WildPath

Interesting to hear accounts of what it is like for parents as I have been solely doing remote teaching (elementary) since January. I know it is hard for some families, especially larger families or ones with limited devices, so I try to accommodate when possible. I get a filtered view of what families decide to tell the teacher, so its mostly positive. One thing I have been really impressed with is how students have actually developed relationships with each other since we started in February. These are families that chose remote learning due to health concerns and other reasons. Many of these students haven't been able to see their friends and have come to rely on our meetings for building relationships. My students come from all across Manitoba and many are already planning on meeting up this summer if/when restrictions allow. In some cases this will mean more than 6 hours of travel.

Yet we still have apologists like Dorothy Dobbie "putting things in perspective" Like this gem "Many of the abuses visited upon Indigenous kids were routine for all students in the private schools here in Canada and abroad. Nor were families gentle: “spare the rod and spoil the child” was the rule of thumb well into the second half of the 20th century." "This is not to mitigate the damage that was done to our Indigenous youth. It is to ease the burden of hurt and injustice that Indigenous people feel by letting them know that they were not alone." "It seems to me, that we were much better at respecting each other in the past than we are now." In other words, if you're indigenous, don't worry. Everyone had the same treatment and you need to realize that. https://whatsupwinnipeg.ca/reconciliation-must-begin-with-mutual-understanding/ This is someone who has been the president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, currently runs a media company and was an elected M.P. from Winnipeg South. Bet you can guess which party she belongs to. P.S. I cannot find a date on the article, but I'm pretty certain it was before these remains were discovered. I guess I can pretend there's hope that she must have a more nuanced view now.

Taught on a reserve for quite a few years. Always felt... conflicted at the very least... to have students standing up for the national anthem.

Don't forget the bourbon, scotch and beer.

Not sure how reducing revenues through eliminating sales tax and property taxes helps with fiscal responsibility. The reality is that reducing revenues in this way gets rid of progressive taxes which will only create a greater divide between rich and poor in the province. Those who are fortunate to own property, or even better multiple expensive properties, benefit the most from this. Sure, we can cut services (they'll tell you its just trimming the fat and removing waste), but that disproportionately affects those who don't have deep pockets. Enough with the bs about them doing something good for the province, its clear who they rule for. Giving Manitoban's a rebate cheque instead of just reducing the property tax seems to be purely buying votes. Unless there is some rule I am unaware of that the property tax can't just be lowered without a separate cheque going out.

I think we badly need voting reforms in Manitoba. We desperately need a third party to prevent the other two from getting majorities. Its hard to be a "anyone but NDP/PC" voter when there are pretty much only two options. The trashy PC legislation being passed now would at the very least be able to be tempered if they had a minority. Same goes with the previous NDP majority. I'm fortunate to have Lamont as my MLA, so I can't really go wrong. I'm not really a partisan voter, but I'm a big fan of the provincial liberals lately. Elsewhere its hard to hold a party accountable unless you are okay with the other side getting a majority. Your view of an NDP/PC government in power depends on your perspective, but having a legitimate third party to moderate either and reduce majority governments would be good for all Manitobans, regardless of political views. I'm hoping Covid is the nail in the PC coffin that keeps them out of power for a long time much like how the reign of Filmon kept them out for a long time. I'm also hoping the horrendous legislation introduce this year is a reminder to all what happens when PCs get a majority here.

Not to mention that there was no fines associated with the Springs church grad. The message the Springs grad and Forks rally incidents send to someone who might want to invite someone over to the backyard for the fire is laughable. High profile flaunting of restrictions (I still believe the MLA was present for the grad), continually, makes it so much harder to not make any personal exceptions. When that compounds over a whole population, there is a problem.

Manitoba Nurses has been a good follow. They've exposed the lie about hiring 60 more ICU nurses. Unfortunately you just can't trust the announcements they make. One of the saddest things about the response by the government is the misinformation and blaming others/not accepting any responsibility - "We've got this. Doctors are trying to create chaos". When media report on their transgressions they are labelled as biased/fake news (pretty scary considering what that's led to down south) and used as a means of fundraising to fight the evil media. There's definitely a lot of blame to be carried on the shoulders of those resisting restrictions/masks/vaccinations - I would be much more comfortable if they would just choose one of the three to resist. Morden/Winkler area reporting between 0-20% vaccinated - its just a hair over 10% to be exact (the big white spot on the map). The Southern region altogether has 20% lower vaccination rates than every other area. https://www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/vaccine/reports.html The PCs really need to accept a large amount of the blame rather than using the pandemic as an smoke screen to introduce really bad legislation. They started a campaign to attract tourism, actually paid money, in the middle of a pandemic, to attract tourism and large events. When that eventually bit us in the ass (somehow they assumed Manitoba was immune despite trying to attract tourism from surrounding hotspots) they refused to do hiring to do adequate contract tracing and suggest Manitobans need to volunteer to help out. Now we've been bit again despite having the good fortune of having our waves delayed compared to every area in Canada/US. We have not heeded warnings from medical professionals. A little foresight and planning ahead could mitigate more restrictive measures. Instead of actually planning ahead, like having a whole year to increase ICU capacity instead of doing victory laps, we're left asking for help from "the evil feds", Ontario, Saskatchewan and North Dakota. Its a really bad look on a government that has disdain for anyone who accepts EI or other forms of social assistance.

