Winnipeg - Of Interest

[rrskylar]

Can't live without your old man's pension cheque or what?



Two more MDs quit Grace unit

By: Carol Sanders

Updated: June 17 at 12:25 AM CDT

* Print Article
* E-mail Article

Two more critical-care doctors at Winnipeg's Grace Hospital have followed the lead of one of their colleagues who quit his shift rather than obey a court order to treat an elderly man on life-support, and more may follow suit.

Doctors Bojan Paunovic and David Easton have cancelled their shifts in the hospital's intensive-care unit, where 84-year-old Samuel Golubchuk is on life-support. The resignations cut the hospital's critical-care complement of doctors by half.

After the resignation a few weeks ago of Dr. Anand Kumar -- who refused to "torture" the man by hacking away at his flesh infected by bedsores -- there are now just three critical-care physicians remaining.

Prof. Arthur Schafer, director of the University of Manitoba's Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, said he expects more doctors and nurses will withdraw their services rather than violate their professional oath to do no harm.

"It always trumps the courts," said Schafer.

"This is true for any doctor or any professional," he said.

"I wonder about the nurses," said Schafer. "Their code of professional ethics also causes them not to cause harm," he said.

"A professional isn't simply a technician servicing the instructions of the clients or patients." He gave the example of an engineer who can't put a stamp on blueprints that don't meet professional standards even if a client or a judge orders it.

"The courts can't order a doctor to behave unprofessionally," Schafer said.

In February, a judge ordered the hospital to continue treating Golubchuk until a trial can be held. The trial date was moved up to September from December, if Golubchuk lives that long.

"This man is in very fragile health and in order to keep him alive if his heart stops, doctors have been ordered to give CPR," Schafer said. "That means cracking every bone in his chest. He's being fed through tubes in his nose, his heart is kept going by electrodes. The person who was Mr. Golubchuk ceased to exist a long time ago, while the body of Mr. Golubchuk is still alive."

Golubchuk's family lawyer said Schafer's argument is missing something.

"Consent is a major issue," Neil Kravetsky said. "Why is it not required, ethically, when you're going to remove someone from life-support?" he asked.

"Many doctors would disagree with Arthur Schafer as would many ethicists."

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority won't say why two more doctors at the Grace have resigned. The critical-care unit had six intensive-care doctors before the three resigned from their shifts, said spokeswoman Heidi Graham. Kravetsky said he wasn't surprised by the doctors' decision. Two of the three doctors were sued for not providing proper or ethical care to Golubchuk, he said.

"What they're doing is consistent with their conduct... by not continuing to treat him."

Doctors at the hospital have said they are unhappy that Golubchuk is being kept alive on life-support, but his family says taking him off would violate his beliefs as an Orthodox Jew.

"These doctors each have judged these distressing, aggressive procedures are not warranted -- he can't be cured and he can't benefit," said Schafer. "...They are acting according to professional ethics... In this case, the court has ordered treatment and the doctors had no recourse but to resign," said Schafer.

"These three doctors understand what the courts may not understand, or at least the judge who heard the case may not understand."

When Kumar resigned from caring for Golubchuk, he wrote an open letter to the public saying he felt keeping the elderly man alive was "tantamount to torture."

Schafer had a "whimsical and black" suggestion.

"Perhaps since it's a violation of medical ethics for doctors to treat Mr. Golubchuk... then maybe the family's lawyer and the judge should be there to hack away at his flesh and crush his ribs."

Kravetsky was appalled when told of Schafer's remark.

"That's totally disrespectful to court and counsel and it's unethical for him to say anything about what a judge or lawyer ought to do."

Meanwhile, the doctors who've resigned from their critical-care shifts at the Grace may still work elsewhere.

"Doctors can have privileges at more than one hospital," Graham said. She said the health authority is working with Winnipeg's critical-care physicians to "ensure there is adequate coverage."

"So far, we are being able to achieve that," she added.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

[1ajs]

tonights sun set

[Boreal]

Wow, Adrian. That's fantastic.

[wags_in_the_peg]

Adrian, there was an insert in today's free press about a photo conference at the forks this weekend. you should have your stuff on display!

