Unconditional creature comfort helps us cope

Opposition MLAs decry Campbell’s compensation

Former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell received nearly $600,000 in consulting fees for about five months' work as head of a commission examining Manitoba Hydro megaprojects before stepping down in February 2019, the Free Press has learned.

According to documents obtained through freedom of information legislation, Campbell billed the government for $593,962 for work done between September 2018 and February 2019. His appointment was announced in October 2018.

Campbell relinquished the role a few days after a British newspaper reported he was the subject of a sexual assault investigation being conducted by London police.

In addition to his fees, Campbell's commission racked up more than $76,000 in expenses, pushing the total cost to $670,755.

‘Heartbreaking loss’: Sandy Bay First Nation offers condolences after apparent dog attack.

Leaders with the Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation are offering their condolences after an animal rescue worker died following an apparent dog attack in the community and say the “stray and aggressive” animals are a longstanding issue.

Amanda Nobiss, 37, was volunteering in the community on the shores of Lake Manitoba with K9 Advocacy. Her remains were discovered on Friday morning.

The Manitoba First Nations Police Service said in a news release that it had been contacted by a friend of Amanda’s who was trying to locate her, around 12:45 a.m.

Using her cellphone location, police determined she appeared to be in Sandy Bay, said the release. Resources were dispatched to the area, including a drone, but due to the large radius of the cellphone “ping,” no one was located until 6 a.m.

Jets backup goalie has things to think of other than hockey

The balance David Rittich needed came in a way he least suspected.

Britain gets new prime minister — again

Number 10 Downing Street is welcoming its seventh premier in a decade. Andy Burnham, the charismatic ex-mayor of Manchester, is the latest to grip the poisoned chalice of U.K. leadership. He takes over from Sir Keir Starmer, who was forced out after only two years in office.

Starmer rode to power on a landslide 2024 election win. But his lofty campaign promises instantly buckled under the pressure of governing a nation mired in economic malaise. Amid sinking poll numbers, the knives quickly came out among his anxious Labour party peers.

Starmer’s predecessors have faced similar fates ever since Conservative prime minister Theresa May quit in tears in 2019. Burnham might be next. If so, he’ll be another casualty of two catastrophic blunders that have haunted Britain for nearly two decades.

The first was embracing austerity as a remedy to the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. Deep public spending cuts were made across the board — child benefits, education, housing, disability and more. Financing for health care was frozen.

Sanitation front and centre at Winnipeg's airport

Weeks before COVID-19 touched down in Manitoba, it was on the radar at Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport.

Darryl Dowd, the vice-president of operations for the Winnipeg Airports Authority, was watching with keen interest what was transpiring in early hotspots for the novel coronavirus. As someone who started his career during the SARS outbreak, Dowd understood even far-seeming threats were never so far off.

“When we first heard of COVID, we increased the frequency of our cleaning, focusing on high-touch areas of the office, elevator buttons, railings,” Dowd said this week near the check-in kiosks.

That was in early February, and the cleaning hasn’t stopped since at the nine-year-old airport, where reduced traffic hasn’t meant cleaning less, but it has meant cleaning smarter, Dowd said.