Two spirits, 35 years: event celebrates term’s anniversary

Granite housing project passes final council hurdle after appeal rejected

Critics of the proposed 12-storey housing project set for the parking lot of the Granite Curling Club were shut down at a city meeting Thursday as councillors allowed the development to proceed.

The 110-unit building at 30 Granite Way originally meant the loss of 45 of the 80 parking spots, which the long-running club said would ruin its financial viability.

In June, the city produced a plan to add parking spots around the club by removing a boulevard and adjusting spots at another parking lot, but the club’s management called the plan inadequate.

City council’s property and development committee discussed a number of proposed variances to the building plan Thursday, including allowing the building height to reach 126 feet even though regulations stipulate a maximum 100 feet, and shifts in the width of some parking spots allotted to the residential building and the curling club. Appeals against those changes, including those by management at the Granite Curling Club, were unanimously denied by the committee.

Six inquests called, including into death of homeless woman run over by cruiser

Manitoba’s chief medical examiner has called inquests into the deaths of six people, including a woman who was run over and killed at a homeless encampment at a Winnipeg park two years ago.

Dr. John Younes announced the inquests Thursday, noting such reviews are mandatory under the Fatal Inquiries Act. They will probe the deaths of four people following interactions with police, and two others who died while in custody.

Tammy Bateman, 39, died Sept. 2, 2024, when she was “run over by a police vehicle moving at a low speed” while “reportedly lying down on a gravel road” in Fort Rouge Park, Younes said.

“The medical examiner’s office was notified, and an autopsy was authorized. The immediate cause of death was determined to be multiple traumatic injuries due (to) pedestrian vs motor vehicle collision. The manner of death was accidental,” he said.

MPI donates auto repair gear to RRC Polytech

Manitoba Public Insurance’s donation Thursday came without an oversized cheque or physical money.

Instead, the Crown corporation announced $1.2-million worth of collision repair equipment for Red River College Polytechnic.

“We knew that the equipment wasn’t being used to its full value,” Carmen Nedohin, MPI’s board chair, said outside the Winnipeg post-secondary’s auto repair shop at its Notre Dame Avenue campus.

Inside, students assembled golf carts. More than 200 pieces of equipment — frame racks, dent pulling systems — have been added to the facility. “It was just a perfect fit,” Nedohin added.

Report draws link between missing Indigenous women and trafficking across Canada

A new analysis of online sex advertisements featuring Indigenous women has identified cross-country corridors that are highly indicative of sex trafficking, while revealing insight into how women and girls are exploited in Winnipeg.

Saying goodbye to a friend I never met

Hedie Epp and I first connected over a column I wrote in October 2023 about my mother’s dementia. Now I find myself awash in sadness for the loss of this person I will never get to meet.