Saskatchewan takes federal carbon tax fight to Supreme Court of Canada

New artistic director ready to get to work at Sick + Twisted

After a months-long national search for its next artistic director, Winnipeg’s Sick + Twisted Theatre has found who it’s been looking for in Mandy E. MacLean.

A Maritimer who studied theatre and performance at the University of New Brunswick and at Toronto’s Humber College, MacLean has served in recent years as the artistic and access producer for Toronto’s Crossroads Theatre — a low-barrier, youth-focused company — and as accessibility producer for Ontario’s renowned SummerWorks Festival.

MacLean, who arrived in Winnipeg last month, has long appreciated Sick + Twisted’s core philosophy, developed by former artistic director Debbie Patterson and a strong community of advisers and fellow artists. The company’s overarching goals include changing the way we think about disability in society and to create safe, supportive environments for artists to bring their “full selves” to the work.

MacLean, who was chosen by Sick + Twisted’s selection committee from a field of over 30 applicants, says the new position was intriguing, especially since she worked as an assistant director on the company’s 2025 production of Neither Here nor There, a personal, group-devised exploration of ability and difference that blended mythology, fantasy and reality.

We don’t vote like our lives depend on it

There’s an old saw — we get the government we deserve. It assumes active participation in our elections, full and fair media coverage from which voters can learn and a set of viable, capable candidates from which we can choose.

Arguably, those conditions did not apply this time around in Winnipeg. Our voter turnout was just 38 per cent and Mayor Scott Gillingham’s victory came from just 15 per cent of Winnipeg’s eligible voters. Two supposedly serious competitors embroiled themselves — by choice — in juvenile mudslinging and offered scattered, chaotic policy platforms.

A fourth contender surged from behind in the closing weeks of the campaign — and Noah Redden had spent most of the campaign being thought of as one of the pack of gadflies that emerge to run every time there’s a mayoralty campaign here. Yet he virtually tied Kevin Klein for second place. Had Redden been treated during the campaign as a viable candidate (he was the only one to publish online a detailed, thought-through policy platform), who knows what would have happened?

Absorb those facts.

Butterworth dips under Olympic standard in 800

MONTREAL - After years of flirting with the two-minute barrier, Lindsey Butterworth finally smashed it -- in emphatic fashion.

The 27-year-old from North Vancouver, B.C., kicked hard down the final straightaway to win the women's 800 metres at the Olympic track and field trials on Friday.

Crossing the finish line, she looked at the time, and both hands flew to her mouth in delight. Butterworth won in one minute 59.19 seconds, dipping under the automatic Olympic standard of 1:59.50 -- and shattering that elusive two-minute mark, finally.

"I just saw the time and was in shock and happiness," Butterworth said.

Enjoy your own estate

Back in 1999, a young couple had a vision.

They wanted a safe, beautiful place where they could raise a family, and they searched long and hard to find a suitable place to put down roots.

Eventually, they found a 6.12-acre plot of land in St. Anne, Man.

It had pretty much all the attributes they were looking for — it was peaceful and private, yet only 20 minutes from Winnipeg and a short commute to other centres, like Steinbach.

Track records keep falling in fast Tokyo Games

Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom grabbed the first-round lead with a five-under-par round of 66, the conversation mostly revolved around the 42 C conditions in Tokyo.