Best to pull up stakes, move on from camping fanatic

Bottled-water sales boom, restaurants close as city faces 2nd day of boil-water advisory

Call it a tidal wave of water sales. The precautionary boil-water advisory in Winnipeg since Tuesday evening has meant strong sales for the bottled-water industry in this town.

Take the Food Fare on Portage Avenue, for example. Owner Husni Zeid saw his water inventory disappear in 15 minutes Tuesday night, as people scrambled to get a hold of bottled water. This morning, he picked up some more and started selling cases of bottled water right on the sidewalk in front of the store.

“We sold 75 cases in an hour and a half,” he said. “Cases of 24 bottles. I have 300 (cases) coming right now, 200 12-packs and 125 cases of four-litre jugs.”

That shipment arrived at noon and as staff rushed to get the product on the shelves, potential customers were hanging around, waiting with money in hand for the water bottle-based impromptu sidewalk sale.

Thespian has lofty goals for province’s theatre scene

Daniela Smith-Fernandez has had an eventful summer.

Her debut play, the verbose sex comedy Jean-François: plus que parfait premièred at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival in July (earning 4/12 stars in the Free Press).

And just a week before, in early July, Smith-Fernandez joined the Manitoba Association of Playwrights as its new company manager.

“I don’t want inclusion to be tokenism anymore. I want people to be including Manitoba plays because they’re amazing, not because they feel like they should support local,” says the 41-year-old trilingual Chilean-Canadian artist. “(At MAP) I feel like I get to be myself in a way that definitely didn’t happen when I was working in insurance.”

Boil-water advisory lifted in Winnipeg

Go ahead and drink the tap water, Winnipeg.

The two-day pre‎cautionary boil-water order is over, Mayor Brian Bowman declared, first on Twitter and YouTube.

"I'm pleased to let you know that the temporary boil-water advisory for the City of Winnipeg has been lifted," Bowman said in a YouTube video posted to the City of Winnipeg's channel Thursday afternoon.

"The province has advised us that for the second day in a row, the water has tested just fine."

Silver linings aplenty for Langelaar after missing Olympic berth

Tyson Langelaar was a fan of James Bond movies growing up. The spy series a staple for him on plane rides.

This 007, however, did not capture the Winnipeg-born speed skaters’ heart — it broke it.

One of the most agonizing results of Langelaar’s career came recently at the Canadian Olympic speed skating trials in Quebec City, where he saw his dream of representing Canada at next month’s Olympic Games in Italy instantly melt away.

Langelaar, who needed a top-two finish in the men’s 1,500-metre event, finished in third with a time of 1:46:883. The difference between him and second-place Daniel Hall was a fraction of a skate blade or, more accurately, seven hundredths of a second.

Manitoba labour leader quits, cites ‘degrading, disgusting’ remarks from union men

A Manitoba labour leader has quit her job, shocking other local union members with descriptions of misogynist and humiliating remarks she allegedly endured from union brothers, as well as a sexual assault.

Postal worker Basia Sokal, now the former president of the Winnipeg Labour Council (WLC), resigned at a board meeting Tuesday evening in front of a crowd of about 60 people. A 15-minute audio recording of her resignation speech was uploaded online by Rank & File Radio — Prairie Edition.

In her remarks, Sokal detailed some of the things allegedly said to her during her tenure as council president, a role she began in January 2017.

MGEU sounds alarm over proposed bargaining unit contraction

A union representing Manitoba health-care workers says it's worried home care workers and health-care aides may be forced to take on unfamiliar roles as a result of a decision this week by the province.

The Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union, which represents 17,500 health workers, said Thursday it has grave concerns about a new regulation that would place home care workers and health-care aides in hospitals and personal care homes in the same bargaining unit.

MGEU president Michelle Gawronsky said she's been told government wants the flexibility to use the workers and aides interchangeably. She said this news is upsetting both groups, some of whom have told her they'd rather quit than be forced to take on a new role.

"A good health-care system needs to support (its) health-care workforce, not stress them out and turn their lives upside down," Gawronsky said at a news conference. "Only a high-priced consultant who isn't working on the front lines would try to improve quality of care by shuffling health workers around the system."