Malak Abas

St. James couple shaken by police indifference after burglars ransack home

A St. James man says he’s lost faith in Winnipeg police and was terrified when officers didn’t respond to his 911 call after he awoke to two people robbing his home.

Jamie Painchaud and his wife Sydney Todd were sleeping when two people broke into their home at about 5:30 a.m. Aug. 6.

Awakened by noises from the downstairs area, Painchaud saw the thieves ransacking the couple’s home which, at that point, was in complete disarray. The pair fled when he got downstairs, and he went back upstairs to call 911.

He expected police to show up at his door and begin collecting evidence, but no one arrived.

Quiet has largely returned to southern Manitoba — but anger lingers

When the mayor of Morden thinks back on leading the southern Manitoba city during and post-pandemic, he knows full well it’s come at an immense personal cost.

Brandon Burley was one of the first — and loudest — pro-COVID-19 vaccine, pro-mask, pro-restrictions leaders in the area, which saw low vaccination uptake rates and pushback against public health orders.

Nearly six months after Manitoba dropped its COVID restrictions, life is different for Burley. He’s lost at least a dozen friends — they chose to end the friendship, he says, because their beliefs didn’t align with his. But losing a few friends hasn’t been the worst of it.

Bureaucratic delay leaves body of man who died on U.S. flight in Winnipeg for month

On a June 23 flight home to California from Greece, 75-year-old Leonidas Dimou died of a heart attack above Manitoba, resulting in an emergency landing in Winnipeg.

The Dimou family’s tragedy has since become a weeks-long fight through bureaucratic red tape to repatriate his body from a Winnipeg funeral home.

“I can’t bring him home, they’re giving me a hard time,” son Nik Dimou told the Free Press from California on Wednesday.

“It shouldn’t be hard — just a paper to sign and give to the funeral director. That’s all you have to do. How hard is it? What does it take to send a body home?”

Squeezed by escalating prices, more people turn to city food banks

Zoe Priest never thought money would be so tight that she’d have to line up for food.

On a rainy Thursday afternoon, she waited for a hamper for the first time.

“Resources are spread thinner, and thinner, and thinner, and things are just getting more expensive,” she said.

Priest has a roommate, but their collective income barely covers rent. She’s also helping a friend, who has a child, make ends meet. She had been able to help out by trimming her own budget and buying discounted groceries, but as the cost of food skyrocketed due to inflation, it became unmanageable.