New WAG sculpture honours teachers all around us

Stuck ship thrusts sleepy Suez Canal village into limelight

I yearn to see the man at the helm. Does he resemble the overgroomed Francesco Schettino, the captain who steered the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia onto the rocks off Tuscany in 2012 and then hastily hopped off the ship? Are they the same man?

New WAG sculpture honours teachers all around us

A striking figure at the corner of St. Mary Avenue and Memorial Boulevard will welcome visitors and school groups into Qaumajuq, the Inuit art centre, when it opens at the Winnipeg Art Gallery later this year.

Tuniigusiia/The Gift, a new, outdoor sculpture carved by Inuit artist Goota Ashoona, was comissioned by the Manitoba Teachers’ Society “to honour teachers all around us — in the land and in our lives — who reveal the truth, wisdom and beauty that connect us all,” according to a news release from the WAG.

“Teachers have always played an incredible role in our communities and this has been brought into further focus in this difficult time,” said Stephen Borys, director and CEO of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, in the release.

“This beautiful sculpture by Goota Ashoona captures and pays tribute to teachers’ contributions. We thank the Manitoba Teachers’ Society for this legacy gift — for their heartfelt support — and we thank all teachers for the work they do every day.”

Woman who joined mother in young girl’s brutal abuse, neglect should go to prison for nine years, Crown says

A Winnipeg woman who, along with her mother, subjected a young girl to prolonged abuse and neglect that took her to the brink of death should be sentenced to nine years in prison, a judge was told Monday.

The 25-year-old accused — who can only be identified by her initials A.A.R. because she is related to the victim, who is now 15 – pleaded guilty Monday to one count of aggravated assault.

A.A.R.’s mother, N.A., 48, pleaded guilty to the same charge in 2024 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The crimes of the mother and daughter came to light only after the then-12-year-old, dangerously malnourished victim fled their Arlington Street home through a second-floor bedroom window in August 2023 wearing only a diaper, with duct tape clinging to her arms.

MPI lowers speed limit on tech upgrade with ‘IT roadmap’ following Project Nova debacle

Manitoba Public Insurance is now using an “IT road map” and phasing in new technology and systems after pulling the plug last year on its failed $164-million overhaul known as Project Nova, its annual report says.

The Crown corporation’s 2025-26 just-released annual report says lessons learned from Project Nova helped shape its “new path forward for modernization,” calling it an “IT road map” allowing systems to be changed in “smaller, lower-risk increments.”

Chief executive officer Satvir Jatana said in the report that the public auto insurer is in “a favourable position” — reporting $55.6 million in net income after losses of $19.7 million in 2024-25 and $130 million the previous fiscal year. Jatana said income would have surpassed $100 million if not for writeoffs related to the closure of Project Nova, which was intended to modernize outdated business and information technology systems, with a projected cost that climbed from $85 million in 2019 to an estimated $435 million in March of 2025, before it was cancelled.

Jatana has stated previously that Project Nova was doomed from the start with ineffective governance, major changes in MPI leadership, a global pandemic and a labour dispute that led to delays and cost overruns with many starts and stops to the project.

Transgender air force member fined for 17 Wing Winnipeg protest

A transgender military member has been fined in a case where she was Tasered while fighting to have her gender identity changed on her file.

Royal Canadian Air Force Sgt. Athena Morris was fined $2,000 for unlawfully entering a restricted area at 17 Wing Winnipeg on March 31, 2025, when she demanded the gender marker on her file be changed. Morris, a transgender woman, said she had been trying to get her gender identifier changed since January of that year.

The incident was a culmination of “months of friction,” defence counsel Maj. Carlos Da Cruz told military judge Stephen Strickey Monday during a hearing at HMCS Chippawa, a Royal Canadian Navy Reserve division in Winnipeg.

Da Cruz told court Morris was misgendered by colleagues and superiors and told she wasn’t allowed to use the women’s bathrooms or showers.

Tokyo Olympic aftermath still being untangled a year later

TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics survived the COVID-19 postponement, soaring expenses and some public opposition. A year later, the costs and benefits remain as difficult to untangle as the Games were to pull off.

In his speech at the closing ceremony, IOC President Thomas Bach said a major accomplishment of the Games was simply reaching the end.

“We did it,” Bach said. “We did it together," he repeated, crediting the athletes, Japanese government officials, and deep-pocketed broadcasters for refashioning the Games despite no fans, disappointed sponsors, and no buzz around the city.

Organizers said the Games would drive tourism, showcase Japan's technological prowess, and create memories similar to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The pandemic erased that.