Do the work for more than C-plus in bed

Thirteen accused in gun, drug trafficking network in rural Manitoba

RCMP and Winkler police have arrested more than a dozen people allegedly connected to a drug-and-gun trafficking network that operated in rural Manitoba.

The joint investigation began in December 2024, when officers from the Winkler Police Service asked the Mounties for help after learning kilograms of cocaine were being imported to a Winkler-area truck repair business, said RCMP Supt. Jeff Asmundson, who oversees the force’s Manitoba integrated law enforcement team.

Mounties and Winkler police gathered evidence for 19 months and expanded the probe, dubbed Project Dolor, as investigators learned other types of illicit substances and firearms were being trafficked by the network in a number of southern Manitoba communities, said Asmundson, whose team investigates serious and organized crime.

“It started as a cocaine trafficking investigation, and obviously, as we move along in a project or a file, evidence is gathered and an opportunity arose and we wanted to ensure public safety,” he told reporters Tuesday. “We were able to secure some firearms.”

Letters, Aug. 27

Providing a safe work environment for bus drivers is a no-brainer. You could not pay me enough to take on the role and yet, in theory, it should be a good job, providing an essential service for many.

What’s up: Deep Purple, Sarper Güven, and Taste of Manitoba, Maryland Music, Must Be Nice Indigenous Comedy and Corn and Apple fests

Must Be Nice Indigenous Comedy FestivalDevil May Care Brewing Company, 155-A Fort St.Friday & Saturday, 7 p.m.Tickets $23 at EventbriteTreaty 1 comedians Jeff Gobeil and Kaitlynn Brightnose have had big, busy summers.

Gobeil, a member of Poplar River First Nation, is fresh off performing The Crown Witness Is a Stand-Up Comedian? at this year’s Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. The hour-long solo show, which earned four stars from the Free Press, details how he reported his childhood sexual abuser to police and served as the Crown witness during the man’s trial, “with Gobeil striking a breathtaking balance between his harrowing life story and the comedic observations that have resulted,” according to our review.

He and Brightnose, who grew up between Pukatawagan and Cranberry Portage and is a regular at the Bannock Bums showcases at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, also performed at the Indigenous Comedy Showcase before headliner Jim Gaffigan’s set at the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in July, along with fellow comedian Noah Robinson.

On Friday, they’ll headline the first night of Must Be Nice Indigenous Comedy Festival, a two-night showcase featuring Indigenous comedians from across Treaty territories. Robinson will also perform at the fest, along with a slate of other comics including Stephan Meechas, Sherry McKay, Issa Kixen and others. Single-night and weekend passes are available at Eventbrite.

Manitoba set to announce phys-ed curriculum overhaul

All high school students will be required to show up for in-person phys-ed classes to graduate, the province is set to announce.

Phys-ed and health are compulsory classes from grades 1 to 12, but students can currently sign up for flexible or self-directed options at the end of their high school careers.

Changes to the curriculum — for Grade 11 and 12 students, in particular — will be announced this afternoon, the Free Press has learned.

Premier Wab Kinew told reporters last week that his government was preparing to announce “the biggest curriculum change in recent memory in Manitoba history.”

Fear and loathing in bedbug-infested seniors building

Years of living in a regularly infested suite in an always-infested building have given Lewie Gwyllt nightmares in which he’s wrestling giant bedbugs.

The 64-year-old has lived at 529 Country Club Blvd., a 107-unit seniors’ home run by Manitoba Housing, for nearly eight years. Much of his tenancy has been marked by monthly, but futile, bedbug-eradication treatments.

Gwyllt’s routine is set in stone: he bags his laundry, steams his clothes, and buys covers for any piece of furniture he buys. He has a physical disability and struggles to move things when the pest-control people arrive to spray for the bugs, but he knows the nooks and crannies of his baseboards are a problem spot.

The mental toll has weighed heavily on him. He takes anti-anxiety medication to deal with the stress and despair when the treatments don’t work.

Three charged after victims robbed, held against their will in dating scam

A Winnipeg woman and two men allegedly lured male victims on dating websites before robbing and holding them against their will, prompting safety reminders for people looking for love online. Detectives believe there may be additional victims who’ve not yet come forward.