Editorials – Winnipeg Free Press

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MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew

Trying to read the budgetary tea leaves

Editorial 4 minute read Saturday, Apr. 4, 2026

It’s not even a month past the tabling of Manitoba’s 2026-27 budget and there’s already been some good news — and some bad news.

On the good news front, the Morningstar Dominion Bond Rating Service, one of the world’s largest credit rating agencies, felt that the spending and revenue plan tabled by the NDP government last month put the province “within reach” of being balanced.

The budget featured a massive reduction in the overall deficit, going from a projected $1.6 billion for the end of the last fiscal year to roughly $500 million. Those intentions were enough to convince Morningstar DBRS that Premier Wab Kinew’s pledge to balance the budget by the end of his first term — which would come in the 2027-28 fiscal year — was achievable.

That’s a fair assessment of the budget, as long as GDP growth projections come to fruition. And that’s where we get to the bad news.

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AP Photo / Richard Drew
The Facebook app is shown on a mobile phone screen.

A legal reckoning for social media firms

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

A legal reckoning for social media firms

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, Apr. 2, 2026

It has been referred to as a bellwether case, a landmark decision and a profound “enough is enough” moment.

It remains to be seen, however, whether last week’s jury verdict in a case involving a 20-year-old California woman’s claim that social media addiction during her childhood led to mental health distress will have far-reaching implications for the creators, purveyors and users of social-media platforms.

But what’s clear in the aftermath of the decision — which held Meta (which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp) and YouTube (owned by Google) liable for intentionally building addictive platforms that harmed the woman’s mental health during childhood and adolescence — is that the ground is shifting in the relationship between social-media giants and their untold millions of users.

The woman (identified in court records as “K.G.M.”) sued the companies on the basis they had created products as addictive as cigarettes or digital casinos. She began using social media at age six, and the suit argued elements of social- media platforms such as algorithmic recommendations and infinite scrolling pushed her into a cycle of compulsive and detrimental behaviour that resulted in anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia and thoughts of self-harm.

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Thursday, Apr. 2, 2026

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Winnipeg Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona)

Guilt, innocence and the role of courts

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Guilt, innocence and the role of courts

Editorial 4 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2026

There is a foundational principle in criminal law — that everyone is innocent until they’re found guilty in a court of law.

It’s worth keeping in mind after Russ Wyatt, the city councillor representing Transcona, was charged with sexual assault and administering a noxious substance.

Wyatt was charged. He has not been convicted.

In the eyes of the law, he is innocent.

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Wednesday, Apr. 1, 2026

Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files
Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson

Health care delayed, health care denied

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Health care delayed, health care denied

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2026

Manitobans have grown accustomed to hearing about long wait times in emergency rooms, delayed diagnostic tests and months-long backlogs for surgery. They are often framed as inconveniences — frustrating, yes, but often manageable.

The province’s latest critical-incident report should put an end to that illusion.

Delays in care are not merely an inconvenience. They can be fatal.

Between April 1 and Sept. 30, 2025, 16 deaths and 43 major injuries in Manitoba’s health-care system were deemed critical incidents requiring investigation. Among those deaths were five patients who experienced delays in accessing care, delays in treatment or delays in the system’s response to their deteriorating condition.

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Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2026

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Justice Minister Matt Wiebe

Prison overcrowding has no simple fix

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Prison overcrowding has no simple fix

Editorial 4 minute read Monday, Mar. 30, 2026

Rarely, if ever, does government respond so quickly to a demand for more money.

On March 20, the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union said that overcrowding in provincial jails was causing mayhem and putting their members at risk. “When you put more people in and have less programming, less opportunities for recreation … the temperature rises within the facility,” union president Kyle Ross said.

It didn’t take long for government to respond. On the same day, Justice Minister Matt Wiebe gladly confirmed the NDP government was going to increase the budget for corrections by $14 million.

In case you were wondering, government does not normally provide same-day funding for outside demands or grievances. So, what prompted this expeditious pledge?

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Monday, Mar. 30, 2026

Francisco Seco / The Associated Press
A racing pigeon.

Racing pigeons, airports and compassion

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Racing pigeons, airports and compassion

Editorial 4 minute read Saturday, Mar. 28, 2026

It may be there is such a thing as too much precaution.

A family in Winnipeg’s West End was left disappointed this week when they were informed they have to take down their backyard aviary, which is home to 12 racing pigeons. The pigeons are beloved companions of one of the children in the family who is autistic and non-verbal, and for whom the pigeons provide important emotional support.

