Festival wraps up busy summer in Killarney

It’s time for Westman music lovers to grab their lawn chairs and their dance shoes and make their way to Killarney to bid farewell to summer — the Killarney Lakeside Festival runs Friday through Sunday. The festival features loads of Manitoba talent, workshops, an artisan market, a Sunday brunch and more.

Giselle Baupre, arts administrator at the Killarney Turtle Mountain Arts Council, said the community is chuffed.

“The festival has created a new thing for people to look forward to. Our community is really busy in the summer one weekend after another, right from the fair at the end of June, to the Kick off to Summer to Prairie Pioneer Days. So after a nice few weeks of a little bit more calm and quiet, people look forward to ending the summer with something this fun.”

The festival audience has already established some favourites.

Canadian actor disrupts Jays’ season

Ever since Canadian actor Michael Cera started hanging around the Toronto Blue Jays’ clubhouse, and inviting players and management over to his house to see his man-cave shrine to the Blue Jays, Canada’s only Major League Baseball team has stunk.

Toronto went all the way to Game 7 of the World Series last year and was a pre-season favourite to repeat as American League champions, but then Cera, a Blue Jays’ superfan, started interfering.

Why can’t Cera just sit in the stands at Rogers Stadium, sip his Labatt Blue or a $23 latte and leave the Jays alone? But no, he has to interrupt the Blue Jays mojo by hanging around the clubhouse, having rookie third baseman Kazuma Okamoto say hello to Cera’s mother on a telephone FaceTime chat when the Japanese free-agent signee should be out in the batting cage working on his swing. Okamoto is closing in on 25 home runs, but his batting average in the .230 range would probably be .250 or better if he wasn’t being bothered by Cera.

Then there’s George Springer, one of the team’s biggest disappointments this year. Last year, Springer belted 32 home runs and averaged .309 and, alongside Vladimir Guerrero Jr., led the offence for the A.L. champs. This year, with Cera bragging to Springer about setting a viewership record on the livestream (11, when the old record was two. … hahahaha!), Springer is batting around .230 and won’t come close to even half of last year’s home run total. That’s Cera’s fault, because he took valuable time away from Springer’s workout program and batting practice regimen.

DELORAINE

The community of Deloraine came out in droves for the red carpet premiere of a short film made by a few of their own.

On July 23, “Whitetail” a film by Nick Dietrich and Laughlin McKinnon, made its debut at the Deloraine Theatre. The cast, crew and much of the town were out in full force to see a locally made movie. It was everything they were looking for, McKinnon said.

“It was awesome,” he stated. “We hoped to have a full house and we did. You couldn’t ask for more. That was the dream, to have a premiere of a movie in Deloraine, raise some money for the Ag Society, and we met those goals.”

U of M researchers studying ‘digital legacy planning’

WINNIPEG — A team of researchers at the University of Manitoba wants adults to take the cloud they leave behind into special consideration when they envision heaven and their afterlife.

Led by Cecile Latulipe, the new computer science department project has a self-imposed mandate to better understand and improve “digital legacy planning.”

“Western society is very good at avoiding death. We put our graveyards far away from our cities. We offload our caring of the dead to funeral homes and such,” graduate student researcher Simon Wermie said.

“And so, it’s not surprising that the same would be true for our digital information.”

On the front line of the fight to save Canada’s bats

On a cool July evening in the Northwest Territories, a team of young bat surveyors gathered at the base of a box where week-old bat pups had been spotted the night before.

As its name may indicate, a bat box is a human-made wooden habitat placed 10 feet or more above ground as an alternative roosting place for the animals, which sometimes like to find their way into cosy attics.

However, the scene here was bleaker than it had been the previous evening. Two pups looked to have died at the foot of their roost in the 24 hours since they were last seen.

Disappointment lingered among the crew until suddenly, a flutter was spotted in a tiny chest cavity.

No more ‘decisions’ needed for LeBron

LeBron James, one of the world’s most amazing athletes, has made his final decision.

At the age of 41, the 23-year National Basketball Association star is still among the league’s elite players and on July 24, James made Decision II — where to take his talents for the upcoming season. The answer: the Philadelphia 76ers.

Decision I came back in 2010, when King James became a free agent after seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers. A native of Akron, Ohio, James was a home-state hero and the undisputed best player in the league, proof of which were back-to-back MVP awards in his last two seasons with the Cavs. But LeBron was ready to move and every team in the league visited Fort Knox to gather up enough cash to try to entice him to their team. Where would he go? ESPN turned the James saga into a 75-minute TV special, during which James announced he would sign with the Miami Heat.

