Analysis

Autonomous injustice — how technology subverts the law

David Nutbean 7 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

An autonomous, driverless Waymo vehicle was caught on tape in the Atlanta, Ga., area passing a school bus that had stopped with its red lights flashing.

Besides being outright dangerous, it would have resulted in a significant fine. In another incident, a Waymo was pulled over by police for making an illegal U-turn. But in both cases, there were no tickets or fines — because the laws are made to ticket drivers and Waymos are driverless, tickets and fines were not issued.

Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, stated that they recognize that autonomous cars will make mistakes and that they continuously aim to improve safety.

That seems a reasonable response to the problem, although many human drivers would think that it was unfair that they would get tickets for offences that autonomous vehicles get away with. But there is something missing in this story — accountability to the law on the part of Waymo.

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Respect the protectors: Bloodvein’s duty to the land

Taylor Galvin 6 minute read Preview

Respect the protectors: Bloodvein’s duty to the land

Taylor Galvin 6 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

Bloodvein River First Nation did what responsible governments do when a species faces decline.

They acted.

In late summer, the community erected a checkpoint on the Rice River Road to protect moose and to assert their duty as caretakers of the land. The Manitoba Wildlife Federation responded with a court application. Their request for an injunction reflects a persistent failure to see Indigenous law as law and Indigenous protection as governance. It also speaks to the Wildlife Federation’s apparent lack of interest in sustainable wildlife populations.

The moose population in Manitoba has been in crisis for years. The province itself confirms that 15 game hunting areas are now closed or partially closed because of low numbers. Last year, only 574 tags were issued to non-Indigenous hunters.

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2:00 AM CDT

Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun

Moose conservation is the first item on the agenda, Taylor Galvin writes.

Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun
                                Moose conservation is the first item on the agenda, Taylor Galvin writes.

The art of neighbourhood life

Stephen Borys 6 minute read Preview

The art of neighbourhood life

Stephen Borys 6 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Most mornings when I step outside my door at Philips Square, I look across the street and see something that makes me quietly grateful to live where I do. It isn’t just the park or skyline view — it’s the steady rhythm of people coming and going through the doors of the Forum Art Centre at the corner of Eugenie Street and Taché Avenue.

Children clutching sketchbooks. Teens balancing portfolios under their arms. Adults with aprons dusted in clay or paint. Seniors greeting one another before class. Newcomers stepping into their first art lesson in Canada. Almost every day, in every season, this little building fills with people ready to make art — and in doing so, they make community.

The Forum Art Centre has been part of Winnipeg’s creative landscape for more than 60 years, offering art instruction and inspiration to thousands. Founded in 1964 by a group of artists and educators, it has survived relocations, funding challenges and the changing tides of art education. Its mission has remained remarkably consistent: to make art accessible, to foster creativity and to build connections through shared expression.

Housed today in a former city library on Coronation Park, the centre feels perfectly at home. On warm days, artmaking may spill outside — easels under trees, sketchbooks open on park benches, students painting in the open air. It’s art and nature in easy conversation. Inside, the hum of creativity continues with drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking and mixed media. Many of Winnipeg’s most celebrated artists have taught here, passing along their craft, discipline and love of art to the next generation.

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Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

Stephen Borys

The Forum Art Centre — an anchor in St. Boniface’s Norwood Grove.

Stephen Borys
                                The Forum Art Centre — an anchor in St. Boniface’s Norwood Grove.

Why the rule of law matters

Leah Kosokowsky and Anik Bossé 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

How do you defend something most people rarely see, but rely on every single day?

It’s called the rule of law — the principle that lets us speak freely, breathe clean air and live without fear of unchecked power. It’s the foundation of our democracy: an invisible framework that ensure disputes are judged impartially and that our rights will be protected.

Right now, it’s under threat.

Released this week, the latest World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, produced by a non-partisan, multi-disciplinary organization that independently evaluates 143 countries and jurisdictions worldwide, marks the eighth consecutive year of global decline for the rule of law — including in Canada.

Advocacy in the age of Wi-Fi

Bella Luna Zuniga 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

When the internet first arrived in the mid-1990s, it screeched. Literally.

It screamed its way into our homes through the telephone lines, a metallic cry that sounded like the future forcing its way through. We waited through the static, convinced that life was about to get easier. People said it would save us time, let us work from home and give us more hours with our families.

No one mentioned that it would also move into our bedrooms, our pockets and our dreams. No one could have imagined that it would change how we fight, how we march, how we plead for justice. That the fight for justice itself would become a digital labyrinth where truth moves slowly and attention moves fast.

Back then, when a heroine from a popular early-2000s television show was dumped with nothing but a handwritten note, it became a cultural tragedy. There was nothing noble about writing your cowardice on a Post-it. A few years later, a company fired hundreds by email and it made national news. Today, we “quietly quit” through apps without blinking, edit our grief into reels, add the music the app suggests and call it closure.

