Program that sent British Columbians to the U.S. for cancer treatment ends

Brandon senior hockey player files suit against opponent, league, Hockey Manitoba over serious injuries, lost income

A Brandon man is taking a fellow hockey player and two sport organizations to court after he was seriously injured on the ice, alleging it caused him hardship and lost income.

In 2024, Devon Leblanc played for the Virden Oil Kings, a senior amateur team in the Tiger Hills Hockey League, which is a member of the Hockey Manitoba association.

Leblanc’s age is not made clear in the court filing, but an online roster suggests he’s 38.

Leblanc alleges Bryce Enns, a member of the Killarney Shamrocks, bodychecked and assaulted him during a game between the two teams on Nov. 28, 2024.

Can’t have our cake and eat it, too

Last month, the City of Winnipeg said it would soon begin to study ways to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety along Osborne Street, which runs between two of the city’s densest neighbourhoods, where residents walk and bike for many of their daily activities. As someone who lives in South Osborne and who has frequented the shops and restaurants of the Village since my university days over 20 years ago, these changes can’t come soon enough.

Imagine my frustration when I read that this study of the street between Broadway and the St. Vital Bridge will take place “over the next year” to find “quick” solutions. We’ve all been through the COVID-19 pandemic, during which cities around the world found rapid solutions to improve safety and encourage more walking, biking and transit. Entire manuals have been published on easy things our city could try, literally this weekend, to improve the safety of Osborne Street.

Perhaps the reason this project is going to take a year can be found in this quote from David Patman, the city’s manager of transportation: “Osborne Street is currently serving multiple, competing functions … It exists in a dense, pedestrian-oriented development area that is close to rapid transit, which is at odds with the high flow of motor vehicles that travel daily along the corridor.”

Mr. Patman has correctly identified Osborne Street as a “stroad”. A stroad is a dangerous, inefficient combination of a street and a road. Stroads try to be the best of both worlds, and they fail at both. Charles Marohn, author of Strong Towns, offers the best analogy — a stroad is like a futon, which is both a terrible couch and an uncomfortable bed. You try to save money on two functions, but neither is right.

Inappropriate late-night texts to students costs teachers their jobs

Manitoba’s independent teacher commissioner has cancelled two certificates this month because of inappropriate late-night messaging with minors.

Police HQ report ‘outrageous’: Kinew

Premier Wab Kinew says public inquiry findings that taxpayers were overcharged more than $40 million for the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project and two city leaders broke the public trust are “outrageous.”

Inquiry commissioner Garth Smorang’s report, which was released Monday, concluded former mayor Sam Katz “violated the public trust” and council code of conduct, while the city’s former chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl suffered from a “complete lack of a moral compass.”

Smorang also found the city was overcharged $43.3 million for the project, with $42 million of that going to key contractor Caspian Projects.

“It’s outrageous that people who were elected betrayed the public here in the city. It’s outrageous that there were people in business who ripped you off, ripped me off — I was paying property taxes in Winnipeg at the time — and ripped all of us off to the tune of $43.3 million. That’s crazy,” said Kinew.