Latest news with #FestivalduVoyageur
CBC
02-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Catering company sues City of Winnipeg, Festival du Voyageur for walkway collapse
Social Sharing A catering company is suing the City of Winnipeg and Festival du Voyageur, alleging a walkway collapse at Fort Gibraltar two years ago "significantly impaired" its ability to carry on business. Seventeen children and an adult were taken to hospital after they fell about six metres when an elevated walkway collapsed during a St. John's-Ravenscourt School trip on May 31, 2023. A teacher and the families of two children who were hurt in the walkway collapse have previously filed separate lawsuits associated with the incident. Gibraltar Dining Corporation is now also suing the city and the festival for negligence and unspecified amounts of damages, claiming it was prevented from accessing or operating at the site, as well as from retrieving its food and equipment, breaching its contract. The caterer was given exclusive access to parts of the site when it entered into an agreement with the city and the festival in 2011, according to the company's statement of claim. The claim alleges that the festival failed to maintain the grounds, including the fort, and that the city failed to ensure the fort underwent timely inspections. The catering company's ability to operate and generate revenue has been "significantly impaired" in light of the walkway collapse, and the company has and continues to suffer losses and damages in light of the walkway collapse, the suit claims. None of the allegations have been proven in court. CBC News has reached out to the city and Festival du Voyageur for comment.
CBC
17-02-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Extreme cold doesn't deter Winnipeggers from enjoying outdoor activities on Louis Riel Day
The southern half of the province remains locked under an extreme cold weather warning, but that didn't stop many Winnipeggers from braving the bone-chilling temperatures and enjoying Louis Riel Day outdoors. With many people off work and children out of the classroom, The Forks and Whittier Park — home of the 56th annual Festival du Voyageur — were popular outdoor holiday destinations Monday. Josh Watt and his family look forward to attending the festival, also known as Winnipeg's winter festival, every year. "For us, this is almost like Christmas," he said. "It's a chance to remember our roots, but also to celebrate the future. We love the music, we love the food and, of course, we love the company." Each dressed in their capot, Watt's family didn't frosty weather, which saw wind chill values dip below –40, and even –50 in some parts of the province early Monday morning. Watt spent time doing a craft in a tipi with his daughter, hoping to pass down generational wisdom and knowledge. "It basically taught her about the seven generations that had come before us, as well as the seven generations yet to come, and how important it is to keep that in mind with every decision we make," he said. Karen Ralcewicz is a teacher who used to teach French at a previous posting. She often brought her students out to the winter festival. A Festival du Voyageur volunteer for the past decade-plus, she too didn't mind stepping outside on a frigid winter day in Winnipeg. "I think it gets me out in the winter, just seeing everybody and just being part of the French culture," she said. Ralcewicz was also dressed in a capot of her own, which features three blankets and an old coat that she estimates took her 10 hours to sew together. Spending time outdoors in winter breaks the cycle of spending more time inside, she said. "Being outside in the winter, you know, it is Winnipeg. It is cold but you need to get out there and enjoy it," Ralcewicz said. Owen Smith was out enjoying the activities at Whittier Park with his mom and little sister on Monday. The seven-year-old boy is really a big fan of the traditional maple taffy that's eaten off the snow. "It's just Festival du Voyageur is just really, really fun," he said. So too is skating along the Nestaweya River Trail with his kids and grandkids, says John Koncan, who is from Huntsville, Ont. "We visit Winnipeg several times a year. One of the reasons we come is to skate the longest [river] trail in Canada, so we love it," he said. However, after 40 minutes on the river trail, Koncan admitted it was time to go inside to warm up for a bit. "We have to. It is just way too cold to stay out there. The wind is so cutting. It's like razors cutting on your cheek," he said. Holiday closure for popular ski hill Although there were no new temperature records set Sunday night or Monday, the cold weather prompted the closure of western Manitoba's favourite ski hills. Asessippi Ski Resort, located near Russell and about 350 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, was forced to close operations Monday due to the extreme cold. "At 8:00 a.m., it was –50 degrees with the air and the wind chill, and it's just not safe to operate for our staff and our guests at that temperature," said Shannon Johnston, the resort's assistant manager. Additionally, just one of Asessippi's three aerial chairlifts were open Sunday. The resort has a cold weather policy in place that's been tweaked over the years, but Asessippi tends to make a decision between noon and 2 p.m. the day before a possible closure so that would-be skiers and snowboarders can alter their plans. "We never want to close. We never want to let anyone down. We never want to disappoint anyone. But we also need to make sure that we keep everyone safe and happy," Johnson said. "We look at the weather 100 times a day and it just did not change. In fact, it kept getting colder and colder." The cold weather also forced the resort to cancel its fireworks show on Sunday, and push back its Rail Warz event one week to this coming Saturday. The Louis Riel weekend is usually a busy time for Asessippi, but Johnston is looking forward to above-seasonal weather next weekend. "We are just so looking forward to everyone coming out once the weather turns," she said. "I think we're all tired of this weather and everyone wants to get out of their house. So we are ready for you."
