Local
COLUMN: Think Again – An abundance of paranoia
4 minute read 8:13 PM CDTSchools are closed out of an “abundance of caution.” No doubt you heard this phrase many times over the past few years. It was commonly used during the pandemic when provincial governments closed schools for months on end – even after it was widely known that COVID-19 posed little risk to most children.
Parents and teachers are still trying to recover from this enormous learning loss. Clearly, this was one situation where an abundance of caution caused more harm than it prevented.
Sadly, it appears that provincial officials and school board administrators haven’t learned from their mistakes. Instead of making every effort to protect instructional time and ensure that schools remain open, students are being sent home for ever more dubious reasons.
For example, school boards across Ontario cancelled classes on April 8, the day of the solar eclipse. Apparently, administrators felt there was too great a risk that students might look at the sun during the eclipse and damage their eyes. No doubt more than a few of them glanced at the sun while sitting at home that day.
Advertisement
Weather
Steinbach MB
-1°C, Cloudy with wind
St James Jr Canucks cement MMJHL dynasty
2 minute read Preview 1:50 PM CDTCOLUMN: Rethinking Lifestyle – Recycling aluminum
2 minute read 5:39 PM CDTSince we live close to the growing edge of housing development on the south side of Steinbach, I go dumpster diving sometimes. Recently, I discovered three - 15’ lengths of 1/2” aluminum cables each consisting of 18 bare strands of aluminum all encased in two layers of poly. At 5 1/4 pounds each, the three cables are worth only a few bucks as scrap, presumably because there are large reserves of bauxite ore that can be extracted and processed. Eventually those will be exhausted, sooner if we don’t recycle the metal.
I assume that these cables were left over from hooking the house electricity panel to the Manitoba Hydro supply, and they were not “worth” recycling, to be sent to the landfill as garbage instead. This should be a crime.
I initially took one cable home with me, thinking that I could use the aluminum wires to tie things up, like a snow fence or a lattice for plants. However, the other two cables in the dumpster bothered me enough that I went back days later and rescued them as well. I can’t find anyone who has a re-use for these cables, so I plan to take them to the Metals bin at the local landfill, even though at the present scrap price, this is hardly worth the trouble economically, only as a matter of principle.
According to Wade Wiebe, aluminum is a very versatile metal, but it is undervalued because of oversupply and nearly perfect recyclability (something like 75 percent of all mined aluminum is still in use today).
COLUMN: Village News – A farewell to MHV
3 minute read Preview 11:51 AM CDTHunter Brothers to headline Niverville Fair
1 minute read Preview 2:09 PM CDTCOLUMN: Let’s Talk Mental Health – Helpful strategies for wellbeing
4 minute read 10:12 AM CDTLet’s talk again about helpful strategies to safeguard mental wellbeing. We know one in five Canadians will experience an episode of mental illness in their lifetime and the total costs to our health care system will be over seven billion dollars. Of course, we want to do everything in our power to avoid becoming part of those statistics.
Recently Canadian researchers released findings about one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to prevent mental illness. They estimate that if ten percent more of us would exercise approximately thirty minutes each day, there would be 167,000 fewer diagnosed cases of anxiety or depression. And a 25 percent increase in the number of people engaging in regular exercise would yield 389,000 fewer cases of mental illness.
Exercise has been proven to keep our hearts and bodies healthy. We forget that it also functions to keep our minds and emotions healthy. We often talk about our minds and our bodies as though they were completely separate but we’ve learned they are interconnected because we are whole beings. Thus, our minds can’t work well if our bodies aren’t healthy and the reverse is also true.
To work properly, our bodies need regular exercise and most of us feel well when we’re active. In the past people were quite active just to live their everyday lives and accomplish daily tasks. Now in modern Western societies much of what we used to do manually is done for us by machines. Because we drive vehicles, we walk less; vacuum cleaners make lighter work of cleaning; and our laundry is done by machines. In our workplaces many of us may not move much because we sit at the computer all day. Modern high-energy foods cause excess weight gain and most of us can still afford too much of these foods.
Meeting a dragon in Steinbach
1 minute read Preview 8:38 AM CDTSAC marks 45 years with gala
3 minute read Preview Yesterday at 5:36 PM CDTEpic/Smile of St Malo celebrating 50 years with fundraiser
3 minute read Preview Yesterday at 4:08 PM CDTAddressing traffic concerns at Mitchell Elementary School
3 minute read Preview Yesterday at 2:49 PM CDTSte Anne Aces fall in provincial finals
1 minute read Preview Yesterday at 1:47 PM CDTRitchot looking to reduce food waste with pilot project
3 minute read Preview Yesterday at 9:37 AM CDTBadminton season reaching crescendo
1 minute read Preview Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDTSteinbach punch ticket to MJHL finals with 2-0 game 7 win
5 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 17, 2024It wasn't easy, but the Steinbach Pistons will be playing in their third consecutive Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) Championship.
The Pistons took down the Blizzard in game seven of their semi-final series with a pair of second period goals the difference in a hotly contested series.
Cole Plowman, who started all seven games of the series for Steinbach recorded his first career MJHL shutout in the victory. It was a redemptive performance for the netminder, who let in two last-minute go-ahead goals on home ice earlier in the series.
"I wasn't really happy with my full performance over the series so it's really huge to get a game seven shutout," Plowman said after the game.
RM of Ste Anne bans trucks permanently on 50 routes
1 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 17, 2024Transport truck drivers will lose some shortcuts and must heed new route restrictions in the RM of Ste Anne if they wish to avoid a fine of up to $1,000 plus road repair costs.
The new restrictions passed by council apply year-round to 50 routes listed on the RM’s website. This is up from 19 routes in the old bylaw from 2009.
The routes are found throughout the RM, including in the Giroux, Town of Ste Anne, La Coulee, and Richer areas.
There are also 52 seasonal no truck routes in the new bylaw. They follow the provincial spring road restrictions, are in effect right now and can last until May 29.
Guilty plea for midnight Main Street crash into parked vehicle
3 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 17, 2024A Ste Anne woman who drove into the back of a Jeep parked on Main Street in Steinbach pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
A charge of impaired driving was stayed by Crown attorney Jonathan Mayes in the partial plea deal. The impaired charge was set for trial, but Mayes said there were potential Charter issues and challenges getting a conviction in the way the driver was identified after she left the scene.
“Suffice to say from the Crown’s perspective the Charter application wouldn’t have succeeded, but no doubt it spares two days of court time actually by her early guilty plea in not pursuing that,” Mayes told the judge.
Alexis Armstrong, 21, did not have a prior criminal record before the guilty plea in Steinbach court last Thursday.
LOAD MORE