Warrior mentality

Conservation officials investigate after polar bear shot near Churchill

Manitoba wildlife officials are investigating after a polar bear was shot and killed near the mouth of the Seal River on Friday by a paddler.

The province confirmed Tuesday the incident occurred along the Hudson Bay coast, roughly 50 kilometres west of Churchill.

Few details about the shooting have been released. Officials have not publicly identified the paddler involved or provided information about the circumstances leading up to the encounter.

Polar bears are designated as a threatened species in Manitoba and are protected under provincial legislation. It is illegal to hunt the bears in Manitoba.

Thomas-Müller chronicles turmoil and triumphs in brave new memoir

According to Free Press columnist Niigaan Sinclair, there is a stark difference between settler and First Nation understandings of what it means to be a warrior. For white settlers, we tend to associate the notion with power, violence and fame; for the Anishinaabe, specifically, warrior is associated with terms like honour, protection, love, gift and heart.

Hearing and seeing Clayton Thomas-Müller for the first time in 2015, I was astounded by his courage, audacity and intellect. At a rally in Winnipeg, he took then-NDP leader Tom Mulcair to task, pulling the rug out from under his inability to take a stand on climate change. Mulcair was on the verge of potentially winning the first ever federal election for the NDP, but at the packed rally, Thomas-Müller stopped him in his tracks, revealing the leader’s superficiality and lack of social democratic roots. Mulcair was unable to articulate in any real way a plan for ensuring environmental justice for Canadians.

Standing up for Indigenous rights, the biosphere and justice has been the heart of Thomas-Müller’s work for decades. In his latest memoir, Life in the City of Dirty Water, he painfully and bravely reveals his journey through catastrophic pain, unbelievable odds and a reconnection to land, language and culture through his work defending Mother Earth.

Written in almost two parts — one consisting of childhood recollections, written in the voice of a child, and the other as he begins to engage in resistance to colonial and neoliberal forces — the memoir begins with his account of how his family was systematically ripped from the land. (Thomas-Müller grew up a member of the Treaty #6 based Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, located in Northern Manitoba, and now lives in Winnipeg.)

Thirteen accused in gun, drug trafficking network in rural Manitoba

RCMP and Winkler police have arrested more than a dozen people allegedly connected to a drug-and-gun trafficking network that operated in rural Manitoba.

The joint investigation began in December 2024, when officers from the Winkler Police Service asked the Mounties for help after learning kilograms of cocaine were being imported to a Winkler-area truck repair business, said RCMP Supt. Jeff Asmundson, who oversees the force’s Manitoba integrated law enforcement team.

Mounties and Winkler police gathered evidence for 19 months and expanded the probe, dubbed Project Dolor, as investigators learned other types of illicit substances and firearms were being trafficked by the network in a number of southern Manitoba communities, said Asmundson, whose team investigates serious and organized crime.

“It started as a cocaine trafficking investigation, and obviously, as we move along in a project or a file, evidence is gathered and an opportunity arose and we wanted to ensure public safety,” he told reporters Tuesday. “We were able to secure some firearms.”

Woman pleads guilty in toddler’s death

A woman who pleaded guilty to failing to provide the necessaries of life after her 13-month-old son died of an drug overdose in their Sherbrook Street apartment will serve a sentence of house arrest.

Latasha Stewart, in her mid-30s, was given the conditional sentence order of two years less a day by provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald last Wednesday over the Dec. 29, 2022 death of her son Romeo.

“The circumstances in this case are truly tragic. As a result of an adult’s careless drug use, a 13-month-old boy lost his life,” said McDonald.

“It’s hard to imagine a clearer … lesson in the dangers of street-drug use in a household with young children present (than) in this case.”

Transit drivers increasingly in peril, but city kicks safety upgrades down the road

Winnipeg Transit drivers are being assaulted with alarming frequency, yet the city continues to move at a glacial pace on a simple measure that could make their jobs safer.

Community rallies around family devastated by fire

Dennis Lafreniere and his wife didn’t expect to celebrate 27 years of marriage Thursday in a Selkirk hotel room while reeling from a recent house fire.

The couple and their two daughters lost their home last Sunday in a raging fire that left nothing behind, but overwhelming support from multiple communities has kept them afloat.

“It’s devastating when you don’t have any clothes, any medication, all of that stuff, and it’s just so overwhelming the next morning. It’s just nasty,” Lafreniere said.

Investigators suspect the fire was caused by a fridge, freezer and battery charger that were all plugged into the same electrical line that got overheated. The house, located on Highway 59 between Selkirk and Libau, is a farmhouse built in 1943, and investigators think worn-out electrical lines also contributed to the fire, said Lafreniere.