Notre Dame an inspiration in film, music and books

Waiting for Cormier verdict the ‘calm before the storm’

As the jury room door closed behind the seven women and four men who are now deliberating on the evidence against Tina Fontaine’s accused killer, Thelma Favel rose from the chair she’s occupied for most of Raymond Cormier’s second-degree murder trial.

Almost every day over the past three weeks, Favel, the woman who raised 15-year-old Tina, has sat right up front, directly across from the jury box, listening, sobbing and soaking in disturbing details of the teen’s last days that have come to light over the course of Cormier’s second-degree murder trial.

On Wednesday afternoon, after Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal instructed the jury and sent them off to be sequestered until they decide whether 56-year-old Raymond Cormier is guilty of killing Tina, Favel got up and hugged Crown prosecutor Breta Passler. It was one of many moments, this one shielded from jurors, that have long since proven the emotional impact of the case and the lasting power of Tina’s legacy.

Tina’s death sparked a public outcry that renewed calls for a national inquiry into disproportionately high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls across Canada, and the criminal trial for the man accused of killing her hasn’t happened in a vacuum.

World Indigenous Business Forum comes home to Winnipeg for first time, ponders questions for future prosperity

When Nicola Shirley-Phillips imagines what the Indigenous economy in her country might look like 100 years from now, she doesn’t mention social media or artificial intelligence. Instead, she envisions a holistic way of life where people work alongside each other in a way that cares for the planet.

“I see community (and) I see us being more respectful of all the energies around us — our water energy, our climate (and) the soil,” she said. “In all of that, there are opportunities for us to create businesses and opportunities to provide our services.”

Shirley-Phillips, a serial entrepreneur, organic farmer and community economic development specialist from Jamaica, shared her vision Tuesday morning during a panel discussion focused on Indigenous women and prosperity.

The discussion was one of the first items on the schedule during the first full day of the World Indigenous Business Forum at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg.

Notre Dame an inspiration in film, music and books

NEW YORK - The Notre-Dame de Paris, which sustained a devastating fire Monday, has inspired writers, painters and filmmakers for hundreds of years. Here are some notable examples:

PAINTING: Henri Matisse painted it often— in intimate blue, a distant green, a pinkish haze. It served as a melancholy backdrop for William-Adolphe Bouguereau's "The Bohemian," while the interior provided a golden, grandiose aura for Jacques-Louis David's "The Coronation of Napoleon."

BOOKS: Think of books about Notre Dame and you'll inevitably begin with Victor Hugo's "Notre-Dame of Paris" (otherwise known as "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame"), his 1831 masterpiece. But Notre Dame also appears in works ranging from Balzac's "The Wrong Side of Paris" to the "Babar" and "Madeline" children's series.

MOVIES: It's there, of course, in the adaptations of Hugo's novel, whether the 1939 version starring Charles Laughton, the 1956 remake with Anthony Quinn or the 1996 Disney musical featuring the voices of Tom Hulce and Demi Moore among others. You'll spot it, too, in the background as Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn converse in "Charade," and as Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy cruise along the Seine in "Before Sunset," as Hawke marvels at its surviving the Nazi occupation of World War II and Delpy responds, "But you have to think that Notre Dame will be gone one day."

Voter turnout in mayoral race about 38 per cent

Voter turnout in Wednesday’s mayoral contest in Winnipeg was 38 per cent, based on a Free Press analysis of unofficial results.

The city has not yet provided a figure for overall turnout for the municipal and school board election.

Incumbent Scott Gillingham won a second term with 39.82 per cent of the vote. He was followed by Kevin Klein (20.71 per cent), Noah Redden (19.84 per cent) and Mike Vogiatzakis (9.66 per cent) in a field of 12 candidates.

Unofficial voter turnout within the city’s 15 wards ranged from 26 per cent (Point Douglas) to 46 per cent (River Heights-Fort Garry).

2026 Winnipeg election results: Mayor and council

Complete results for the 2022 election races for Winnipeg mayor and city councillors.

Carrying a torch for tiki

A paper tiki mask is the only indication that the door it’s affixed to leads somewhere other than a dive bar. Ring the doorbell and walk through the kitchen, however, and you’ll be transported to an island-themed lounge that’s equal parts kitschy and comfortable.

“This is just from people’s houses, like my mom’s,” says Allan Pineda, pointing to the wood carvings, water-buffalo horns and rattan furniture decorating the room. “A lot of the stuff you see in here, you’d see in a Filipino’s house back in the day — like second-wave immigrants in the ‘60s and ‘70s, they’d bring this stuff home (from the Philippines).”

Pineda is a local chef and part of the team behind the Bahay Kubo Tiki Bar, a pop-up Filipino drinking and dining experience hosted weekly at an undisclosed Winnipeg establishment.

The details are hush-hush because the temporary eatery is meant to operate like a speakeasy. The dinners are an offshoot of Baon Manila Nights, which Pineda started as a way to highlight Winnipeg’s Filipino culinary scene.