Interactive Map: Mosquito Watch By: Map by Andrew Burton and Eric Bailey Posted: 10:01 AM CDT Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022 Last Modified: 2:29 PM CDT Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022 Updates

Jets’ Copp rarin’ to go, but COVID restrictions put crimp in plans

Andrew Copp is amped up to rejoin his Winnipeg Jets teammates on the ice but isn’t considering a return to Manitoba any time soon.

The 25-year-old forward, spending the coronavirus-caused pause to the NHL’s 2019-20 season at his home in Michigan, wants to begin skating in preparation for the proposed Stanley Cup playoffs later this summer but would need to quarantine at his Winnipeg apartment for two weeks before hitting the ice.

And while he understands why the health directive is in place, he said being cooped up is key preparation time wasted.

“I’ve been staying in shape, I’ve worked so hard to continue to train and try to do the best I can with what’s at my disposal. I feel that would go out the window if I was just sitting in my apartment for two weeks,” Copp said Wednesday during a video chat with reporters.

Interactive Map: Mosquito Watch

Heading outdoors? Need repellent? Find out with our interactive map showing the number mosquitoes caught in traps around the city.

Trudeau urges 'peaceful' end to blockades

OTTAWA - The spirit of reconciliation requires a "peaceful resolution" to the blockades that have kept rail traffic from operating across the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday, hours after Ontario Provincial Police began dismantling one in eastern Ontario.

Trudeau convened an early morning meeting of his cabinet's incident-response group about an hour after the police moved in to take down barriers across the rail line on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in eastern Ontario, arresting several people in the process.

That meeting also came about 12 hours after Teck Resources Ltd. announced it was withdrawing its application to build a massive new oilsands mine in northern Alberta, a decision Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said is entirely a result of Trudeau's doing "literally nothing" to end the blockades for almost three weeks.

The blockades have gripped the government's attention as Trudeau has tried to find a path forward that respects Indigenous rights as he has also called for the rule of law to be followed. The one at Tyendinaga was the most economically damaging but others have gone up intermittently on rail lines, roads and bridges from coast to coast.

Students must be at forefront in strike talks

New Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson and senior ministers have gone to considerable lengths to distance themselves from many unpopular aspects of the legacy of former premier Brian Pallister. The strike by University of Manitoba faculty is an opportunity to show how the new PC team is different from the old.

About 1,200 professors and librarians went on strike Nov. 2 after contract talks broke down over salary increases. There is a discouraging sense of déjà vu to seeing professors on the picket line instead of lecturing to a class — the last U of M faculty strike, in 2016, lasted for 21 days.

Ms. Stefanson and Advanced Education Minister Wayne Ewasko might say they want to stay out of the matter and let collective bargaining proceed without direct government interference but, like it or not, the past actions of their government are at the crux of the job action.

Faculty say they are striking because Mr. Pallister’s government imposed restrictive measures that froze wages in 2016, giving U of M professors some of the lowest salaries of Canadian research universities. They say this rock-bottom pay scale makes it hard to attract and keep good staff, with the inevitable result that students will look to other provinces for a highly regarded education.

Festival runs on their spirit

It takes a lot of people to create the temporary village known as the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

The hands that shape the event belong to more than 2,800 volunteers who contribute more than 60,000 hours of work every year. Whether they’re wrangling artists, serving food, hauling gear, marshalling the parking lot, keeping the site clean and safe or painting faces, volunteers make up the 61 crews that run every part of the four-day festival, which is in its 45th year.

The volunteers also contribute to the community spirit that folk fest is known for.

“Every year, we create a ‘Volunteer Wall of Love’ located just inside the main gate on the way to Shady Grove, as a tribute to the hard work and incredible dedication of our 2,850 volunteers,” says Karla Ferguson, the festival’s volunteer co-ordinator. “It’s usually an interactive mural where people can sign their names or leave a note of thanks, but we wanted to do something special for our 45th festival.

A decade of deadly delay

For the past 11 years, independent researcher and traffic-safety activist Christian Sweryda has been urging the City of Winnipeg to install eye-level safety lights at pedestrian corridors.

It has been a long, drawn-out battle, featuring a forgotten report, a pilot project bordering on the absurd, a spate of major crashes and dead children.

Despite the deaths and near-tragedies, the city has resisted the mass rollout of a cheap and proven safety initiative. To this day, the vast majority of pedestrian corridors in Winnipeg do not have eye-level safety lights.

The financial cost of delays is minuscule, but the human cost has been immeasurable.