Grand Slam of Curling slides into Steinbach

The eyes of the curling world are on Steinbach this week, as the Southeast Event Centre plays host to the Grand Slam of Curling’s Players’ Championship.

The action on the sheets began Jan. 6, but crews were hard at work as early as Jan. 2, preparing the ice inside the arena’s main bowl for curling. Crews put down a layer of paint, add advertising logos and lines before finally laying down some pebble for rocks to curl on.

The Players’ Championship is the final slam of the year, with the Olympics coming up and the GSOC’s new Rock League taking place after.

Jennifer Cram is the director of communications for the Curling Group, which are in their second year of running the GSOC. She said this season, which will end in Steinbach, is the GSOC’s most packed season ever. Normally events run until April, but this season will be done by mid-January.

Through our lens: The Carillon’s best sports photos from Nov/Dec 2025

The best photos from November and December from the Carillon's Sports Desk

Here's to a great 2026!

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COLUMN: Grey Matters – The calendar, life’s soundtrack

“One of the things that’s really helped me to the faith is this alternative sense of time that has been built into my very being from following the church calendar, and this rhythm of seasons through the year has made me more attentive to the stories of faith and taken me to places.” Diane Butler Bass

I’m not one for new years’ resolutions, but Diane Butler Bass in her recent interview with ‘The Bible for Normal People’ podcast has me inspired. Like many of you I have followed the Church calendar at points but have never followed it closely like our Western Roman calendar. I’m getting tired of the Roman calendar. Each month is named after Roman emperors, Roman numbers or Roman festivals. It is based on domineering imperialism and transactional economics, and our modern calendar still follows this model. Besides commercializing the sacred seasons of Easter and Christmas, we now even have days of greed (‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’). The calendar sets up the narrative structure of our life. We are not always conscious of it, which may make it even more influential.

The Church calendar, also known as the liturgical year, is a system used by many Christian denominations and a growing number of spiritually minded individuals at home to mark and celebrate significant events in the life of Jesus and the history of the Church. This calendar structures the year into seasons, feasts, and periods of reflection, guiding worship, teaching, and the spiritual life.

The Church calendar is divided into several key seasons, each with its own themes, colours, and traditions. While there are variations among denominations, the following outline represents the basic structure observed by most Western Christian traditions:

Through our lens: The Carillon’s best sports photos from July/Aug 2025

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Retired teacher bags new career from scraps

Peter Dick went from reading a sewing manual, when he was the only man in his wife’s quilting group, to making sought-after tote bags to give back to the community.

The former gym teacher didn’t know a sewing machine from an elliptical machine when he came across a garbage bag of fabric his wife, Thelma, had collected. He figured it was “junk” until she explained.

Then she took him to their church’s quilting group and it opened up a new world for her retired husband.

“I could not sit back and twiddle my thumbs, so when this fell into my lap, it was a good thing to do,” said Dick.

COLUMN: Carillon Flashback – Family marches to beat of hand drum

A Steinbach father-daughter team is hoping their recently established small business will help the Christian church fully recapture the use of the hand drum in worship.

Dale Reimer, a worship leader at Calvary Chapel in Steinbach, and his daughter Stephanie, have been manufacturing and selling handmade African djembe drums for the last year.

They hope their small business, called Catecho Drums, continues to grow; however, they also hope to see the use of the hand drum re-established in the church.

Catecho is a Greek word meaning “take hold of,” Reimer notes, adding the company name reflects their desire to see the church repossess the use of the drum.

Through our lens: The Carillon’s best sports photos from March/April 2025

The Carillon's best sports shots from March and April of 2025.

Through our lens: The Carillon’s best sports photos from Jan/Feb 2025

The best photos from the Carillon's sports camera in January and February of 2025.

Kinew promises public inquiry into PC handling of Sio Silica

Premier Wab Kinew said he will launch a public inquiry into the former Progressive Conservative government’s push to approve an environmental licence for mining company Sio Silica.

A public inquiry will help Manitobans understand the former government’s motivations and why the decisions were made to try approving the controversial silica sand mine after the PCs lost the 2023 election, a spokesperson for Kinew said in a Dec. 22 statement to The Carillon.

“What Manitobans deserve is transparency, accountability and a government that respects the fundamental principles of our democracy,” the spokesperson said.

They also noted the public inquiry can show which regulations needs to be strengthened.

Family, friends mourn loss of ‘man of excellence’ in freak snowmobile mishap

A southern Manitoba family is grieving the loss of a new father, killed in a freak accident on Boxing Day when his snowmobile malfunctioned and launched him into an embankment.

Casey Pauls, 41, was using the machine that morning to groom a trail around his property in the RM of La Broquerie so his partner could pull their 10-month-old son, Ozzy, on a toboggan. The throttle became stuck and caused the vehicle to accelerate uncontrollably over a roadway as his family watched nearby, said his widow’s sister, Brittany Andres.

Pauls, who was raised in Steinbach and worked for CN Rail, is being remembered as a “man of excellence” beloved by his friends, family and community, Andres said.

“He was just the kind of person who always showed up. He was an incredible human, a hard worker. He was such a devoted dad to his little baby and such an amazing partner to my sister,” she said.

SPORTS FLASHBACK 2000: Steinbach Knights stopped in Wesmen Classic final

The Steinbach Junior High Knights turned in a superb performance, only to lose the final game of the Wesmen Classic Junior High Basketball Tournament by five points at the University of Winnipeg Duckworth Centre last week.

According to coach Glenn Hiebert, finishing second in a 16-team draw made up of the best grade nine boys’ teams in the province was a great accomplishment for the Knights.

“The only disappointment was that they led in the final most of the game, only to let it slip through their fingers, losing 47-42 to John Pritchard in the championship game.”

The Knights opened the tournament against Jeanne Sauve and defeated their future Cloverleaf rivals 62-35. Everyone was involved in the scoring, highlighted by Bucky Driedger and Paul Beckman, scoring 10 points apiece.

AS I SEE IT COLUMN: 2025 sports year in review

Best reminder that Manitoba remains a curling powerhouse: Seeing all the Manitoba teams at the Olympic curling trials was more proof that we produce some of the best curlers in all the land.

Most important performance by a team: Tie between Team Canada at the 4 Nations and the Blue Jays. One team won and the other team lost, but both unified the country in ways we haven’t seen in many years.

Award for outstanding community service: Paul Dyck deserves boatloads of credit for consistently putting a quality MJHL team on the ice year after year after year. He deserves even more credit for instilling in his players the many benefits of giving back to the community. This noble mindset was formally recognized when Pistons forward Connor Paronuzzi was awarded the prestigious RBC Community Award for his extensive volunteerism.

Best example of sport shutting up Trump: The convicted felon U.S. president (who should be in jail, not in the White House) tried to insert himself into the 4 Nations by threatening to annex Canada and making fun of our Prime Minister. Thanks to Connor McDavid and company, Team Canada shut the criminal’s pie hole.