Turn up the Stereo

‘How do I go on?’ Double homicide victim’s mother speaks at killers’ sentencing

A Portage la Prairie woman who returned home to find her adult son and his girlfriend shot dead told a court she struggles to go on in the wake of the drug world killing.

“All I want to do is sleep and not wake up, but I do and I want to give up,” Mary Bone said at a sentencing hearing earlier this month for killers Preston Whitford and Jeremy Whincup. “How do I go on?”

Bone’s son James Borden, 42, and his girlfriend Emily Smoke, 37, were killed Dec. 1, 2024, after the two accused forced their way into Bone’s home to collect a drug debt from Borden, court was told.

Whitford, who wielded the gun that shot the two victims, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years. Whincup, Whitford’s uncle, pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Residents fear mailbox crime sprees

Some North End residents are concerned new community mailboxes will become a target for vandalism and crime after the base of one was recently lit ablaze — before it was even installed.

The community mailboxes started to show up on Andrews Street within the last two weeks. Some have been installed, while at other locations, only the concrete foundation is in place.

“They just dumped them on the boulevard,” said Stephen Giesbrecht, who lives beside one of the boxes in the St. John’s neighbourhood. “They dumped them on the corner and then they were gone.”

One of the concrete slabs has already played host to a fire and some of the hardware needed to install the mailbox melted.

City inundated with thousands of complaints after launch of new transit system

Despite complaints from thousands of dissatisfied users, Winnipeg hasn't hit the brakes on the rollout of its new primary transit network. And it appears that ignoring the public response cost Winnipeg Transit millions of dollars in lost revenue and ridership.

Executive exodus continues at Shared Health with three recent departures

Manitoba’s provincial health authority is looking for its fourth chief financial officer since 2023 and additional replacements after the recent departures of three executives.

Winnipeg team behind national LGBT monument spent six years bringing it to fruition

The Winnipeg team behind a national monument recognizing the LGBT Purge were in Ottawa to celebrate its official unveiling Friday.

Thunderhead is the work of local artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, Liz Wreford and Peter Sampson of Public City Architecture, and knowledge keeper Albert McLeod, who served as cultural adviser for the project.

The team beat out 31 international submissions for the project, which is permanently located at 201 Wellington St. in Ottawa along the Ottawa River, in view of Parliament.

“We are a beacon internationally around the world of what democracies can do about inclusion, about human rights,” McLeod said.

Man sues WRHA, doctors after wrong leg amputated at Grace Hospital in 2024

A man whose left leg was mistakenly amputated — rather than his infected lower right leg — at the Grace Hospital in 2024 has filed a lawsuit against the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and two doctors involved in his care.

Jason Kennedy, who lives in Winnipeg and is a member of Bloodvein First Nation, filed his statement of claim in Court of King’s Bench last week, naming the WRHA and orthopedic surgeons Dr. David John Dillon and Dr. Yiyang Zhang as defendants.

He accuses the health authority and doctors of negligence and breach of duty, among other allegations.

Kennedy was 48 when he went to Seven Oaks General Hospital on Oct. 22, 2024, with pain and an infection in his right foot.