Klein, Gillingham trade jabs over megaproject

Two of Winnipeg’s mayoral candidates wasted no time trading barbs over who bears responsibility for the skyrocketing cost of overhauling the North End sewage treatment plant, during a televised debate Wednesday.

Scott Gillingham and Kevin Klein pointed the finger at each other for the rising cost of the massive project, which had a cost estimate of $795 million in 2015 and had ballooned to $3.2 billion as of the latest estimate.

“We need to be able to understand how that amount tripled in that short a time,” Klein said at the event held at CBC’s downtown Winnipeg headquarters. He pointed out the first estimate was given when Gillingham was chairman of the city’s finance committee. He questioned what the incumbent did to garner funding for the project.

Gillingham shot back by noting Klein was Manitoba’s environment minister in 2023. He accused his opponent of failing to make a dent on the cost.

Limited visibility, radio communication among safety issues cited in mid-air collision

An investigative report into a mid-air plane crash that killed two student pilots in southeastern Manitoba cited concerns about radio communication, situational awareness and visual detection methods.

Two small planes collided twice and crashed into a field after one aircraft ended up flying above the other while both approached a runway at Steinbach South Airport the morning of July 8, 2025, a Transportation Safety Board report said Wednesday. The planes belonged to the Harv’s Air Service flight school.

“Once they’re on final (approach), the ability to see each other would have been very limited,” said Eric Vermette, a TSB regional manager in Winnipeg.

Church members join synagogue congregation for interfaith exchange

Last Friday, as the setting sun shone into the high windows of Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, Cantor Leslie Emery opened a pair of sliding brass doors at the front of the sanctuary to reveal six scrolls wrapped in coverings embroidered with Hebrew letters.

Five of the scrolls contain the complete Torah — the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — handwritten with a quill and ink on parchment. Some of the scrolls are more than 100 years old.

The congregation reads aloud from these scrolls several times a week.

“When we read the stories of the Bible, when we read the stories of the prophets, when we observe Jewish holidays, we’re actually recounting the history of our ancestors,” Emery said.

Winnipeg pair wins first senior international ahead of Skate Canada debut

For athletes heading into a milestone competition, nothing delivers a jolt of confidence quite like recording a first international win and personal-best scores mere weeks before the big event.

That scenario played out for figure skaters Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov over the Thanksgiving weekend at the Tayside Trophy in Dundee, Scotland, where they dominated the nine-pair field from start to finish. The Winnipeg duo tallied career-best short program, long program and total scores.

“There were some teams there that had been to the Olympics, so it was cool beating them,” Elizarov said.

As the 2026 world junior champions counted down the days before their debut in senior Grand Prix competition at Skate Canada International next week (Oct. 30-Nov. 1), Elizarov explained how many more points they could score in Kelowna, B.C., by avoiding deductions incurred in Dundee.

Exchange welcomes new gallery

Co-owned by Laura Porath and Mike Page, Lucent Gallery + Design Studio celebrates its grand opening, Thursday.

Suspect with lighter, torch arrested, released four days before accused charged with murder in fatal arson, trial told

Four days before Alex Courchene was charged with murder for a North End blaze that killed two people, police arrested another suspect who was released that same day without charge, a jury heard Wednesday.

Courchene, 30, has pleaded not guilty to arson and two counts of second-degree murder in the Sept. 14, 2024, deaths of Zenabu Gula, 38, and Geda Wodisso, 49.

Prosecutors allege Courchene set a fire shortly before 3 a.m. in the stairwell of a building at the corner of Main Street and Atlantic Avenue that housed a church and apartment suites.

Gula and Wodisso were unable to escape their second-floor suite and died from smoke inhalation.

U of W, former professor sued over alleged sex assault

A woman who studied and worked at the University of Winnipeg has filed a lawsuit against the post-secondary institution and her former professor — a convicted sex offender — who she alleges drugged and sexually assaulted her.

The woman, a former international student from the United Kingdom and teaching assistant at the university, claims her professor and “mentor,” Derek Spencer, put a date-rape drug in her drink and groped her following a Christmas party for professors and graduate students in 2019.

“The assailant secretly placed a date-rape drug in her drink without consent and sexually assaulted her while she was in an altered and vulnerable state,” reads the woman’s statement of claim, filed in the Court of King’s Bench earlier this month.

“She suffered grave psychological and physical harm as a result.”

Manitoba First Nation taking federal government, department to court over damage to sturgeon population

A remote Manitoba First Nation is taking the federal government to court over claims a Manitoba Hydro project is hurting the sturgeon population in the lower Churchill River.

In an Oct. 15 statement of claim filed in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench, Tataskweyak Cree Nation said the Churchill River diversion operated by Manitoba Hydro has had widespread ecological effects and damaged sturgeon populations in the area.

The lawsuit alleges Ottawa has breached its treaty obligations to protect the community’s right to harvest the fish.

The lawsuit names both His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, the minister of fisheries and Oceans Canada as defendants.

Only two contenders for one seat in three city wards — Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood, Point Douglas, Daniel McIntyre

Unlike previous civic elections, there’s no free space on the bingo card this time around.

Every council candidate in the city’s 15 wards faces at least one challenger as Winnipeggers go to the polls on Oct. 28.

During the last vote in 2022, Couns. Markus Chambers and Devi Sharma ran unopposed in their respective St. Norbert-Seine River and Old Kildonan wards. In 2018, Coun. Janice Lukes was acclaimed in Waverley West.

While seven of the wards boast at least four candidates, three others — Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood, Point Douglas and Daniel McIntyre — have only two each.

Three vying to unseat Allard in St. Boniface

Four councillor candidates are running to represent the St. Boniface ward in Winnipeg's municipal election.