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Assiniboine grads urged to keep learning

Abiola Odutola 3 minute read Preview

Assiniboine grads urged to keep learning

Abiola Odutola 3 minute read 1:02 AM CDT

Education is about the ability to keep learning, not just the specific skills taught in classrooms, Assiniboine College president Mark Frison told new grads on Friday.

The ability to continue learning, he said during the college’s fall graduation ceremony, allows students to remain valuable even when careers change.

More than 460 students graduated from 32 programs — including comprehensive health care aide, practical nursing, advance agriculture and early childhood education — at the ceremony in the Manitoba Room at the Keystone Centre.

“Everything you learned is going to help you out in some way,” Frison told the grads. “Even if you change occupations, not only does that subject matter remain useful in your life, but learning how to learn is obviously equally important.”

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1:02 AM CDT

Local

Barenaked Ladies to headline Countryfest for Canada Day

1 minute read 1:00 AM CDT

Canadian music legends Barenaked Ladies are coming to Dauphin for the city’s annual Countryfest next summer.

Dauphin’s Countryfest announced the 2027 headliners for the outdoor music festival in a news release Friday.

Barenaked Ladies will headline the first day of the festival — which lands on Canada Day — to “provide a distinctly Canadian soundtrack to the celebration of our nation’s birthday,” the release said.

Nate Smith will lead the country lineup with a return performance after last year’s show was disrupted by a thunderstorm.

Local

Man admits waving handgun at off-duty cop

Tessa Adamski 2 minute read Preview

Man admits waving handgun at off-duty cop

Tessa Adamski 2 minute read 1:00 AM CDT

A 20-year-old man admitted he brandished a black handgun and waved it at an off-duty police officer who was stopped at a traffic light in Brandon in a July 2025 incident.

Jibriel Ahmed pleaded guilty to the charge of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose in Brandon provincial court on Friday morning. Another weapons charge for pointing a firearm was stayed by the Crown.

Around 10 p.m. on July 16, an off-duty officer reported to police that he was in the 1500 block of 18th Street when a green Hyundai pulled up beside him and a passenger produced a black handgun before doing a U-turn to leave the area, Crown attorney Easton Lacey said.

“Less than five minutes later, police were en route to the area and observed the suspect vehicle travelling northbound,” she said.

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1:00 AM CDT

Local

The Brandon courthouse on 11th Street. (File)

Time served for assaulting ex-girlfriend, bringing knife to ER

Tessa Adamski 4 minute read Preview

Time served for assaulting ex-girlfriend, bringing knife to ER

Tessa Adamski 4 minute read 12:59 AM CDT

A man received a three-month sentence for time served in custody after he assaulted his former partner and brought a knife into the Brandon emergency room while experiencing a meth-induced mental health crisis.

Jesse Wielenga, 40, pleaded guilty in Brandon provincial court on Thursday to one count of assault, breaching a no-contact order and breaching an order not to possess any weapons.

In the first incident on July 17, Wielenga and his ex-girlfriend got into an argument when she was gathering her personal belongings at his residence around 7 a.m., Crown attorney Andrew Sieklicki said.

“The situation escalated when Mr. Wielenga, using both hands, shoved (the woman) onto the couch,” he said, adding that he threw a box at her that contained a watch.

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12:59 AM CDT

Local

Jeremy Bray of Rivers says he was happy to do his part to help convince Canada’s Drug Agency to expand its drug coverage recommendation to include adults over 25 with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare neurodegenerative disease that causes muscles to progressively weaken. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun files)

Bray hails CDA decision as ‘huge milestone’

Rylee Gerrard 4 minute read Preview

Bray hails CDA decision as ‘huge milestone’

Rylee Gerrard 4 minute read 12:58 AM CDT

A Westman resident left his impact on federal policy earlier this week when Canada’s Drug Agency expanded its coverage recommendation for two life-sustaining medications to include adults over 25.

Jeremy Bray, 31, lives in Rivers and works from home as a data consultant for the Louis Riel School Division.

He was born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare neurodegenerative disease that causes muscles to progressively weaken.

Bray’s medication, called risdiplam and sold under the brand name Evrysdi, slows the progression of the incurable disease, and without coverage, Bray could have been on the hook for roughly $300,000 annually for the treatment.