Its basically an indoctrination program into their wacky theology. I say this as someone who has a minor in Biblical and Theological studies, but anyone can see they have pretty crazy theology. They have the kids in their own Springs educational system from Kindergarten to fake college. Seeing as they were broadcasting the grad ceremony to a parking lot, you'd have to think Audrey Gordon, at the very least, was well aware of the event and kept quiet. It also makes no sense to me why she would complete walk around saying that she wasn't there when saying directly that she wasn't there is way easier and puts part of the situation to bed.

Her response seems to indicate that she was there and she's just saying nobody has proof. She also says what she was doing from afternoon till evening, I guess hoping people assume the ceremony was in the afternoon or evening despite the timestamp in the post indicating that everything was already put together and posted on instagram before she can account for her whereabouts? Either she was there or she is really horrible at P.R. and doesn't realize that saying directly that she wasn't there is so much better than talking all around saying you weren't there and hoping people assume you weren't. Either way, she is a member of the church, surely knew in advance about the ceremony and kept her mouth shut and has not denounced the church (other than saying she was disappointed to hear about it) and is still a member of the church.

To be fair, I haven't seen it confirmed that she was there. Her response is super weird and seems to give her an out to admit she was there in case someone comes up with evidence. She also expressed disappointment, but did not condemn it. "As an aside, I have read several posts stating that I was present at the Springs graduation ceremony. To my knowledge, no evidence has been provided to substantiate this claim. The day of the graduation ceremony, the Legislative Assembly sat from 1:30 PM to approximately 10:45 PM. All 57 MLAs were present for the House session including myself. This information can be easily verified by the public." Also, shame on those for reporting about the Springs grad - they are the ones dividing Manitobans! Not Springs!: "Today, I received several messages of support from residents. I want each and every resident of the Southdale Constituency to know that I am not at all deterred by any force that aims to sew seeds of division and discord in our community. The forces that are for us, are far greater than the forces that are against us." Quotes from her FB post. Goes hand in hand with the PC message that the media is the enemy. (They sent fundraising emails out trying to raise funds to fight the evil Free Press for those who aren't in the loop)

Speaking of assholes that don't care... It looks like Springs Church had their big graduation ceremony just as they would prior to the pandemic. Except they removed the pics from their instagram to try to get rid of the evidence after. https://imgur.com/gallery/iamqVyB Audrey Gordon, our minister for mental health is a member of Springs Church.

I feel it too. I've been super vigilant during the pandemic. Not only because I have a potentially pretty serious health condition and now have a newborn, but also to do something for the common good. If everyone could act with consideration for others, we have the knowledge to be able to snuff out Covid. I gave up my teaching position, losing out on a permanent contract just when I qualified for one, said no a ton of times to doing things socially with friends - I don't know how much more I could do. Its getting to me to see things completely out of my hands. Horrible response from government and then seemingly a ton of idiots that only care for themselves or have some ridiculous religious/anti-science agenda that makes things so much worse for others with very little personal consequence. Its actually been super helpful to come to MBB to see others express the same sentiments. To know its not the majority of people going about like nothing is going on, no care for anyone else. It makes me hopeful that the silent majority actually do give a **** and are doing the right things and its the ******* minority that are being the loudest and most disruptive.

We've been consistently near the bottom in terms of vaccine rollout: https://covid19tracker.ca/vaccinationtracker.html We've made a a few appearances near the top of the list for hotspots in Canada/US and we are currently #1, again: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/covid-19-in-the-u-s-how-do-canada-s-provinces-rank-against-american-states-1.5051033 We don't have the ICU capacity that we need in our province. I've heard is that part of it is a shortage of nurses. Nurses have been without a contract for four years and feel completely disrespected. Maybe sign a contract, pay them fairly and treat them fairly. But I bet working without a contract for four years makes those provincial budgets look pretty good. This is the same government that, as others have mentioned, make restriction which obviously prioritize economy and not reducing the most likely forms of transmission. They've done it again and again, despite having the huge good fortune of being behind other provinces in outbreaks multiple times. This is the same government that floated getting rid of quarantine requirements for business travellers just a few weeks ago as other provinces were hitting their third waves. The moves they have made are way too late, despite having tons of advance warning from other provinces. We've had health care professionals multiple times make it public that more restrictions are needed and they are needed sooner. They've faced backlash and criticism from our health minister when they have done so. They've obviously been trying to milk every last drop out of the economy before imposing restrictions and then relying on blaming Trudeau/Manitobans. This requires longer and more stringent restrictions. The Manitobans not getting vaccinated are their people! Many of the top ministers in this government call the bible belt home. These are the people that should be able to reach the anti-vax, anti-mask nuts (no chance they'd listen to an NDP government). This is the same government that gave the anti-maskers a boost when they resisted a mask mandate in the face of health professionals and others in government telling them it is time to mandate masks. Unfortunately I am not hopefully that people will remember this. They've used the pandemic as an opportunity to undemocratically introduce some pretty atrocious legislation. Pallister will likely be gone to Costa Rica when this is over, but I'm not sure voters will remember that the stench should still be on the shoulders of the PC party. I wasn't a fan of Trudeau and didn't vote for him, but the Manitoba government has been a disaster every step of the way this pandemic. And we just keep getting hard questions answered with the blaming of others.

