Pilots women’s basketball team doubles up on trophies

Providence College’s women’s basketball team continues to add to their trophy case.

The team went into the Northern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament as the number one seed and proved why they earned that ranking, holding off a late charge from Trinity Bible College in the final minutes of the final Feb. 22.

After a back and forth opening half, the Pilots managed to build a 10-point third quarter lead. Trinity battled back to pull the game within three, but three quick baskets within a 40-second span mid-way through the fourth turned the game. Faith LaRocque hit two of those baskets, including an acrobatic layup twisting around a defender.

Providence crushed Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College in the quarterfinals before battling past fellow Manitoba team St Boniface in the semi-finals. Head coach Kendall Perpall was named NIAC coach of the year and LaRocque was player of the year.

Drugs seized in La Broquerie traffic stop

Steinbach RCMP say a slow moving mini-van in a residential area of La Broquerie at 4 a.m. was suspicious, leading to a traffic stop that saw two arrests made and drugs seized.

The incident happened in the early morning hours of Feb. 24.

Police say they observed the van driving slowly, entering a driveway briefly, before continuing to drive slowly.

After initiating the traffic stop, police learned the driver was breaching his curfew, set as release conditions.

School trustee denied medical leave, could be a human rights, charter violation

The denial of a Hanover school trustee’s request for medical leave has been called unethical, lazy, and just plain mean and a possible human rights and charter violation.

In a three to two vote against, trustee Danielle Funk was denied her request for unpaid medical leave for the second time during a closed committee meeting of school trustees on Jan. 20. Funk had requested leave for the first time in February 2025 and was denied.

Chair Dallas Wiebe couldn’t say the reason behind the board denying the leave as he excused himself during discussion and vote on the matter at the meeting. Vice-chair Jeff Friesen took over for Wiebe and was asked by The Carillon what the board’s rationale was for the denial, but he did not respond.

Wiebe was asked if he thought it was heartless to deny Funk’s medical leave request and he responded, “No.” When asked why, he said, “I don’t.”

Adult and Teen Challenge officially opens new location for thrift store, community office

Adult and Teen Challenge Steinbach’s community office and Super Thrift Store held its opening ceremony on Saturday welcoming shoppers to its new location in Steinbach’s industrial park.

“The game changer is it will create stability and allow us to focus on doing the work that we do with excellence for the next 20 to 50 years without having to move, without having to wonder,” said ATC Pastor Daniel Emond. “It’s kind of like a home. It’s like getting a new home that we can build on for the future.”

Emond said there is a growing need for ATC’s services and the new building with its thrift store, vocational training opportunities, and community office is a way of meeting that need. “It’s game changing for the community and for the ministry of Adult and Teen Challenge in the Steinbach area in the Southeast region,” he said.

ATC purchased its new location at 16 Pioneer Drive in September 2025 and did a number of renovations to bring the building up to code to the specifications of what they wanted to do there.

Steinbach Family Resource Centre to hold first Scavenger Hunt dinner

The Steinbach Family Resource Centre will host its first Scavenger Hunt dinner on March 1 in Steinbach.

“We were looking for a way to connect with our players after the event and celebrate the activities. We also are hoping this is a way for our sponsors to recognize their frontline staff who are supporting the game and giving them the chance to win some prizes and connect with the players,” said executive director Jo-Anne Dalton.

The dinner will take place at Santa Lucia Pizza in Steinbach from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. following the end of SFRC’s annual Scavenger Hunt which is Feb. 28. Tickets are $30 for adults and $15 for children and include the dinner, door prize tickets, and access to the silent auction and activities.

The Scavenger Hunt, already in its sixth year, consists of five games on a board, which takes players to 30 businesses throughout Steinbach. At each business, players complete tasks or answer questions to win rewards on the board before moving on to the next business.

Protest prompted by MP’s opinion on EVs

The temperature hovered around -18 C on Sunday, but that was alright with organizers of an electric vehicle (EV) protest outside Provencher Ted Falk’s office.