[1ajs]

i am well aware of it but i did not get into it cause i did not know i was free at this time like i am now
http://www.mpax.org/-/mpax/

[wags_in_the_peg]

of note, i checked out the Osborne Market yesterday. Walked from Norwood Flats there, took me 25 minutes each way including a stop to let my 2 & 4 yr old look at the river (and a train). Anyway, I was pretty dissappointed. Only about 10 tables 1 selling overpriced real organic lettuce and redishes, the rest were clothes, jewellery, soap and a guy selling bison meat. I guess I'm use to alot more like the St. Norbert one. Where's the homemade jams, fresh spring rolls, etc, etc. My wife is driving tomorrow morning there while I build a fence. I've already put in my order for spring rolls. I can just see myself taking a break at 10 am to eat them. can't wait!

[LilZebra]

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Toron...61571-sun.html

Article is about Ontario store owners telling customers looking to use their loo that they say there isn't one, or refuse to allow customers to use it.

Says even the smallest of stores in shopping centres have loos.

[1ajs]

Bike group calls on MPI to improve cyclists' road skills

Last Updated: Monday, July 14, 2008 | 1:57 PM CT Comments34Recommend16

CBC News


An average of 180 cyclists are injured and two are killed on Manitoba roads every year, according to MPI. (Don Ryan/Associated Press)Cycling advocates worry an increase in the number of riders on the road could translate into a higher toll of deaths and injuries among cyclists.
Officials with Bike to the Future say the lobby group's surveys of major arteries into downtown Winnipeg suggest that more than 5,000 people commute by bicycle, an increase of 17 per cent over last year.
That meshes with Statistics Canada's information from the 2006 census, which indicated 5,760 Winnipeggers commuted by bicycle in 2006.
Bike to the Future spokesman Dave Elmore said the increase is good news — but the problem is many of the new cyclists don't know the rules of the road.
"People don't see cycling education as being necessary. They've ridden them all their lives. They consider them to almost be a toy," he said.
"We're seeing a lot of cyclists who haven't had a lot of experience, other than riding to the park with their kids, out there commuting back and forth and riding into downtown. And they don't necessarily have the training or experience."
No adult education available

Part of the problem, Elmore said, is that there is nowhere in Manitoba for adults to receive instruction or training.
The Canadian Cycling Association's CAN-BIKE courses, which offer information on traffic safety, equipment, maintenance and riding skills for adults, are not currently offered in Manitoba, although Elmore said efforts are being made to revive the program here.
Elmore suggests Manitoba Public Insurance is responsible for road safety, and that perhaps the Crown vehicle insurance agency should help fill the void.
"It would make common sense that MPI would get involved in educating cyclists, because an educated cyclist would be a better cyclist and a safer cyclist, and that would reduce claims," Elmore said.
An average of 180 cyclists are injured and two are killed on Manitoba roads every year, according to MPI. The corporation paid out $8.2 million in injury claims for cyclists hit by vehicles in 2006, a fourfold increase since 2002.
If MPI spent even a fraction of that amount on cyclist education, Elmore said, the number of injuries and deaths could be reduced.
MPI responsible for autos, not bicycles

But MPI spokesman Brian Smiley said the corporation's mandate is automobile safety.
"Obviously we can't be everything to everyone," he said. "Cyclists need to remember that as the public automobile insurer, we are obligated to providing funding towards safety towards automobiles."
Both Smiley and Elmore agreed that bicycles are vehicles and, as such, are legally obligated to obey the rules of the road.
"Cyclists are riding at night wearing dark clothing and not a light to be seen," Smiley said. "That is not a safe situation. Many cyclists are driving down Portage Avenue, 7:30 in the morning, doing erratic lane changes. Now, again, that's not a wise move. So a lot of the onus will lie with the cyclist."
Despite the acknowledged problems, however, officials with Winnipeg police told CBC News they had not handed out a single ticket to a cyclist this year.

