Erik Pindera

Police union president retires after eight years at helm

The longtime head of the city’s police union is stepping down.

After eight years as Winnipeg Police Association president and 33 years with the Winnipeg Police Service, Maurice “Moe” Sabourin is retiring from the department Saturday.

The outspoken union leader has been involved in recent public clashes with Chief Danny Smyth over issues including staffing, morale and violent crime.

In March 2021, Sabourin wrote to the chief about the state of morale among cops, which he qualified as a growing crisis, particularly after then-recent deaths of two veteran officers.

Roofer not impressed with police response to trailer theft

A local roofing company’s project manager is frustrated after a work trailer equipped with a GPS tracker was stolen Wednesday night — and thinks police did little to help after staffers tracked it to a garage.

Rick Lavalee of Pristine Roofing and Siding said the company, which has its office on Fleet Avenue off of Pembina Highway, has had three trailers and a van stolen in recent years. That prompted the owners to install GPS beacons on all of their equipment, he said.

“Two nights ago we came back to the office and noticed there was a trailer that had been stolen, so we looked it up on the security-camera footage and, sure enough, we saw it getting stolen,” Lavalee said.

“They then went to the GPS and they noticed that it wasn’t that far away.”

Police seek info after woman in wheelchair attacked

Winnipeg police are asking for the public’s help in the case of a wheelchair user who was hospitalized after an assault and robbery.

Police said Thursday the 62-year-old woman was in her wheelchair in a back lane near Hargrave Street and Ellice Avenue on July 20, when she was attacked from behind and fell to the ground.

The woman suffered a severe injury that left her hospitalized for more than a month.

Police said the woman doesn’t remember much about the robbery, including the exact time and location, but her wallet and jewellery were stolen and she thinks a bystander helped her back into her wheelchair.

Goertzen adds bear spray to his Criminal Code-amendment wish list

Manitoba’s justice minister is lobbying the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to make it harder for criminals who use bear pepper spray in assaults to receive bail.

Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen also said Wednesday that he wants the federal justice department to amend the legislation to classify bear spray, when used in criminal acts and disguised with black tape to make it easier to conceal, as a prohibited weapon.

The pepper spray, which is legally used to ward off bear attacks is, by itself, considered a non-prohibited weapon and is freely available for purchase, with Manitoba retailers required to keep sales records.

Goertzen wants hikers and other people who have a legitimate use for bear spray to continue to be able to purchase it without significant hassle, he said in an interview in his office in the Manitoba Legislative Building. Instead, he said, governments should target criminals.

Two arrested in gunpoint carjacking

Winnipeg police have charged two people accused in a carjacking and attempted armed robbery Monday night.

Police, including the dog unit and helicopter, were called to the 500 block of St. Mary’s Road at 11:44 p.m., where a man and woman reportedly armed with a gun were chasing another man, the Winnipeg Police Service said Wednesday.

The caller told police they had heard a gunshot.

Officers were flagged down at the scene by a witness who reported a woman on the hood of a car nearby, police said.

Women warned about groper on city buses

Women who take Winnipeg city buses are being warned to watch out for a man who has groped several riders.

The suspect pinched women’s buttocks while trying to kiss them on at least six buses over four-and-a-half hours Tuesday morning.

Police said they received multiple reports of similar assaults but had yet to speak to the victims.

Multiple women told bus drivers that an unknown man had grabbed their buttocks and tried to kiss them, police said. Another victim said they had been spat on while the suspect left one of the buses.

Mayoral candidate Motkaluk seeks to fold police board

Mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk wants the Winnipeg Police Board to fire the city’s top cop — then, if elected, she would seek to have the province abolish the board.

Motkaluk made the pledges in front of police headquarters Tuesday, where she criticized WPS Chief Danny Smyth for his comments in July, following a spate of assaults at The Forks and other high-profile violent incidents.

Smyth said at a July 8 news conference the violence was alarming, but nothing new amid year-on-year increases in such crime.

Motkaluk filed a complaint to the police board this week, asking for Smyth’s dismissal, under its rules of practice and procedure.

‘Frustrated’ civic workers’ union ramps up strike preparations

The largest union of city workers is poised to strike.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500, which represents about 4,900 city employees, has instructed its members to sign up for picket duty following the failure of the most recent round of contract negotiations.

City and union representatives met for conciliation talks last Thursday and Friday in efforts to arrive at a new labour deal for the workers, who’ve been without a contract since February 2021.

“Taking strike action is always a last resort, but it appears we are headed in that direction,” union president Gord Delbridge said in a statement to members from the bargaining committee late Friday. “While we don’t have a strike deadline set, we are continuing our strike preparations in the event that job action cannot be avoided.”

Rising emergency calls strain resources, police chief says

The skyrocketing number of emergency calls means the city’s police chief will likely soon ask for more cash.

