Winnipeg Free Press – Breaking News, Sports, Manitoba, Canada

Manitoban in Iran expresses fear for future

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Yesterday at 10:32 PM CDT

A Manitoban living in Iran fears generations will be lost amid a months-old war and deep uncertainty about what the future will bring, with or without its current regime.

The Iranian-Canadian man, who requested anonymity, painted a bleak portrait of living conditions after the regime’s deadly crackdown against protests, air strikes by the U.S. and Israel, and sharp cost-of-living increases.

“Obviously, I am sad. There are young people with no jobs, no future,” the man told the Free Press. “Imagine, they don’t see any future for themselves. Two or three generations burnt like woods.”

He fears the war will continue for a long period without regime change, or that Iran will enter a situation similar to Gaza or Lebanon.

New

Faith

John Longhurst / Free Press
Built in 1906, St. Thomas Anglican Church on William Ave. W needs $50,000 in repairs to fix its failing roof.

Weston-area church seeking financial help to fix leaky roof

John Longhurst 4 minute read Preview

Weston-area church seeking financial help to fix leaky roof

John Longhurst 4 minute read Yesterday at 10:56 PM CDT

When word got out that a Weston-area church needed money for a new roof, the first donation came from a man who depends on it each week for food.

“It was some pocket change,” said Cassandra Golondrina, the deacon who leads St. Thomas Anglican Church. “It was like the widow’s mite in the Bible, small but so very significant.”

It’s going to take a lot of pocket change to repair the roof of the church, which was built in 1906. In total, $50,000 is needed.

The roof is failing, and there is a risk of long-term structural harm if it isn’t repaired.

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Yesterday at 10:56 PM CDT

Canada

The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Canadians on ship at centre of hantavirus outbreak land in Canada

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Canadians on ship at centre of hantavirus outbreak land in Canada

The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 10:04 PM CDT

VANCOUVER - Four Canadians who disembarked the cruise ship at the centre of a deadly hantavirus outbreak landed Sunday in B.C., where they will continue their quarantine.

Online plane tracking platform FlightAware says the aircraft carrying the Canadians arrived at the airport in Victoria from Saguenay-Bagotville Airport in Quebec.

They are to isolate in B.C. because they have connections with the province, said B.C's health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

"This has undoubtedly been a stressful and difficult experience for the Canadians and everybody aboard the MV Hondius," Henry said at a Sunday news conference.

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Updated: Yesterday at 10:04 PM CDT

Bomber Report

JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS
Quarterback Zach Collaros throws at Blue Bomber training camp as head coach Mike O’Shea looks on Sunday.

Blue Bombers training camp begins with excitement

Taylor Allen 5 minute read Preview

Blue Bombers training camp begins with excitement

Taylor Allen 5 minute read Yesterday at 8:07 PM CDT

The first day of training camp can even riddle a franchise player with nerves.

“It’s all anxiety, I’m not gonna lie,” admitted receiver Nic Demski after Sunday’s opening session in a chat with the Free Press.

“But I mean, it’s funny because I was literally about to go to sleep last night and I looked at my (partner) and was like ‘I’m nervous as hell right now.’ She just looked at me and said ‘That’s how you know you still love it.’ And it’s true.”

“We are human after all, believe it or not.”

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Yesterday at 8:07 PM CDT

Music

Guest clarinetist part of dramatic end to wildly varied WSO season

Holly Harris 5 minute read Preview

Guest clarinetist part of dramatic end to wildly varied WSO season

Holly Harris 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 10:53 PM CDT

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra presented three distinct works in the key of passion Saturday night, as it wrapped up its Saturday Classics series with Mozart and Shostakovich.

The 120-minute (including intermission) program, led by Daniel Raiskin, featured guest clarinetist Boris Allakhverdyan. The Armenian-American artist — who has served as principal clarinet for the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2016, following four years as principal clarinet for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra — treated the mostly older audience of 1,789 to Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622

Fans of the Wunderkind have long adored the composer’s penultimate work, penned shortly before his untimely death in 1791. It’s taken 11 years to hear this gem on this stage again; it was last performed in 2015.

