Chances are, if you’re like me you‘ve never heard of an “Ethics Bowl”. At a very basic level, it’s a debate-style competition with matches in which two teams come up with their best answers to ethical dilemmas and are then scored on the quality of their answer.

A team from Goose Lake High had a decent showing at the Manitoban regionals Feb. 24 and 25.

Want to know more? Check out this week’s Review.

Happy feet are healthy feet, and that’s something most people overlook until it’s too late.

A new mobile foot care business has started in Roblin to help with that. Kristine Branconnier has opened Elite Feet Foot Care and is offering mobile foot care services in Roblin and area.

Read the rest of the story in this week’s Review.

A family bond is much more than just a DNA match; it can be about having similar passions, talents, and interests. This is the case for the Stevenson family. Norm Stevenson has been racing dogs for many years and got into mushing from other members of his family.
“I got my own dogs in 1972, but was on a dogsled before that even,” said Norm Stevenson. “I got into dogsledding from my Uncle Jack and cousin Bob McPhail. They had dogs also.
“I then learned to become a musher by trial and error, and from both of them.”
A musher usually has a close bond with their dogs and it’s that connection that makes dog sled racing so enjoyable. It’s a sport that usually requires a true love of the dogs and the outdoors.

A group of avid snowmobilers have embarked on a cross-country snowmobile journey from Grand Rapids, Minnesota to Fairbanks, Alaska and will be passing through Swan River and The Pas on their trek. Rob Hallstrom is the youngest rider in the group at age 65, Paul Dick is 72 and Rex Hibbert will turn 70 while on the trip. Hallstrom, Dick and Hibbert refer to themselves as 3 Old Guys and they’re always up for a challenge.
“We’re always up for some kind of adventure,” said Hallstrom. “We went to Churchill in 2019, and at the end of that trip, we were already kind of talking about what we could do that would be bigger than that. We had a really good time on that trip and that sort of started the rumblings for us to go to Alaska.”

A big portion of the Opasquia Trails project has been in the works and it’s got lots of people excited for the finished product. The boardwalk component of the trail has been laid out over the ice and now the Opasquia Trails Board is putting all the pieces of the trail together.
“We’re really excited about this newest development for the Opasquia Trails,” said Opasquia Trails Board Member Alan McLauchlan. “Our contractor, Dave Uffleman, has been busy all week installing the boardwalk pieces over top the ice. People can now see where the boardwalk is going to go and can visualize how things are going to look.
“I recently had someone tell me they are excited to take photos from the boardwalk once it’s completed. This is going to allow people to see the lake from a different angle and I think that’s really important.”

It looks like there’s a new candidate coming out of the gate for the next provincial election. Alan McLauchlan recently announced that he is running as the PC Candidate for The Pas-Kameesak riding. McLauchlan is no stranger to politics and has a few different reasons for running in the provincial election.
“I have a couple of reasons for entering the provincial political ring,” said McLauchlan. “My first reason, is pretty much the reason why do a lot of different things, is to give back to the community. When I came here to The Pas 47 years ago, I knew no one. I came here when I was 18 years old. The north really embraced me, allowed me to learn and taught me. I want to give back to the riding in that way. I feel I have a lot of skills and abilities that I can give back to the area on this level.