[J-MAN]

Originally Posted by wags_in_the_peg

I guess I'm use to alot more like the St. Norbert one. Where's the homemade jams, fresh spring rolls, etc, etc.

the saint norbert farmers market definitely seems to be the one of the best farmers markets in the city, im not really sure if its caught on quite like this one

they even have a website
http://www.stnorbertfarmersmarket.ca/

[newflyer]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

tonights sun set

Awsome Picture!!

You never fail to impress me.

[viperred88]

Winnipeg: Birthplace of Bond?
Mounting evidence suggests that fictional, ultra-suave superspy was based on Sir William Stevenson
:By Lesley Hughes / Winnipeg Free Press.

Updated: July 19 at 02:00 AM CDT

Slurpees, stand aside. Winnie the Pooh, back off.

This city has a much hotter claim to fame. Winnipeg is the Home of Bond. James Bond. Yes, Agent 007 of her Majesty's Secret Service.


It's enough to make other grown cities cry.

Imagine the possibilities.

James Bond has been the enduring symbol of glamour, espionage, sex and machismo since he made his fictional debut in 1953 in the Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale. He's the second-biggest money-making brand in Hollywood history after Star Wars. And there are no signs the world is tired of him. The latest Bond movie, a remake of Casino Royale, was the highest grossing of all Bond films to date. The next, Quantum of Solace (the 22nd), opens in November.

Could a guy like Bond really spring from a city otherwise known for blizzards and mosquitoes, a city whose self-esteem has been lagging ever since the Panama Canal opened in 1914 and relegated it to backwater status?

The evidence has been gathering for years that writer Ian Fleming based his fictional hero on Sir William Stevenson, a real life spymaster who began his extraordinary life in 1897, an orphan in the city's Point Douglas area.

Ironically, Stevenson, a slight man who ultimately stood five-foot-two and boasted a 32-inch chest, is a much bigger hero than Bond. True, Bond can be relied on to save the day at the end of every movie, but historians believe Bill Stevenson was one of the men whose leadership, along with that of Churchill and Roosevelt, saved the western world from fascism in the Second World War.

His neighbours on Syndicate Street had no reason to believe the scrawny kid they called "Little Bill" would grow up to be a thorn in the side of a man like Adolf Hitler. He finished Grade 6 at Argyle School, got a job delivering telegrams on his bicycle, and at the first opportunity, signed up to fight in the First World War. A fighter pilot and a prisoner of war, he was publicly celebrated for his "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty" when he returned home.

Stevenson left Winnipeg at age of 25 when his fledgling hardware business failed. He emigrated to England, married an American tobacco heiress and parlayed her fortune into a much bigger one, gaining access to the upper echelons of British society along the way. He became a confidante of Winston Churchill, who dubbed Stevenson "The Man Called Intrepid."

It was during Stevenson's tenure in charge of the phony British Passport Office in New York City (actually a front for England's propaganda and counter-espionage headquarters) that Stevenson and writer Ian Fleming first met and became friends. Among many common interests, they both loved martinis, and Stevenson was famous for serving them to his guests in quart-sized glasses.


Continued

Please see Bond C8


Winnipeg publisher Peter St. John, who lectures widely on the life of William Stevenson, says Fleming would have been bowled over by Stevenson's brilliance.

"There Stevenson was, in a Manhattan skyscraper surrounded by wild electronic surveillance gadgetry, secret files and scores of beautiful women agents, a man equally at home with heads of state and paid assassins. The more Fleming learned about him, the more impressed he became."

Fleming confided to friends that in some respects, he modelled the character of James Bond on himself.

Both the writer and his hero were aloof, upper class and patriotic Brits, with a weakness for gambling, serial love affairs and fast cars. Both were men of style and "savoir vivre," a fine sense of how to live.

But it's believed that much of Bond was borrowed from the exploits and adventures of William Stevenson.

"Stevenson," says his Winnipeg biographer, Bill McDonald, "had proven himself on the ground. He was an expert at small arms, an experienced commando, a marksman (he once volunteered to assassinate Hitler), and physically very brave. He was taciturn, unreadable and unflappable. He was also possessed of a photographic memory, and in spite of his bland appearance, was known to be personally magnetic.

