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Civic Election

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Scott and Marla Gillingham have breakfast at home on Saturday morning.

A day on the campaign trail: Winnipeg's mayor, seeking a second term, does double duty

Malak Abas 11 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:56 PM CDT

In the weeks leading up to the civic election, Scott Gillingham has been performing a juggling act: he’s running to be Winnipeg’s 45th mayor, while still serving as its 44th.

“If someone asks me about the campaign, I’m going to answer them. But I think for most people, I’m the mayor of Winnipeg, even if I’m showing up as a candidate,” Gillingham, 58, says. “I try to do all I can to maintain that distinction.”

The Free Press joined Gillingham on a recent rainy September Saturday on the campaign trail, where he served in both roles during an event-laden day. City council’s final meeting before the Oct. 28 election was days earlier.

In Winnipeg, it’s rare for an incumbent to be defeated. But Gillingham knows his win in 2022 wasn’t exactly a landslide — he won with 27.5 per cent of the vote — and he’s been thinking about his second term ever since.

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Wayne Glowacki / Free Press files
Artist Carey Newman with Witness Blanket, which features objects recovered from residential schools. Newman hopes legislation can be introduced to preserve records detailing abuse at the schools.

‘Almost too much to contemplate’

Unease stirs as clock ticks down on destruction of records documenting residential school abuses

Marsha McLeod 12 minute read Yesterday at 12:49 PM CDT

NHL

John Woods / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Boston Bruins’ Hampus Lindholm (27), Morgan Geekie (39) and William Borgen (17) celebrate Lindholm’s goal against the Winnipeg Jets in the first period.

Blown lead spoils Jets opener

Mike McIntyre 6 minute read Preview

Blown lead spoils Jets opener

Mike McIntyre 6 minute read Yesterday at 11:09 PM CDT

Younger. Faster. Stronger.

They may still be a long ways from a finished product, but it’s safe to say the new-look Winnipeg Jets made a mostly favourable first impression on Friday night in front of a sold-out crowd at Canada Life Centre.

Sure, a 4-3 overtime loss to a hard-nosed Boston Bruins outfit is going to sting a little, especially since the home team was just 98 seconds away from a regulation victory.

But if the Jets can bottle up this kind of energy and effort, they should enjoy plenty of success over the course of the 84-game campaign.

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Yesterday at 11:09 PM CDT

Local

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Being an inner-city school comes with challenges but also fosters an underdog mindset that leads to exceptional accomplishments.

Gordon Bell rings in a century

Maggie Macintosh 12 minute read Preview

Gordon Bell rings in a century

Maggie Macintosh 12 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:06 PM CDT

Mischka Valencia had gotten used to the hum of heavy machinery at Gordon Bell High School.

“Ever since I’ve been here, it’s all been under construction,” the Grade 12 student said, standing on the sidelines of the brightly painted revamped outdoor basketball court. “I had no idea this was a court.”

The Filipina teenager landed in Winnipeg several months after the inner-city campus had transformed into a construction site.

It was the fall of 2023 and Mischka’s priorities were fitting in, befriending classmates and learning a third language via first-period French.

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Updated: Yesterday at 8:06 PM CDT

Civic Election

Klein to double down on derelict homes

Joyanne Pursaga 5 minute read Preview

Klein to double down on derelict homes

Joyanne Pursaga 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:08 PM CDT

Kevin Klein promises to set tight timelines for owners to clean up vacant and derelict homes, if he’s elected to become Winnipeg’s next mayor.

The owner of each building would have six months after it becomes vacant to file an action plan to repair, renovate or remove the structure entirely by the one-year mark.

Those who fail to do so would face heavy fines and possible expropriation, he said.

“Hundreds of empty buildings sit boarded up, waiting to burn, like the one behind me. A vacant house is a fire trap, it’s a crime hub,” said Klein, pointing out the charred remains of a home on Alexander Avenue Friday.

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Yesterday at 6:08 PM CDT

Amateur

BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS FILES
Six programs in the Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League folded before the start of the 2026-27 season once the Hockey Manitoba U18 AAA ban took effect.

Six high school hockey programs ceased operations following new Hockey Manitoba policy

Joshua Frey-Sam 7 minute read Preview

Six high school hockey programs ceased operations following new Hockey Manitoba policy

Joshua Frey-Sam 7 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:19 PM CDT

She lived the best of both worlds.

For the last three years, the 17-year-old wore a sweater for two different hockey programs — her high school team and AAA club in the Manitoba Female Hockey League — and was preparing to flourish in both colours again this winter.

Recently, however, the blue-liner was disappointed to learn she is no longer eligible to play her Grade 12 season with her school owing to a new policy imposed by Hockey Manitoba that bans players from participating in the Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League if they are rostered on a U18 AAA team.

The rule applies to all athletes who play for both Winnipeg-based and rural AAA teams.

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Updated: Yesterday at 8:19 PM CDT

Opinion

PUB should set Winnipeg water, sewer rates; that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be lower Tom Brodbeck Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026
Premier League would be all too relieved if Blues simply went away for a while Jerrad Peters Updated: Yesterday at 2:12 PM CDT
Time for AI guardrails is right now Editorial Updated: Yesterday at 7:34 AM CDT

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Summer H. Howell says she feels she’s been working towards playing the role of Carrie her entire life.

Manitoba’s own Summer Howell takes on biggest role yet as Stephen King’s telekinetic teen Carrie

Randall King 6 minute read Preview

Manitoba’s own Summer Howell takes on biggest role yet as Stephen King’s telekinetic teen Carrie

Randall King 6 minute read Yesterday at 3:49 PM CDT

From the tender age of eight, actress Summer Howell has made her presence known in a series of horror films shot in her home province of Manitoba.

