Roadside angel saves the day

Main Street crash involving motorcycle linked to speeding

Speed appears to be a factor in a serious four-vehicle collision, including a motorcycle, on Main Street Friday.

Police did not immediately release information about the crash, but at around 7 p.m., a large section of Main Street was taped off between Jarvis and Dufferin Avenue. Traffic was redirected and pedestrians were told to stay clear.

Behind the tape, a crumpled white sedan was smashed into the side of a building, and a damaged motorcycle was on its side in the middle of the street. Two SUVs were also damaged.

The Free Press watched video captured from cameras at the nearby Northern Hotel that shows the two vehicles involved in the crash — the motorcycle that had a rider and a passenger, and the white sedan — speeding side-by-side southbound on Main Street. The speed limit in the area is 50 kilometres per hour.

Animal rescue worker reportedly killed in dog attack

Police are investigating after a woman died on the Sandy Bay First Nation, reportedly after being attacked by dogs.

The woman was identified by family as 37-year-old Amanda Nobiss.

“It’s just disbelief,” said Sherri Nobiss, her mother, in a phone call. Her family is devastated by the loss. “You just want to know what has happened.”

She said Amanda was a dedicated animal advocate who was volunteering with K9 Advocacy Manitoba in the community at the time. Amanda, who was from Winnipeg, is pictured with a dog in almost all of her photos on social media.

Ethics isn’t about big scandals it’s about little decisions made each day

I’m determined to enjoy summer, but even while trying to unplug, I can’t help noticing just how often workplace ethics are making headlines. For instance, Bell Canada made headlines after terminating employees who allegedly manipulated office attendance records by swiping into the building and immediately leaving.

Ethical failures don’t always involve millions of dollars or make international headlines. Sometimes, they look like an employee manipulating attendance records, exaggerating an expense claim or taking credit for someone else’s work. The dollar value may be small, but the damage to trust can be enormous.

As an HR consultant, I spend a surprising amount of time talking about ethics. Not because organizations are filled with bad people, but because good people sometimes make poor decisions when they are stressed, feel misplaced entitlement or are convinced “everyone else does it.”

That’s one of the biggest dangers. Once questionable behaviour becomes common, it starts to feel normal.

Fringe reviews #7: Quicksave before the next show

50% Nonverbal, Brilliantly Awkward, A Curated Exit, Four Hearts, A Kid Napping, A Life in 60 Minutes, Love is Blank, Lover Girl, Somewhere Up There, Tango After Midnight.

Decorative coverings solve exterior problem

After completing a massive feature wall that includes a beautiful, floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace structure with a large flat-screen TV above the mantel and an electric fireplace below — and a symmetrical array of shelving and cupboards on either side — all that remained was the finishing touches on the exterior side of the wall.

Before the project began, three windows had been filled in to accommodate the continuous vertical surface required to complete the interior project. Early this summer, I had occasion to finally address the final steps.

Unlike breaching an exterior wall for the introduction of a window, filling in an opening is far less complicated. With the lintel already in place, framing within the opening is not structural — it simply serves to provide a nailing surface upon which the drywall can be mounted along the interior side, and the exterior sheathing (in this case, three-quarter-inch plywood) can be fastened outside.

Once the stud cavities were filled with insulation and the separate areas were sealed with vapour barrier inside and Tyvek on the outside, the interior processes continued with coats of mud, the required sanding and two coats of matching paint.

A whack-a-mole approach to a complex problem

The Winnipeg Police Service has produced a report that details the results of a recent 10-day crackdown on open drug use and trafficking. Unfortunately, and to the detriment of both the community and police service, they just won’t show it to anyone.

This week, a WPS spokeswoman confirmed no decision has been made “regarding reporting, future activities or the release of results” from the drug sweep. As the operation was ongoing, WPS did say that it “interacted” with more than 100 people and arrested 25, with most of those related to warrants and breaches of court orders, not open drug use or trafficking.

These very preliminary results prompted criticism that the WPS had failed to adequately collaborate with social service agencies that help the homeless and those suffering from addictions and mental health.

A detailed report on the results of the sweep, along with commentary from the police about lessons learned, is essential if police are to engage in this kind of initiative again. In fact, it would be hard to see how police could ever unleash a similar operation without some sort of accounting of the impacts — both good and bad — of the first effort.