"It was Bill Stevenson who founded Camp X , a training ground for killer commandos on the shores of Lake Ontario. He was also instrumental in establishing the CIA," McDonald adds.

This may explain why, when asked whether James Bond was a real spy, as he often was, Fleming would reply that "James Bond was a highly romanticized version of a spy... Bill Stevenson is the real thing."

After the Second World War, Fleming and Stevenson owned neighbouring properties in Jamaica, where Fleming did most of his work. By the time Fleming sat down to write the first Bond novel, he'd known and admired Stevenson for about 10 years.

"Bond is world-famous, but Bill Stevenson never really got his due," says McDonald.

"The British saw him as an interloper and resented him; the Russians diminished him because he helped to create the CIA, and the Americans have kept his contributions hush-hush, because most of what he did in the U.S.A. was highly illegal."

Brenda Austin Smith, who teaches film studies at the University of Manitoba, would like to see Winnipeg capitalize on the Bond connection.

"Why shouldn't Winnipeg be home to an annual James Bond Festival, a centre of excellence around espionage movies and literature? Why not develop a Bond Bar and throw some fabulous dress-up Bond parties? How about a "Bond Walk" like the famed Beatles Walk in London?"

St. John says Bond should be promoted to bring recognition to Stevenson, the man who inspired him.

To date, little has been done by the City of Winnipeg to acknowledge either Stevenson or his fictional persona. A small suburban library is named after him, and a statue of the man in his flying gear stands near the cenotaph, gazing in the direction of the legislative grounds. Cars and pedestrians pass by, largely unaware of who the statue represents or why it's there.

The CBC recently asked listeners and viewers coast to coast to name history's greatest Canadian. When the votes were counted, Sir William Stevenson, the Man Who Might be Bond, was in 53rd place, two behind sexpot Pamela Anderson.

[The Jabroni]

Originally Posted by viperred88

Winnipeg: Birthplace of Bond?
Mounting evidence suggests that fictional, ultra-suave superspy was based on Sir William Stevenson
:By Lesley Hughes / Winnipeg Free Press.

Updated: July 19 at 02:00 AM CDT

Slurpees, stand aside. Winnie the Pooh, back off.

This city has a much hotter claim to fame. Winnipeg is the Home of Bond. James Bond. Yes, Agent 007 of her Majesty's Secret Service.


It's enough to make other grown cities cry.

Imagine the possibilities.

James Bond has been the enduring symbol of glamour, espionage, sex and machismo since he made his fictional debut in 1953 in the Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale. He's the second-biggest money-making brand in Hollywood history after Star Wars. And there are no signs the world is tired of him. The latest Bond movie, a remake of Casino Royale, was the highest grossing of all Bond films to date. The next, Quantum of Solace (the 22nd), opens in November.

Could a guy like Bond really spring from a city otherwise known for blizzards and mosquitoes, a city whose self-esteem has been lagging ever since the Panama Canal opened in 1914 and relegated it to backwater status?

The evidence has been gathering for years that writer Ian Fleming based his fictional hero on Sir William Stevenson, a real life spymaster who began his extraordinary life in 1897, an orphan in the city's Point Douglas area.

Ironically, Stevenson, a slight man who ultimately stood five-foot-two and boasted a 32-inch chest, is a much bigger hero than Bond. True, Bond can be relied on to save the day at the end of every movie, but historians believe Bill Stevenson was one of the men whose leadership, along with that of Churchill and Roosevelt, saved the western world from fascism in the Second World War.

His neighbours on Syndicate Street had no reason to believe the scrawny kid they called "Little Bill" would grow up to be a thorn in the side of a man like Adolf Hitler. He finished Grade 6 at Argyle School, got a job delivering telegrams on his bicycle, and at the first opportunity, signed up to fight in the First World War. A fighter pilot and a prisoner of war, he was publicly celebrated for his "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty" when he returned home.

Stevenson left Winnipeg at age of 25 when his fledgling hardware business failed. He emigrated to England, married an American tobacco heiress and parlayed her fortune into a much bigger one, gaining access to the upper echelons of British society along the way. He became a confidante of Winston Churchill, who dubbed Stevenson "The Man Called Intrepid."

