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An Edmonton man accused of defrauding several Winnipeg seniors in so-called grandparent scams has also been charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl in the city.

Winnipeg Police Service financial crime investigators were alerted after three city residents, all in their 80s, were defrauded of more than $37,000 in August after receiving calls from someone posing as a grandchild who claimed to need cash to pay for bail, police said Tuesday.

The first victim received several phone calls between Aug. 17 and 22 from a caller who claimed the victim’s grandson had been arrested and needed cash bail. The victim agreed to pay and handed over cash and gold and silver coins to a man who showed up at their door four separate times.

On Aug. 18, another adult received a call from someone claiming to be their grandson who needed cash for bail and the victim obliged, paying a man who went to their home to pick up money.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I re-rented my favourite summer cabin this fall because I’m trying to finish my thesis. My husband of just over a year was very annoyed with me for going on my own, but didn’t say much about it because I paid.

I thought we were both OK with this arrangement, until I got the flu up at the lake very badly and couldn’t keep anything down. I felt faint. I phoned him and he said he was at a party with the guys. I could hear music and girls laughing.

He wouldn’t come for me, so at 4 a.m. when I was getting even more sick and scared, I drove back to the city unannounced.

I went straight to my parents’ house and pretty much fell through the door. Mom said to me when she grabbed me: “This is not right. You could have died in the ditch. Where is your husband?”

For years, the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys (“MACA”) has been engaged in a dispute with the Manitoba government over the workload of its lawyers. That dispute is expected to come to a head at the end of November, when two weeks of grievance hearings are scheduled.

We remain hopeful that we can reach an agreement with our employer. But if we cannot, our union’s lawyers are prepared to make our case. As those hearings approach, we want to explain how we got here, what is at stake, and why this dispute matters beyond the working conditions of our members.

These problems are longstanding and predate the election of Manitoba’s current government. Our concern with the current government is not that it created these problems, but that it is now responsible for addressing them.

Despite the evidence before it, the government has not meaningfully addressed the workload concerns we have raised throughout its time in office.