Her first film was Curse of Chucky (2013), director Don Mancini’s continuation of the venerable killer doll series he started (as a screenwriter) in 1988 with Child’s Play.

“Even then, it was obvious she was very talented, intelligent and delightful,” Mancini said of Howell.

Though she has worked in other genres, Howell gravitated to horror repeatedly, with credits in Shawn Linden’s harrowing Hunter Hunter (2020) and the 2023 possession thriller All Fun and Games. Earlier this year, she shot the horror film Sundown in Winnipeg with director Rebekah McKendry, which premièred last week at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles and is headed for a streaming berth on Shudder.

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Yesterday at 3:49 PM CDT

Civic Election

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Mike Vogiatzakis has a house in the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews.

Mayoral candidate Vogiatzakis criticized for living outside Winnipeg

Malak Abas 4 minute read Preview

Mayoral candidate Vogiatzakis criticized for living outside Winnipeg

Malak Abas 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:03 PM CDT

A mayoral hopeful took heat from other candidates Friday for living outside Winnipeg while running in the civic election.

Mike Vogiatzakis’s primary residence is in the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews, about 25 kilometres north of Winnipeg — a community with its own mayor and councillors.

But the funeral director said he owns a home in Winnipeg where he divides his time, and he would move to the city full-time if elected mayor.

“It doesn’t matter where a person lives. Why are we dividing St. Andrews and Manitoba and Winnipeg? I’ve met the criteria to run for mayor,” Vogiatzakis said Friday morning.

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:03 PM CDT

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MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Quarterly reports from Manitoba Health listed 121 critical incidents in 2025.

Fewer health system critical incidents reported in 2025 than in previous two years, data shows

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Preview

Fewer health system critical incidents reported in 2025 than in previous two years, data shows

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Yesterday at 5:48 PM CDT

The number of critical incidents reported within Manitoba’s health-care system declined again in 2025, with delays, gaps and “missed opportunities” among the most common circumstances of deaths or injuries.

Quarterly reports from Manitoba Health listed 121 critical incidents, including 32 deaths, in hospitals, personal-care homes and other settings, down from 134 incidents in 2024, when 32 deaths were also reported, and 166 incidents (42 deaths) in 2023.

“We’d obviously like to see those at zero,” said Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, which represents more than 7,700 allied health workers.

“It’s good that they’ve come down. What we really want to see is those numbers drastically reduced overall, and I just fear that’s not going to happen until staffing is dealt with.”

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Yesterday at 5:48 PM CDT

Local

Bell Canada signage is pictured in Ottawa on Wednesday Sept. 7, 2022. The Competition Bureau says Bell Media must sell nearly 700 advertising displays in Ontario and Quebec as a condition of its $410-million acquisition of outdoor advertising company Outfront Media Inc.’s Canadian operations. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Software glitch caused multi-provincial 911 outage: Bell

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Preview

Software glitch caused multi-provincial 911 outage: Bell

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:25 PM CDT

A 911 outage that affected Manitoba and four other provinces for about 90 minutes last month was caused by a software failure, according to Bell Canada’s report to a federal regulator.

An abridged version of the report, which was made public Friday, did not say how many callers were affected when Bell’s next-generation 911 platform stopped receiving new calls and transferring new calls to local 911 communications centres, putting backup systems into use.

The outage, which lasted from 2:13 a.m. to 3:40 a.m. central time on Sept. 17, was not caused by a cyberattack or any change activity, Bell said.

“Rather, the outage was caused by a latent software issue that triggered an unexpected condition in certain network components within the (next-generation 911) network,” Philippe Gauvin, Bell’s assistant general counsel, wrote in the report, which was published on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s website.

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Updated: Yesterday at 5:25 PM CDT

Local

JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES
Obby Khan, former leader of the Manitoba PC opposition party, resigned as leader and quit the caucus Monday saying some party members were secretly plotting his ouster.

Khan should’ve taken high road: Goertzen

Carol Sanders 5 minute read Preview

Khan should’ve taken high road: Goertzen

Carol Sanders 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:39 PM CDT

The veteran Progressive Conservative who championed Obby Khan’s leadership bid says the former Blue Bomber dropped the ball by dissing his Tory teammates before he stepped down.

“I wouldn’t recommend it, and I didn’t recommend it,” Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach) said in an interview Friday.

Khan resigned as PC leader and quit the caucus Monday saying some members were secretly plotting his ouster, even after he won a confidence vote on Sept. 25.

On Tuesday, Khan lashed out in a CJOB interview, naming the alleged plotters, saying constituents deserved to know which of their elected representatives “lacked moral integrity.” Khan told the Free Press he was “deeply emotionally hurt,” and felt stabbed in the back.

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Yesterday at 6:39 PM CDT

Local

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
From left: Students Swasti Kumar, 14, with her crochet project about trauma and abnormal DNA musculation in residential school survivors, Nazareth Mallett with his ribbon shirt, and animator/filmmaker Setayesh Khasheei.

U of W Collegiate students thank residential school survivors with the lessons they’ve learned

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read Preview

U of W Collegiate students thank residential school survivors with the lessons they’ve learned

Maggie Macintosh 6 minute read Yesterday at 6:49 PM CDT

It’s become a back-to-school tradition for teachers to invite Indigenous elders to their classrooms to share first-hand accounts about the ongoing impacts of Canada’s residential school system.

This fall, the University of Winnipeg Collegiate was among the schools that sent an invitation — but its purpose wasn’t to educate students about the system’s horrors.

“Truth and Reconciliation week is so emotional and draining for residential school survivors,” said Christine M’Lot, a longtime instructor of the school’s Grade 9 truth and reconciliation course.

“I wanted to do something a little bit different and offer a thank you.”

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Yesterday at 6:49 PM CDT