Learning life lessons from trees

Pam Frampton 5 minute read Preview

Learning life lessons from trees

Pam Frampton 5 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025

I saw a leaf fall from a maple tree and watched as it slowly drifted towards the ground, occasionally buffeted by the light breeze. Dazzlingly bright yellow blending to burnt orange, with slightly upturned edges, it eddied down lazily, gracefully, like a parachutist or a flying squirrel, with the weighted petiole — the red leafstalk — leading the way.

Then, it made a final Trudeauesque pirouette before it settled on the grass, joining its compatriots.

Before long the wind will come and send the leaves whirling in a mad dance, spinning and tumbling over one another, the gusts driving them into heaps in garden beds and gutters and bird baths, their damp layers creating a groundcover, a winter refuge for all manner of insect life.

On fine days, the leaves precede you on the sidewalk, skittering ahead with a dry, hollow rustle, their stems like keels scratching mysterious messages onto the cement, like the planchettes that came with Ouija boards.

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Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025

Pam Frampton photo

If only we could let go of emotional baggage the way that trees shed leaves in the fall.

Pam Frampton photo
                                If only we could let go of emotional baggage the way that trees shed leaves in the fall.

Trump’s misguided moves in Venezuela

Gwynne Dyer 4 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025

Q: Why do some Canadians want U.S. President Donald Trump to invade Venezuela?

A: Because if Trump invades Venezuela first, he’ll get bogged down in that war and never get around to invading Canada.

Actually, most Canadians are not thinking that, because a) Venezuela is not even on their mental maps, and b) they are not convinced that Trump would ever really invade Canada. The U.S. president talks about strangling Canada economically and forcing it to surrender that way, but the only places he has literally threatened with invasion are Greenland and Panama.

Nevertheless, this discussion is overdue, because a U.S. invasion of Venezuela would probably end up as a long and dirty guerrilla war. Eight million Venezuelans have left the country, and at least half of the rest would love to see the end of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, but that leaves up to 14 million people who might decide to resist an American invasion.

Flawed climate plan ignores obvious option

Deveryn Ross 4 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025

Earlier this month, Premier Wab Kinew’s government unveiled what it characterizes as “a bold plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen communities and build a resilient, low-carbon economy that benefits all Manitobans.”

The centrepiece of the strategy is the goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the province by 2050. The government says that objective will be achieved through several initiatives, including the creation of a new climate-change committee of cabinet, strengthening provincial climate-change laws, partnering with Indigenous nations on clean energy and net-zero initiatives, making Manitoba’s electricity grid net zero by 2035, expanding renewable energy generation and smart grid technology, supporting low-emission building practices and retrofits, as well as advancing sustainable agriculture programs and waste diversion strategies.

The plan appears to have the support of the Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, but it has also been criticized for the lack of a specific criteria to quantify how each action item will help reach the overall emissions-reduction target. Last week, professor Scott Forbes condemned the plan, with its distant goals, as having “the pretense of doing something without actually doing anything substantial.” (How to recognize climate-insincere politicians, Think Tank, Oct. 21)

The professor’s right. The plan is deep in lofty long-term objectives, but lacks a detailed, quantifiable strategy to achieve meaningful results in the nearer term. In fact, it can be viewed as a scheme that exhibits a pretense of concern about climate change, yet consigns the burden and political cost of decisive action to future governments.

On renaming: a tale of two cities

Todd Pennell 5 minute read Preview

On renaming: a tale of two cities

Todd Pennell 5 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025

In recent and past columns, Tom Brodbeck discussed the proposed renaming of Wolseley School, the latest in the current wave of renaming Winnipeg public spaces. His columns are quite informative, prompting my own thoughts on the matter.

This is a tale of two cities, thousands of miles apart, both dealing with the renaming of public schools in the face of undeniable and unpleasant historical facts.

I am compelled to full disclosure: I am Canadian, born in Winnipeg. My heritage is Indigenous/Métis, Scottish and English, documented and going back more than 1,000 years on both sides of the Atlantic. My ancestors include explorers, teachers, farmers and settlers living in Manitoba long before Lord Wolseley set out from Ontario. I am proud of my heritage — we have helped make this land “strong and free.” I self-identify as Canadian, no hyphens, and always “elbows up.”

This tale of two cities starts in Tangerhutte, Germany, a community south of Berlin.

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Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Calls to rename Wolseley School may not accomplish much, Todd Pennell argues.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
                                Calls to rename Wolseley School may not accomplish much, Todd Pennell argues.

Is a lasting peace finally possible for Haiti?

Peter McKenna 5 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025

Now that a tenuous Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal has been cobbled together, will the world community finally be able to expedite the prospects for peace and security in crisis-ridden Haiti?

There is reason to be cautiously optimistic about recent developments. While things can quickly go off the rails in Haiti, there does appear to be a growing international consensus on a viable path forward.

Let’s not forget that Haiti is a country in constant crisis, unrelenting internal violence and institutional decay. It is nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe.

There is no credible government in place, and no legitimate national elections have been held for almost a decade. The current governing authority — the so-called Transitional Presidential Council — is thoroughly inept, ineffective and woefully inadequate.