A group of avid snowmobilers have embarked on a cross-country snowmobile journey from Grand Rapids, Minnesota to Fairbanks, Alaska and will be passing through Swan River and The Pas on their trek. Rob Hallstrom is the youngest rider in the group at age 65, Paul Dick is 72 and Rex Hibbert will turn 70 while on the trip. Hallstrom, Dick and Hibbert refer to themselves as 3 Old Guys and they’re always up for a challenge.
“We’re always up for some kind of adventure,” said Hallstrom. “We went to Churchill in 2019, and at the end of that trip, we were already kind of talking about what we could do that would be bigger than that. We had a really good time on that trip and that sort of started the rumblings for us to go to Alaska.”
All three of the snowmobilers have extensive experience in long-distance riding, but this may very well be the longest journey yet. Each of them will tow sleds with supplies that include spare snowmobile parts, gasoline, a hot tent, sleeping bags and essentials.
“We’re coming from Minnesota and we’re estimating it will be about 4,500 miles to make the journey,” said Hallstrom. “When we went to Churchill, that was about 3,000 miles, but that was a round trip.
On this trip to Alaska, we will be snowmobiling there, and then flying back.
“We’ve done quite a few trips and I’ve done even more on my own. My partners, Rex and Paul, have been in the Iron Dog Race in Alaska and all three of us have been in the Cain’s Quest in Labrador. We’re all getting a little older, so instead of racing, we’re doing some touring.
“We riding 8000x Arctic Cat Norseman snowmobiles with all three of us riding the same model,” said Hallstrom. “We have a general plan that the entire trip will require 22 riding days. I’m sure there will be times when we want to take a day off or need to stop and do some repairs or due to the weather. There are quite a few unknowns in this, but we have a route planned and figure it should take about a month depending on what we find on the trail.”
The 3 Old Guys are a bit daredevil, as they embark on this journey without having someone following them in a vehicle along the way.
“We’re not planning on having someone follow us with a trailer on this journey, because from Grand Rapids, Minnesota to Flin Flon, Manitoba, there’s a good trail network, even though that would work for that portion of the trip,” said Hallstrom. “After we leave Flin Flon, we’re going to be going through such remote areas, that it will be extremely difficult to have someone follow us closely with a chase vehicle, so we’re basically going to be on our own.”
They have their route charted with much of it being in remote areas across northern Canada. They will have a few different satellite communicators that will allow them to send text messages and let a few people follow their journey in real-time. This also allows them to call out for assistance in case of an emergency.
“We’re going to take the trail up to Flin Flon, then we going to take the old Cat trails to Sandy Bay, then go on to the south end on Reindeer Lake,” said Hallstrom. “From there we’ll head to Wollaston Lake and cut across to Lake Athabasca and cut across it. Then go up to the Great Slave River to the Mackenzie River and all the way up it to the Arctic Ocean. Then we’ll cross by the Richardson Mountains to the Porcupine River and take that down to the southwest part of the Yukon River. From there we will follow the Yukon Quest sled dog trail into Fairbanks. It’s quite a route and pretty remote, so it would be hard to follow by vehicle.
“We’re trying to stay in hotels along the way, wherever we can. There are a few places where we may stay in a trapper’s cabin and we have a tent with us for those places where we have to camp out. We’re prepared for that and definitely think we will have to do that a few times.”
As the 3 Old Guys make their journey into Manitoba, they have plans to stop in Swan River and will be passing through The Pas as they head into Flin Flon.
“We’ll be entering Canada close to Falcon Lake, go through Gimli and Lake Winnipeg,” said Hallstrom. “Then head west to Swan River and follow the trail north to The Pas and Flin Flon.
“If everything goes according to plan, we hope to be in Swan River and The Pas on Wednesday or Thursday. We are planning to make a stop in Swan River before heading north to The Pas and Flin Flon.”
The group was more than ready to get on the trails and blaze across Canada to Alaska. They started their journey on Monday and are looking forward to experiencing friendly Manitoba once again.
“We’ve been raring to go and at this point, we’re super ready to go on this trip,” said Hallstrom. “We’ve been talking about it enough and we’re ready to get going.
“The last time we were in northern Manitoba was our trip to Churchill and we really enjoyed it. We went through a lot of northern communities and stopped in The Pas. Everyone was so nice to us there and when we had some minor problems on the trail, people bent over backwards to help us get going again. It was just a great experience overall and we’re hoping for that again this time.”

The Swan Valley U11 Stampeders gathered on ice to celebrate their gold medal win during the Hockey Manitoba U11 Rural A Provincial Championships on Sunday (March 5). The team dominated their weekend of play with the final battle coming against the Dauphin Kings gold team...

By the 1970’s parts of the rest of Canada were beginning to wake up to the true facts about our Canadian history and the involvement of many of our descendants in the killing of Metis involved in the North-West Resistance.

Meanwhile, in 1974 in Russell, we were still erecting plaques in honor of Major Charles Boulton. Historian Tyla Betke who is a PHD candidate and an instructor in History at the Carleton University in Ottawa was more than a little shocked when she found that the long held stories of the heroics of Major Charles Boulton that she’d grown up with here in Russell, were not entirely true.

Despite the fact that this particular issue is not the subject of her doctorate, the more she learned about the untruths in the story our monuments and our verbal history have told, the more Tyla Betke was drawn to bring the real history of the founder of our town to a public forum.

Get the full story in this week's Russell Banner!

Kyle Forsyth topped the field at the Dauphin Men’s Bonspiel, presented by Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy, over the weekend.

Forsyth and his team of Jarvis Whyte, Trent Hill and Cody Hill won the championship event, sponsored by Embroidery by Design, beating Dave Marohn in the final. Rob Rempel was third and Logan Devos was fourth.

In the second event, sponsored by McMunn and Yates Building Supplies, Seth Gares and his team of Darcy Gares, Jeff Campbell and Blaine Johnson beat Dwight Bottrell in the final, with Jared Nimegeers in third and Nolan Hadway in fourth.

Darcy Todoruk and his team of Mark Graham, Dustin Mayuk and Chris Todoruk won the third event, sponsored by Parkland Source for Sports, beating Rob Fisher in the final.

Third place went to Steven Michaleski and in fourth place was Craig McLean.

The fourth event, sponsored by Baker Computers, was won by Greg Todoruk and his team of Barrett Procyshyn, Jeff Abrahams and Jeremy Mills. They beat Mike VanAlstyne in the final. Third place went to Peter Prokopowich and in fourth place was Luke Michaleski.