The Wrap: Arson sentencing, transit officer grievance, a field trip to Darlingford, a treat for pontists and Jets back on ice

Reporter Erik Pindera attended the sentencing hearing today for Douglas Wayne Last, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter last fall in the 2021 death of Jung Ja Shin.

Shin, 60, died of smoke inhalation after she was pulled from the blaze at the E-Mart convenience store in Osborne Village, where she lived in a second-storey apartment with her son.

On Friday, Last was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Shin’s son attended the hearing but found it too painful to speak to court about the impact of his mother’s death.

More than 20 new community safety officers are being trained to address safety issues at Winnipeg Transit stops and on buses, starting next month.

But the union representing city police officers has filed a grievance with the city over the new roles, arguing the safety officers will be doing work that involves arrest and detention, which should be the domain of police officers.

Reporter Jen Zoratti and photographer Mikaela MacKenzie headed out on a Free Press Field Trip to Darlingford, where residents volunteer an incredible amount of time, energy, and skills to tend and care for the community’s heritage sites, including a park that is home to the province’s only memorial solely dedicated to the war dead.

There’s a lovely, slightly obscure word for people who love bridges: “Pontists.”

Winnipeg should be a pontist playground. We are a city of bridges, currently with 49 designed for vehicle traffic, along with dozens of pedestrian bridges.

Alison Gillmor explores the range of structural types and distinct personalities of the city’s spans.

Connor Hellebuyck is the undisputed MVP of the Winnipeg Jets this season, the Vezina Trophy front-runner and quickly gaining traction around hockey circles as a potential Hart Trophy candidate.

Yet, around here the planet’s premier puckstopper has been pushed aside recently by a most surprising personality: His own father.

“His head was getting too big. I had to send him home,” a laughing Hellebuyck said Friday.

Free Press columnists Niigaan Sinclair and Dan Lett talk politics, culture and media from the geographical centre of Canada and ground zero in the debate over Indigenous reconciliation.