VIDEO: Shatner visits ‘Peg twice this week

Search continues for brothers feared drowned at Nutimik Lake

Search-and-rescue crews continued efforts Monday to locate two boys who are presumed drowned after falling into fast-moving rapids at Nutimik Lake on the weekend, as community members and Manitoba Parks begin conversations about preventing future tragedies.

The boys, identified as brothers Aaron Au Ramirez, 13, and Maximo Au Ramirez, 10, were visiting Whiteshell Provincial Park with their father and some friends when they entered the water near the Sturgeon Falls Trail Saturday afternoon.

Lac du Bonnet RCMP received a report of a possible drowning at about 12:40 p.m. Police, along with local emergency responders, searched the shoreline and waterways but were unable to find the boys, RCMP said in a news release.

The Manitoba RCMP Underwater Recovery Team and the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team were later deployed to assist with the search.

Jets’ Perfetti motivated to prove his worth following ‘life-changing’ contract

Adam Lowry’s wedding was the main event, of course. But the Winnipeg Jets had even more reason to celebrate this past weekend as they returned from their off-season homes for a spirited summertime gathering.

Student of the Prairie

In Andrian Makhnachov’s first nine days as a Winnipegger, he immersed himself in the city’s most distinctive delights. He went to the Goldeyes’ Ukrainian Night, toured the Manitoba Museum and cheered the Sea Bears at Canada Life Centre.

He sampled boxes of treats from local institutions such as Baked Expectations and Oh Doughnuts. He tried pickerel for the first time, and even a Jeanne’s Cake. (His diplomatic verdict on the city’s most intensely debated dessert: “I think it’s a very interesting experience … maybe there’s some special way I should eat it and it’s going to be better.”)

Still, the rising social media star encountered a few challenges. When Makhnachov first planned his move here from Regina, he’d picked an apartment in the Exchange District, not realizing there were few grocery stores within walking distance. For now, he’s making do with Giant Tiger.

For all the ups and downs, there is no doubt in the Ukrainian-Canadian’s mind that he made the right decision to move his life, and his burgeoning influencer career, to Winnipeg.

Pair sentenced to 17 years apiece for 2022 killing

BRANDON — Two of the three men charged in the beating and stabbing death of James Vernon Giesbrecht in 2022 were sentenced to 17 years in prison in Brandon Court of King’s Bench on Monday.

Prior to the sentencing, court heard that Giesbrecht’s son said his father’s killing had ruined his life.

“The way I see the future is all broken,” Aiden Cloud, 18, wrote in a victim impact statement read in court by Crown attorney Ari Millo. “I lost my dad — the person who’s supposed to be there for me as I grow up.”

Joseph Lindsay, 39, and Redstone Wombdiska, 30, had been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Giesbrecht, 37. Both men pleaded guilty to manslaughter instead as a result of a plea deal in June.

Drug treatment court leads to success

The criminal justice system has long been very good at punishing people for the consequences of addiction. It has been considerably less successful at addressing addiction itself.

That is why the success of Manitoba’s drug treatment courts deserves far more attention.

The Westman drug treatment court, which began in 2019, is built around a simple but important premise: If substance abuse is driving criminal behaviour, the best way to protect the public may not always be to put someone in jail for two years or less.

Sometimes, the more effective response is an intensive, closely supervised effort to help that person break the cycle.