Quebec designer launches mask line inspired by star skaters

Fundraising rappel from top of downtown tower with persuasive granddaughter leaves 72-year-old exhilarated

It’s safe to say that most people don’t spend Tuesday mornings rappelling 83 metres down the side of a downtown building.

With their 72-year-old grandmother.

But that’s exactly how 23-year-old Morgan Parker started her Tuesday.

Parker and her grandmother Christine Jameus were among 50 Manitobans who took part in Easter Seals’ Drop Zone, raising money for Manitoba Possible, a non-profit organization working to eliminate barriers to full and equal participation for people with disabilities.

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.

Close to 5,000 net new health-care workers added since 2023 election, province says

More doctors and nurses are working in Manitoba than ever before but health-care challenges remain, Premier Wab Kinew says.

The province has added 4,725 net new health-care workers to the provincial system since the NDP won the October 2023 election, Kinew told reporters Tuesday.

The government’s total includes 370 doctors, 1,464 nurses, 2,152 health-care aides and 607 allied health professionals, a group that includes physiotherapists, dietitians, paramedics, medical lab technologists and others.

Kinew said more doctors and nurses are working in Manitoba than ever before.

Public washroom is better way to go

Back in 2018, Winnipeg architect Wins Bridgman of Bridgman Collaborative Architecture saw his idea, a decade in the making, come to life: a pop-up public washroom in Winnipeg’s downtown.

It was a canny campaign, executed in partnership with Downtown BIZ and Siloam Mission, that illustrated a dire human-rights need by actually providing a solution.

Now, the idea has gone from pop-up to permanent. As of May 30, a public washroom at 715 Main St., next to Circle of Life Thunderbird House, will open for daily public use from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Bridgman designed this structure, known as Amoowigamig. Like the bright-orange pop-up before it, it’s a highly visible building with highlighter-yellow accents, and has a host of safety features, such as alarms that can be triggered from stalls, security cameras outside, and a pair of urinals outside the building, which is also a safety consideration: “The reason people go through the indignity of going (to the bathroom) outside is sometimes because there’s no washroom but also because it might (seem) safer,” Bridgman told the Free Press.

Health minister won’t remove WRHA board chair for travelling during pandemic

Health Minister Heather Stefanson said the province has no plans to rescind the appointment of the chairman of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority board of directors after he travelled to Arizona earlier this month.

Stefanson neither directly criticized nor defended the actions of Wayne McWhirter at a press conference Wednesday.

Instead, she said that chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin, Premier Brian Pallister and others have "been very clear that now is not the time for non-essential travel" and that McWhirter would be expected to "properly isolate" on his return home.

"At this time we are not looking to rescind his appointment, no," Stefanson said when asked by the Free Press.