After Raiskin set an elegant tempo for the Allegro, the soloist launched into his opening theme, immediately showcasing his bravura as he skipped through a rollercoaster of lightly tongued runs, crafting buttery-smooth phrases while navigating daringly wide leaps across registers.

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Updated: Yesterday at 10:53 PM CDT

Local

FREE PRESS FILES
Jonathan Kiazyk, an 18-year member of the Winnipeg Police Service, is on trial and has denied stealing or tampering with any drugs while on duty.

Accused cop’s actions were ‘stupid, but not criminal,’ defence argues

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

Accused cop’s actions were ‘stupid, but not criminal,’ defence argues

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Yesterday at 3:43 PM CDT

A Winnipeg police constable who repeatedly entered an apartment he had been assigned to guard until other officers returned with a search warrant is guilty of stupidity, but not a crime, his lawyer argued Friday.

“I say Jonathan Kiazyk’s actions that night were not criminal actions,” defence lawyer Mike Cook said in a closing submission before King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond. “Certainly ill-advised, foolish, and stupid, but not criminal.”

Kiazyk, an 18-year member of the Winnipeg Police Service at the time of the October 2022 incident that led to his arrest, is on trial charged with break and enter with intent to steal, obstructing a police officer and breach of trust.

Kiazyk is accused of stealing marijuana from a Stradbrook Avenue Airbnb rental suite while guarding the suite with now-jailed former constable Elston Bostock.

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Yesterday at 3:43 PM CDT

Opinion

Someone call the PM: next governor general doesn’t speak a single Indigenous language Niigaan Sinclair Updated: Yesterday at 11:41 PM CDT
Real Madrid president Pérez’s apathy like a wound in salt Jerrad Peters Friday, May. 8, 2026
Farm giant’s debt woes everyone’s problem Laura Rance-Unger Friday, May. 8, 2026

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Local

MORGAN MODJESKI / FREE PRESS
Kakeká Thundersky, northern and rural engagement coordinator for Climate Action Team Manitoba, attends Saturday’s rally with her two daughters.

Activists, union, call on province to match Transit funding

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Preview

Activists, union, call on province to match Transit funding

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Saturday, May. 9, 2026

Demonstrators brought a city bus Saturday to the stairs of the Manitoba Legislature, where more than 100 people called on the province to better support transit through dedicated funding.

“My parents actually met in 1966 on the Ellice bus, so transit has a long history in my family,” said musician John Samson Fellows, who wrote a new song specifically for the event.

“The overarching theme is contained in the [song’s] phrase: ‘More buses. More routes. More accessible to everyone.’”

Organized by Climate Action Team Manitoba and the local Amalgamated Transit Union, the rally called for a 50/50 transit-funding agreement that would see increases in city transit spending split dollar-for-dollar with the province moving forward.

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Saturday, May. 9, 2026

Local

SUPPLIED
A still image from security footage showing a fire on May 3 at the entrance of Just Like New to You.

Open drug use, crime, other anti-social behaviours require immediate and long-term solutions from gov'ts, Winnipeg businesses say

Chris Kitching 6 minute read Preview

Open drug use, crime, other anti-social behaviours require immediate and long-term solutions from gov'ts, Winnipeg businesses say

Chris Kitching 6 minute read Friday, May. 8, 2026

Businesses on a stretch of Portage Avenue where crime, open drug use and overdoses have “escalated” recently, are calling for additional government action or supports for their community and people in crisis.

Several told the Free Press that more people are congregating and using drugs in business doorways, on sidewalks or in bus shelters along Portage near its intersections with Sherbrook and Maryland streets.

“This year, something has happened,” said Mikkey Baire, who opened Mikkey Barber Shop on Portage, just east of Sherbrook, nine years ago. “I’m very sad. I don’t want to see anything (like this). This is a big community, and we need to help.”

Baire, who lives in the area, said Portage and Sherbrook, near the boundaries of downtown Winnipeg, the West End and West Broadway, is a good location for his business and is surrounded by a good community.

