Get holiday baking on a roll with snowballs

Dynacare workers on strike across Manitoba over wage dispute

Dynacare laboratory technicians and technologists are on strike after contract negotiations with the private company stalled Friday, bringing operations at all Manitoba locations to a halt.

The company, which conducts blood and other medical tests at 22 outlets in Winnipeg, Brandon and surrounding communities, is deadlocked in contract negotiations with the union that represents its 350 workers.

Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, spoke to reporters at a picket line at a Dynacare facility on McPhillips Street Tuesday morning, where dozens of workers held signs and urged motorists to honk in support of the strike.

Linklater said the union remains open to “substantive talks” with the company.

Hargrave St. Market, a 'chef-centric, food-centric' boutique gastro-mall, opens doors Friday

There's a feeling of understated urgency in the air at Hargrave St. Market, the open-concept food hall set to open at True North Square Friday.

As Bobby Mottola, managing partner of Academy Hospitality, leads members of the media around the second floor of the 17-storey building at 242 Hargrave St., contractors and restaurant workers buzz quietly in the background, working to put the finishing touches on the 30,000-square-foot space, which will be home to the locally focused, fully licensed dining concept True North is hoping will become a downtown destination.

Tenants in the bright, airy court include Gusto North and the Good Fight Taco, which are spinoffs of Mottola's existing restaurants, Pizzeria Gusto and Merchant Kitchen, and outlets from familiar Winnipeg restaurants, such as Miss Browns brunch/sandwich shop's second location and Fools + Horses coffee's fourth.

New offerings include Yard Burger, Rose Bar and Saburo Kitchen, a donburi/ramen restaurant by Yujiro/GaiJin Izakay chef-owner Edward Lam.

Winkler pastor mourns father who died in Ontario ICU

In his 58 years living in Winkler, Abe Reimer was rarely alone.

He had grand- and great-grandchildren, including triplets on the way. He was well-known and well-loved in the close-knit southern Manitoba community.

His son never could have imagined that he would die alone in a Thunder Bay ICU.

“He said to me, ‘I never thought I’d get COVID,’” Larry Reimer, a pastor who currently serves as the chaplain at Boundary Trails Health Centre, told the Free Press. “My assumption is that maybe him and his group that talked and shared, and his friends and peers, probably didn’t believe COVID was real in a lot of ways. And it wasn’t hitting any of them.”

‘Women were shortchanged.’ Why bobsledding’s idea of equality doesn’t add up

When female bobsledders pushed for an Olympic four-woman event, they got a solo discipline instead: monobob. Now they’ll race for the same number of medals as men, but with fewer sledders. Not the progress they were looking for.

Canada urged to create anti-Islamophobia strategy

OTTAWA - The federal government hasn't gone far enough in addressing Islamophobia in Canada despite the rise of anti-Muslim hate in recent years, a Wilfrid Laurier University professor said.

Jasmin Zine said the London, Ont., attack that left four members of a Muslim family dead is another episode in a series of attacks that targeted Muslim Canadians across the country in the last few years amid lack of concerted government action to tackle the rise in Islamophobia.

Zine said she is working with a group of researchers on a study that will come out in the fall to document how a network of associations, groups, activists and donors has been promoting anti-Muslim hate in what she calls an "Islamophobia industry."

"We're inspired to act, to do this kind of work because of tragedies like the Quebec massacre, this horrible terror attack in London, the stabbing of a Muslim caretaker at a (Toronto) mosque (last year) and all of the other incidents and issues of Islamophobia that happen on a daily basis," she said.