PAPER CHASE: Grant helps Bergen write new novel

PAPER CHASE: Grant helps Bergen write new novel

Need, poverty, greed, love and grace come together in a new novel-in-progress by Winnipeg's David Bergen.

Bergen has received a major arts grant worth $20,000 from the Manitoba Arts Council this spring to work on City of S., a new novel about an itinerant, a prostitute and a detective in a mid-sized Canadian city, known as the city of S.

After taking inspiration from Saul Bellow for his 2010 novel, The Matter with Morris, Bergen appears to be reading another heavy hitter of American letters these days. One of the characters is compared to Cornelius Suttree, from Cormac McCarthy's early novel Suttree.

Besides Bergen, MAC has announced that its 2013 major arts grants have gone to performance artist Grant Guy, artist-curator J.J. Kegan McFadden and folk singers Keri Latimer and Nicky Mehta.

Provincial intervention required at care homes

Back-to-back majority mandates confirm Premier Brian Pallister’s government has found favour with most Manitobans for an agenda that often champions privatization for its efficiency and cost control. There are exceptions, however, when even a free-market-minded conservative government must take control of for-profit businesses because public safety is on the line. Long-term care homes owned by Revera Inc. are such exceptions.

A pandemic precedent was set early in the COVID-19 epidemic when Ontario and Quebec faced the type of care-home crises now afflicting several Manitoba institutions. Those provinces intervened and took over the most afflicted of their care homes, employing strategies the Manitoba government would be well advised to follow.

About 20 long-term care facilities in Manitoba have been infiltrated by COVID-19, but the three where the virus has claimed the most victims — Parkview Place, Maples Long Term Care Home and Heritage Lodge — are managed by Revera.

There have already been calls for governments to step in. Revera is owned by PSP Investments, a federal Crown corporation that controls pensions for 160,000 federal employees; after care-home outbreaks in Ontario, PSP made a public call for the federal government to transition ownership of Revera facilities to the provinces in which they operate.

‘Useful starting point’: Manitoba teacher commissioner received 94 complaints in 15 months, report reveals

Ninety-four complaints about teacher misconduct were flagged in the 15 months after Manitoba set up an independent office to regulate the profession.

Commissioner Noni Classen has released a summary of the allegations brought to her attention and findings of investigations undertaken between January 2025 and March 2026.

A new disciplinary system, as well as an online registry where members of the public can look up the education level and standing of teachers and school clinicians, came into effect Jan. 6, 2025.

“These processes can be difficult and deeply personal for everyone involved, including students, families, teachers and school administrators,” Classen wrote in a 24-page report published this week.

Pre-owned sets seller Romo’s Bricks seeks to click with Winnipeg’s Lego community

There’s no mortar in sight but there are certainly thousands of bricks at a new brick-and-mortar store in Winnipeg catering to Lego enthusiasts.

Ashton Romaniuk and Madison Froome opened Romo’s Bricks in late spring. Located at 955 Milt Stegall Dr., in the same building as CanCentral Sports Cards & Memorabilia, the store specializes in selling pre-owned Lego sets, minifigures and other Lego-related products.

“It’s something we’re both passionate about,” Froome said.

To stock the store, she and Romaniuk spent $50,000 on four large Lego collections, purchased from local collectors. Romaniuk estimates that since the store opened on June 2, inventory has grown to $250,000 worth of Lego.

New blockade launched at access road to Keeyask site

A second First Nation has blocked the other access point to Manitoba Hydro’s Keeyask megaproject, over concerns a massive shift change will introduce COVID-19 to vulnerable reserves.

Fox Lake Cree Nation decided to launch the new blockade Monday evening, just hours after a Manitoba court authorized the RCMP to arrest anyone blocking access to the Keeyask plant.

The new blockade, on the southern access road, comes after Tataskweyak Cree Nation restricted the northern road Friday to non-Hydro traffic.

The southern road is closer to the Gillam airport, where workers were supposed to start arriving Tuesday from Winnipeg.

Beijing behind the scenes: On women’s hockey’s biggest stage, it’s not just the players under pressure

Alex Clarke of Weyburn, Sask., is a Canadian linesperson who isn’t part of Team Canada at the Olympics.