In honour of National Truth and Reconciliation Day, many organizations and schools are doing their part to educate and create awareness around Every Child Matters and residential school survivors.

In Grandview, a beautiful gift honouring residential school survivors has been given to the Grandview School, to fly in honour of National Truth and Reconciliation Day and to create awareness.

Read all about it in this week’s Review.

Opaskwayak Cree Nation is home to many talented people who have a variety of gifts to share. When it comes to music, everyone knows there’s a star in the community and he’s been a part of the music scene for quite some time. Ahab Constant started playing music at a very young age and grew up around several musical influences within his own family.
“I started playing the fiddle when I was very young,” said Constant. “We were living in Barrows at the time. My uncles were living around there too and they had a couple of instruments, a guitar and a fiddle. I was more interested in the fiddle than the guitar.
“One day I went to visit my uncle and he told me to just play the guitar, and not to touch the fiddle that was hanging on the wall. While I was there, he was getting ready to go somewhere to see some friends, and told me once again to not touch the fiddle on the wall. I started playing the guitar and he left. I kept looking out the window, while playing the guitar, to see how far away he was. Finally, he was out of sight, and then I picked up the fiddle.

Many of us don’t realize the power and healing that can come by sharing lived experiences and one’s culture with others. This has been a powerful journey that Steven Nipin-Muskwa has been on and discovered through the course of his life. He didn’t grow up immersed in his Indigenous culture, but he has taken the time to rectify that and share it with others.
“My family is originally from The Pas and my mother was a Sixties Scoop survivor,” said Nipin-Muskwa. “She was raised in the U.S. by a non-Indigenous family. I grew up knowing nothing about my Indigenous culture and about 15 years ago I went to my first pow wow with some friends. I didn’t know anything about where I was from or my family, but watching the pow wow, I was drawn into it and it was amazing.

Canadian social media sensation, Gurdeep Pandher, has caught the eye of many followers online with his Bhangra dancing and spreading messages of joy, hope and positivity. Pandher makes videos of his Bhangra dancing and shares them on his social media. This all started as a result of the pandemic and as a means of lifting people’s spirits up.
“I live in the Yukon territory, in an off the grid cabin in the wilderness,” said Pandher. “When the pandemic started, I became passionate about Bhangra dancing and sending out positive and joy during that time when it was very much needed. I started making a video each day, dancing in the wilderness around my cabin and posting it on social media as sending messages of joy, hope and positivity across the country and beyond.

The Town of The Pas is thrilled to warmly welcome the new Sam Waller Museum Director, Jaxon Baker! Jaxon possesses a Master in Museology from the Université de Montréal and a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in History from the University of New Brunswick. He has also completed Fleming College's Museum Management and Curatorship Program.

Ever wonder what the Dauphin Herald online papers look like? Ever thought about switching from your paper copy to an online edition? 

Now is your chance to check it out and see how you like it with the Dauphin Herald's Total Market Coverage for September 2023.

Read below, enjoy!

On Sept. 19, community members gathered in support of Disability Matters Vote. The public awareness campaign has the goal of ensuring all Manitobans with disabilities can participate in election activities and those who are eligible to vote can do so, to promote priority attention for disability issues in the provincial election, and to support Manitobans in making informed voting decisions.

The Swan Valley Junior A Stampeders kicked off their 25th Season last week with their season home opener happening on Saturday (Sept. 23). Rebounding from a loss in Dauphin the night before, the Stampeders picked up a 6-3 win in front of an enthusiastic crowd...

The Dauphin Kings dominated their home and season opener, Friday night, against the Swan Valley Stampeders.

It took the Kings more than eight minutes to find the net, but when they did, they opened the flood gates, building a 4-0 lead after the first period and extending it to 6-1 after 40 minutes.

Three players - Logan Walker, rookie Gavin Nemis and Blake Boudreau - each scored twice in the victory, while Gabriel Bugeaud had a single before he was tossed on a checking from behind minor in the second frame.

Truman Boettiger had the lone goal for the Stampeders.

Cole Sheffield was solid in goal for the Kings, making 24 saves, while his Swan Valley counterpart Elias Giaccan-Dimitriou stopped 33 shots in the loss.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley felt there were a lot of good things for the Kings to build on coming out of the season opener.

“If you start off in the D zone, our D unit was controlling the game. A lot of good reverse plays, a lot of good quick ups, up through the dots, one touch passes and good first passes,” he said. “We had so many good exits tonight that were out of our zone and then three passes later we were going in for a shot on net.”

That, Hedley added, was the result of good puck support, including support through the middle, and players putting pucks up along the boards and making smart plays.

“I liked our speed. I liked our attack in the middle lane. We started right off the hop with Carter (Zalischuk) driving the middle lane and making some plays. It’s contagious,” he said. “And when young guys like Nemis and (Rhett) Perrin work like that and catch guys from behind, it makes your D unit’s job so much easier.”

All four lines, Hedley said, played well. Bugeaud played well before he was ejected, and Josh Schmidt worked hard and never quit.

“We’ve got a bunch of guys like that this year. The experience is one thing. But obviously, it’s the first game of the year, so you take it with a grain of salt. But at the same time, I really liked the effort, I liked the speed, the compete. Just being teammates together and working hard,” he said.

The big thing now is to continue to play strong no matter who the opponent is.

The next challenge came Sunday night in The Pas, when the Kings faced the OCN Blizzard.

Naaman Hofer’s goal 4:21 into the third period stood up as the winner in a 2-1 Kings victory.

Boudreau staked Dauphin to a 1-0 lead on a penalty shot just 43 second into the second period.

Mathew Langdon made it a one-goal game a little more than three minutes after Hofer’s goal.

Sheffield stopped 20 shots in the win, while Loic Morin had 24 saves for the Blizzard.