At the Winnipeg Police Board Friday, Winnipeg Police Service chief Danny Smyth said a request for more resources is “certainly worthy of discussion.”

He’s planning to submit an administrative report to the city requesting more resources later this year, he said.

“The demand for service is outstripping the resources that we have,” he told reporters.

Public trust in city police declines: survey

The perception of Winnipeg police has worsened and more people think the force is overfunded, according to a recent public opinion survey.

At the same time, respondents also believe crime is increasing year over year and many think there are too few officers on the street, the poll shows.

The Winnipeg Police Service public opinion survey, presented Friday to the Winnipeg Police Board, was conducted by Prairie Research Associates over a week in August. A total 600 city residents were surveyed by phone. |

Police still seek to ID dead man

Winnipeg police and the provincial medical examiner’s office are trying to identify a man who died in hospital in early August after collapsing outside a McDonald’s restaurant on Main Street.

Police first released details about the unusual incident on Sept. 6 but did not reveal that the man, who was in his late teens or early 20s, had died. Investigators had hoped to inform family of his death first.

Further attempts to identify the man have been unsuccessful, Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Jay Murray said today.

“The medical examiner’s office is anxious to identify this person… as are we,” Murray said. “Being able to tell his loved ones what happened to him — he’s probably missed — it’s important to us to have them notified.”

Mayoral candidate Klein promises to rev up paramedics response

Mayoral candidate Kevin Klein is pledging, if elected, to improve ambulance wait times by introducing new paramedic units focused on low-priority calls.

The plan would build on the existing emergency paramedics in the community program, which addresses non-emergency calls, he said Wednesday.

The new units would be made up of advanced care paramedics, who would respond in SUVs, rather than ambulances or fire vehicles.

Klein said the move would allow firefighter paramedics to focus on fires, fire prevention and acute calls such as cardiac arrests, vehicle collisions and scenes with multiple injures.

Mounties seek info in 2018 missing persons case

RCMP are again making a public appeal for information in the disappearance of a rural Manitoba man more than four years ago.

Vernon Karl Otto was last seen May 29, 2018.

The then-66-year-old met with family that morning, and told them he was going to run errands and do yard work at his home outside Stead, near the eastern edge of Lake Winnipeg, about 88 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, RCMP said Tuesday.

Otto told his family he planned to go look at a crawler tractor. Someone also spoke to him that afternoon, around 1 p.m., while he was believed to be working his field.

Winnipeg Arena Queen portrait to get public display

The enormous painting of Queen Elizabeth that watched over NHL games from the rafters of the old Winnipeg Arena for two decades will be displayed for public viewing in the coming weeks.

Ron J. D’Errico, owner of the five-by-seven-metre portrait (who said he acquired it as a gift), plans to hang it by the end of the month in the new Transcona hangar offices of his firm, Impact Security Group.

However, D’Errico noted Thursday, he had already planned to display the massive depiction (currently in storage) prior to the Queen’s death at 96.

“I actually had… already started the process of permanently putting her inside the hangar of our office (1225 Plessis Rd., Unit A), and she’ll look amazing on the wall,” he said in a phone interview.

Fatal train crash inquest to focus on response, communication

An inquest into a fatal train derailment in a remote part of the North won’t examine whether faster or different medical treatment at the scene could have prevented the death, a Manitoba judge has ruled.

Kevin Anderson, 38, died Sept. 15, 2018, after the Hudson Bay Railway train he was conducting derailed in Ponton, south of Thompson. It had been carrying hazardous goods. He lay pinned while bleeding out, and died after nearly nine hours.

Another crew member was seriously injured but survived after they were extricated by emergency crews.

The emergency response was delayed as the trapped crew members were unable to reach their dispatch or call for help. The wreck was discovered by chance after a helicopter passing by overhead spotted it two hours later, the Transportation Safety Board found.

Accused teen killer fell prey to drugs, gangs: granddad

The grandfather of a 15-year-old boy accused of killing two people in Point Douglas says he was influenced by drugs and gangs in his home community and his troubles worsened when he was put into a group home.

The boy cannot be named by law, although Winnipeg police had identified him and released his photo, when he remained at large and a danger to the public last month.

He is one of two 15-year-old males charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault in relation to violent attacks on the Main Street strip on Aug. 22.

The grandfather offered his family’s prayers and condolences to the families of the victims.

Home Street death city’s 36th homicide of year

Winnipeg Police Service homicide investigators are searching for answers after a 66-year-old man was found slain in the West End.

Police were called to a residential building on the 600 block of Home Street just before 8 a.m. Thursday, for a report of a badly injured man in one of the suites.

Son Minh Nguyen was already dead when officers arrived.

“There were certainly a number of suspicious circumstances involving this male’s death that led us to get the homicide unit involved early,” WPS spokesman Const. Jay Murray said Friday.