MPs clad in eclipse glasses stare at ‘surreal’ celestial event on Parliament Hill

Nightclub owner, divorced dad sentenced for involvement in cocaine-trafficking case

Three people, including a Winnipeg nightclub owner and a divorced dad desperate for cash, have been sentenced in a cocaine-trafficking case city police were once concerned had been compromised by a corrupt cop.

The trio was charged in early 2024 as part of Project Roasted, a lengthy investigation into a drug trafficking network by the Winnipeg Police Service organized crime unit.

Investigators arrested two of the men, Mohamed Ali and Abdullah Khan, as they left the Stella’s on Pembina Highway in early February 2024. Two kilograms of cocaine was found in Khan’s car.

On the same day, Ahmed Dini was arrested at his River Avenue suite, where investigators found more than 200 rocks of crack cocaine.

Making mentoring magic one child at a time

When Bree-Ann Jubinville first met the eight-year-old she was going to mentor, she had no idea how much the child would go on to alter the course of her life.

Village Green Bakery keeps focus on classic quality, kindness, fun in Victoria Beach

VICTORIA BEACH — They’re not carved into stone tablets — they’re reminders and not commandments, after all — but behind one of the display cases at Village Green Bakery is a laminated sheet of letter-size paper with a list of statements outlining how owner Jen Leslie wants staffers to approach their work.

Fittingly, there’s a baker’s dozen of them.

One is aimed specifically at a stoic teen who’s worked at the bakery since it opened in summer 2022 — “Smile, Brody,” it says — while the other 12 are meant for all 17 employees at the seasonal business, which is open annually from May long weekend until Thanksgiving.

“Smile and enjoy the ride,” is the first reminder, followed by, “The summer is short, so make it a good one,” “always take the high road” and “you are awesome.”

Tornado touches down near Elkhorn

A tornado touched down in southwestern Manitoba Sunday evening.

The tornado and heavy thunderstorms were reported near Elkhorn, a community in the Rural Municipality of Wallace-Woodworth, about 105 kilometres west of Brandon.

The heavy storms and winds were caused by a frontal passage, when two separate air masses move over the same location, said Stephen Berg, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

“(It was) a pretty active system, that’s for sure,” Berg said Monday morning.

Winnipeg police ID deceased man, notify family

Winnipeg police have been able to notify next-of-kin about the death of a man found unresponsive on a city street in July.

The man was identified after police asked for the public’s help and issued a composite sketch and description of the unknown man on Friday.

On Sunday, police said his family has been notified and thanked the public. Additional details about the man were not released in order to respect the family’s privacy, police said.

The man died in hospital after being found unresponsive July 28 at the corner of Main Street and James Avenue in Winnipeg, and investigators’ previous efforts to identify him were unsuccessful.

New businesses start to creep up in former Winnipeg Slurpee shops

The remnants of 7-Eleven can still be seen as new businesses move into spaces where Slurpee machines and taquitos once ruled.

As fresh paint dries on several new ventures — such as a pizza place and a convenience store with a name that might make a customer do a double-take — holes across Winnipeg once occupied by the international convenience chain are slowly being filled.

Business at a Domino’s Pizza in Elmwood, formerly a 7-Eleven, has been booming since it opened June 1, the store manager said.

“The issues that 7-Eleven would have had might be different than what we would have. They were dealing with a lot of theft where people can just walk in and out, but Domino’s isn’t set up that way,” said Paul Hemmerling.