Cineplex opens first Junxion entertainment, gaming and dining complex in Winnipeg

Once-derelict Main Street flophouse's transition to stable, supportive housing facility proving successful in helping homeless people turn their lives around

The days seep and ooze into one another. As the seasons change, the weather changes too: bitterly cold in winter, sticky hot in summer, pleasantly mild come fall. But otherwise, much about life on the Main Street strip remains the same, as it has for a very long time.

Cree comedian’s humour attacks racism

Chad Anderson is tired of waiting for his big break to come along.

“I’ve come to realize that I don’t think that’s how it works, you gotta go out and be like, ‘Here I am,’” says the Cree comedian, who got his start in standup when he moved to Winnipeg from The Pas in 2008.

Anderson is taking matters into his own hands with an hour-long live comedy album that proves laughter is the best medicine — even when the ailments include systemic racism and the death of a family member.

He lauches Live at Wee Johnny’s on Friday, Sept. 13 at, you guessed it, Wee Johnny’s Irish Pub, with a release party that will feature a slate of local comedians. Anderson’s debut — which is on Comedy Records, a Toronto-based label dedicated to putting out standup and sketch-comedy albums — feels like a big career moment.

Knowledge is profitable

It’s been stated many different ways throughout history that knowledge is power.

That is true with respect to finance today.

What’s more, information is not just a powerful tool to navigating money matters: knowledge can be profitable.

Well-informed consumers are often the most financially healthy or, at least, they’re less stressed.

Uninformed health minister’s empty promises no help to Manitobans

Wait times for elective heart surgery in Manitoba have ballooned. They are now quadruple what they were when hospitals began cancelling surgeries last year during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s unclear when that backlog will be reduced. Cardiac surgery has not been identified as a priority by the province’s diagnostic and surgical wait-time task force. When asked several times over the past week when targets would be established to reduce wait times for all surgeries — many of which have grown dramatically during the pandemic to free up staff and space for COVID-19 patients — no one from government, including Health Minister Audrey Gordon, has provided a straight answer.

That’s a tough pill to swallow for any Manitoban on a surgical or diagnostic waiting list. It’s particularly horrific for anyone with a serious heart condition.

Cardiac surgeries are categorized into three levels of urgency. Level 1: critically ill patients who require surgery within one to 14 days. Level 2: patients with a significant heart problem who need surgery within 15-42 days. And Level 3: stable cardiac patients who need bypass surgery within 43-180 days.

Students report inappropriate behaviour by The King’s School teacher

Current and former students at The King’s School say a male teacher, who has been put on leave amid an investigation, overstepped boundaries by massaging them, disclosing intimate secrets to teenagers, and asking deeply personal questions in return — including the status of their relationships with their fathers.

One Grade 12 student at the independent Winnipeg school, which is run in partnership with Gateway Church and partially funded by the provincial government, said she immediately noticed the educator’s inappropriate behaviour when she enrolled.

“It just didn’t sit right with me,” she told the Free Press.

The student described the educator’s conduct as “intimate.” He offered what he called “fatherly hugs” and asked teenage girls, herself included, about what their relationship with their fathers was like, she said.