Manitobans can now access their health card digitally, along with the previous plastic or paper options.

The province launched its first digital health card on Jan. 12. The new card allows people to store their health card on a mobile device and show it to health care providers.

When signing up, Manitobans can ask for the plastic card options, a digital card or both. The MB Wallet app, the government app which stores the digital card, is free for users to download from the Apple App Store or Google Play. Once the digital card is downloaded, the app stores the information and is accessible offline.

To apply and find more information, Manitobans can go to https://gov.mb.ca/health/mhsip/digitalhealthcard.html

Journalist Brian Lilley posted last week that Canadians are saying we need to pivot from the U.S. because they have become “authoritarian, bad trading partners and a threat to our sovereignty”. The obvious follow-up question is this: if not the U.S., then who, China?

Recent history with China suggests that question deserves careful scrutiny.

Canada’s experience with China raises serious and unresolved concerns. We have opposed human rights abuses in re-education camps and advocated for the rights of the Uyghur and Falun Gong communities. We remember Nortel— Canadian corporate success story undermined by industrial espionage. We still lack clarity about the Winnipeg lab and the Chinese researchers who were escorted out of the country under the guise of national security. Canadians have not forgotten about the Chinese police stations that were positioned across Canada, nor the extensive and alarming revelations about foreign interference in our democratic institutions.

During the last election campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney was asked what he believed was the biggest threat to Canada. His answer was unequivocal: China. In fact, this assessment was echoed repeatedly by expert witnesses and national security officials before House of Commons committees, where China was described as antagonistic and dangerous.

RCMP investigating a vehicle in the ditch at Hespeler Street and Loewen Boulevard discovered a driver who was significantly under the weather.

On Jan. 17 at about 7:30 p.m. police found the 24-year-old male whose vehicle was in the ditch.

The male was vomiting when police arrived at the scene.

Turns out it wasn’t just his precarious situation that made him sick.

An autopsy and dental records are being used in an effort to identify the victim of a fatal vehicle fire in the RM of Springfield.

Oakbank RCMP said in a news release that they were called on Jan. 14 after a truck was spotted on fire just off Briercliffe Road.

“Officers arrived minutes after being called, as did Springfield Fire Department, and observed a truck fully engulfed in flames in a ditch at the side of the road,” the news release said. “Once firefighters extinguished the fire, human remains were located inside the vehicle.”

Police are also investigating as to whether icy road conditions may have played a role.