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Mayor tight-lipped about firefighter charged with disobeying protection order while on job

Mayor Scott Gillingham said he can’t talk about the case of a firefighter accused of breaching a protection order while on the job this month — a man who has been jailed twice in the past 10 years for harassing two women.

Christopher Goethals was arrested July 21 after breaching a protection order requiring that he not come within 200 metres of a protected person.

Police said Goethals, 59, was in full uniform, driving a Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service fleet vehicle, and was performing “modified duties” on the job when he breached the order.

When asked about Goethals being able to serve as a firefighter under those circumstances, Gillingham called it a human resources issue. He said he wouldn’t get into specifics, but would “look into this matter further.”

Body of second sibling pulled from lake

NUTIMIK LAKE — Twenty-four hours after the body of 10-year-old Maximo Au Ramirez was located in Nutimik Lake, searchers found the body of his 13-year-old brother, Aaron, who had gone into the water to rescue Maximo after he slipped in Saturday.

The announcement was made on social media by Nutimik Lodge in Whiteshell Provincial Park. “Our prayers have been answered” the post said. “Both boys have been recovered.”

Earlier Thursday, their parents said they are surviving their “unimaginable” loss only because of the overwhelming support they have received from the community.

In the afternoon, RCMP divers, the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team and civilian volunteers moved across Nutimik Lake, drones hovered above and media lined the beach as the search for Aaron continued.

Selfie part of investigation into Grant Park football coach

A selfie of a high school football coach grinning beside a Free Press front-page story about the investigation into his professional conduct has become part of the case.

Doug Kovacs, a resource teacher at Grant Park High School who runs the Pirates football program, was put on leave in the spring.

The Winnipeg School Division employee is the subject of an investigation into allegations that athletes on his AAAA varsity team engaged in hazing that led to at least one player getting injured last year.

The Free Press has learned that on July 8 — the day it was revealed in print that Manitoba’s teacher commissioner had launched a third-party probe — a photo of Kovacs posing with a newspaper began circulating in the football community.

Gimli Film Festival: Filmmaker’s new short tackles feelings around toplessness

When he’s hurtling down the highway for solo adventures on his Honda CB500X, Ande Brown often finds himself on Page 1 of an unwritten screenplay, drifting into imagined narratives about the interior lives of the men and women on the road around him.

“You go through any small town, and inevitably there’s a billboard for a real estate agent, so I’ll start making up a story about how they got into the business,” says Brown, a filmmaker who didn’t consider saying “cut” until his late 50s. “Hours will go by and I won’t even realize how far I’ve gone.”

Though he acknowledges that he’s a late bloomer in just about every way, Brown has used storytelling as escapism since he was raised by a devoted single mother in Arizona during the 1970s: at Phoenix’s airport, in an era of lax security, an adolescent Brown would sit in the terminal and concoct storylines about travellers’ comings and goings.

“There are ideas that float around, and they’ll find a head to go into, and if you reject it, they’ll find another one. There’s all kinds of inspiration out there, but you have to be open to it,” says Brown, whose latest short film, Half-Naked, premières Saturday at the Gimli International Film Festival.

Outreach group addresses safety concerns over Osborne Village drop-in centre

An outreach organization at the centre of growing concerns over safety in Osborne Village says it is taking steps to improve conditions around its drop-in centre and reaffirming its commitment to the neighbourhood.

“We recognize the concerns raised about the activity around our… drop-in site and understand the importance of maintaining a safe and welcoming neighbourhood for everyone including residents, families, local businesses and the people who access our services,” 1JustCity, which operates the drop-in Oak Table, said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

The organization said it is increasing staff presence, conducting regular patrols, expanding outreach efforts and extending Oak Table’s hours to provide more supervised indoor space, meals and access to supports, while continuing to monitor the surrounding neighbourhood and encourage respectful use of public spaces.

The province is also providing the organization with $500,000 to expand Oak Table’s hours and launch a new outreach team.

E-scooter knocks senior onto sidewalk as he gets off bus

A Winnipeg man was thrown onto the pavement and injured after being struck by an electric scooter after stepping off a Winnipeg Transit bus Monday afternoon, an incident he hopes will push the city to take a closer look at sidewalk safety.