Just a guess, but I'm thinking they were unvaccinated people. Everything I've seen suggests Pfizer/Moderna are almost 100% effective against preventing hospitalization and death even among the VOCs. The other possibility I was thinking is that it is death from people who caught Covid and have been fighting it for a long time, but older people have been eligible for vaccines for quite a while already. From an anecdotal perspective, all 3 of my remaining grandparents live in seniors facilities and are fully vaccinated. I know from my grandma's facility most (something like 75% CHOSE not to get vaccinated) and from my other grandparent's place there were a lot that chose not to get vaccinated as well. Something that really makes me shake my head when the vaccine was brought right to their place and it wasn't a matter of logistics. Fortunately all my grandparents were sane and chose to get the shot. I might have had to leverage contact with my newborn baby as bait to get my grandpa vaccinated. But he was quickly fully on board. They really should be saying if these people were vaccinated or not. If they were unvaccinated as I assume they were, it would really put an impetus on others to get vaccinated. Especially those older folks who are resisting for whatever reason.

I am a teacher and also immunocompromised. I got my first shot this week. It was neither being a teacher, nor having an autoimmune disease that qualified me to be vaccinated. My autoimmune condition puts me in the same risk group for death/hospitalization as those over 70. Haven't had any bad reactions other than some shoulder pain. With my second dose I'll have to be especially careful as adverse reactions are a lot more common for people with my condition. Even though I am at heightened risk of adverse reactions, I am 100% looking forward to a second shot.

I do elementary and we were preparing plans. Perhaps that doesn't mean much, but that's a pretty high number of staff's time that would be wasted if they don't switch. I guess our stuff could always be used for an eventual switch to remote, but I don't understand why there would be an emergency rush then. We could do a much better job preparing given more time.

Well.. apparently I was wrong about going to remote learning. Why in the hell would we have to an emergency to prepare other teachers for remote learning and completely change our afternoon plans? We rushed to have things ready to go for other teachers for Monday. What a waste of time for all of us. Sorry to misinform everyone.

If only there was a way to tell that this was coming so we could have been prepared.... https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/doctors-sign-letter-to-premier-wanting-stricter-restrictions-to-help-health-care-system-1.5416002 Oh yeah, that's right. Doctor's must be trying to cause chaos and have ulterior motives... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/health-minister-doctors-letter-1.5788783 Are you allowed to say I told you so, when you publicly told them so twice and were proven correct twice or would that be "Monday Morning Quarterbacking"

I work for the provincial remote learning centre. All our meetings were cancelled this afternoon to prepare documents for teachers about remote teaching. They didn't tell us what the plan is (wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't a plan). But I think its safe to assume schools will be going remote. We could have been preparing to help schools go remote for weeks... They let our admin know today and we had to rush and change everything.

Don't worry. He'll be back when there's good news to announce. Hard to show your face when you're caught with your pants down on 3rd wave preparations and look like a clown with his vaccine deal with Providence. Not to mention being last for vaccine distribution except for Nunavut.

When I was playing hockey we would rub shampoo on our shields. I didn't think it would work until I tried it and then I did it before every game. I still remember the coconut smell of the shampoo I kept in my bag from a hotel. I'd be curious if this would work with glasses fogging too.

The restrictions make it clear the economy is held above all else including family connections and mental & physical health. Increasing restrictions does not bother me personally much. Due to having a newborn and an autoimmune condition, my family has held ourselves to more restrictive standards than governmental restrictions for the past year. Its sucked, but hopefully it will change soon. It would be nice if the restrictions made sense and showed compassion for anything other than the almighty dollar. Its also really unfortunate about the idiots at the rallies and nothing being done about enforcement. They should all be fined with the fine going to support small businesses. They claim their rally is to support small businesses, so they should happily pay the fine.

The old 2K football games were legendary. They got too good so EA bought exclusive rights. I've read decent things about the Axis Football series, but haven't played it. Kind of fits the whole indie angle that I think would be good. Maybe they have a CFL mod or could get licensing eventually. Could be good for both sides.

Immunocompromised guy here. Expecting my first child in a few weeks. There's my bias. "Our" decision to live with Covid has meant I haven't been able to go to any of the prenatal appointments. I'm concerned we are inviting another wave that may prevent me from being present at the birth. Not a big fan of loosening restrictions when mass vaccinations are underway and at least somewhat of an end is in sight. Would really like to feel comfortable being around friends again too. Thankfully all 3 of my 80+ year old grandparents have all received one vaccine shot though.