CBC
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Winnipeg heavy metal band Harm screams with joy in French and English
Mason Greuner has heard it before. French, he says, is the language of love. But when you're a metal band onstage in Winnipeg, singing en français is also just plain fun. "I like singing in French," Greuner says. "Especially doing the metal screaming in French. It has an edge to it that English just doesn't really have." Singer Greuner and drummer Rylan Bazylo front Harm, a Winnipeg-based heavy metal band that — up until a year ago — sang in English only. Then an opportunity came up to take the stage at Chicane électrique — a music competition at the Festival du Voyageur. The only requirement? They sing in French. Thankfully, lessons learned in high school French classes stayed with them and saved the day. "The few originals we had we translated, " Bazylo says. "It worked out great." Geneviève Freynet, a singer-songwriter and judge with Chicane électrique, agrees. "It's not exactly a genre of music that you see very often in the French music sphere," Freynet says. "They were original in their ways of making music together and presenting themselves on stage." Today, Harm performs in both languages, and the band members wouldn't have it any other way. "Creating art voluntarily and expressing yourself in French, for me personally, it's really opened up the language in a way," Bazylo says. "It's really fun." Harm is now the subject of a new three-minute documentary by students in the Create program at Winnipeg's Sisler High School, a post-high school program that trains students in the creative digital arts, including filmmaking. Create students Maya Reuther, Luis Manguerra and Shea Miller produced the new short video. Meet the filmmakers More about Project POV: Sisler Create CBC Manitoba's Project POV: Sisler Create is a storytelling collaboration that partners filmmaking students with CBC Manitoba journalists to produce short docs. You can see past projects here. The Winnipeg School Division's Create program is hosted at Sisler High School and trains post-high students in the creative digital arts. During fall 2024, CBC journalists taught storytelling to filmmaking students and led producing workshops at Sisler.
CBC
16-02-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Extreme cold continues its grip on most of Manitoba through the Louis Riel long weekend
Bundle up if you're planning to spend part of the Louis Riel Day long weekend outside at Winnipeg's Festival du Voyageur. Much of Manitoba remains locked in a mid-winter deep freeze this long weekend, and there doesn't appear to be a break from the frigid weather for a few more days. The prolonged extreme cold has plunged wind chill values into the –40s throughout southern parts of the province, with northern and western areas of Manitoba experiencing wind chill dropping close to –50, according to the national weather agency. Wind chill values may moderate slightly during the day on Sunday, but are expected to return to extreme levels during the overnight period and into Monday morning, including in Winnipeg and Brandon. Environment Canada encourages anyone going outside to dress in layers — with a wind-resistant outer layer — to avoid frostbite, which can develop within minutes on exposed skin. Extreme cold warnings are issued when very cold temperatures or wind chill creates an elevated risk to health such as frost bite and hypothermia.
CBC
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Snow sculptures return for 56th annual Festival du Voyageur
The gates at Fort Gibraltar in St. Boniface open for the 56th annual Festival du Voyageur on Friday. The festival embraces the winter, and celebrates the arts including music, dance and snow sculpting, with an emphasis on Francophone and Indigenous artists. "On Feb. 17 we will be celebrating Louis Riel Day featuring an impressive lineup of Indigenous artists, and we'll have many activities going on in the park that day including the Louis Riel Day market," said Breanne Lavallée-Heckert, executive director of Festival du Voyageur. The 10-day event is packed with activities, performances and contests. There's a pea soup competition where local restaurants battle to be crowned favourite pea soup in Manitoba. There's also a fiddling contest, a jigging contest, sleigh rides on both weekends, an ice sculpting workshop, a wood carving demo, and on the festival's final day, the first 200 people to arrive at Whittier Park will be treated to a free pancake breakfast. "This year we're also relaunching our school program in a revamped model after taking in feedback from teachers," Lavallée-Heckert said. "We made some adjustments to our programming and we're so excited to be able to offer new programs this year." Festival also introduced Fort Gibraltar live, a new virtual tour that offers programming to students regardless of where they're from in the province. There are also several snow sculptures throughout the city that have been carved by artists. David MacNair has been creating snow sculptures for 38 years, while his sculpting partner Gary Tessier has over 40 years of experience. They're part of a team that's created eight of this year's sculptures, including one called Le Band, which is based on one of Tessier's drawings. It's located on the corner of Provencher Boulevard and Rue St. Joseph, and it took them over 45 hours to create. The sculpture features a bass player, a trumpeter, a guitarist and a bongo player, as well as two singers on either end of the carved-up snow block, Tessier said. "Festival is all about celebration, history and music, and this is sort of a funky way of celebrating that," he said. The recent cold spell has also made it somewhat challenging to finalize the intricate details of some sculptures. "You don't stand around a lot and sometimes you've gotta do a little jig. Keep your feet warm. You're really layered up well," MacNair said. "The wind is a bit of a killer so sometimes you'll just go and work on the opposite side of the block out of the wind." After last year's mild temperatures melted away plans to have traditional snow sculptures, Lavallée-Heckert is excited to have them back. "It's really a community festival and we really are part of this environment, this ecosystem in Winnipeg. So getting to be able to share the joi through the snow sculptures all throughout the city is part of the job, and part of making sure that we get that spirit out to the community," she said. Festival-goers can download the festival app to help them plan their visit. The fun starts Friday at 6 p.m. WATCH | Long-time snow carvers helped create 8 sculptures for this year's Festival du Voyageur: Snow-carving veterans show off their art at winter festival 2 hours ago Duration 4:08 Big snow sculptures around Winnipeg are a reminder that Festival du Voyageur is here. David MacNair and Gary Tessier are part of a team that has created eight of this year's sculptures.