It was during Stevenson's tenure in charge of the phony British Passport Office in New York City (actually a front for England's propaganda and counter-espionage headquarters) that Stevenson and writer Ian Fleming first met and became friends. Among many common interests, they both loved martinis, and Stevenson was famous for serving them to his guests in quart-sized glasses.


Continued

Please see Bond C8


Winnipeg publisher Peter St. John, who lectures widely on the life of William Stevenson, says Fleming would have been bowled over by Stevenson's brilliance.

"There Stevenson was, in a Manhattan skyscraper surrounded by wild electronic surveillance gadgetry, secret files and scores of beautiful women agents, a man equally at home with heads of state and paid assassins. The more Fleming learned about him, the more impressed he became."

Fleming confided to friends that in some respects, he modelled the character of James Bond on himself.

Both the writer and his hero were aloof, upper class and patriotic Brits, with a weakness for gambling, serial love affairs and fast cars. Both were men of style and "savoir vivre," a fine sense of how to live.

But it's believed that much of Bond was borrowed from the exploits and adventures of William Stevenson.

"Stevenson," says his Winnipeg biographer, Bill McDonald, "had proven himself on the ground. He was an expert at small arms, an experienced commando, a marksman (he once volunteered to assassinate Hitler), and physically very brave. He was taciturn, unreadable and unflappable. He was also possessed of a photographic memory, and in spite of his bland appearance, was known to be personally magnetic.

"It was Bill Stevenson who founded Camp X , a training ground for killer commandos on the shores of Lake Ontario. He was also instrumental in establishing the CIA," McDonald adds.

This may explain why, when asked whether James Bond was a real spy, as he often was, Fleming would reply that "James Bond was a highly romanticized version of a spy... Bill Stevenson is the real thing."

After the Second World War, Fleming and Stevenson owned neighbouring properties in Jamaica, where Fleming did most of his work. By the time Fleming sat down to write the first Bond novel, he'd known and admired Stevenson for about 10 years.

"Bond is world-famous, but Bill Stevenson never really got his due," says McDonald.

"The British saw him as an interloper and resented him; the Russians diminished him because he helped to create the CIA, and the Americans have kept his contributions hush-hush, because most of what he did in the U.S.A. was highly illegal."

Brenda Austin Smith, who teaches film studies at the University of Manitoba, would like to see Winnipeg capitalize on the Bond connection.

"Why shouldn't Winnipeg be home to an annual James Bond Festival, a centre of excellence around espionage movies and literature? Why not develop a Bond Bar and throw some fabulous dress-up Bond parties? How about a "Bond Walk" like the famed Beatles Walk in London?"

St. John says Bond should be promoted to bring recognition to Stevenson, the man who inspired him.

To date, little has been done by the City of Winnipeg to acknowledge either Stevenson or his fictional persona. A small suburban library is named after him, and a statue of the man in his flying gear stands near the cenotaph, gazing in the direction of the legislative grounds. Cars and pedestrians pass by, largely unaware of who the statue represents or why it's there.

The CBC recently asked listeners and viewers coast to coast to name history's greatest Canadian. When the votes were counted, Sir William Stevenson, the Man Who Might be Bond, was in 53rd place, two behind sexpot Pamela Anderson.

It's no surprise to me. I don't know why the Freep would be wasting our time with this article when this has been said many times before.

[viperred88]

urgh cheesy
-----------------


Trash Compactor

http://www.azuremagazine.com/magazin...er.php?id=1371
July/August 2008

The Winnipeg Trash Museum.

Three years ago, Winnipeg artist Frieso Boning became transfixed by the strange abandoned objects that revealed themselves as the snow melted in the streets. Riffing on the real-world campaign then underway for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in downtown Winnipeg, he started to imagine a parallel institution devoted entirely to garbage.

The 49-year-old started to research the unmentioned underside of urban history, looking at refuse collection from rag-and-bone men to industrial dumpsters. (Along the way, he discovered that the ubiquitous green garbage bag was co-invented by Winnipegger Harry Wasylyk.) He started dreaming up future exhibits for his fictional museum (Lost Gloves, Children of the Landfill) and backed them up with sketches, maquettes and deliberately earnest educational panels.

