Catherine O’Hara wins posthumous award for ‘The Studio’ at Actor Awards

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.

Manitoba First Nation taking federal government, department to court over damage to sturgeon population

A remote Manitoba First Nation is taking the federal government to court over claims a Manitoba Hydro project is hurting the sturgeon population in the lower Churchill River.

In an Oct. 15 statement of claim filed in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench, Tataskweyak Cree Nation said the Churchill River diversion operated by Manitoba Hydro has had widespread ecological effects and damaged sturgeon populations in the area.

The lawsuit alleges Ottawa has breached its treaty obligations to protect the community’s right to harvest the fish.

The lawsuit names both His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, the minister of fisheries and Oceans Canada as defendants.

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.

Mayoral candidates snipe over safety during radio debate

Public safety took centre stage during a sometimes fiery mayoral debate Wednesday in which Kevin Klein revealed he would have to raise property taxes to fund his plan to make Winnipeg safer.

The CJOB debate also included candidates Scott Gillingham and Mike Vogiatzakis, who were selected as the top contenders in the race based on polling data.

Klein noted he has promised to strike a task force on public safety and to hire more police, if he’s elected Oct. 28.

“We are 100 police officers short of the very bare minimum of the per capita (number) right now. We have to replace those officers,” said Klein, a former city councillor and Tory cabinet minister.

Limited visibility, radio communication among safety issues cited in mid-air collision

An investigative report into a mid-air plane crash that killed two student pilots in southeastern Manitoba cited concerns about radio communication, situational awareness and visual detection methods.

Two small planes collided twice and crashed into a field after one aircraft ended up flying above the other while both approached a runway at Steinbach South Airport the morning of July 8, 2025, a Transportation Safety Board report said Wednesday. The planes belonged to the Harv’s Air Service flight school.

“Once they’re on final (approach), the ability to see each other would have been very limited,” said Eric Vermette, a TSB regional manager in Winnipeg.

Gillingham says Portage and Main underground should stay open

Scott Gillingham said he hopes to keep the circular concourse beneath Portage Avenue and Main Street open, if he’s re-elected mayor next week.

“I would like to find a way for it to stay,” said Gillingham during the mayoral debate hosted by CJOB Wednesday.

The downtown intersection reopened to pedestrians at street level in June 2025.

When he first supported that hotly debated reopening in 2024, Gillingham called for the underground mall to be closed. At the time, the city estimated it would take $73 million and up to five years of traffic-snarling construction to repair the leaking membrane under the street that protects the properties below.