World Cup cross country ski event cancelled in Quebec City due to COVID-19

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.

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.

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.

Security tightens at downtown library

Users of the downtown Millennium Library will be subject to several new security screening measures, more commonly seen at airports and sporting facilities.

City hall announced Friday that effective Feb. 25, all visitors to the Donald Street library will undergo bag checks and be subjected to a hand-held metal detector sweep for alcohol and prohibited weapons. Visitors who refuse to participate will be barred from entering the library.

“The number of incidents (has) increased in the past four to five years, incidences involving violence, threats, alcohol, substance abuse and it was concerning. We met with police and our security contractor. After discussing, we came up with this course of action,” Ed Cuddy, manager of library services, told reporters. “We feel it’s a big change, but we feel it’s justified based on the kind of incidents we’ve been experiencing recently.”

Cuddy wouldn’t elaborate on the nature of the incidents, but did say library workers have not been the victims.