Alyssa Milano and husband David Bugliari welcome their first child, son Milo Thomas

Transit troubles and passes

Re: Growing pains? Maybe, but it’s worth it, Think Tank, Sept. 10.

Worth it for who? Our transit system has been undergoing growing pains for the past year, ever since city staff completely messed up the system with their redesign.

The net result of those changes is reduced ridership, leading to a projected deficit of $18 million in revenues this year (not including the capital costs of those changes). Add that to the annual $126-million subsidy to operate Winnipeg Transit and that’s $144 million being paid annually by Winnipeg taxpayers.

There is a condition affecting tens of thousands of Canadians.

In 2024, one national measure estimated that almost 120,000 people had the condition. The estimate captures only part of the problem.

The same data show its chronic form becoming more common. In 2017, an estimated 28,900 people met the definition for its chronic form. By 2024, there were 36,058, an increase of almost 25 per cent.

This condition carries an unfortunate prognosis.

A man has been arrested and remains in police custody after being charged with spraying bear spray inside a Henderson Highway hotel in early July. The suspect is also accused of  pointing a gun, chasing people and making violent threats in the hotel's parking lot after a dispute over a VLT ticket at the licensed establishment in the 1000 block of Henderson Highway.

Matthew Joseph Marriott, 33, was arrested Sept. 10, the Winnipeg Police Service stated in a news release Sunday. He is charged with several firearms and weapons offences as well as possession of heroin.

Police say the suspect discharged a canister of bear spray at a 36-year-old man and into the bar area of the Curtis Gordon Hotel before going into the parking lot and pointing a gun at people. The firearm was determined to be an airgun, a Sig Sauer MCX. Officers found it on scene, in a backpack, after the suspect fled. The backpack also contained bear spray a knife and a small quantity of suspected heroin, the news release stated.

A father and son arrested last month are accused of travelling across Canada — and using courier services and Canada Post — to supply their Winnipeg drug-trafficking operation, a recent court filing shows.

Devinder Singh, 57, and his 32-year-old son Tarundev Singh, charged by Winnipeg Police Service organized crime investigators last month, are each accused of several counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and related drug-trafficking offences, court records show.

Tarundev is also charged with several firearms offences.

Details of the pair’s alleged trafficking operation and the ongoing police investigation — dubbed Project Pink Panther — are contained in a lawsuit filed in the Court of King’s Bench by the provincial civil forfeiture office this week.