WINNIPEG — Grades 6, 9 and 11 students will receive explicit instruction about the Holocaust and learn about Jewish cultural traditions and contributions to Manitoba in the fall.

The province announced a formal partnership with the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada Thursday — Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“We have in our archive a letter that was sent 50 years ago to the provincial government asking for mandated curriculum,” said Belle Jarniewski, executive director of the centre.

Jarniewski, a daughter of Holocaust survivors, said she is thrilled about the changes and the centre’s role in organizing a May 13 conference to brief teachers on them.

WINNIPEG — Regularly reserved for bar crawls and cover bands, the Pyramid Cabaret featured Liberal Leader Mark Carney as its headliner Thursday, as red-clad supporters rallied in the prime minister’s second stop in Winnipeg before election day.

“It is great to be back in Winnipeg, back so quickly,” he said to cheers from the audience.

Bartenders slung soda and water under the Pyramid’s disco ball to hundreds of supporters, who were holding signs that read “Never 51” and “Canada Strong.”

Carney, who was last in the city for a news conference and rally April 1, repeated many of the talking points that he has carried throughout the campaign. That included condemning the “tragedy” of the trade war and heightened tensions with the U.S. and calling Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre a “lifelong politician who worships at the altar of the free market.”

WINNIPEG — The cost of living, Canada-U.S. relations and health care are the top concerns for Manitoba voters ahead of Monday’s federal election, a new Probe Research survey found.

Those polled were asked to choose which of the three main party leaders they think is best suited to tackle seven important issues.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was viewed as the strongest on the overall cost of living and inflation, health care, crime/public safety, taxes and the cost/availability of housing.

“This does give Poilievre a bit of an opportunity in the final days of the campaign to really start hammering home, as he already has been, some of those issues around the cost of living, and your kitchen table issues,” Probe Research partner Mary Agnes Welch said.

WINNIPEG — Manitoba Health announced two new confirmed cases of measles in the province Wednesday.

That brings the total number of confirmed and probable infections reported in Manitoba to 12 since Feb. 10.

Both individuals attended Southwood School in the Rural Municipality of Stanley during the infectious period, a news release late Wednesday stated. The cases were confirmed after recent travel to Mexico.

Public-health officials asked anyone who may have been exposed at the school on April 14-15 or on buses servicing Southwood and Prairie Dale schools on those days to contact Health Links at 204-788-8200 in Winnipeg or toll-free in Manitoba at 1-888-351-9257.

Poor weather Tuesday afternoon delayed the start of the Brandon High School girls softball season.

The defending champion Vincent Massey Vikings were set to start the season against the Neelin Spartans, but Neelin will play Crocus Plains Thursday to officially get things underway.

Tuesday’s game between the Vikings and Spartans has been moved to April 30.

The campaign sees all three schools play a round-robin style regular season on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:15 p.m. with the finals, which also serve as a zone qualifier, scheduled for May 13.

ON TELEVISION

• MLB – Yankees at Guardians, noon (SNW); Blue Jays at Astros, 6:30 p.m. (SN1)

• NHL – Canadiens at Capitals, 6 p.m. (SNW); Stars at Avalanche, 8:30 p.m. (SN360); Oilers at Kings, 9 p.m. (SNW)

• NBA –Magic at Celtics, 6 p.m. (TSN3); Warriors at Rockets, 8:30 p.m. (TSN3)