|
Welcome back to Friday, everyone.
The first two stories I want to highlight from this week are the hardest.
First: a woman died in the cold in a bus shelter this week. Her name was Kayla Rae. Her family is still waiting on autopsy results. My colleague Chris Kitching had a heartbreaking interview with her mother, who hopes that her daughter’s story — an all-too-common one, in this hurting province — will inspire positive change.
Advertisement
Second: everything about the murders of four Indigenous women by an alleged serial killer is awful. Everything. It’s awful how much grief it inflicts on a perpetually grieving city. It’s awful that one victim is still unidentified; for now, elders have requested we call her Buffalo Woman, because everyone who is lost still deserves a name. It’s awful that the bodies of at least two victims, Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, are believed to be somewhere in a landfill north of the city, and it’s awful that police say there’s “no hope” that a search there would find them.
People gathered at the Oodena Circle at The Forks for a vigil to name and remember victims of alleged serial killer. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)
There is one aspect of this case that should be kept in focus: the alleged killer had a history of making racist and anti-Semitic social media posts. He also made comments denying the facts of residential schools established by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Now, he stands accused of murdering four Indigenous women, who it seems like he targeted precisely because they were vulnerable; and in a recent column, Niigaan Sinclair connected those dots powerfully.
So there’s a lot of pain in this province. But there’s also a lot of really hard work that is being done to heal it, every day. Most of that work is out of sight to the public. So, I was so grateful for Shelley Cook’s beautiful piece on a program at Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre that is helping families become stronger and reunite with children taken into care.
In other highlights: former Jets coach Paul Maurice was in town this week, and I was really interested to read some of his thoughts about his tenure. Exchange District business owners really want to see something done about an old eyesore. And there’s a bankruptcy mess happening at the Manitoba Clinic, which Dan Lett says was a “perfect storm” that should worry us, in terms of what it says about larger problems in our health care frameworks.
Finally, I loved hearing about how the Winnipeg School Division is launching a bilingual Filipino program, which is a perfect addition to our community. Bilingual education is great for kids, and languages — especially those that help keep youth in contact with older relatives here or abroad — are such a gift.
Until next week,
-mm
|
