Curtains for mate’s increasingly risqué shtick

240 WestJet flight attendants picket in Winnipeg

Winnipeg’s WestJet flight attendants took to the picket line outside of Richardson airport on the first day of nationwide strikes Sunday, while inside, frustrated flyers scrambled to re-route cancelled long-weekend flights.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario arm and the airline announced the strike would commence after the strike deadline was passed without a deal early Sunday morning. WestJet attendants have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2025.

Hours later, the 240 WestJet flight attendants based in Winnipeg had walked off the job and were marching outside of the airport terminal, some carrying signs with slogans including “Tired with WestJet? So are We!” and “Unpaid Work Won’t Fly.”

Key issues causing the stalemate are wages and pay for work on the ground: the union says flight attendants are not being paid for some of that work, while the company says they pay for the work through a “credit hour” system rather than an hourly rate.

Projecting ghost signs in new light

The existence of ghosts is uncertain. Ghost signs? Those are real. In Winnipeg’s Exchange District, they’re easy to spot: fading advertisements for faded firms, splashed across century-old buildings in paint that isn’t quite ready to disappear just yet — unfinished business for finished businesses.

At 281 McDermot Ave., three ghost signs refuse to go to the grave, and Matt Cohen and Craig Winslow refuse to let them.

On Friday night, the duo will flick on a set of projectors to illuminate the huge ads in what they call the world’s first permanent ghost sign installation, overlooking Old Market Square each night from sunset until midnight. Grim reaper be damned.

Cohen, a Winnipeg marketing professional, has been obsessively cataloguing the city’s surviving wall-based advertisements for a decade. In 2016, he first heard of Winslow, who was working on reviving ghost signs across the United States using light projection. The two connected, and a few months later, Winslow was in Winnipeg to breathe new life into five ghost signs for a single night.

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and important decisions from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. today. After that, the moon moves from Pisces into Aries.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

The day is a mixed bag. There are still fun opportunities to play and enjoy socializing with others. However, you might be sandbagged by someone who is critical or negative. Be careful with whom you choose to associate, because they might irk you. Focus on home repairs.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Housing-first initiative aims to offer city’s homeless dignity, understanding

Ken St. George has dedicated the last 20 years to taking care of people in the community-health sector. Now he will enact the Housing First model in Winnipeg for the first time.

COVID running up the score on some U.S. NHL teams

Boy, how about the thrilling, non-stop NHL action Thursday night? Let’s roll the highlights:

Down in Denver, you had the high-flying Colorado Avalanche hosting the Arizona Coyotes. Well, on paper, anyways. The actual on-ice product was postponed. OK, let’s head to the State of Hockey to see how our old Central Division friends fared, as Minnesota entertained St. Louis. What’s that? Scrapped as well. Huh.

Surely things are a bit better on the East Coast. Were the Buffalo Sabres able to contain Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals? Turns out their inability to contain something else meant this one was also shelved. At least there’s that Flyers-Devils clash in Philly, right? Wrong.

Oh, for Pete’s sake.

Sagkeeng's scars: colonization has left a traumatic imprint

At the mouth of the river.

In Anishinaabemowin, that is what “Sagkeeng” means. It is what the people of Sagkeeng First Nation have called their homeland, located on the lush banks of the powerful Winnipeg River, since time immemorial.

The Canadian government would rename that land the Fort Alexander Indian Reserve, as federal agents carved new territorial boundaries out of the countryside in the aftermath of the signing of Treaty 1.

But in the language of the people who call it home, it has always been Sagkeeng.