Jake Epp Library board denies request to ban gender-affirming book

The Jake Epp Library board has blocked an attempt to remove a Christian gender-affirming book from its shelves in December.

During a Dec. 10 meeting, the board passed a motion to deny a request to remove Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens by Leigh Finke.

The book lays out answers for queer teens and young adults who question how to balance their religious beliefs with their gender identity, according to publisher Beaming Books.

“We need to serve all segments of our society, whatever that looks like.” said Coun. Jac Siemens, Steinbach city council’s representative on the board.

Puck drops for playoffs across the region

Playoff hockey has kicked off across the region, with the Steinbach Regional Secondary School Sabres starting the marathon of games Feb. 11 when they started their first round series in the Winnipeg High School Hockey League

The first round of the Platinum Promotions division playoffs in the WHSHL was absolute chaos.

While fourth seed Steinbach Regional and fifth seed Collège Jeanne-Sauvé made quick work of their opponents, the three other preliminary round series saw the lower seed defeating the higher one.

The top three seeds got a first round bye, with Steinbach playing CJS in the quarterfinals. Game one was at the Southeast Event Centre after press time Feb. 18.

RSR wastewater project awards tender

The Red-Seine-Rat (RSR) Wastewater Co-operative just awarded tender for the first phase of the multiphase wastewater treatment plant construction project.

Toronto-based AECON, a construction firm with more than 100 years of experience in infrastructure and utility projects, was awarded tender for the first phase of the $235 million wastewater treatment plant, which will be built north of the Town of Niverville.

“We started it back in 2019, I believe, and finally, we are somewhere where we can start working and doing things. So, it’s great to hear that we have come to a point where we can go ahead and do something,” said co-operative chair Jim Funk.

Funk is reeve of the RM of Hanover, which is part of the six-member co-operative that includes the RMs of Tache, De Salaberry (Otterburne), La Broquerie, and Ritchot, and Niverville. The wastewater project will service 13 communities in those RMs once built.

COLUMN: Carillon Flashback April 17, 1996 – Arborgate students treated to a lesson on Métis culture

Manitoba’s lieutenant-governor danced a jig with one of the students, joined the Manitoba Métis Federation president for a children’s song and delivered a lesson on Métis culture to an enthusiastic elementary school audience in La Broquerie.

Yvon Dumont commended the staff of Arborgate School for their efforts to showcase the variety of people that make up Canada, during Cultural Awareness Month activities at the school.

“Canada is made up of people from many different cultures from all over the world, determined to work together to make this the best country in the world.”

In Manitoba, more than anywhere else, the Métis identify with each other, separately from French, Indigenous and all other nationalities, Dumont explained. In the past 20 years, people have become more aware of the role Métis played in the history of Manitoba.

Carillon Sports 2nd Shots: Feb. 12th edition

Featuring Steinbach Pistons and SRSS Sabres games Feb. 4, Eastman Selects game Feb. 5, Providence Pilots basketball games Feb. 13, and an SEMHL game in Ile des Chenes Feb. 14.

Steinbacher frequent snow carver for Festival du Voyageur, snow maze

For more than 40 years, Lyle Peters has been showing his creative side every winter by carving sculptures out of snow for the residents of the Southeast and Winnipeg.

Peters, who has been teaching collision repair at Steinbach Regional Secondary School for 20 years, started carving snow when he was 25 years old to beat winter boredom.

“I think I tried to do something in ice at one point, and the block that I froze to carve on, I couldn’t get it out of the container that I tried to make my ice in. So then I just thought, well, I’ll just pack some snow then. And that’s how it started,” said the 63-year-old.

Peters sculpts for his own pleasure. The first carving he did was of a hockey helmet for his backyard and finding the experience enjoyable he continued with a polar bear for the front yard. This eventually morphed into carving for the Festival du Voyageur, The Royal Canadian Mint, the snow maze in Ste Agathe, and Steinbach’s Mennonite Heritage Village.

Ewasko’s ice shining on Olympic stage

Greg Ewasko felt a rush of emotions Wednesday evening as the first rocks slid down the pebbled ice he helped create, officially ushering in the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Pride. Relief. A brief moment of horror when a power outage plunged the venue into darkness. And, beneath it all, a deep sadness over what could have — and should have — been.

The Oakbank product had spent years imagining this day alongside his wife, Monique. Together, they mapped out what their first Olympic Games would look like. But not long after Ewasko received the call he’d dreamed of in the fall of 2023 — the World Curling Federation wanted him as an ice maker — Monique died of cancer.

“We didn’t really get to celebrate it,” he told the Winnipeg Free Press, his voice cracking.

COLUMN: Tales from the Gravel Ridge – Remembering why they mattered

Why, we may ask ourselves, should we remember old stories and the individuals in those stories? Especially when there is so much going on in the world all around us. And, even more importantly, when so much historical information is available on the internet. Perhaps therein lies the reason why we should indeed remember our own personal stories and how they relate to family, friends, and numerous others, lest these stories be buried by information overload.

Ultimately, the stories of our lives, and especially the stories of our childhood and early adulthood will be lost. We may well think that such a loss is of no consequence. John Donne, the English poet thought, however, that our stories do matter. In his famous poem, No Man is an Island, Donne reiterates that all our stories are important; “Any man’s death diminishes me”, and then goes on to say “Because I am involved in mankind.” In essence, the effect that the lives of others have on us is also part of our individual stories.

Of paramount importance and influence on my life were the lives of my parents, and along with them, the members of my entire family. My view of life continues to be shaped by those influences, and by their response to the circumstances of their own lives.

Memories of the lives of others also have an influence on my continuing development. By the end of my first grade at the Rosengard School, under the teaching of Mr. Jakob Penner, I had become trilingual. At home I was already fluent in two spoken languages, being Mennonite Low German and German. My parents, Cornelius and Katarina Falk, were particular about keeping those two languages distinct, even though there were some similarities. Since English was the spoken language at school, I as a six year old had become somewhat proficient in that regard, in addition to learning how to read and write in English, given that the school year consisted of nine months of instruction.

Proximus 5 takes Steinbach stage

SCI rink reaches schoolgirls final

While the SCI Sabres hockey team managed to win only one of three games in a tournament at Copper Cliff, Ontario, Sharon Dyck and her curling foursome went on a winning streak to give their school its best representation ever at the provincial schoolgirls’ curling championships in Winnipeg during the Christmas holidays.

Dyck and third, Marj Mooney, second Pat Guenther, and lead Donna Armstrong came within two wins of capturing provincial honors at the 94-rink bonspiel. Dyck’s rink reached the finals of the premier A&W event, before bowing to last year’s champs, the Pidzarko rink from Rossmere.

Even the final game was close, until Chris Pidzarko cracked a three on the seventh end and stole singles in the eighth and ninth to put the game out of reach for the Steinbach foursome.

By reaching the finals of the first event, Dyck got a second shot at the provincial honors in a playoff involving the three trophy winners.