Haggard’s sons, band will honour icon at Countryfest

A day program that helps older adults in Charleswood stay connected to their community is closing at the end of the month, causing concern for participants and their families now trying to fill the void.

BRANDON — A serial arsonist who believes controlled burning is his “calling” was sentenced to nine months in jail and barred for two years from a southwestern Manitoba community after he deliberately set multiple grass fires during a fire ban in May.

Phillip Andrew Unrau, 72, created a dangerous situation for residents of Margaret and a nearby Hutterite colony on the evening of May 21 when he set fire to several patches of grass along a railway bed, provincial court Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said on Wednesday.

People in the community, located 45 kilometres southeast of Brandon, called the fire department. While no residents saw Unrau light the fires, he made incriminating comments to witnesses and was found alone near the burning land that stretched for 274 metres, the judge said.

“The damage to property here was minimal, but the emotional and psychological harm that Mr. Unrau causes to his neighbours is significant,” she said.

Manitoba could soon have an autism strategy for the first time, thanks to a private member’s bill that’s garnered rare all-party support in the legislature.

A man is dead and a woman is in hospital after a vehicle rollover on Highway 44 and Floodway Drive early Sunday.

Selkirk RCMP attended the scene at 12:31 a.m. in the Rural Municipality of St. Clements. The vehicle was found in a field northwest of the intersection.

The passenger, an 18-year-old woman from West St. Paul, was sent to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver, a 24-year-old man from Beausejour, was sent to hospital but has since died.