Weekender festivities to take over downtown

Come one, come all, to Graham Avenue this weekend.

Organizers of the Weekender hope to welcome thousands of Winnipeggers to the streets and parking lots in and around the Graham Avenue pedestrian mall in what they are billing as “Downtown’s Biggest Street Party.”

Starting Friday evening and running through Sunday, the free festival boasts a plethora of ways by which visitors can enjoy themselves. From food trucks to markets, games to live music, classic cars and free bike repairs, the festival aims to provide a little something for everyone.

“The Weekender is truly about bringing people together, to have fun, to experience all that downtown has to offer,” says Olivia Billson, director of communications and public relations for Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, which is putting on the festival in conjunction with Smith Events and Arch Events.

‘Dynacare sucks’: premier muses about bringing lab services back into public system

Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba may bring Dynacare’s diagnostic lab services back into the public system rather than continue to sign contracts with the for-profit company.

“Dynacare sucks. They’ve made an absolute mess of this situation,” the premier said Wednesday, the day the company’s 350 employees reported back to work after the labour board halted their strike after just one day.

Kinew first made the remark about Dynacare in a CBC radio interview Wednesday morning and added he is “not happy with them.”

Dynacare performs the majority of non-emergency blood and urine tests in the province.

DNA on beer can helps solve killing

Two years after 74-year-old James Monaghan was stabbed in his Sherburn Street home, DNA found on a beer can led police to his killer.

Shara Harper, 29, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and on Tuesday was sentenced to six years in prison.

A neighbour found Monaghan dead in his home on July 29, 2022. He had been stabbed twice in the chest and back.

The investigation into Monaghan’s killing had stalled until June 2024, when DNA found on an empty beer can in Monaghan’s home was confirmed to be a match for Harper.

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: Avoid shopping (except food and gas) and important decisions from 1:30 p.m. until 3:15 p.m. today. After that, the moon moves from Leo into Virgo.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

This is a solid day for you because you’re motivated to work and accomplish something. (This is half the battle. Motivation is everything.) Roll up your sleeves and dig in. Talk to co-workers and friends. Be of service if you can.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Finding my way through the ‘odd uneven time’

I am taking a turn in the garden with a cup of tea on a Friday morning.

It is 16 C in St. John’s but feels warmer in the stillness. We have been given the rare gift of a morning without wind. I gladly accept it.

High in the overcast sky, a seagull screeches a lament. Near my feet, chickadees and juncos are flittering and tittering in the shrubbery.

Tomorrow and Sunday call for torrential rains, the kind that — when paired with lashing winds — will strip rose petals away and give the slender daylilies a sound thrashing. Violent imagery, yes, but accurate. I know what to expect. I’ve been around the block.

Double climate whammy hits home

It’s a bit of a one-two punch.

First, the show-and-tell of what global warming could be bringing us.

Then, the fact we’ve already failed our best chance of halting climate change.

On Sept. 3, the World Meteorological Organization released its forecast of the potential effects of the rapidly-developing super El Niño phenomenon.

Bumps in the road as students collect free bus passes

Alexis Enns left her guidance counsellor’s office empty-handed, but no less excited about starting Grade 12 — even though she still didn’t know how she would get there or her timetable — on Tuesday.

“My summer was pretty boring,” the 17-year-old said after an unsuccessful trip to get her free bus pass and bearings at Technical Vocational High School.

“I like back-to-school. I like having somewhere to be every day and something to do every day.”

For some families in the Winnipeg School Division, hers included, the 2026-27 academic year kicked off with delays related to the rollout of free youth transit and course schedules.

St. Charles golfer takes opening round lead at national senior men’s championship

David White didn’t set any expectations entering this week.

The St. Charles golfer knew he had the game to keep up with a talented field across four days, but wouldn’t go so far as to say he’d be in the hunt for a title.

So the 59-year-old walked away in great spirits after an opening round three-under 69 has him leading the Canadian senior men’s championship at Niakwa on Tuesday.

