Prince has Grand Ole time during Opry debut

Former abuser of alcohol, drugs who graduated from recovery program now helping others

The second time Ray Ducharme overdosed, he was in a Winnipeg hotel room, waiting for a spot in Adult and Teen Challenge Central Canada’s live-in recovery program.

It was Oct. 30, 2024 — not long after his first overdose had landed him in a Red Deer, Alta., hospital for eight days. Ducharme had gone west, trying to outrun the baggage he carried in Winnipeg, before eventually returning home at the behest of an ATCCC employee who assured him there would be a bed available in seven to 10 days.

Then came the second OD.

Three days later, in early November, Ducharme woke up in a Winnipeg hospital with his family around him. Doctors weren’t sure he’d survive.

At the city’s busiest fire and paramedic hall, first responders face a relentless workload

As a soft rain begins to fall between the concrete walls of “Hope Alley,” little feels further away than the place’s namesake.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews have been called to the narrow downtown passage, named by Al Wiebe, a formerly homeless man turned advocate. People regularly pass through here, moving between the shelters, drop-ins and resource centres clustered around Main Street between Logan and Higgins avenues.

Against a wall, as the sky switches into night mode, a man sits bleeding from his nose, seemingly unaware of how he ended up with blood running down his T-shirt.

His situation has already set Winnipeg’s emergency response network in motion.

Oddities market fills the gap in macabre curiosities

The dolls Katherine Blahut designs are the ones from your childhood — with a macabre twist.

There’s the Nosferatu-inspired “NosferaTOT,” complete with fangs, pointed ears and another doll’s severed leg, and “ScAriel,” a demonic, Disney-inspired mermaid more interested in taking human souls than gaining one.

“I get a lot of questions like, ‘Are they haunted?’” Blahut said Sunday at An Oddly Curious Market in Winnipeg, where she was one of 45 vendors.

The sight of sinister-looking baby dolls brought some marketgoers to a dead halt at Blahut’s table. Some were curious or commented on how impressed they were by her work. Some visitors appeared a tad uncomfortable.

Winnipeg police ID deceased man, notify family

Winnipeg police have been able to notify next-of-kin about the death of a man found unresponsive on a city street in July.

The man was identified after police asked for the public’s help and issued a composite sketch and description of the unknown man on Friday.

On Sunday, police said his family has been notified and thanked the public. Additional details about the man were not released in order to respect the family’s privacy, police said.

The man died in hospital after being found unresponsive July 28 at the corner of Main Street and James Avenue in Winnipeg, and investigators’ previous efforts to identify him were unsuccessful.

Making mentoring magic one child at a time

When Bree-Ann Jubinville first met the eight-year-old she was going to mentor, she had no idea how much the child would go on to alter the course of her life.

New businesses start to creep up in former Winnipeg Slurpee shops

The remnants of 7-Eleven can still be seen as new businesses move into spaces where Slurpee machines and taquitos once ruled.

As fresh paint dries on several new ventures — such as a pizza place and a convenience store with a name that might make a customer do a double-take — holes across Winnipeg once occupied by the international convenience chain are slowly being filled.

Business at a Domino’s Pizza in Elmwood, formerly a 7-Eleven, has been booming since it opened June 1, the store manager said.

“The issues that 7-Eleven would have had might be different than what we would have. They were dealing with a lot of theft where people can just walk in and out, but Domino’s isn’t set up that way,” said Paul Hemmerling.