deep stab wounds in her back. As paramedics and hospital staff worked to save her — "Stay with us," she remembers them telling her — she felt herself letting go: of the pain, of the fear, of her own life.

Then, it was over, and she felt herself drifting away. Everything went white.

"There was no more pain," Sinclair says, curled up on a couch in her sister's home. "It was just accepting death."

Teen who beat, recorded attack on McKay, sentenced to 40 months in custody

A framed portrait of 19-year-old Serena McKay faced one of her killers from across the courtroom, as provincial court Judge Rocky Pollack imposed a maximum seven-year youth sentence Monday.

One of two teen girls who beat McKay, recorded the attack on video, and left her outside to freeze to death, will spend the next three years and four months in jail. She can't be identified because she was only 17 when she killed McKay after a house party at Sagkeeng First Nation in April 2017.

Pollack sentenced the teen to slightly less time behind bars than the law allows. She was sentenced to 40 months of closed custody, rather than the maximum 48 months, to be followed by 23 1/2 months of conditional supervision. She was given credit for some of the time she's spent in custody since her arrest last year.

Clutching her daughter's portrait outside the courthouse, Delores Daniels said McKay's family is "relatively pleased" with the judge's decision. They had initially hoped the teen would be sentenced as an adult, which could have resulted in her being sentenced to life in prison -- but Daniels said they have to accept the plea bargain made between Crown and defence lawyers.