Forcing the romance can be counterproductive

Election results: School trustees 2026

Below you’ll find live 2026 election results for school trustees in Winnipeg divisions.

We can display results only for wards in which Winnipeg voters cast a ballot; we do not have access to live results reporting for school boards outside of Winnipeg.

Man accused of assaulting unconscious woman has lengthy record of abuse

A convicted sex offender accused of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman last week — only to be stopped in the process by police officers — has a lengthy history of abusing vulnerable victims.

Harley Aaron Okemow, 34, was arrested Oct. 21 on Stanley Street, near Henry Avenue, and charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm.

He had been released from provincial jail in mid-September, with a sentence of two years of supervised probation plus the time he served behind bars awaiting court, after pleading guilty to several breaches of court orders committed earlier this year.

“Mr. Okemow … does have a serious record … that includes sexually offending against six different victims, five of which were children,” said Crown prosecutor Katie Dojack at Okemow’s sentencing last month.

Remembering Canada’s first national internment

Canada’s first national internment operation, from 1914 to 1920, is a part of Canadian history that is at times forgotten. Oct. 28 marks the anniversary of the Canadian government passing an order-in-council (essentially an executive decree) in 1914, under the War Measures Act. The order legally authorized the arrest and internment of Canadian civilians as enemy aliens during the First World War, and thousands of Canadians were sent to internment camps across the country.

The war of 1914-18 created difficulty for new Canadians hoping to become naturalized citizens. Many new immigrants to Canada came from regions of Europe that was under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the start of the First World War.

The Canadian government, under Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden introduced internment camps throughout Canada, fearing that many eastern European immigrants would have some form of affiliation with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Even though there was never any evidence of disloyalty, people were imprisoned needlessly and forced to do heavy labour in 24 internment camps throughout Canada’s frontier hinterland. There were two identified internment camps in Manitoba, one in Brandon and the other in Winnipeg.

Lula’s historic Brazilian election victory

This was supposed to go down as one of the closest presidential elections in Brazilian history — until it wasn’t. In the end, 80-year-old leftist President Luiz Inácio (Lula) da Silva of the Workers Party bested (by some four million votes) Flávio Bolsonaro, the hard-right Liberal Party leader and senator, by a lopsided 3.5 per cent of the popular vote.

Speaking of Brazilian history, it rarely happens that the second-place finisher in the first round ends up winning the second, run-off contest in such a decisive manner. More significant, Lula has now won an unprecedented (non-consecutive) fourth term as an elected Brazilian president.

While Bolsonaro has waffled on making a concession speech (like his father in 2022), the writing on the wall shows clearly that he lost badly. He has evidently taken issue with a ruling by a justice of the Supreme Court that extended polling hours country-wide by an additional two hours in light of high voter turnout and other interruptions.

Flávio’s supporters, many galvanized around the “never Lula” camp, were desperate for change — even if it meant the kind of change that could turn Brazil on its head. So Lula resorted to one of the oldest political tricks in the campaign handbook — namely, using fear of an anti-democratic Bolsonaro to swing voters to his side (along with a host of last-minute announcements involving financial incentives to Brazilians). With a right-leaning Congress, voters were understandably worried that Flávio would go about systematically dismantling Brazil’s democratic ethos and institutions.

Construction disruption frustrates

It’s an all too familiar story.

Small businesses that are already facing all the trials and travails they must regularly face — the hard slog of attracting customers in an internet-shopping world; the high costs for bricks-and-mortar locations, such as rent and insurance; a weak economy; and the difficulties of attracting and keeping staff — suddenly have to deal with a new problem.

The City of Winnipeg and its deathly slow road-construction schedule.

For most of us, it’s a time-wasting irritant. But for businesses facing lengthy street-construction projects, it’s a business strangler.