He played four seasons in Miami, winning two more Most Valuable Player awards and leading Miami to a pair of NBA titles. Free agency beckoned again, and LeBron went back to Cleveland for four more seasons. The last seven years, he’s played for the Los Angeles Lakers, winning another league title in 2020.

Doors to historic Brandon homes flung open

If you’ve ever walked or driven around the city and found yourself wondering what’s behind door No. 1 … or 2, or 3 … then Doors Open Brandon is for you.

Doors Open is a chance to satisfy curiosity about heritage and other notable buildings in Brandon. The free event takes place Aug. 15 from noon to 4 p.m. and includes both guided and self-guided tours of buildings — including some not normally open to the public.

“Doors Open Brandon is in many ways a sister program to the Open Gardens program,” said Brady Dane, recreation co-ordinator at Parks and Recreation Services in Brandon.

“The idea is people get access to some buildings of either historical or general interest that aren’t usually open to the public. We also partner with a lot of the local museums in the Westman region to offer free entry and a little bit of enhancement to their offerings.”

Cross-country runner makes pit stop

A 22-year-old long distance runner visited Brandon last week during his journey across Canada.

James Newman visited on day 79 of his trek across the country as he raises money for scholarships for children who lost their parents. Newman said Manitoba was a welcome sight at this stage into his journey, having started from St. John’s, N.L.

“It’s easier running. It’s so fricken nice,” Newman said of the Manitoba leg of his journey. “Its unbelievable. If it wasn’t for the heat, this would be the best province to run in.”

The flat terrain of Westman gave his body time to recover, he said. He has had issues with internal bleeding, blisters and tendon injuries along his run, which had exceeded 5,200 kilometres by the time he landed in Brandon.

Rural Roundup — Aug. 13, 2026

DAUPHIN

Getting Dauphin Regional Health Centre back up and running is not as simple as plugging in a generator and firing up the x-ray machines.

Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said all systems in the hospital are intertwined and operating such a facility requires a significant amount of power.

“The gases that are required in the operating room and obstetrical care, they alone require probably the most significant amounts of power. All of the diagnostics services in the building require a significant amount of power,” Slate said. “Those two systems have to be in place before we can do anything in the building. We need to have our electrical infrastructure in place before we can power up the HVAC systems and the mechanical structures in the building.

Assiniboine College brings new modular trades courses to Dauphin

Assiniboine College is introducing a series of short-term construction trades courses at its Parkland campus in Dauphin this fall, offering flexible training for people interested in home improvement projects or exploring careers in the skilled trades.

The new modular program begins Oct. 5 and is divided into five standalone, hands-on courses, each running about three weeks. Students can enrol in a single course or combine multiple offerings to build a broader range of practical construction skills.

The courses cover drywall installation and finishing, painting selection and application, interior finishing, exterior finishing and concrete forming.

Jim DeGraeve, Acting Dean of Trades at Assiniboine College, said the courses are intended to provide an accessible entry point for people looking to gain practical experience without committing to a longer program.

Anthology looks to art, poetry and personal stories to reflect ongoing tragedy of MMIWG2S

REDress: Art, Action, and the Power of Presence is not a book with a beginning and an end, says Red River Métis author, artist and activist Jaime Black-Morsette.

“I tried to subvert the concept of the book and make it a circle by calling the last chapter ‘Beginning Again’. And I’m really looking into the ways in which we have the philosophy of the circle and the cycle, and rebirth and death, and of coming back and rising up again,” said Black-Morsette.

The final chapter includes Black-Morsette’s poems “Skywoman” and “Skywoman 1” about the beginning of the world.

“I’m really thinking about, and posing to readers, the concept of what seeds are we planting, what new worlds are we building…and imagining what those look like,” she said.

No more ‘decisions’ needed for LeBron

LeBron James, one of the world’s most amazing athletes, has made his final decision.

At the age of 41, the 23-year National Basketball Association star is still among the league’s elite players and on July 24, James made Decision II — where to take his talents for the upcoming season. The answer: Philadelphia 76ers.

Decision I came back in 2010, when King James became a free agent after seven seasons with Cleveland Cavaliers. A native of Akron, Ohio, James was a home-state hero and the undisputed best player in the league, proof of which were back-to-back MVP awards in his last two seasons with the Cavs. But LeBron was ready to move and every team in the league visited Fort Knox to gather up enough cash to try to entice him to their team. Where would he go? ESPN turned the James saga into a 75-minute TV special, during which James announced he would be signing with the Miami Heat.