Neighbouring restaurants make Canada’s Top 100 list

Conflict confusion of interest to Manitobans

Was Paul Beauregard guilty of a conflict of interest?

That is the question left hanging in the air following a remarkable week of disclosures, allegations and counter-allegations.

The Manitoba NDP claims Beauregard, former secretary to the Treasury Board, had improperly interceded in the awarding of a contract to his former employer, Bell MTS.

The party and MLA Adrien Sala devoted a considerable amount of time in 2020 pursuing such allegations against Beauregard who, in turn, filed a complaint against the official Opposition under the legislature's Respectful Workplace Policy.

St. Boniface culinary matriarch’s presence, devotion are much missed

Irène Kirouac’s smile was as iconic as her restaurants.

Man who pleaded guilty to killing three cats dies before sentencing

A Winnipeg man awaiting sentencing after admitting he strangled three cats to death and dumped two of their carcasses under a city bridge, has died, the Free Press has learned.

Randy Jensen, 25, pleaded guilty on May 13 to one count of wilfully causing injury or suffering to animals in connection to the 2024 killings.

He was scheduled to be sentenced in January.

“That’s not something that anybody wanted,” said Kristy Zamonsky, founder of Project Artemis Animal Advocates. “We were all hoping for justice through the courts.”

Adorable accoutrements for the school year

By now, with only a handful of days left before summer holidays draw to a close, the back-to-school essential kit lists will be landing in inboxes throughout the province.

Specifying children turn up to school with a precise number of pencils — sharpened, of course — a deck of playing cards, a multipack of neon highlighters and an exact number of duotangs (or, as they are known elsewhere in the world, three-pronged report folders) in distinctly different colours, the rigid tyranny of the official school-supply list leaves little room for personal expression.

But this mandatory uniformity doesn’t mean every single item must conform. Just because it’s an essential doesn’t mean it can’t be cute.

Forget moody blues and midnight black — unless they’re your fave colours, of course — and opt for something a bit brighter, a bit sunnier, a bit more doodle-friendly as cheery add-ons for that first day back at schools … without breaking any rules.

Complacency the enemy of the truth, my truth

Over the weekend I remarked to a friend that I have no idea, in this moment, how to be both black and a journalist at the same time.

As I bear witness to the protests and conflicts rippling across both the United States and Canada in opposition to police brutality and systemic anti-black racism — issues that affect my community, my people, my selfhood — I find myself faced with questions about how I will show up in my work.

How will I choose to bring light to this movement? Whose voices will I turn to? Whose stories will I amplify? Which words will I use? How will I honour myself, my people and my journalistic integrity at the same time?

It is our job, as news media, to be the witness-bearers. It is our responsibility to shine light where there is darkness and ensure systems of power are held to account. Ask nearly any journalist and they will tell you as much.