Proclaiming that the Winnipeg Trash Museum would "do double" what Frank Gehry's Guggenheim did for Bilbao, Boning's elaborate project was a gentle swipe at civic boosterism, archi-tourism and signature buildings. In fact, several of his proposed designs for the WTM could easily pass for the crumpled remains of Gehry's takeout lunch.

Last fall, Winnipeg gallery Ace Art Inc. invited Boning to put his faux-museum on display - an exhibition that followed the megaproject's progress from the fundraising stage through to a hard-fought mascot-naming competition to a glorious, garbage-filled future. As a shrewd comment on the bottom-line realities of museum programming, Boning also came up with ideas for WTM merch (with a gift shop selling garbage-themed totes and T-shirts) along with the Junkfud restaurant and the Get Trashed museum bar.

Cheesy, yes, but Boning's examination of museological practices and blockbuster architecture - as well as his hometown's chronic insecurities - uses satire, so understated that it practically folds in on itself. He pulls us in for a closer look at our wasteful culture while bringing out the poetics of garbage. Through Boning's imagined museum, there is a melancholy sense of mystery to be found in the afterlife of objects.

By Alison Gillmor
Alison Gillmor lives in Winnipeg, where she writes on film and popular culture. Since visiting the Winnipeg Trash Museum, she has become strangely self-conscious about the contents of her garbage.

[1ajs]

Fringe Festival Smashes Attendance Records
CJOB's John Copsey reporting
7/28/2008

The 21st Annual Winnipeg Fringe Festival hit the jackpot with full houses and record attendance this year.

Paid attendance hit 72,699, up 774 from last year's record of 71,921.

Fringe Executive Producer Chuck McEwen told CJOB this year's Vegas-styled event - dubbed 'Viva Las Fringe' - built on the momentum of last year's record-setting event.

He credits this year's continued success to generally good weather, in addition to the usual high-calibre line-up of local, national and international performers.

Total revenue for the performers totalled just over $480,000, exceeding last year's revenue by $10,000.

[wags_in_the_peg]

For sale: Winnipeg hotel where Queen slept


One of the city's top hotels is back on the market.

The Fairmont Winnipeg is being advertised for sale on the website of Toronto-based Colliers International Hotels, which describes it as "Winnipeg's premier hotel."


If the Fairmont Winnipeg is sold, another name change may result.

The landmark building at Portage and Main has 340 rooms and two exclusive upper floors for high-end customers, and has hosted luminaries including Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Mick Jagger and David Bowie in the past few decades.

Representatives with Colliers Pratt McGarry in Winnipeg and Colliers International Hotels, the groups organizing the sale, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Fairmont Winnipeg spokesman Jim McEachern did not know the details of the proposed sale. He pointed out that the hotel has changed hands several times over the past decade, which hasn't affected management.

"What remains is that it is a Fairmont Hotel," he said.

However, the Fairmont banner wouldn't necessarily be the case under new ownership: "Should a new owner desire to explore alternate management and branding, there is an opportunity for early termination," the advertisement reads.

McEachern would not discuss the management contract between Fairmont and the building's owners, or when the arrangement might expire.

The ad for the 19.5 storey hotel plays up Winnipeg's "strong, sustainable local economy," and emphasizes the pending redevelopment of the Richardson International Airport, and the anticipated construction of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

The landmark hotel cost $6 million to build when it was opened in 1970. It's gone through a number of name changes since then, with more than two decades as the Winnipeg Inn followed by a stint as the Lombard Hotel. It became the Fairmont in the late 1990s.

The last time it was owned locally was in the late 1990s, when it was sold by James Richardson & Sons Ltd.

The hotel was bought by Toronto-based Legacy Hotels Real Estate Investment Trust for $29 million.

It's currently owned by Cadim, a branch of the Caisse, a Quebec-based institutional fund manager.

