The gym at Roblin Elementary School was packed Sunday afternoon as the Roblin Dance Club held its first live spring recital since 2019.

The recital featured performances by the club’s seven different Ukrainian dance groups – including the adult group; Senior Ballet; Movin’ n Groovin’; Senior Jazz; Junior Hip Hop; Junior Tap; Kinder Dance; Buko Boys; Junior Jazz; and Junior Ballet.

Check out the picture page in this week's Review.

You would think that with all the dangers and perils children are subject to online – the Benadryl challenge and sextortion to name a couple – the Goose Lake High gym would have been filled to the rafters for Val Caldwell’s session on tech and internet safety. But you’d be wrong.

Just a handful of people turned out at the school back in March for Caldwell’s second visit to Roblin.

Caldwell has been providing presentations on the topic of safety around the use of technology for 17 years – addressing the various forms of hidden sexual exploitation that exists in the “virtual world”.

Read the first part of a three part series about in this week’s Review.

With the raving success of The Passover presented during Holy Week at the Evangelical Mission Church, another play is in the works to hit the stage in Roblin.

Locals Bethany Brade and Jenni Johnson are co-directing another production featuring some familiar faces in the community.

For the rest of the story, pick up this week’s paper.

RCMP members in Russell and Roblin were called to Roblin April 5 to deal with a man walking around breaking into residential garages and screaming.

In total, police received six reports.

Find out more in this week’s Review.

Members from town council along with the CAO, travelled to Winnipeg to attend the AMM Spring Conference on April 4 to 5. Mayor Andre Murphy and CAO Jennifer Early attended a roundtable meeting of Manitoba mayors and CAOs the day before.
“We talked about what were the four pillars that were impacted every municipality right now,” said Murphy. “There was some discussion around the funding increase and what the impact of that was. There were questions asked if there were any significant demands for increased dollars for wastewater projects and if AMM would continue to oppose Bill 37 around the planning changes to allow municipalities to pass a resolution to change something in their community and not have the planning district override it. Municipalities felt this was counterproductive, especially since councils are voted in and asked by ratepayers to fix something. When a municipality does, they shouldn’t have to work against an opposing body.
“There was talk about healthcare, safety priorities, municipal service and RCMP costs and talk about what municipalities would like to see in terms of support from the next provincial government. The interesting thing from this meeting with all the municipalities across Manitoba was that all of our issues are very similar to each other’s.

There’s a Canadian charity that helps those who need assistance for medical care travel called Hope Air. Hope Air recognized that many Canadians are requiring medial treatment that is often far from their home, which can be costly and leave many people going with out medical care or treatment. Hope Air believes that all Canadians should have access to the healthcare they need, regardless of where they live or if they can’t afford to travel.
“Hope Air provides travel support through flights, accommodations, meal vouchers and ground transportation through Uber vouchers to Canadians in financial need who must travel to access vital medical care,” said Hope Air Senior Digital Marketing Coordinator Christine Stolte. “Hope Air is able to fulfill travel requests because of the support of donors, from airline partners, corporations, foundations, government supporters and individuals.”

Thanks to a partnership with the Manitoba Arts Council, The Pas Arts Council and the Rotary Club of The Pas, residents in the tri-community will get the opportunity see ballet performed by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet (RWB) next week. On the Edge Tour featuring the RWB Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program’s Aspirants will be sole performers on this tour.
“The RWB Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program is a two year post-graduate program for students who have graduated from a professional dance program,” said RWB Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program Director Vanessa Léonard. “They enter this program as a transition from being a ballet student into a professional dance life. We have a strong focus on preparing the dancers for the stage and repertoire. We also focus on creating audition materials that they can send out to companies around the world. There are 16 aspirants in the program this year and range from 18 to 21 years old.

Big Fish.... It’s always about who can catch the biggest fish. But changes in fishing regulations in this province will mean you’ll see some operational changes to the Russell Lions Prairie Walleye Classic.

The main change is that anglers are no longer allowed to possess a fish over 45 cm. This, says Kevan McCarthy who co chairs the Russell Lions Prairie Walleye Classic alongside Ritchie Davidson, means that the traditional weigh in on shore will not happen for any fish over 45cms.

So what about the much sought after Big Fish prize? The money that was traditionally allocated to the Big Fish Prize, McCarthy said, will be redistributed over the top ten tournament prizes which, based upon a full slate of 120 boats are: $25,000 and trophies for first place, $8,000 and two Hummingbird Helix 7 MSI G4 locators and trophies for second prize, $4,500 and $1,000 in Russell Video Pro Fishing Gear and trophies for third place.

