From soup to Peanuts: MTYP season has it all

Mayoral candidates focus on public safety at Indigenous forum

Mayoral hopefuls made their pitch to Winnipeg’s Indigenous community Tuesday at a forum hosted by chiefs organizations.

“Public safety must include trust between police and First Nations,” said candidate Kevin Klein, a former chair of the police board. “Winnipeg needs a policing approach that protects Indigenous residents, supports victims, prevents crime and builds lasting relationships with Indigenous communities.”

The former city councillor and Tory cabinet minister promised harsher penalties for drug dealers and said he’d work to create a community safety task force that would include Indigenous leadership.

He also said the police service must recruit more Indigenous officers to change its culture.

‘Canada is the best.’ Kinew applauds separatists’ failure in Alberta

Manitoba's Premier threw both hands in the air Tuesday, celebrating Albertans’ rejection of separation from Canada in a referendum one day earlier.

New blood in St. Vital

Candidates to fill the wide-open St. Vital city council seat are sharing their plans to ease traffic, tighten up development rules, protect trees and improve Winnipeg Transit.

Coun. Brian Mayes led the ward since 2011 but is not running for re-election, guaranteeing a new city councillor will be chosen.

Chris Sigurdson, a Louis Riel School Division trustee and criminal defence lawyer, is competing for the job with Mayes’ endorsement.

Sigurdson said his trustee work over the last 16 years provided a valuable education in local government that he could apply at city hall.

Wesmen setter Tristan Arnold ready to meet the challenge

In a group that features some intriguing unknowns, Tristan Arnold is a certainty for the Winnipeg Wesmen.

The fifth-year setter and team captain enters his final men’s volleyball season as the unquestioned starter for the first time after spending most of his university career buried behind some talented players, then promoted briefly before bouncing between the bench and the floor.

It’s easy to see why the Glenlawn product is stoked for the upcoming campaign. This opportunity didn’t come without challenging his patience and some questions about his belonging in the sport he’s played from a young age.

“I’ve worked really hard to continue to play volleyball,” Arnold told the Free Press Tuesday. “There’s been a couple of times throughout my career where I’ve thought about packing it in, but I was just too committed to the boys, too committed to whoever I was playing for at the time.”

Surprising announcement opens door slightly for accountability in police HQ saga

Early Monday afternoon, it looked as if former Mayor Sam Katz, former chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl and contractor Armik Babakhanians were going to finally and successfully escape the long arm of the law for their roles in the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters scandal.

Klein calls union’s attack ads ‘dirty politics,’ urges Gillingham to reject support

Mayoral candidate Kevin Klein said attack ads from Winnipeg’s largest union are an example of “dirty politics” and verge on United States-style campaigning.

The pamphlets, signed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500, show a United States flag draped behind Klein, with text stating he has sided with “the broader alt-right political movement” and defends the U.S.

“As Canadians we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. This is not the politics that we have experienced in the City of Winnipeg. This is not the type of politics we want to experience in Canada,” he said during a Tuesday news conference at his campaign headquarters.

He called on incumbent candidate Scott Gillingham to denounce the ads and reject the union’s campaign support.