Doggone low to drag pooch into breakup drama

Weary, waterlogged Manitobans cast wary eye on the sky

Severe spring flooding is taking its toll on Manitobans who’ve battled to save their homes, have been forced to evacuate their communities or have become isolated by surging water levels.

People in flood zones are dealing with fatigue, stress and burnout amid a disaster that has dragged on for weeks and is poised to disrupt daily life into the summer.

“We’re just exhausted. For me, it was emotional, trying not to lose our home,” said Peguis First Nation resident Cindy Sutherland, who’s been fighting floodwater since April 30.

She is feeling a sense of relief because the water is receding and a Tiger Dam — a barrier of water-filled tubes — is now set up around her home.

Laine blockbuster: Ehlers emotional, Wheeler stoic but sincere

They were joined at the hip, a pair of charismatic and extremely talented young Winnipeg Jets wingers who formed an instant bond and never missed a chance to take a friendly shot at the other. And so Saturday's news that Patrik Laine had been traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets was an especially tough pill to swallow for Nikolaj Ehlers.

"He’s a guy that I’ve had a really good relationship with since my second year, since his first year. We were roommates together on the first road trip. We’ve been brothers since day one, so this is not very fun. It’s part of the business. It’s the way it goes," an emotional Ehlers said following his team's morning skate at Bell MTS Place.

They actually got a chance to say goodbye in person, as the injured Laine was down at the rink when the trigger was pulled.

“I found out like the other guys in there. Me and Patty are ones that we always joke around. You guys know that. We always chirp each other. So there’s a little bit of joking but we also know that we were roommates for three years. We’ve been really good friends for the last five years. So this is tough. This is not much fun. So he’s a guy that I’m for sure going to miss a lot," said Ehlers, who signed a seven-year contract extension with the Jets in 2017.

Manitoba introduces $100M in supports to combat U.S. tariffs

Manitoba is responding to the latest U.S. tariffs with more than $100 million in support for workers, businesses and producers to help them withstand the headwinds, but the opposition said it’s “too little, too late.”

“We will support workers, we will support businesses, we will ensure that we have market and trade diversification and build a stronger, more resilient economy,” Business Minister Jamie Moses said Friday at the legislature alongside Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn.

The United States imposed 50 per cent tariffs on $27.6 billion of Canadian exports as of Aug. 22 after trade talks fell apart. Canada has announced retaliatory tariffs on select U.S. products starting Sept. 8.

The latest escalation in U.S. tariffs is expected to affect a wide range of Manitoba industries, the ministers noted, including manufacturing, agri-food, transportation, construction, wholesale trade, aerospace, forestry, steel, machinery, beverages and related supply chains.

Widow on mission to improve mental-health supports for law-enforcement officers, families

Stacia Franz is honouring her late husband’s life and legacy by seeking to ensure no law enforcement officer suffers in silence and no other spouse is widowed at 36.

Heart and soul of a neighbourhood

Every morning on her way to work, Mel Prociuk clambers up the scaffold that hugs the spire jutting up from the east side of Augustine United Church. The metal and plywood steps clang as she rises above the trees, above the roofs of Osborne Village, and into the blue Prairie sky.

From the tip of the steeple, 46 metres above River Avenue the city splays out a blanket of leafy green, pierced by the blocky tops of nearby apartment towers. Across the river, the Golden Boy turns its back towards the church, which was already 15 years old when that statue first raised its torch atop the legislature dome.

For the two months they've been working to paint and restore the steeple, Prociuk and her Valour Decorating co-worker Lindsay Nakonechny have liked to sip their morning coffee up there, enchanted by the view, unfazed by the height. You can see the whole city from up there, Prociuk says, an incredible sight.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... you're never going to be that high again," Prociuk says, squatting on a plywood platform about five storeys up the church's elegant limestone face. "You can see all the green, all the beautiful buildings all around."

Jody Wilson-Raybould’s testimony puts PM in hot seat

For Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Wednesday was a disaster whose epic proportions will take a while to be fully understood.

If the testimony of former justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould before the House of Commons justice committee is to be believed, what was laid bare Wednesday was a calculated and systematic attempt, by the prime minister and his most senior officials, to undermine judicial process for partisan political purposes and then to deceive the Canadian public about the nature and magnitude of the interference.

In nearly four hours of testimony that was meticulously prepared, deeply detailed, unflappably delivered and impenetrable to those who sought to challenge its substance, Ms. Wilson-Raybould succeeded in presenting herself as someone who should be believed.

And in so doing, she essentially cast as opportunistic liars Mr. Trudeau and staffers in the Prime Minister’s Office who had previously sought to declare their dealings with the former attorney general, in relation to the prosecution of the Quebec-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, as acceptable in both legal and ethical terms.