Bard’s females get their due in Awaken

Slain chef’s family infuriated by stayed charges

The family of a Ste. Anne chef who died after an altercation at a party says they are angry a manslaughter charge has been stayed against a 46-year-old man.

Convicted harasser accused of targeting old, new victims, including judge

Agnieszka Ciochon-Newton, who was sentenced to six years in prison for mercilessly harassing two people she believed had wronged her, as well as other crimes, wasted no time when her sentence ended to launch fresh attacks on victims new and old, including the judge who convicted her, court documents allege.

The 58-year-old former nurse was arrested last month after Winnipeg police “became aware that (Ciochon-Newton) was engaging in aggressive and harassing behaviours again, starting almost immediately upon the expiry of her parole conditions” on May 13, Det. Sgt Kylie Case wrote in search warrant documents obtained by the Free Press.

Ciochon-Newton is charged with seven counts of criminal harassment, two counts of uttering threats and one count each of fraud, breaking and entering, attempting to obstruct justice, intimidation of a justice official, mischief and defamatory libel. She remains in custody.

Search warrant documents say provincial court Judge Keith Eyrikson learned in late August that Ciochon-Newton had emailed CBC Manitoba days earlier and threatened him.

Reversing Manitoba’s moose decline

As Manitoba’s retired provincial moose manager, I have watched our moose population plummet from historic highs to a state of systemic vulnerability. Reversing this decline, which has seen numbers drop from 45,000 during the 1960s to fewer than 20,000 today, will require balancing the conservation needs of moose, Section 35 constitutional treaty rights, licensed hunter expectations and economic development.

To avert further attrition, all stakeholders, including Manitoba Natural Resources, must accept responsibility for their part in this decline, with industrial and recreational development acting as the primary drivers.

This long-overdue discussion must not devolve into a debate over competing hunting rights; instead, it must focus entirely on building long-term population resilience. Wildlife management must evolve alongside the changing landscapes and dynamics that development brings. We can no longer practise the same methods and hope for a better result. Immediate action is required.

As long as moose are legally managed as a “natural resource,” they will inevitably be viewed through the lens of a commodity rather than a vulnerable species in need of protection. For any population to remain stable or grow, total mortality cannot exceed recruitment — the survival of calves to breeding age. If mortality outpaces recruitment, decline is inevitable.

Those on the front lines of coping with the city’s deepening homelessness and drug crises express concern at civic election candidates’ lack of attention to the issues

Just steps from city hall, two significant challenges facing Winnipeg play out every day.

But despite the proximity to the ongoing homelessness and toxic drug crises that have become woven into the fabric of Main Street, front-line service organizations worry civic leaders have lost sight of what needs to be done.

Marion Willis, executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, says the situation has deteriorated under current Mayor Scott Gillingham and council, with inadequate support for outreach services and an unwillingness by the city to take greater responsibility for addressing homelessness.

“If you look at the last four years, I haven’t seen things get better in our sector. I’ve seen things become amplified in the most negative of ways,” Willis says.

Letters, Oct. 16

A few days ago, U.S. President Donald Trump attended a rally in Arizona. At about the same time, Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada was interviewed on The Really Big Show.

First Nations should not have to defend truth of residential schools

The truth about residential schools should never have been this difficult for Canada to acknowledge. And it should never be this difficult to defend.