With 28 players still in camp, more cuts were made early this week.

“We’ll be down to 25 by Monday or Tuesday,” Hedley said.

Friday, the Kings face the Portage Terriers in Portage at 7:30 p.m., before hosting the Selkirk Steelers, Sunday at 4 p.m. Prior to that, the Kings wil continue to focus on their systems including special teams.

“We’re ahead of last year, because our exhibition games were spread out. So we started teaching earlier and we started implanting our systems a little bit and our forecheck and neutral zone and D zone. We’ll just reinforce that during through the week and try to get our special teams going,” Hedley said.

When Lorne and Bernice Black first took over the family business, they had to figure out where their interests laid so they could better focus their efforts.

And now as they prepare to walk away from Blacks Cycle and Sporting Goods at the end of this year, they have to again go through a self examination to focus their retirement.

“We don’t know what we’ll do or what we want to do,” Bernice said. “We are going to have to go find out who we are, I guess.”

"Maybe do more fishing and maybe some hunting,” Lorne added.

There were many factors which went into the decision to call it quits, Lorne said, such as supply chain issues, shrinking profit margins and competition from bigger companies and online sellers.

“And I’m worn out. I’m wearing out from it, it’s a long time to do retail. Forty-two years I’ve done,” Lorne said, adding he used to make the daily trek from Barker School to work in the store with his father.

And while they do have fond memories of their own children growing up in the store and interacting with customers, there really is not an opportunity to hand down the business to them.

“The boys are not interested, really. They have pretty good careers of their own,” Lorne said, adding they never pressured their children towards taking over the business. “We kind of steered them away from it because we saw what the ’90s were like. The ‘90s were not fun trying to make a living here, honestly. But in some ways it’s kind of sad, too, because we are making money, but we’re just out of time and out of life.”

The business was launched in 1945 as a bicycle repair shop with $800 Lorne’s father Ernie borrowed from a family member.

In 1948, Ernie moved the business to its present location, renting the southern half of the front of the building from the Oddfellows Lodge. As he expanded the lines of sporting goods he carried, Ernie acquired space in the building as it became available and in 1960 was able to purchase the building from the Oddfellows.

Continuing to grow the business, Ernie added a workshop in the 1970s and a full basement under the back portion of the building in the 1980s.

The business has changed over the years, Lorne said, as his father carried a wide range of sporting goods and over the last 30 years he and Bernice have narrowed the focus.

That history, however, makes it difficult to just lock the doors and walk away.

“This old building is full of stuff, that I have to go through. It’s going to take time. I’m closing the door, but I’m still going to be here for a few years to clear out this building. So we’re hoping to sell online and things like that. If not we’re going to have to do an auction or something like that,” Lorne said.

“The attic is full. We are a family of keepers of things and my dad kept everything. I cleaned out some of the garbage, so to speak, but there’s still a lot of junk in the attic I want to go through and I can’t just do that in a month or two. It’s going to take time.”

With only a few tire kickers showing interest in the business it didn’t make sense keep trying to find a buyer.

“It was going to be a tough brand to sell off,” Lorne said, adding when they originally started in the business, he and Bernice planned to stay for 20 years.

“As much fun as it’s been, it’s time to live our lives and have some freedom. People don’t realize what a ball and chain it is. (Lorne’s) dad was in retail his whole life and his dad always said he saw it like a prison sentence running your own business,” Bernice said. “There’s a lot of good memories. And our customers were going to miss so much. That’s going to be the hardest part. But what do you do? It’s time.”

Meanwhile, after 77 years in business, Dauphin Music and Electronics is also closing its doors.

Co-owners Danny, Dave and Theresa Zabiaka first began talking about a possible closure about two years ago, when they put the business up for sale.

“We’re all getting up in age, so it was time to move on,” Danny said, adding there was a little bit of interest, but nothing worked out. “Without any buyer for the business, we had to make the decision to shut down and put the building up for sale.”

Danny plans to move to Alberta to be closer to family, while his sister Theresa will move on to something else.

“That’s why the decision was made. I have family calling my name. The big thing for me was I have family calling my name out to Alberta,” he said. “And it wasn’t as much fun as it used to be coming into work every day. It started feeling more like work. For years it was always fun coming in. Lots of people around. It was turning into more work and I wasn’t enjoying it as much.”

Zabiaka admits it is a sad moment for him to see the store close after 77 years of operation.

“I’d like to see the legacy carry on. We’ve been here a long time. Of course, none of us had any family that are interested in taking over, so we had to go looking elsewhere for someone to take over. That didn’t happen,” he said. “It’s a sad day for me and my siblings, because we’ve all been here for so long. But that being said, I’m ready to move on. I’m at the point in my life when I need to do other things.”

The final day the store will be open has yet to be determined. Before that can happen, there will be four weeks of liquidation.

Zabiaka estimates the middle of October, around Oct. 15, will be the last time they will officially be open, offering the biggest discounts.

“There will still be some stragglers and we’ll make some arrangements to take care of whatever is left. So probably, the last day would be at the end of October or there abouts,” he said. “No nailed down actual date yet.”

The liquidation sale has already begun, but Zabiaka said they don’t have a lot of stock, because word has gotten around and people have been stopping by to pick up some deals.

“A lot of our products were discounted to some degree. And we haven’t been ordering stock for the last little while, so we don’t have tons of stock to get rid of. But everything has to go, so we can close,” he said.

Zabiaka said it has been a great run, while he has been at the store.

“It’s been a lot of fun, with meeting a lot of people. It’s been awesome that way,” he said. “It’s mixed emotions, of course, but I’m ready to move on. I came to that conclusion about a year-and-a-half ago that it’s time. So that’s the way it is.”