Youth pastor accused in sex assault of teen

City police have charged a youth pastor with sex crimes, accusing him of grooming a teenager.

Police received information about a sexual assault involving the suspect in March, and learned he directed a youth camp group, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Tuesday.

The offences are alleged to have occurred between August 2025 and March 2026, when “the pastor forged a sexual relationship by grooming and gaining the trust of a youth camp counsellor who was a teenager at the time,” the release said.

“The survivor met with the accused on multiple occasions in private and also received sexually explicit material sent by the accused.”

Drug use cited in downtown blaze

The partner of a man who died in a fire inside a Manitoba Housing complex last month believes his death was an accident, resulting from him falling asleep while using drugs.

Corinne Baxter said she thinks her boyfriend Tristan Fraser-Smith was alone inside her suite on the eighth floor of 444 Kennedy St. on April 20 when a fire started in the unit, reportedly causing an explosion and forcing dozens of tenants to flee the 16-storey apartment complex.

“It really hurts my heart. It feels like it’s going to explode when I think about it,” Baxter said in an interview Monday.

“The pain doesn’t seem to stop or go away.”

Court tosses wrongful conviction suit against province filed by man jailed for Derksen’s death

Manitoba’s highest court has dismissed a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the provincial government filed by the man who was acquitted of killing Candace Derksen.

Mark Grant’s lawyers filed his lawsuit in 2019, seeking $8.5 million for wrongful conviction and imprisonment from the province, the attorney general and the City of Winnipeg. The legal action against the city is slated to proceed.

Lawyers for the province unsuccessfully moved to have his claim struck in the Court of King’s Bench twice. Their third attempt, in the Court of Appeal, succeeded.

Court of Appeal Justice Christopher Mainella, writing on behalf of a panel with two other appeal court judges, threw out the claim against the provincial government and attorney general in a decision issued last week.

Winnipeg officer pleads not guilty to tampering with evidence at crime scene

A city police constable and one-time partner of imprisoned former police officer Elston Bostock is now on trial accused of compromising a crime scene the two men had been assigned to protect.

Jonathan Kiazyk, an 18-year veteran of the Winnipeg Police Service at the time of the October 2022 incident, pleaded not guilty Monday morning to charges of entering a dwelling with intent to commit theft, obstructing a police officer and breach of trust.

Kiazyk is accused of entering a Stradbrook Avenue Airbnb rental with Bostock before a search warrant had been secured and disturbing evidence, defying direction to remain outside the suite.

“Police are entrusted with an enormous amount of power and responsibility,” Crown attorney Adam Gingera said in an opening address Monday morning to King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond. “The Crown alleges that Const. Jonathan Kiazyk brazenly misused that power to engage in conduct that inadvertently undermined a serious drug trafficking operation and that he did so casually and with utter disregard for the public interest in the actual investigation of crime.”

WRHA pulls home-care services out of North End building over safety concerns

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has temporarily stopped providing home-care services in a North End public housing block after deeming the building unsafe.

Residents who receive home care at 145 Powers St. have had to cross the street to the Indigenous Family Centre for their appointments since mid-March amid concerns about violent crime, drug use and possible gang activity.

“Providing safe, compassionate and quality home care is a priority. That not only includes the safety of clients, but of staff as well,” a WRHA spokesperson said in a statement.

“The WRHA is confident that the agencies managing the building are working to address the current situation. Once the situation has improved at 145 Powers St., the WRHA plans to return to providing home-care services within the building.”

Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour named as next governor general

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney named retired Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour as Canada's next governor general on Tuesday, hailing her as a storied defender of human rights.

The accomplished former jurist is fluently bilingual, and has served as UN human rights commissioner and chief prosecutor at The Hague.

Arbour, 79, was chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and made history when she became the first to indict a sitting head of state, president Slobodan Milosevic, for crimes against humanity.

The Montreal native also secured the first conviction for genocide since the establishment of the 1948 Genocide Convention, and became first to prosecute sexual assaults as crimes against humanity.

Sign of the pre-election times: Sals snub highlighted on downtown billboard

An unusual piece of pre-civic election season political messaging has popped up in downtown Winnipeg.

Stars on Ice skaters embrace high fashion with designer dresses

If anyone knows how to make a statement, it’s Canadian Olympian Deanna Stellato-Dudek.

Not only did the 42-year-old make history in February as the oldest female figure skater to compete at the Olympic Games in almost a century, Oscar de la Renta dressed her for the occasion — in Milan, Italy, one of the great fashion capitals of the world.

“I think a partnership between haute couture and figure skating is a match made in heaven,” says Stellato-Dudek, who won three Canadian titles and the 2024 world championship with pairs partner Maxime Deschamps.

Her collaboration with the New York fashion house marked the luxury brand’s first foray into figure skating costume design.

Winnipeg cyclist Smith having breakout season with pro stage race debut

Clara Hughes. Leah Kirchmann. Adam Smith?

It might be a bit ambitious to place his name among some of the most accomplished athletes in Manitoba’s rich — and likely underrated — road cycling history right now, but Smith, a 19-year-old from Winnipeg, is providing every reason to believe that he could be well on his way.

You see, Smith, a climber cyclist, has ascended steadily both nationally and internationally over the last few seasons, and now finds himself in the middle of a breakout season overseas that could yield a professional contract sooner than later and catapult his career to new heights.

Smith recently raced on the mountainous terrains of Asturias, Spain, in the Vuelta Asturias UCI 2.1 road race — a four-stage professional event that featured some of the best riders in the world — and did more than hold his own, especially early on.

US says ceasefire with Iran is holding despite attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and against the UAE

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. military leaders said a ceasefire remains in effect a day after Iran was blamed for new attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and against the United Arab Emirates. The key American ally later said it came under Iranian drone and missile attack again on Tuesday.

Still, the fragile truce reached nearly a month ago appeared to be holding as U.S. forces pressed ahead with efforts to reopen the strait, a vital waterway for global energy. On Monday, the U.S. said it had opened a lane and sunk six small Iranian boats that had threatened commercial ships.

So far, only two merchant ships are known to have passed through the new U.S.-guarded route, with hundreds more bottled up in the Persian Gulf. Shippers are still wary, and it's unclear whether U.S. military action can reassure them without reigniting the conflict that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.

Iran’s effective closure of the strait, through which major oil and gas supplies passed before the war, along with fertilizer and other petroleum products, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled the global economy. Breaking Iran's grip would deny its main source of leverage as U.S. President Donald Trump demands a major rollback of its disputed nuclear program.

Speaker bans five unparliamentary words, strikes blow for decorum in Manitoba house

Manitoba legislature Speaker Tom Lindsey on Monday banned MLAs from calling one another a “bigot,” “homophobe,” “racist,” “misogynist” or “transphobe” in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly chamber.

The ruling came on the same day he evicted an MLA for refusing to apologize after saying last month that the premier was drinking.

“Setting this new standard for our legislature is necessary to ensure that the people’s business is conducted in a civil, orderly manner consistent with the practices of the federal parliament and every other jurisdiction in Canada,” Lindsey told MLAs returning after a weeklong break.

Nahanni Fontaine questioned the speaker’s ban, saying her role as government house leader is to ensure NDP colleagues — in the only caucus with a trans man, Indigenous woman, black man, Sikh, Asian Canadian members, a black queer and gender non-conforming member of legislature — are protected.

City councillor frustrated by sluggish pace of encampment enforcement

A key supporter of the city’s ban on encampments at many public spaces wants enforcement sped up, after some sites remained for weeks or months.