A representative with Cadim referred to Legacy Hotels REIT for comment Monday. Calls to the REIT were not returned.

lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

[1ajs]

Canada's sexiest city is ... Winnipeg, claims FastLife.ca


Staff Reporter, The Province

Published: Wednesday, July 30, 2008
If you're wondering where all the sexy people are, try hanging out at Portage and Main.
That's what online speed-dating service FastLife.ca claims in a new study crowning Winnipeg as Canada's sexiest city -- narrowly edging out Vancouver.
FastLife.ca, which calls itself the world's largest speed-dating service, based its results on the popularity of its clientele using their postal codes.

Email to a friendPrinter friendlyFont:

• *
• *
• *
• *

var addthis_pub = 'canada.com'; function textCounter(field,cntfield,maxlimit) { if (field.value.length > maxlimit) // if too long...trim it! field.value = field.value.substring(0, maxlimit); // otherwise, update 'characters left' counter else { var divLabel = document.getElementById("divLabel"); divLabel.innerHTML = maxlimit - field.value.length + " characters remaining"; } }

Winnipeg topped the list at a 51-per-cent ranking. Vancouver followed closely at 49 per cent, with Calgary coming in third at 48 per cent and Toronto and Edmonton tied at 46 per cent.
Montreal was second worst at 42 per cent, with Ottawa occupying the bottom slot at 40 per cent.
The rankings come from events where daters have eight minutes to "date" 10 members of the opposite sex before deciding to rate them a "yes" or "no."
The ratio of yes votes generates a user's sexiness ranking.
Women's average popularity on the service was 56 per cent nationwide, compared with just 41 per cent for men.
Other tallies show Canada's sexiest suburb is Richmond, B.C., while the country's sexiest neighbourhoods are Vancouver's Yaletown and the Yonge-Eglinton area of Toronto.

[1ajs]

Winnipeg zoo's polar bear, world's oldest, dying: officials

Last Updated: Friday, August 1, 2008 | 11:19 AM CT Comments1Recommend6

CBC News


Debby celebrates her 40th birthday in her enclosure in Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo in December 2006. (CBC)The Assiniboine Park Zoo's polar bear Debby, famous for being the oldest living polar bear in the world, is dying from age-related medical complications, zoo officials said Thursday.
Debby, now 41 years and eight months old, is "showing signs of her advanced age and the prognosis of recovery from age-related medical problems is not good," zoo officials said in a release.
Despite her ailing health, the bear continues to live in her regular zoo enclosure and is out to see "her public" most days.
Debby has been acknowledged as the world's oldest living polar bear by Guinness World Records and Polar Bears International Magazine.
"In fact, she appears to be the third oldest bear ever recorded for all eight living species of bears," officials said.
Orphan Russian cub

Debby enjoys eating and swimming, zookeepers said. (CBC)An orphan cub from the Russian Arctic, Debby came to the Assiniboine Park Zoo in 1967. She produced six surviving offspring with longtime mate Skipper, who died in 1999 at age 34.
Few polar bears reach 20 years of age in the wild, but many have survived into their early 30s in captivity.
At the time of her 41st birthday in December 2007, zookeepers described her as "playful in her senior years," and said she enjoyed swimming, submerging a plastic barrel in her pond and stalking ducks and other birds that landed in her enclosure.
"Her favourite pastime remains eating," they said, noting she weighed in at 300 kilograms.
Officials said Debby is "without a doubt" the most popular animal in the zoo's 104-year history, with more than 18 million visitors. She does not hibernate, and is on display year-round.
"A wonderful ambassador for her species, it is significant that she has survived to 2008, the International Year of the Polar Bear, so designated by Polar Bears International, which promotes the conservation of the species under threat by global warming," officials said.

[rrskylar]

Once again Gordie Sinclair fails the common sense test, Gordie fails to come to the realization that whether the person shot was holding a gun, knife or cell phone, when an armed police officer tells you to put something in your hand down you comply...or face the consequences! It's not really a matter of being black, white or first nations, maybe one day Gordie will get it!



Once again, who's going to watch over the police?
Gordon Sinclair Jr.

Gordon Sinclair Jr.

