Killjoy mate undermining more than holiday cheer

Bookman brings roving kiosk of literary treasures to fringe

Every superhero has a true identity: Superman is Clark Kent, Captain Canuck is Tom Evans and Wonder Woman is Diana Prince.

In Winnipeg — on university campuses, at craft markets and at flea markets — the Bookman is John Thompson.

Each July since the mid-1990s, the denim-clad seller has peddled perused pages to fringe festival goers in the Exchange District, setting up his bookshop — a movable feast of literary diversion — on the periphery of Old Market Square. Inside his shelved kiosk, the Bookman offers a broad selection that encourages expansive search and sudden summertime discovery. He takes credit, debit and cash.

While the annual theatre festival’s core curriculum is centred on its paperback program — containing snapshots from 160 indoor theatre productions — fringe veterans understand the value of having other reading options available in their back pocket for prolonged sidewalk waits.

SNC rushed to prosecutors for remediation deal

OTTAWA - Representatives for SNC-Lavalin hustled to connect with federal prosecutors after the Liberal government quietly introduced a proposal last year to allow corporations to strike settlement deals and avoid criminal prosecution, court documents show.

The company's lawyers acted so quickly to position their client for a so-called remediation agreement that they contacted prosecutors weeks before lawmakers, even Liberals, were even aware the Trudeau government had tucked the legislation into its 582-page omnibus budget bill.

The Montreal-based engineering and construction firm is at the centre of a controversy that has enveloped the Prime Minister's Office. Since last week, the government has seen the high-profile resignations of one cabinet member — former justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, who became the minister of veterans affairs in January — and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's principal secretary, Gerald Butts.

SNC-Lavalin worked hard to avoid criminal proceedings by proposing a remediation agreement, but in September the prosecutor's office declined to invite the company to negotiate. A guilty verdict on bribery and corruption charges has been characterized as an existential threat for SNC-Lavalin and its employees because the company would be barred from bidding on government contracts in Canada for 10 years. Much of its work is in designing, building and operating public infrastructure.

Mayoral race lineup grows to 10 candidates

An electrical contractor has become the 10th candidate to register for the race to become Winnipeg’s next mayor.

Zac Uminski has thrown his name into the competition, after Scott Gillingham signed up to seek re-election as mayor and eight other candidates previously registered.

The father of four said concern about homelessness and addictions sparked his interest in politics.

“My campaign will focus on practical solutions to improve public safety, support families and strengthen the city services,” Uminski said. “We need safer communities.”

New lab a win for Winnipeg’s long game

It would be easy to overlook the announcement this week that the federal government was green-lighting a quarter-billion-dollar expansion of the National Microbiology Laboratory’s Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health on Arlington Street.

Easy to overlook, in part, because it will take a decade to build the new 140,000-square-foot laboratory specializing in medical countermeasures.

But make no mistake, this latest investment from Ottawa galvanizes Winnipeg’s reputation as a global leader in the research of the world’s most infectious diseases. It also confirms that a wager made by Manitoba political leaders nearly 40 years ago is paying off in spades.

The existing NML was, to be frank, hastily conceived compensation for one of the most egregious examples of political pork-barrelling ever seen in Canada.

Indigenous leaders accuse provincial government of 'racist, political propaganda, gaslighting'

Manitoba’s grand chiefs are calling on Premier Brian Pallister to resign, as his party tries to quell frustration over ahistorical residential-school comments he and his new Indigenous reconciliation minister have made.

‘I had no idea that I built a bad guy’: Three artists talk about the John A Macdonald statues they made — and what’s happening to them

Defaced. Knocked down. Decapitated. Taken away. Artists Mike Halterman, Ruth Abernathy and John Dann talk about statues and monuments amid the outrage over residential schools