Usher, Victoria Monét will receive prestigious awards from music industry group ASCAP

Police HQ report ‘outrageous’: Kinew

Premier Wab Kinew says public inquiry findings that taxpayers were overcharged more than $40 million for the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project and two city leaders broke the public trust are “outrageous.”

Inquiry commissioner Garth Smorang’s report, which was released Monday, concluded former mayor Sam Katz “violated the public trust” and council code of conduct, while the city’s former chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl suffered from a “complete lack of a moral compass.”

Smorang also found the city was overcharged $43.3 million for the project, with $42 million of that going to key contractor Caspian Projects.

“It’s outrageous that people who were elected betrayed the public here in the city. It’s outrageous that there were people in business who ripped you off, ripped me off — I was paying property taxes in Winnipeg at the time — and ripped all of us off to the tune of $43.3 million. That’s crazy,” said Kinew.

Flourishing improv fest ready to make the ‘Peg laugh

When the first Winnipeg Improv Festival happened in 2000, its organizers had no idea what they were doing, or what the festival should look like.

After 25 years of making things up, they’ve mostly got it figured out, says co-artistic director Stephen Sim, who programs the festival with improv artist Caity Curtis.

Featuring a combination of local performers plucked from the Winnipeg alt-comedy universe and a roster of national and international guests, the Winnipeg Improv Festival traverses borders by mashing together new troupes to workshop, develop and present ephemeral, once-in-a-lifetime work to audiences at the Gas Station Arts Centre.

Sim doesn’t remember too many specifics about the first festival — he hardly slept and was in no state to take notes — but by the time the second edition came around, it became apparent that what made things felt “real” was the participation of improvisers from outside the city.

Inappropriate late-night texts to students costs teachers their jobs

Manitoba’s independent teacher commissioner has cancelled two certificates this month because of inappropriate late-night messaging with minors.

Robert Gregoire is no longer permitted to teach in the River East Transcona School Division or elsewhere in the province after he was found to have called a student “my beautiful” and “princess,” among other pet names he used in online communications over multiple years.

Brady Nurse, who became the subject of a workplace probe after RCMP contacted the Portage la Prairie School Division about his actions, was also recently stripped of his licence.

New consent resolution agreements — public documents outlining agreed-upon facts and consequences in disciplinary cases — reveal the men in both cases repeatedly engaged in boundary-crossing behaviour.

Accused used fuel-filled bottle to set blaze that killed two, court hears

Alex Courchene failed once to set a North End church ablaze, then returned a day later and tried again, starting a fire that killed two people living in an upstairs apartment suite, a jury was told Monday.

Campaign blunder: Klein features wrong city in election video

A paid ad from mayoral candidate Kevin Klein on his commitment to Winnipeg has been pulled after commenters noticed one small error: the footage used in the ad was actually of Edmonton.