Spock impersonation a new career

Councillors say Main Street Project scuttles other agency’s efforts to house homeless

A Winnipeg outreach agency that’s been largely shut out of government funding says it has found housing for more people in the last five months than Manitoba’s homeless strategy that began last year.

Flash, bang … oops: police raid leads to lawsuit

A couple suing the city allege Winnipeg Police Service officers trying to execute a search warrant at their condominium complex rappelled down the side of the building, broke in their glass patio door and fired off a stun grenade before realizing they were in the wrong unit.

Saeid Ghavami and Shahla Shojaei, a married couple who are academics and scientific researchers at the University of Manitoba, filed the lawsuit in Court of King’s Bench last month over the Jan. 31, 2025 incident.

The claim names the City of Winnipeg and several officers involved in the operation, whose identities are, at this point, unknown to the couple, and are referred to as “John Does.”

Officers were attempting to execute the warrant on the third floor of the eight-storey Pembina Highway building, the court filing says. The couple lives on the fourth floor.

Missed opportunity could come back to bite Bombers

Three yards.

That’s all the Winnipeg Blue Bombers needed to leave Sunday’s Labour Day Classic in Regina with a victory.

But instead of attempting a two-point conversion for the win, head coach Mike O’Shea played it safe. He trotted out kicker Sergio Castillo for an extra point to force overtime after rookie receiver Dorian Singer caught a five-yard touchdown with zero seconds left on the clock.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders (8-4) dusted themselves off and hit pay dirt in extra time to escape with a 32-26 win in front of a record crowd of 34,352 — the most since the new Mosaic Stadium opened in 2017.

Spock impersonation a new career

As you can see from some of the photographs Paul Forest is selling in the Cosplay Alley section of the Central Canada Comic Con, Forest stands almost a foot taller than did actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Vulcan science officer Mr. Spock on Star Trek.

Otherwise, the resemblance between Forest and Nimoy is striking, as long as you understand we’re talking an older Spock from, say, the Search for Spock epoch.

In the Cosplay section, Forest is very much an oddball given most of the other guests are attractive young women dressed and made up to look like iconic figures such as Harley Quinn or a blood-spattered Alice in Wonderland.

He appears under the monicker “Spock Vegas,” but Forest, like William Shatner, hails from Montreal. Once a house painter, he fell into the Spock-impersonator racket during a snowbird jaunt to Las Vegas “to go play roulette.”

Ferraro, Skinner getting lay of the land before training camp starts

They’ve both been around the NHL block a bit, but make no mistake, Stuart Skinner and Mario Ferraro are experiencing some “new kid at school” type jitters this week.

The pair were prized July 1 free agent signings by the Winnipeg Jets and are now quickly trying to get the lay of the land — from teammates and systems and structure to restaurants, schools and the best routes to the rink — in what is a frantic time on both a professional and personal level.

“It’s a big change, right?” Ferraro said Wednesday following a pre-training camp skate at the Hockey For All Centre.

“Like moving cities, getting settled somewhere else, with my family, my wife, my daughter, our two dogs. But I think it’s gone really well and smooth. We found a great place here, and we’re really happy with where we’re living.”

‘Huge resource gaps’: judge shortage leads to circuit court cuts

A shortage of judges is forcing Manitoba’s provincial court to slash sittings across the province.

The court announced in a notice to the profession Wednesday that it will be reducing the number of annual court sittings at nine rural circuit locations and St. Boniface provincial court in Winnipeg by 68 sittings, effective April 1, 2027.

The reductions are necessary to balance “access to justice needs with the complement of judicial resources currently insufficient to maintain the current court schedule,” said the notice, signed by provincial court Chief Judge Ryan Rolston.

Affected circuit courts include Altona, Arborg, Beausejour, Easterville, Cranberry Portage, Lundar, Grand Rapids, Moose Lake, and Pine Falls.