Former political rivals in the last election campaign, Liberal candidate Trevor Kirczenow and Green candidate Blair Mahaffy, were waiting for a cold day to respond to an August mailer sent out by Falk’s office.

In it, there was one sentence that they said got the EV community concerned.

“Colder regions like Manitoba and long distances make an EV option impractical,” the mailer stated.

La Broquerie Habs, Eastman Selects join playoff ranks

The Capital Region Junior Hockey League became the latest hockey loop to begin their post-season play, with quarterfinal action kicking off in La Broquerie Feb. 23.

The Habs dominated Arborg 4-0, controlling much of the play and shutting down any opportunity the Ice Dawgs had before it could even begin to look dangerous.

La Broquerie had an outside chance at finishing third in the league standings, but lost on the final day of the regular season to Beausejour.

St Malo earned a first-round bye after a strong finish to the regular season. The two-time defending league champions will play home games in their upcoming semi-final in Morris, as the Pembina Valley Twisters had any chance of reaching the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League’s post season ended this week.

Larocque wins Silver with Team Canada at Olympics

For 58 minutes, it looked like Canada’s golden generation of women’s hockey players had one more great performance in them.

Going into the Olympic Gold Medal game against the United States, the Canadians, featuring Ste Anne’s Jocelyne Larocque were heavy underdogs, but a Kristen O’Neill short-handed breakaway had the Canucks up 1-0.

Despite U.S.A. leaning on younger players for their advantage in recent years, it was their veteran captain who saved the day, tipping home a point shot with two minutes to go to tie the game before Megan Keller scored the golden goal in the three-on-three overtime.

“It’s going to take a little bit to decompress, there’s no doubt about it. That’s the exact game expected, a tight matchup,” an emotional Canadian defender Renata Fast told the Free Press following the game. Fast was paired with Larocque throughout most of the tournament.

Carillon Sports Second Shots: Feb. 19th edition

Featuring SRSS basketball and hockey games Feb. 11, a HTJHL playoff game in Grunthal Feb. 12, Niverville vs Steinbach MJHL action Feb. 13, Ste Anne vs Warren HTJHL Feb. 14, and Providence MCAC championship basketball Feb. 15.

New Bethesda expansion to see patients in March

A Steinbach hospital’s newest expansion will soon be seeing patients next month after construction finished in December.

The second phase of the Bethesda Regional Health Centre’s expansion project cost nearly $64-million and will add 15 new beds, with seven dedicated for palliative care, three operating theatres and a new cultural space.

“I think there’s a general feeling that patients are going to really enjoy the new spaces,” said Kyle MacNair, Southern Health’s implementation lead for clinical planning.

The Bethesda Foundation contributed $8 million for the expansion and the province funded the rest, he said.

Bayer to build Winnipeg canola facility

Bayer Crop Science will build a new canola research and development facility in Winnipeg in what is one of their largest investments in Canada to date.

The company announced the $45 million facility at the end of January, saying the new facility will strengthen Canada’s leadership in canola innovation by establishing what they’re calling an “innovation” centre.

The facility will house seed development work for canola, camelina and winter canola, focusing on trait integration, yield trial seed processing and seed quality analysis.

Antoine Bernet, country division head for Crop Science Canada said this long-term investment demonstrates their commitment to canola in Canada.

U15 AAA Selects continuing to produce top WHL talent

Three years ago, Brek Liske (Beausejour) was taken by Everett in the first round of the WHL draft. Two years ago Graeme Pickering (St Adolphe) and Asher Gingras (Steinbach) were taken in the first round. Last year Crosby Mateychuk (Dominion City) was selected by Vancouver and has already made the jump to major junior.

In 2026, Île-des-Chênes’ Nixon Gaudet is hoping to add his name to that list, as the U15 Eastman Selects enjoy another strong year in the AAA league thanks in part to the 2011-born forward’s efforts. Gaudet had 50 goals in the first 29 games of the season.

“He’s probably one of the most skilled players in the draft, but because of his size he gets knocked back a few pegs,” Selects head coach Gerald Tetrault said.

“That being said, he’s a dog and he works so hard and I’m super proud of where he’s come in the last couple years as a player.”