Stuff about Manitoba

Wilma, Bamm Bamm & Pebbles

WARNING: This file contains descriptions of homophobia. Three food trucks have withdrawn from Pride events in a town in southern Manitoba after receiving threats of vandalism, the president of Pembina Valley Pride says. One of the food truck owners who planned to be at Pride in Altona's Centennial Park this Saturday received online threats that the vehicle would be vandalized with graffiti, Pauline Emerson-Froebe told CBC on Wednesday. The threats came shortly after the volunteer-led organization posted a list of participating food trucks on its social media accounts earlier in the week, said Emerson-Froebe, the president of Pembina Valley Pride. "It's an intimidation tactic and it's threatening their livelihood," she said.

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Manitoba's premier will not be allowed to speak at this year's annual Pride rally, but says she will be walking in the parade.

"I have been invited to walk and I will be walking," Premier Heather Stefanson said while answering questions at a government news conference Tuesday.

Stefanson added this will be the first Pride parade she has marched in.

Stefanson was banned from speaking at the annual Pride rally following last year's event after she gave a speech but did not march in the parade. At the time, Pride Winnipeg accused the premier of snubbing the parade and using the rally as a photo-op. 

Stefanson said she has apologized for last year's event. [...]

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Some of the organizers of last year's convoy have altered plans to end a second convoy in Ottawa this February, opting instead for Winnipeg.

James Bauder, co-founder of the group Canada Unity and a co-organizer of last February's protest in Ottawa, made the announcement in a Facebook live video, along with fellow organizers Ron Clark and Colin 'Big Bear' Ross, on Christmas Day.

The rally is scheduled to take place from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20, 2023. The start date falls on the one-year anniversary of the final full day of the protest in Ottawa — one day before police started a push to take back occupied streets in the nation's capital.

Bauder had previously posted a call on social media for "Freedom Convoy 2.0" in Ottawa on those same February dates. Now he says the capital will be a stop on the way to Winnipeg where the convoy will make its presence known.

"We're going to come with our convoy — coming right by Ottawa," he said. "We're going to honk, honk and we're going to invite Ottawa residents." [...]

"We chose Winnipeg because it's the middle point in Canada, so people can come from the east coast, from the west coast," Ross said. "We'll be able to convoy across the nation."

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Winnipegosis, a small, rural town northwest of Winnipeg, had never hosted a Gay Pride event until Saturday, when the town gathered to celebrate its LGBTQ community.

Acceptance and support in the town of 600 shows the event was needed, says Cyndie Blythe, the president of the planning committee.

“It’s rural Manitoba. It’s never been done before. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t people here who want and need this,” Blythe said in an interview over Zoom.

The day’s activities started with hot dog carts, face painting and tattoos, followed a parade with floats later in the afternoon. The evening events include a dinner — 96 tickets had been sold when Blythe spoke to the CBC Saturday morning — followed by a drag show.

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Health Minister Audrey Gordon is promising to remove perhaps the biggest obstacle for internationally trained nurses working in another province who are trying to move back to Manitoba.

Gordon has issued a compliance order that forces the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba to remove its requirement that internationally educated nurses already licensed in other jurisdictions in Canada be subject to further testing if they’re trying again to be accredited in Manitoba.

The vast majority of people who take the days-long examination, referred to as the clinical competence assessment, are found to need remedial education to be licensed in the province.

The additional requirement has prevented numerous people from returning to Manitoba, critics have said.

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