Netflix relief fund to benefit Canadian groups providing aid to arts community

Brian Bowman wins mayoral battle

In the end, it wasn’t even close.

A mayoral race that was supposed to be a head-to-head battle between privacy lawyer Brian Bowman and former NDP MP and MLA Judy Wasylycia-Leis turned into a rout on election night. Wasylycia-Leis, the experienced politician, had held what looked like an unassailable lead for months, but Bowman, the outsider who promised Winnipeggers a better, prosperous future, chipped doggedly away at it.

“I’m excited to tell you that positive change is coming to city hall,” Bowman told roaring supporters at the Inn At The Forks after making his way into the small ballroom accompanied by his wife and two young sons.

He said he hadn’t expecting such a landslide victory, but had believed that the campaign was building momentum.

Must-see Folk Fest workshops

Workshops have always been an integral part of the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

They are magic-moment makers; a curated group of musicians — sometimes friends, sometimes strangers — on one stage playing together, supporting each other, creating something that will only exist for an hour or two. No one knows what will come out of the collaboration, but usually it’s something special.

When the Free Press spoke to Winnipeg Folk Festival artistic director Chris Frayer ahead of the lineup release in early March, he noted he would be paying some extra attention to workshops this year, as some of the special projects occurring during the past couple of festivals had pulled some of his attention away.

And with 37 workshops on the books, it would seem he followed through on his promise.

Ottawa announces $500 million for North End sewage plant upgrade

The federal government will provide $500 million to help complete the major upgrade to Winnipeg’s North End sewage treatment plant.

Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid confirmed the total funding at a news conference at the plant Friday, calling the work critical to Winnipeg’s future.

“The stakes could not be higher. Without expanded wastewater treatment, Winnipeg would run out of capacity to build new homes and accommodate new industries within six years,” said Duguid.

The commitment offers the final funding needed to cover the $1.57-billion third and final phase of the upgrade. The city and province will also pay $500 million each for the work.

Neo-Nazi group members plotted to kill Free Press reporter

Disturbing details of a plan to kill a Free Press reporter who had infiltrated a white nationalist hate group were revealed for the first time Wednesday.

State of Manchester United goes beyond ‘favourite soap opera’ status

Last Sunday, during Manchester United’s embarrassing 3-0 loss at home to Bournemouth, supporters in the Stretford End of Old Trafford unveiled a giant banner in protest of their club’s decline.

Beneath depictions of three iconic captains — Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Bryan Robson — it presented a single word: “STANDARDS.” It wasn’t lost on anyone, as the Red Devils slumped to their meek defeat, that the banner represented the only “standards” in the stadium that afternoon.

The players were booed off the field, and the rest of the week was spent rehashing the inquiry of what, this time, might be wrong with England’s biggest club — an ongoing conversation the BBC has described as “one of the nation’s favourite soap operas.”

Inevitably, the public looked to the trio of greats whose likenesses looked down on the Bournemouth debacle to help make sense of the performance, of the ever-lowering bar of expectations and of the club’s more deep-rooted problems.