‘The Social’ cast member Jessica Allen clarifies Cherry comments

PCs renew calls for CFS inquiry

The Progressive Conservatives renewed calls to put Manitoba’s child and welfare system under the microscope Thursday, tabling a motion that urged the province to appoint a commissioner to lead a public inquiry.

Families critic Jodie Byram’s opposition day motion, which was ultimately defeated by the NDP majority, reiterated demands for an inquiry into the systemic failures of Child and Family Services, more than 20 years after the death of Phoenix Sinclair first prompted demands for answers.

“We have seen far too many children die under the care of CFS, and we need to determine where the gaps are in the system in order to make the system a safer place for children,” Byram told reporters before the motion was defeated in the legislature.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine said in an interview that her department, CFS agencies and authorities are “doing good work” and won’t call an inquiry.

Jets’ game flies south against Ducks

The Winnipeg Jets sure looked like a team that was running on fumes Friday night.

Playing for the fifth time in eight days, the club suffered its first regulation loss of the young season — a lacklustre 5-1 showing against the Anaheim Ducks at Canada Life Centre.

While we won’t question the effort, the execution was a different story. Sloppy plays, missed passes, porous defensive-zone coverage and iffy goaltending made this a tough watch for the 13,693 fans in attendance.

“Just some mental things that happened. Obviously some physical things as well,” said head coach Scott Arniel.

Crime spree lands accused murderers behind bars

Three men have been sentenced to jail terms for a commercial robbery spree in southern Manitoba launched just two weeks after they are accused of killing a 19-year-old man in Abbotsford, B.C.

Twenty-two-year-old Ravdeep Gill of Winnipeg, pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of robbery and Harmandeep Gill, 27, of Brampton, Ont. and Jaskaran Singh, 21, of Surrey, B.C., each pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery for a 10-day crime blitz that targeted gas bars in Swan Lake, Teulon and St. Laurent, and a meat shop in Winnipeg.

Ravdeep Gill was sentenced to four years custody while Harmandeep Gill and Singh each received sentences of 30 months.

According to B.C. media reports, all three men are charged with first-degree murder in a Feb. 1, 2025 killing in Abbotsford that police there described as a targeted hit.

‘Please excuse us from writing these notes …’

It’s a common-sense prescription for the health-care system. The only wonder is that it took so long to happen.

Dozens of Uber, Lyft drivers switched to cheaper insurance coverage: MPI probe

Ride-service drivers have been defrauding Manitoba Public Insurance by improperly insuring their vehicles as for personal use.

The public insurer and the City of Winnipeg, which regulates ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, discovered the widespread fraud after MPI conducted a review in December last year.

“When a driver changes their coverage from ride-share insurance to a personal vehicle coverage and continues to operate as a ride-share driver, that is fraud, plain and simple,” said MPI chief executive officer Satvir Jatana at a news conference Thursday.

MPI’s review looked at a random sample of 408 ride-hailing vehicles and found 108 were operating without the proper vehicle-for-hire insurance coverage. In order to register with the city as a ride-service driver, a vehicle must have such insurance and proof must be provided to the ride-booking company.

A Rocky day on the mayoral campaign trail for Kevin Klein

Kevin Klein acknowledges it’s hard to foresee what he’ll wake up to each morning in the final weeks of a mayoral campaign.

But the seasoned politician, who has served as both a city councillor and a provincial cabinet minister, couldn’t have predicted the events — what he describes as “drama” — that unfolded last Sunday.

Fellow mayoral candidate Mike Vogiatzakis accused Klein’s campaign team of offering him a job to drop out of the race, while a guest writer’s column in the Winnipeg Sun that questioned the deaths of Indigenous children at residential schools, just days after the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, sparked condemnation from a prominent Indigenous organization. (Klein is the CEO of the Klein Group, the company that owns the Sun. He has maintained he is not involved in its operations while running for mayor.)

The Free Press had already been scheduled to join Klein on the campaign trail Monday, intending to document a day in the life of the front-running candidate to unseat incumbent Scott Gillingham, before the controversies hit.