Have a Plan B in case three becomes a crowd

‘Cautious optimism’ in Brandon as river crests

Water levels on the Assiniboine River, which have threatened Manitoba’s second-largest city over the past week, crested overnight, Brandon officials said Monday.

The river reached 1,179.46 feet, “indicating the river level has stabilized and reached its peak overnight,” according to an update posted on the city’s website.

The level stood at 1,179.23 feet on Sunday morning after rising 1.63 feet from Saturday. Officials had expected it to climb by as much as another foot before cresting. Overall, the river has risen about 7.5 feet over the past week.

Despite the crest, residents are still being urged to remain prepared as conditions could change.

Education review must focus on kids

In January, Manitoba Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced the creation of a commission to review the provincial school system and propose a “‘renewed vision for kindergarten to Grade 12 education,’ to ‘ignite change’ to existing systems, structures and programs.”

The impetus appears to be concern that the province’s students were “falling behind those in the rest of the country,” particularly in math, science and literacy. And so, according to the minister, “Nothing is off the table.”

Goertzen referenced accountability for student outcomes, because the idea that there were multiple sources of responsibility seemed to frustrate him: “If we’re all responsible, then really nobody is responsible.”

When thinking about what parents want from schools, I would wager that most would reply with a version of “to have my kid’s needs met, and to help them learn.”

Home is where heart is

More than 25 years after the dramatic film Pay It Forward inspired moviegoers to engage in acts of goodwill, serial reciprocity is alive and well at Pristine Roofing and Siding.

Natural disasters, accidents or wear and tear can put a roof in rough shape, risking the overall well-being of a home. Since not everyone can afford the repairs needed to feel safe and secure in their own house, staff at the Winnipeg company decided to do something about it.

Last year, Pristine launched its “Pay It Forward Project.” Manitoba residents can nominate someone who’s fallen on hard times and is in dire need of a new roof. The company chooses one recipient annually and does the repair work for free.

“We’re always looking at ways that we can help our community out,” says Don Fata, sales manager, who, along with Ash Boyd, started Pristine in 1998.

Human rights museum responds to reopening backlash

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights reopened to fully vaccinated members of the public this week, drawing cries of discrimination from those who have chosen not to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

While the some of the backlash has been “disturbing,” museum CEO Isha Khan said the conflict has opened room for a conversation about human rights during the pandemic.

“We made the decision to open in compliance with that law, really because we’re a public institution and we saw it as our responsibility to open as soon as we could to the public — within the restrictions as they currently are,” Khan said Thursday.

“But it’s really important to us, as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights we have a mandate for human rights education, that we’re trying to ground the conversation in human rights principles.”

Record label operated out of Winnipeg in the 1960s provided home for Western Canada acts devoted to Ukrainian wheatfield soul

Record label operated out of Winnipeg in the 1960s provided home Western Canada acts devoted to Ukrainian wheatfield soul

Trudeau courts progressive voters in B.C.

VANCOUVER - Jack Raymond had only just made up his mind.

Standing at the edge of crowd at an atrium in downtown Vancouver on Sunday afternoon, Raymond and a few hundred people were waiting to hear from Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who was making his final pitch to voters on a whirlwind trip through British Columbia.

"I was waiting till the last minute to decide," said Raymond, who was there with his wife, Sarah Robertson, and had their infant daughter, Bria, in a baby carrier.

The New Democrats earned his vote in the 2015 federal election, but this time he is voting for Taleeb Noormohamed, the Liberal candidate in Vancouver Granville, where ex-cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould is seeking re-election as an Independent.