It was a terrific display of resilience in blustery conditions for White, who was one shot clear of Scotland’s Ronnie Clark, the only other player to reach red figures.

Goldeyes open three-game playoff series in Fargo

The Winnipeg Goldeyes return to post-season action Wednesday night since their trip to the Miles Wolff Cup Final in 2024.

First pitch in Game 1 of the West Division series is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in Fargo, N.D., against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks.

Here’s a breakdown of what to know as the best-of-three series begins at Newman Outdoor Field.

By the numbers

‘It blew my mind that four lives were taken’

A two-vehicle crash that killed four teenage friends in the Interlake Sunday night prompted outpourings of grief in several communities and calls for safety improvements at the intersection, which was also the site of a death in July.

Recent high school graduates Maya Borsa and Chloe Vermette, both 18, were identified by their families as victims of the collision at Highway 8 and Provincial Road 229, just west of Winnipeg Beach.

“(Chloe) was a very bubbly, loving personality. Always giving, always caring. Her friends meant the world to her,” said her mother, Veronique Vermette, who struggled to comprehend the tragedy when she went to the scene Monday. “We sat in the rain for hours, and it blew my mind that four lives were taken.”

The teens’ parents are waiting for RCMP to provide more information about the cause of the crash. Chloe, who graduated from Windsor Park Collegiate in Winnipeg in July, was driving one of the vehicles, her mother said.

Putin’s imperial dream is crumbling

Every May 9, Russia commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany with a Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square. But the 2026 edition wasn’t so grand. Fears of Ukrainian drone strikes caused sparse attendance. No military hardware was showcased.

The lack of pageantry points to a larger truth. Four years on, what President Vladimir Putin envisioned as a swift conquest of Ukraine has devolved into an epic quagmire.

Kyiv’s deft use of unmanned systems has brought Russia’s invasion to a standstill. Legions of military drones, in the skies and on land, form an impassable kill zone 10 to 20 km deep along the front lines.

Such innovation is helping erase Ukraine’s manpower deficit. Meanwhile, Russia’s monthly casualties still number around 35,000. And that’s on top of the possibly 1.2 million killed and wounded since February 2022.

Teens, social media and doctors’ advice

It seems fair to state that we are on the path to someday viewing social media exposure as the source of mass social harm in the same way we now view leaded gasoline fumes and lead-painted toys.

Carney, Smith all smiles while time runs out on climate change

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney were all smiles last week when they signed an agreement to begin construction of a new oil pipeline by 2027, while also delaying and softening an industrial carbon pricing regime that would apply to producers.

Both Alberta and Ottawa portrayed the deal as a victory: an agreement to fulfil one of Alberta’s principal economic development ambitions while also allowing Ottawa to claim it had agreement from Smith and the oil and gas industry to invest more in carbon capture systems in exchange for less punitive carbon pricing.

Those smiles were evidence both political leaders had erased from their memories a late 2025 report from the Parliamentary Budget Office. The report warned governments of all levels to brace for a rapid rise in the costs of mitigating and repairing damage from severe weather events triggered by climate change.

The PBO projected federal costs related to the Disaster Financial Assistance (DFAA) program, which provides financial support to provinces and territories to help pay for costs related to “natural hazards,” were going to double on an annual basis, starting this year.

Propellers stolen from barge at centre of legal battles

The propellers of a barge at the centre of a legal battle between a Manitoba First Nation and a federal Crown corporation have been stolen.

The MV Poplar River, which Poplar River First Nation argued in the Court of King’s Bench it relies on to drive its fishing-based economy, had its twin propellers stolen on March 3 at 12:30 a.m.

RCMP Cpl. Melanie Roussel said officers from its Gimli detachment found the gate at the Hnausa Harbour, in the Rural Municipality of Bifrost-Riverton, was “rammed open” when they arrived to check on a commercial alarm going off. The overhead door to the warehouse was also open, she said.

Roussel said officers found two propellers, worth about $60,000 in total, had been taken from a boat stored there.