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12:58 AM CDT

Local

Brandon University political science Prof. Kelly Saunders says the results from Wednesday’s civic election could discourage people of colour, or women, from running in the future. (The Brandon Sun files)

Prof says racism, sexism played role in election

Alex Lambert 7 minute read Preview

Prof says racism, sexism played role in election

Alex Lambert 7 minute read 12:58 AM CDT

There’s a level of “polite racism” in Brandon and in Canada, a political science professor said, after no visible-minority candidates were elected in Brandon’s municipal or school board election this week.

Seven visible-minority candidates ran for council and two for school board.

Brandon University Prof. Kelly Saunders said “systemic and structural racism” continues to play out across Canada and specifically in Brandon, while women are still facing an uphill battle getting elected.

“All these people of colour had great backgrounds and great lived experience and really good ideas about how they wanted to move the city forward,” Saunders said. “And … none of them got elected. You know, that’s not just a coincidence. There’s something larger at play here.”

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12:58 AM CDT

Local

Election official announces wrong winner in Roblin

Connor McDowell Local Journalism Initiative 3 minute read 12:57 AM CDT

A senior election official says she made a mistake by verbally announcing the winner for head of council before the results were flipped by the discovery of an error.

Twyla Ludwig, the SEO who oversaw the election in the Municipality of Roblin, gave an unofficial announcement to election watchers at the Roblin Community Centre on Wednesday night, stating that incumbent Robert Misko was poised to win the election.

Following a final counting of ballots less than an hour later, the official results showed that Graeme Conway had actually won, she said.

“It’s the importance of making sure all of the paperwork is complete, making sure everything is balanced before there’s any announcement made,” Ludwig said. “And if that means staying till midnight till it balances, then that’s what we do.”

Entertainment

FILE - Patrick Stewart poses in his dressing room at the Lyceum Theater in New York on Tuesday, April 1, 2008, where he is starring in a production of

Patrick Stewart found ‘Star Trek’ fame but always returned to Shakespeare and the stage

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Patrick Stewart found ‘Star Trek’ fame but always returned to Shakespeare and the stage

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 11:47 AM CDT

LONDON (AP) — Before he captained the Starship Enterprise, Patrick Stewart commanded the Shakespearean stage.

And it was the stage to which he returned time and again, even after “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “X-Men” made him a Hollywood star.

The theater was where Stewart felt at home, and where he could fill an auditorium with his sonorous voice, tinged with a warm Yorkshire burr.

Stewart spent a decade and a half with the Royal Shakespeare Company, whose former artistic director, Gregory Doran, remembered him as “a true Shakespearean” and “a theater actor in his bones.” In later life, he formed a memorable double act with his friend Ian McKellen, who called Stewart “the most respected and beloved actor of his generation.”

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Updated: Yesterday at 11:47 AM CDT

Local

Astronaut Joshua Kutryk, of Canada, waves as he leaves the Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk says seeing Earth during spacewalk ‘changed’ him

Erika Morris, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview

Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk says seeing Earth during spacewalk ‘changed’ him

Erika Morris, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:01 PM CDT

LONGUEUIL - Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk said he was overwhelmed with emotion looking at the Earth during a seven-hour spacewalk on Thursday.

"I tried to focus really hard on not looking up at the high Earth," he said. "Your mind doesn't know what to do with that image," he said.

"It's exciting," he added.

Kutryk and NASA astronaut Anil Menon successfully installed seven of eight new solar panels on the International Space Station during the spacewalk. Kutryk became the fifth Canadian to perform such a feat.

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:01 PM CDT

Business

Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly, right, and Stéphane Séjourné, executive vice-president for prosperity and industrial strategy of the European Commission, tour Nexans Canada Inc., a copper rod and wire manufacturing plant in Montreal on Oct. 29, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
The Canadian Press

Ottawa inspired by NAFTA as it pursues a new Canada-EU alliance, Joly says

Émilie Bergeron, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Ottawa inspired by NAFTA as it pursues a new Canada-EU alliance, Joly says

Émilie Bergeron, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 11:47 AM CDT

MONTRÉAL - Ottawa is drawing inspiration from the North American Free Trade Agreement as it works to develop a new alliance with the European Union, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says.

Joly told The Canadian Press that Canada's trade agreement with the United States and Mexico fostered industrial integration that has worked effectively in North America for decades.

The minister said the accord, which has since been replaced by the CUSMA trade deal, could be a model for strengthening ties between Canada and the EU.

“NAFTA is an industrial partnership. It’s more than CETA,” said the minister, referring to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union that took effect 10 years ago.

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Updated: Yesterday at 11:47 AM CDT