Goldeyes add righty to rotation
8:08 PM
The Winnipeg Goldeyes have signed right-handed starting pitcher Aaron Shortridge.
Shortridge was chosen by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the fourth round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft out of the University of California, Berkeley. He played five seasons in their system, reaching the Class-AAA level on two occasions.
The 27-year-old spent the majority of last season with the Class-AAA International League’s Indianapolis Indians, where he posted a 3-4 record with a 5.18 earned run average in 12 appearances.
In 2023, Shortridge went 11-8 in 27 starts for the Class-AA Eastern League’s Altoona Curve, with a pair of complete games.
The native of Santa Rosa, California has compiled a career record of 28-23 with a 4.07 ERA in 96 games (87 starts).
Wilson elected as AMC’s grand chief
2:47 PM
Kyra Wilson has been elected as the new grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.
The former Long Plain First Nation chief received 37 out of the 61 votes cast in Wednesday’s bylection. York Factory First Nation Chief Leroy Constant and Sapotaweyak Cree Nation band councillor Bava Dhillon received 10 votes each, while former Peguis First Nation chief Glenn Hudson received four.
The candidates were publicly announced on Jan. 19.
Wilson will replace Cathy Merrick, who died suddenly at age 63 on Sept. 6.
“The AMC honours her unwavering dedication to First Nations and her lasting impact on our collective advocacy,” the release said of Merrick.
War Lake First Nation chief Betsy Kennedy served as acting grand chief after Merrick’s death.
Undi named parliamentary poet laureate for 2025-26
11:58 AM
Winnipeg poet Chimwemwe Undi has been named Canada’s 11th parliamentary poet laureate.
Undi, who is also a lawyer at Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP, served as Winnipeg’s third poet laureate in 2023-24; she was announced as the 2025-26 parliamentary poet laureate on Jan. 29 by Raymonde Gagné, the speaker of the Senate, and Greg Fergus, the speaker of the House of Commons. She takes over from Quebec’s outgoing parliamentary poet laureate Marie-Célie Agnant, whose two-year term concluded at the end of 2024.
According to the Parliament of Canada website, the parliamentary poet laureate’s duties may include writing poetry for use in Parliament, sponsoring readings, advising the parliamentary librarian on the library’s collection, as well as other duties.
Undi’s debut poetry collection Scientific Marvel, published in April 2024, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry.
Chimwemwe Undi
Online Project Arachnid tool still getting results
10:37 AM
A Winnipeg-based online tool has led to millions of child sexual abuse images being removed from the internet since its launch in 2017, its creator says.
Action has been taken against nearly 50 million images and videos after the Project Arachnid platform found them online, the Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection said in a Wednesday news release. Removal notices have been issued to more than 1,500 online service providers in more than 100 countries hosting the material.
“The volume of this material is such that it can be easy to lose track of the fact that these aren’t just pictures or computer files. We have to remember these are recordings that memorialize some of the most traumatic and abusive moments of a child’s life,” the centre’s executive director, Lianna McDonald, said in the release.
Former Manitoba Health Coalition director named NDP candidate for St. Boniface-St. Vital riding
9:48 AM
Thomas Linner has been named the NDP candidate for St. Boniface-St. Vital in the next federal election.
Linner, who lives in Windsor Park, was previously the director of the Manitoba Health Coalition and is interim executive director at the Manitoba Federation of Labour’s Occupational Health Centre. He is on the board of directors for Heartwood Healing Centre, a non-profit group that helps adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
“People will have a choice in this upcoming election — a vote for the Conservatives and higher bills, fewer public services and more handouts for billionaires; or a vote for the NDP, to hire more doctors and nurses, get you a family doctor and cut wait times and finally have a government that works for the working people instead of the ultra-wealthy CEOs,” Linner said in a news release Wednesday.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called Linner “a longtime defender of our universal health-care system.”
The riding is represented by Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Dan Vandal, who was first elected to the House of Commons in late 2015. He announced in October that he would not seek re-election and was shuffled out of cabinet in December.