Updated: August 5 at 12:45 AM CDT

* Print Article
* E-mail Article
* ShareThis

It was a short long weekend for a 26-year-old aboriginal man and the Winnipeg police officer who fatally shot him early Saturday morning.

The young native man went to a hospital morgue. The cop went home on administrative leave.

That's routine for police officers who've been involved in traumatic events.

Not that police shooting aboriginals in Winnipeg is routine, but I think it's fair to say there is a perception that police shootings of aboriginal people have been happening with alarming regularity.

Recently, it seems, police have been killing young aboriginal men most often when they are "brandishing" knives.

What separates last weekend's fatal shooting from the rest, of course, is who died. Craig McDougall was native leader J. J. Harper's nephew.

Twenty years ago, the unnecessary police shooting death of the 36-year-old Harper on a Winnipeg street forced the provincial government to call a sweeping inquiry into how the justice system treats aboriginals.

Now his nephew has died in a similar way and I'm being asked by CBC TV what we've learned since the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry reported in 1991.

Not much, I would suggest.

The situation on the street is actually worse, both for aboriginals and police. Gangs have grown from an embryonic state when Harper was shot to the lifestyle of choice for many aboriginal kids.

But it's not just gangs that have proliferated. It's guns.

Yet, for the most part, Winnipeg police aren't shooting and killing people with guns.

As I was saying, it's knives. Or, in one case, a screwdriver.

And not necessarily knives that are being used to attack police. Most often it's the sight of knives that's perceived to be enough of a threat to officer safety that they shoot to kill.

The "brandishing" of knives.

In Saturday's incident, police said Craig McDougall refused their orders to drop a knife before he was shot.

We'll have to wait for the police to finish their investigation -- and an inquest -- for all the details. The problem is, the aboriginal community will never trust the police service to do a thorough investigation of one of their own. Nor should they.

As the AJI suggested, there will always be a perceived bias when a police service investigates itself. Sometimes more than perceived.

In the Harper case, for example, the two commissioners found that some of the Winnipeg police officers who testified before them were "less than truthful" -- that at least one officer's notebook was rewritten, and an "official version" of what happened appeared to have been created to protect the officer who shot Harper as well as the police department.

The judges phrased it even more pointedly. They said there was a prevailing attitude in the police department at the time, "which viewed the public image of the police department and the interest of one of its officers as more important than finding out the truth about the death of a citizen."

None of that should surprise anyone who's been following the Taman inquiry, where the Winnipeg police service's methods of investigating its own are being laid bare again.

After the Harper inquiry, the AJI recommended a special investigation unit to take charge of police-related shootings and alleged wrong-doing.

That was in August 1991 and we're still waiting.

Chances are the Taman inquiry report will make a similar recommendation.

The difference is that the Taman case isn't about police shooting an aboriginal.

It's about an off-duty Winnipeg cop who spent all night at a drinking party, seemingly getting special police treatment after he plowed into and killed a 40-year-old woman on her way to work.

This time the public gets it. And this time our political leaders had better get it, too.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

[wags_in_the_peg]

Price of new housing in city rises 11.5%

The price of new housing in Winnipeg rose 11.5 per cent in June, compared with a year earlier, far out-distancing the national increase, Statistics Canada reported this morning.

Nationally, contractors' selling prices went up 3.5 per cent, the slowest pace in more than six years, continuing a slowdown that started in September 2006.

On a monthly basis, prices nationally edged up 0.1 per cent between May and June this year. In Winnipeg, the monthly rise was 1.1 per cent.

Buyers in Regina continued to experience the largest gains in new home prices, StatsCan said. Contractors' prices in Regina increased by 28.5 per cent from June 2007, with continuing labour shortages and increased costs of materials likely playing important roles.

[wags_in_the_peg]

the Sutherland Hotel is up for sale $695k. one of you buy it and help out your urban renawal plans on main.

http://www.winnipegrealestatenews.ca...mmercial,farms

30 Room Hotel, lounge capacity 154, beer vendor, 7 VLTs, 25 seat restaurant, coolers, ATMs, entertainment system incl. stage, lighting etc. Going concern, very good revenue. Possession could be fast. Building included. Many upgrades.