Your forecast
Cloudy, with a 30 per cent chance of showers this morning. Wind from the northwest at 40 km/h gusting to 60. High 15 C, UV index 3 or moderate.
What’s happening today
Today is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day offensive in the Second World War. The Royal Winnipeg Rifles were the first British Commonwealth troops ashore in the massive operation, and you can read about their part in the conflict here.
Winnipeg RCAF Pilot Officer Andrew Charles Mynarski survived that momentous battle, but days later lost his life on a mission for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Infantrymen of The Royal Winnipeg Rifles in Landing Craft Assault (LCAs) en route to land at Courseulles-sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1944. (Library and Archives Canada)
A Canadian ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day got underway this morning in Courseulles-sur-Mer, France. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his French counterpart Gabriel Attal and Prince William were among dignitaries visiting Juno Beach, as was Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. (Dan Lett has a column on the political importance of attending such events.)
Prince William, the Prince of Wales greets 100-year-old Canadian veteran Richard Rohmer, accompanied by the Prime Minister of France Gabriel Attal and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, at Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, Thursday. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press)
As part of the Cluster Festival of New Music and Integrated Arts, experimental artists Debashis Sinha, Jason Tait and Compost unite at the West End Cultural Centre at 8.m. to jointly explore “the meditative, trance-inducing power of sound” through improvisation, setting and environmental response. Ben Waldman has a preview of the festival here.
Michael Lucenkiw’s Environment Machine Shop is part of the Cluster Festival. (Mike Deal / Free Press)
Thornhill, Ont. author Sidura Ludwig launches her children’s picture book Rising, which was illustrated by Canadian-born, Tel Aviv-based Sophia Vincent Guy. The book details a Jewish mother’s tradition of making challah with her child, and includes a recipe. Free Press faith writer John Longhurst will host. McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park, 7 p.m. and livestreamed on the store’s YouTube channel.
Today’s must-read
A suspect died after being shot by Winnipeg police outside a southern Manitoba university early Wednesday, while a second man was arrested in Saskatchewan hours later after a manhunt across two provinces.
RCMP arrested David Frank Burling, 29 — who has a history of thefts and leading police on pursuits — and a woman near Springside, Sask., some 500 kilometres from Otterburne, where the shooting happened.
The name of the man who was fatally shot was not released. The Winnipeg Police Service said officers opened fire when a stolen pickup truck, which was being tracked by the WPS helicopter, rammed into their marked SUV. Chris Kitching and Tyler Searle have the story.
A Winnipeg Police Service vehicle riddled with bullet holes sits on the side of Hwy. 59 near the intersection of Provincial Road 305 near Niverville (Mike Deal / Free Press)
On the bright side
When 17-year-old Royce Colon stepped off the plane after landing in the Dominican Republic, the first things he noticed were the hot, humid air hitting his skin and the warm welcome he received from the locals.
A group of 22 volunteers, including Indigenous youth from northern Manitoba and community leaders, are in Puerto Plata this week to help build a house for a local family.
Colon, who lives in Oxford House, said the furthest away he’d previously been from home was Winnipeg. So, when someone from LiveDifferent, a Canadian charity that does youth outreach, contacted him about travelling to the Dominican Republic, it was “mind blowing.” Matthew Frank has more here.
Volunteers from Manitoba mix sand for concrete as they build a house for a family in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. (Supplied)
On this date
On June 6, 1955: The Winnipeg Free Press reported a small group of farmers proposed a plan to divert water from the Assiniboine River into an area that would become an artificial lake to prevent flooding damage to a larger area of agricultural land. Separately, the provincial agricultural minister said a proposed dam on the Assiniboine River near Russell would cost $10 million, not $5 million as estimated for a dam on the Red River basin in a 1953 report. In Minneapolis, Winnipeg fish dealer Gudmundur Finbogason Jonasson was fined $40,000 in a federal court for illegally shipping wormy fish to the U.S. Read the rest of this day’s paper here. Search our archives for more here.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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