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Cancelling court erodes access to justice — just ask Matt Wiebe

Back in May 2023, when the NDP was in opposition and Matt Wiebe was just an earnest justice critic, he had harsh words for the Progressive Conservative government when provincial circuit court sessions were being cancelled.

Is ‘tornado alley’ moving north?

There’s a famous fictional story in which a ruby-slippered, tornado-tossed traveller takes a wide-eyed look around and declares, “I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

There are probably some residents of south River Heights, on the other hand, who looked out their windows last Sunday and felt as if Kansas — the U.S. state that lies smack-dab in the middle of meteorological maps outlining the area known as “tornado alley” — was exactly where they’d somehow ended up.

There is now confirmation of a tornado touching down within Winnipeg, after several residents reported seeing funnel-shaped clouds during the intense thunderstorm, and the magnitude and extremely localized nature of the damage — including felled trees, snapped hydro poles, scattered fences and the deposit of a random automobile on one resident’s front lawn — certainly shows forces more formidable than strong wind gusts were at play.

As Manitoba Hydro and City of Winnipeg crews continued the days-long effort to clean up the mess and restore power to thousands of homes affected by the long-weekend weather blast, some of the conversation related to the storm focused on how extreme events such as this have become more commonplace in a region where tornadoes were long considered a rarity.

Childfree Winnipeg group gives women without kids a place to gather

Katelyn Sawatzky founded Childfree Winnipeg Women in 2021 to bring together women who don’t have kids — be it by choice or circumstance — and do not plan on raising children.

The group is designed to help them share experiences and build meaningful friendships.

The community welcomes cisgender, straight, transgender, bisexual and lesbian women. Parents, including empty nesters and men, are turned away.

“Our group is a safe space where women can hang out with other women without being asked when you’re going to have kids or why you don’t have kids … where you don’t feel like you have to validate or defend your choices in any way, because everyone gets it,” Sawatzky says.

Assisted living could alleviate ‘bed block’

There is a severe shortage of public and non-profit rent-geared-to-income/services-geared-to-income assisted-living housing for older adults in Manitoba. Seniors assisted living is a form of housing that includes rent, food, laundry and cleaning services.

Presently, the provincial government almost exclusively relies on the private market to provide assisted-living housing for seniors. Monthly private-market assisted-living housing rent for seniors ranges from $3,000 to $6,000 per month. The total income for an individual older adult receiving old age security (OAS) and guaranteed income supplement (GIS) pensions is less than $2,000 per month.

It is clear that low- and fixed-income seniors are not able to afford private-market assisted-living housing, resulting in the premature entry of these older adults into long-term care homes because seniors assisted-living housing is not publicly subsidized, whereas long-term care facilities do provide income-based subsidies.

Low- and fixed-income seniors are also experiencing a food affordability crisis which is negatively impacting their health and well-being. An enhanced assisted-living housing program that includes congregate meals would play an important role in addressing this growing affordability problem, along with reducing social isolation and loneliness.

Paranoid and high, man kills dad, takes photos of body, calls 911

Paranoid and sleep-deprived after a night of smoking crack, Donato Pellettieri stabbed his 64-year-old father 27 times, called 911 and waited outside their Maryland Avenue residence until police arrived minutes later and arrested him for murder, court was told Thursday.

“Paranoia led him to believe this was a kill-or-be-killed situation,” Crown attorney Joel Refvik told Court of King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne. “This is an individual who, but for his drug use and paranoia, likely would not have killed his father.”

The 39-year-old pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the July 2021 killing of Salvatore Pellettieri and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.

The resolution of his case was delayed by long periods in which he was mentally unfit to stand trial, and changed lawyers and awaited reports to determine whether he should be found not criminally responsible for his actions.