From there on down, 4th place is $4000, $3,250 for 5th place on down to $1,250 for the 10th place finisher. As the release stated, the committee members are not a big fan of the catch and photo release method, saying that the traditional “in person” adjudication of the fish is much preferred.

“Catch photo release, in our opinion, has too many variables that we simply don’t understand at this time” McCarthy and Davidson said in the release on their Prairie Walleye website.

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

The world is full of amazing and fantastic animals, with about 18,000 new species discovered every year – most of which are insects and many more being on the small side of the animal spectrum.
There are other strange and wonderful creatures that science hasn’t been able to officially categorize and account for in a modern context that many believe still exist from the distant past – like the giant beaver – or ones that seem to defy scientific verification despite repeated sightings over decades and centuries – like Sasquatch/Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster-type animals.
One such fellow is Manitoba author John Warms from the Interlake community of Fairford, who has been exploring the topic for more than 30 years.
Last month, Warms was making his rounds touring across Manitoba in public libraries and community spaces to spread the word about his book Strange Creatures Seldom Seen: Giant Beavers, Sasquatch, Manipogos, and Other Mystery Animals in Manitoba and Beyond.
Warms’s book was published first in the United States in 2015 before he printed some versions for promotion in Canada about two years ago. Warms found that public libraries welcomed the promotion of his book, and the stop in Swan River on March 27 was a last minute addition to his month-long tour, where not only did he bring copies of his book and open himself up to conversation, but he also set up an extensive display that showcased the contents of his book, such as various drawings, artifacts and replicas for the weird and wild creatures and legends that he loves to research.
“Everything (in my displays) is also in the book,” said Warms, while he was set up in the Northwest Regional Library in Swan River. “It’s all about the creatures that I have never heard of 40-50 years ago.”
Warms explained that the first unusual and unexplained creature he had heard of was a giant snake in Manitoba.
He noted some Indigenous people had encountered and told stories about it and one fellow even told him what kind of bullet to use if he ever encounters one.
“‘If there’s one, there’s more’,” said Warms, quoting his friend. “It was kind of an interesting perspective for me to take all these years, and it made a lot of sense.
“When I realized that science wasn’t familiar or didn’t acknowledge all these other creatures that the Indigenous people were telling me about, I knew that there was something that didn’t quite match. So, I assumed with a lot of corroborating stories that the people of the land where they lived that they had the truth that their elders passed down and were experiencing themselves.”
Warms noted that every creature that is represented in his displays he believes to be extant, or rather not extinct. Creatures like the giant beaver or plesiosaurs – a water-based animal that draws parallels to the legends of lake monsters – are acknowledged by the scientific community to have existed once upon a time, whether it was thousands or millions of years ago. However, Warms and those he has talked to over many decades believes that these animals and many others are still out there living today.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if there was anything questionable,” he said, noting that everything in his book had enough corroborating stories about them that it was worth including.
“I may have very easily missed some creatures where I haven’t found the right people yet to clue me in on their existence.”
One such story he shared was that of Archie Motkaluk, who believes he spotted a Sasquatch near Renwer on Dec. 29, 1960, while visiting his parents’ farm.
Motkaluk recounted the story in 2011 with the Winnipeg Sun, and explained that he was out collecting wood about three miles into the bush when he saw this ‘man’ and realized that it was a Sasquatch when he got within a couple hundred yards.
Motkaluk only told his mother and made a sketch of what he saw, but only came out more publicly about his encounter 50 years later when he was watching a television program that featured someone that said there’s no such thing as a Sasquatch.
“I realized that the academic community is not aware of (these creatures) or does not want to acknowledge them,” said Warms. “There are so many land-based people that are very aware of them.
“I just feel like we are losing out if we are not given the opportunity to learn more about these creatures like the underwater moose (for instance).”
Warms’ book is available to purchase at 83 North Amazing Emporium in Swan River or on Amazon.ca.
Warms also has a Facebook page to keep up with what he’s up to and a YouTube channel that features some other videos on his endeavors.
Warms also encourages people to keep their eyes and minds open out in the wilderness of Manitoba to see if even more corroborating stories can emerge and get even closer to confirming the presence of these seldom seen animals.

Spring seemed to introduce itself to us in a flash, with temperatures rising quickly in the last couple of weeks, leading to a swift melt of snow and ice, leading to rising water levels and flooded roadways across the Swan Valley