A job not everyone will do

Kevin Birkett 4 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025

“I couldn’t do what you did,” people would say.

And what we did, as police officers do every day, was take another routine call (as much as any call is “routine”).

Essentially, we were to remove an unwanted visitor who broke into his sister’s home and refused to leave.

Computer checks provided some information about him. Even after talking to her, there were no red flags, which isn’t unusual.

Taking a much-needed stand for public education

Shannon D.M. Moore and Melanie D. Janzen 5 minute read Monday, Oct. 27, 2025

Recently, a school principal in Carman brought a defamation case against a parent who insinuated on social media that the principal promoted the dissemination of child pornography in schools.

The principal’s lawsuit against the parent is more than a matter of personal reputation. It is about upholding human rights and children’s rights. It is about teacher professionalism. It is about the future of public education.

“Parental rights” rhetoric is on the rise, where some parents or lobby groups seek to control the curriculum and books that are available to all students. “Parental rights” activists purposefully employ language about protecting children as rhetorical Teflon, deflecting any criticism.

In doing so, anyone that challenges their views or underlying motivations is positioned as someone who wants to harm children.

Time for a return to discussion and debate within the MMF

Laura Forsythe 5 minute read Preview

Time for a return to discussion and debate within the MMF

Laura Forsythe 5 minute read Monday, Oct. 27, 2025

The Annual General Assembly of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) took place last weekend at Assiniboia Downs, with over 2,700 preregistered citizens.

To outsiders or newcomers, this gathering could appear to be a shining example of democracy, with citizens across Canada in attendance, especially those who heard MMF President David Chartrand’s state of the nation address.

However, those who have been a part of the MMF for five years or more recall true democracy, with free expression as a hallmark of our nation.

Historically, we sat at kitchen tables across the homeland; Métis have always debated, only coming to a consensus after deliberation. On the buffalo hunt, our representatives came together, sat and discussed the way to move forward with this practice, which underpins our buffalo governance.

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Monday, Oct. 27, 2025

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

A Manitoba Métis Federation member says MMF leadership and President David Chartrand have to get back to the organization’s history of broad-based discussion and debate.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
                                A Manitoba Métis Federation member says MMF leadership and President David Chartrand have to get back to the organization’s history of broad-based discussion and debate.

The benumbing purgatory of hope on hold

Russell Wangersky 5 minute read Preview

The benumbing purgatory of hope on hold

Russell Wangersky 5 minute read Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025

I should be making sure my firewood’s all put in just now. Cutting the 12-foots of heavy spruce and lighter fir into fire logs after they’ve sat all summer drying, putting the round junks up on my splitting log and axing them into sections, quarters and halves and random shapes where the axe cleaves around the knots of branches. Letting the last of the wet dry from the wood before its date with the wood stove.

It’s a long job: the shed fills in wooden increments. But progress is measurable, always.

Strong-smelling sticky pitch on my work gloves and on my clothes, each armload just a short walk away from winter warmth, my blue jay bosses sitting and squawking along the edge of the woodshed’s roof.

Stacking the shed-wood in the chill of early mornings with the frost white outside and glinting on the chevroned grass blades, building the latest new log pile as a bulwark against the coming cold.

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Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025

Russell Wangersky/Free Press

The woodstove at work.

Russell Wangersky/Free Press
                                The woodstove at work.

A speech that should have been much more

David McLaughlin 5 minute read Preview

A speech that should have been much more

David McLaughlin 5 minute read Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025

At a time like no other, the prime minister gave a speech just like any other.

That is the most charitable description for what Mark Carney said Wednesday evening at the University of Ottawa. Not exactly a swing and a miss, but a missed opportunity nonetheless.

Carney’s pre-budget speech was billed by his office as “a live address on Canada’s plan to build a stronger economy, in advance of the 2025 Budget.” Live addresses are usually reserved for matters of high national drama and consequence like national unity and the constitution, free trade, 9/11, the fate of a minority Parliament, or, most recently, the pandemic.

None of this has turned out to be the case in what Carney said. But it could have been and should have been. Beyond the unusual billing — a “live address” — the fraught economic situation we are experiencing in our trading relationship with the United States merited speaking to Canadians honestly and eloquently. The moment demanded a momentous address. That’s not what Canadians got.

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Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Mark Carney makes a live address on Canada’s plan to build a stronger economy in advance of the 2025 Budget on Wednesday.

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press
                                Prime Minister Mark Carney makes a live address on Canada’s plan to build a stronger economy in advance of the 2025 Budget on Wednesday.

Transforming the Exchange District

Rochelle Squires 5 minute read Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025

Transforming a long-standing industrial bus mall into a people-first destination street was never going to be easy. For three decades, buses ran up and down Graham Avenue, delivering some 100,000 transit users to and from the area each day. When the transit master plan took buses off the street last July, something new had to be done.

As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum. That’s never been truer than when it comes to the downtown, hence the mandate from city council to CentreVenture to begin short-term activation and long-term planning for Graham.

Now, four months on, people are rightfully asking, What’s happening on Graham Avenue?

To start, let’s look at what’s been done so far.

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