It is a bit of a saga. The coop was constructed about one year ago by Ronald Lobo, who was not aware he needed a permit for the birds. After being visited by a bylaw officer following up on complaints, the family sought and obtained approval for the structure.

Neighbours appealed the decision, citing sanitary and other concerns, but the decision not to allow the family to keep the coop came partly as a result of concerns raised by the Winnipeg Airport Authority as well. The family’s home falls within the bounds of the WAA’s airport vicinity protection area, and the airport was concerned the birds’ flights to and from the property could pose a risk.

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Saturday, Mar. 28, 2026

Patrick Doyle / The Canadian Press FILES
Federal Auditor General Karen Hogan

Federal immigration has to enforce visa rules

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Federal immigration has to enforce visa rules

Editorial 4 minute read Friday, Mar. 27, 2026

If you want to do well in education, you have to do your homework.

You also have to, well, actually attend school.

If you don’t even bother to do that, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re either not a real student, or you’re not going to be one for long. It’s just that simple.

And if you’re in Canada on a visa to study, well, you should be studying.

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Friday, Mar. 27, 2026

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Measles outbreak needs more than just information

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Measles outbreak needs more than just information

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, Mar. 26, 2026

Here in Manitoba, spring break is almost upon us. Coupled, as it tends to be, with the changing of seasons, it’s a time filled with anticipation and hope.

Some families look forward to a late-winter escape — a ski trip, perhaps, or a brief warm-weather getaway. Others merely enjoy a well-earned respite, a temporary but still-close-to-home change of scenery and a chance to rest, recharge and reconnect with friends and relations.

What the Manitoba government has its sights set on, however, is a decidedly more dire spring-break development: the potential for the March 30-April 3 academic recess to create a “superspreader” event in the province that already has the dubious distinction of leading Canada’s current and prolonged measles outbreak.

So pronounced is Manitoba Health’s concern that it provided a warning letter for school divisions to distribute to parents throughout the province, urging them to consider the risks of contracting or spreading measles while travelling or attending large gatherings during spring break or any of the concurrent religious celebrations on the seasonal calendar.

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Thursday, Mar. 26, 2026

FILE
Kevin Charles Queau, 42, of Vancouver

Serious crimes and surprisingly short sentences

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Serious crimes and surprisingly short sentences

Editorial 4 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 25, 2026

Last Friday, a former Winnipeg man, Kevin Charles Queau, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Crystal Saunders in Winnipeg in 2007.

Queau had been charged with second degree murder in the slaying, and will be sentenced this week; for the manslaughter charge, the Crown and defence are expected to jointly recommend 12 years in prison, which, on the face of this, seems short.

Saunders was strangled and beaten, but the case went cold until Queau’s DNA was collected in an unrelated sexual assault, and RCMP launched what is called a Mr. Big investigation.

There are a lot of moving pieces to a Mr. Big scheme, and they don’t always work out as planned. They are something of a last resort, long-running undercover operations designed to coerce suspects to unwittingly confess to police masquerading as criminals.

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Wednesday, Mar. 25, 2026

FILE
More than one in five Manitobans believes the U.S. may invade Canada in the next two years, per a recent survey.

Trump threats stoking Manitoban fears

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Trump threats stoking Manitoban fears

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 24, 2026

So, you’re at a Winnipeg Transit bus stop along with four other people.

There’s a six-foot-seven-inch-tall man with huge boots and a hard hat, two women carrying lunch bags and wearing scarves (one scarf is red, the other green), and a small 20-something-year-old man with a battered backpack and running shoes. You are all waiting for the Blue Line bus, and you’re each getting off the bus at a different, but sequential stops.

Of the five, which one of you is…

No, this isn’t one of those irritating and frustrating word problems that you had to deal with in high school math. It’s not about which of the five is most likely to reach the front door of their workplace first, or anything like that.

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Tuesday, Mar. 24, 2026

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Premier Wab Kinew

The tricky question of politics and election calls

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

The tricky question of politics and election calls

Editorial 4 minute read Monday, Mar. 23, 2026

You cannot fault Progressive Conservative party leader Obby Khan from thinking there is an election coming.

For the past couple of weeks, NDP Premier Wab Kinew has been talking like a man who could, if the mood strikes him, ask the lieutenant governor to call an election at almost any moment. Khan and his team have responded with a flurry of nominations and the release of a key campaign plank: a vague and as-yet-uncosted proposal to double the basic personal exemption on income tax.