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Friday, May. 8, 2026

World

Russian servicemen march as they attend the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Saturday, May 9, 2026, during celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during World War II. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov, Pool)

Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of violating US-brokered 3-day truce

The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of violating US-brokered 3-day truce

The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:12 PM CDT

Russia and Ukraine swapped accusations of breaking a U.S.-brokered ceasefire on Sunday, with both sides claiming to have suffered casualties in drone and artillery strikes over the past 24 hours.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia was neither observing the truce nor “even particularly trying to,” adding there had been no calm in front-line areas despite a lull in large-scale attacks and pledged that Ukraine would retaliate to any aggression shown by Moscow.

“Yesterday and today, Ukraine refrained from long-range retaliatory actions in response to the absence of large-scale Russian attacks,” Zelenskyy said in evening statement, stressing Ukraine's increasing ability to hit targets far inside Russia.

“We will continue to respond in the same mirrorlike manner, and if the Russians decide to return to full-scale warfare, our response will be immediate and significant,” he said.

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Updated: Yesterday at 3:12 PM CDT

Environment

An Estonian naval ship sails in the Baltic Sea on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, as part of stepped-up NATO patrols in the region following suspected sabotage of undersea cables. (AP Photo/Hendrik Osula)

Baltic, Nordic officials urge Canadians to learn from the Russian threats they face

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

Baltic, Nordic officials urge Canadians to learn from the Russian threats they face

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 9:13 AM CDT

OTTAWA - European officials are warning that Russia's meddling in the Baltic Sea is likely a preview of tactics Moscow could someday deploy in Canada's High North.

A recent panel discussion in Ottawa hosted by the Polish embassy touched on how Estonia, Poland and Nordic countries like Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark are responding to Russian threats that emerge from the sky, sea and online.

Polish Ambassador Witold Dzielski gave the example of an explosion last November on a rail line used to transport military goods to Ukraine, which his government suspects was orchestrated by Russia.

"Saboteurs are hired in order to conduct kinetic attacks," he said.

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Updated: Yesterday at 9:13 AM CDT

Arts & Entertainment

Governor General Mary Simon poses for a portrait at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Thursday, May 7, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon reflects on five years of reconciliation, Indigenous diplomacy

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press 9 minute read Preview

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon reflects on five years of reconciliation, Indigenous diplomacy

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press 9 minute read Saturday, May. 9, 2026

OTTAWA -

Nunavik, where Gov. Gen. Mary Simon grew up, is a long way from Ottawa and farther still from Buckingham Palace.

That never stopped her mother Nancy May, a unilingual Inuk, from keeping a photo of Queen Elizabeth on prominent display in their family home, or from filling young Mary Simon's mind with stories about the Queen's activities and travels.

In 2021, at the age of 73, Simon's relationship with the Queen became something more personal when she was named her official representative in Canada — making her the first Indigenous person to be appointed to the role.

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Saturday, May. 9, 2026

Local

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Mwaniki Mbogo (right), Connect Supervisor with Downtown Community Safety Partnership (DCSP) conducts a wellness check while on patrol with team members, Will Dubery (left) and Nancy Gimin (centre), Thursday morning. Reporter: Nicole Buffie 260409 - Thursday, April 09, 2026.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Mwaniki Mbogo (right), Connect Supervisor with Downtown Community Safety Partnership (DCSP) conducts a wellness check while on patrol with team members, Will Dubery (left) and Nancy Gimin (centre), Thursday morning. Reporter: Nicole Buffie 260409 - Thursday, April 09, 2026.

Downtown’s heart and soul

Community safety partnership’s green-clad foot soldiers hit the street to help — not to harass — whenever, however they can

Nicole Buffie 10 minute read Friday, May. 8, 2026

Local

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Siloam Mission is laying off 16 people and reducing hours for other workers.

Siloam Mission lays off staff, pivots amid donation drop

Scott Billeck 4 minute read Preview

Siloam Mission lays off staff, pivots amid donation drop

Scott Billeck 4 minute read Friday, May. 8, 2026

Siloam Mission is laying off 16 people and reducing hours for other workers as part of a “stabilization plan” to address a significant drop in donations.

Staffers were informed on Friday, a news release said, adding it’s hoped the layoffs, which take effect June 1, will be temporary and that employees will be redeployed where possible.

Its drop-in space and clothing store will operate at “slightly” reduced hours, while it will continue to provide three meals a day to the downtown homeless population.

Its other programs are unaffected, the release said.

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Friday, May. 8, 2026