But is an election really in the cards? On the one hand, the Kinew government has more than enough pressing demands on its plate right now to dispose of any notion of an early election. On the other hand, Kinew and his NDP government remain incredibly popular. The most-recent Free Press-Probe Research poll, released this week, shows the NDP with 55 per cent support province wide (20 points better than the Tories) and 60 per cent support in Winnipeg (31 points more than the Tories).

The question nagging Kinew is not so much whether now is the right time for an election, it’s will the NDP ever be in a better position than now.

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Monday, Mar. 23, 2026

TOM HANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS
24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa.

Time for a decision about 24 Sussex Drive

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Time for a decision about 24 Sussex Drive

Editorial 4 minute read Saturday, Mar. 21, 2026

You may agree.

You may not.

You may put down your coffee, nod, and say “I can understand the need.”

Or you might throw your coffee out of the car window while yelling at no one in particular, “Damn Ottawa Liberal fatcats want to live high on the hog on our dime while we’re all barely making enough to keep from starving here.” Or words to that effect.

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Saturday, Mar. 21, 2026

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A shopping cart with grocery products

Shopping bill is a good pre-emptive strike

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Shopping bill is a good pre-emptive strike

Editorial 4 minute read Friday, Mar. 20, 2026

On the face of it, it looks like a solution desperately hunting for a problem.

But that’s sometimes the way proactive legislation looks.

As first salvos go, Manitoba’s Bill 49 should probably be viewed not an effort not to deal with an imaginary problem, but one being put in place to ensure that the problem doesn’t arrive.

What the bill does is to add individual pricing to the province’s collection of improper business practices.

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Friday, Mar. 20, 2026

Winnipeg Free Press files
Manitoba Seniors’ Advocate Leigh Anne Caron

Proactive planning for a future with more seniors

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Proactive planning for a future with more seniors

Editorial 4 minute read Thursday, Mar. 19, 2026

They’re supposed to be “the golden years.”

But for many Manitobans in the ever-expanding 65-plus age bracket, life is anything but a warm and gentle journey toward a tranquil, glowing sunset. Instead, the day-to-day and week-to-week existence of many seniors — most notably those of limited means who live alone and do not have the benefit of ongoing family support — is a never-ending series of challenges and compromises in which such necessities of life as food, shelter, safety and access to health care are anything but guaranteed.

As outlined in a recent Free Press report, low-income seniors (according to federal government figures, those whose annual income is less than $22,488) account for nearly 14 per cent of Manitoba’s low-income earners. And that number is expected to grow significantly as the province’s population continues to age.

Living in poverty reduces opportunities for social interaction; isolation breeds loneliness and can negatively affect the physical, mental and emotional health of those who experience it. Without adequate supports and an understanding of how to access them, seniors living at or below the poverty line can find themselves in a self-perpetuating cycle of despair.

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Thursday, Mar. 19, 2026

The Associated Press files
U.S. President Donald Trump

Trump’s call for help met with silence

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Trump’s call for help met with silence

Editorial 4 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 18, 2026

Thanks, but no.

That’s the overwhelming response to U.S. President Donald Trump who, over the weekend, started telling other countries that they have to get involved in the war that the United States and Israel started with Iran.

Sunday night, it was “I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory because it is their own territory.”

What he meant, in his own convoluted way, is that other countries should send warships to break the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and escort tankers through the area, because those same countries need Middle Eastern oil that currently can’t be delivered.

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Wednesday, Mar. 18, 2026

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew

Taking time to consider time changes

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Taking time to consider time changes

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2026

Twice a year, Manitobans go through the same ritual: stumble out of bed groggy after the clocks change and ask themselves why we still do this.

It’s a fair question. And Premier Wab Kinew deserves some credit for finally asking it and for deciding to look at the evidence and consult Manitobans before making any big decisions.

Kinew announced Friday that the province will survey Manitobans about whether to end the twice-annual clock change. The move comes after British Columbia decided to move toward year-round daylight time, raising the inevitable question of whether Manitoba should follow.

A week earlier, Kinew had suggested his government wasn’t looking at the issue because it had other priorities. Some critics will call his latest move a reversal. It’s not. It’s simply a recognition that Manitobans care about the issue and that it deserves thoughtful consideration.

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Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2026

April 6, 2026

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