Randy Turner

City unveils three options for pedestrian/bike bridge over Assiniboine

Three designs for a pedestrian and bike bridge over the Assiniboine River -- connecting Osborne Village to the downtown -- have been released by the City of Winnipeg for public feedback.

The bridge will connect McFadyen Park on the north side of the river to Fort Rouge Park on the south side.

"This is a very important part of our active transportation strategy," said ward Coun. Jenny Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry). "This is part of AT route plan that will connect the Osborne Village transit station through the Village to the bridge and then into the downtown and The Forks."

The consulting team has developed three options for the proposed river crossing: a girder bridge, a double-curved cable bridge, and a suspension bridge.

Police investigate Charleswood deaths

The police homicide unit is investigating after two bodies were found in a Charleswood home on the long weekend.

The house at 625 Buckingham Rd. was sealed off Tuesday morning as forensic investigators worked at the scene.

Police were called to the home at about 9 p.m. Monday after the bodies of two adults were found, the Winnipeg Police Service said.

A handful of neighbours gathered to watch the police activity Tuesday morning.

Jets success, fans' passion puts Heart of the Continent at centre of national conversation

It could be argued Winnipeg is currently in the national spotlight more than at any time in recent memory — at least not since the city has found itself at the mercy of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

And that was bad news.

But with the recent Stanley Cup playoff run of the Winnipeg Jets, the focus has been on a rising NHL team and its passionate fans.

Every other night, the Jets and their throng of white-clad supporters have been at the forefront, in prime time, soaking up lavish attention from across North America. The belle of the ball.

Potential Olympians put through their paces at U of W

It’s Saturday morning at the University of Winnipeg’s Duckworth Centre, and the place is a beehive of athleticism.

All around, there are muscular bodies. Lithe bodies. Big ones, small ones. Male and female.

They move in groups from the Duckworth gym to the adjacent Axworthy Heath and RecPlex, from one testing station to another: sprints, arm and leg presses, stationary bikes.

It’s all happening under the watchful eyes of clipboard- and stopwatch-toting sports organization coaches and administrators who’ve travelled here from across the country.

Architect's pop-up porta-potty is a triumphant step in his long human-rights campaign

From May 2018: While the issue of cleaning up biohazards — blood, urine, feces, needles, vomit — is not new, the problem has reached a tipping point in major cities across Canada, Europe and the U.S.And the answer, in a growing number of communities, involves a trip back to the future: Public toilets and washrooms.

Mark Chipman, Jonathan Toews deliver game-worn jerseys to Humboldt

It was supposed to be a quick trip to Humboldt for Mark Chipman.

Pay your respects. In and out. Low key.

The Winnipeg Jets co-owner had travelled to the home of the Broncos on Friday morning, along with Winnipeg-born Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, to deliver the jerseys worn by the Winnipeg Jets and Hawks last Saturday — all with the Broncos name bar on the backs.

The jerseys were originally to be auctioned off for charity. But when word filtered to the Jets organization that players and family members of the Broncos expressed interest in them, Chipman decided the best thing to do was deliver them to Humboldt and personally pay his respects.

Humboldt billet of Winnipegger shares the team’s pain

Linsey Smith attended his first Humboldt Broncos hockey game at the age of two.

Or Smith could have been three, he said. Hey, it's been a long time.

"I felt a connection with the Humboldt Broncos since the very first game," added Smith, who will turn 50 in a few weeks. "I was there because my uncle played on the team from the beginning (in 1970). I've seen at least one Humboldt Broncos game every year since they started."

So when Smith and his wife Tracy, along with their four young boys, now ages 5 to 15, moved to Humboldt from the nearby family farm in 2013, his sons had only one caveat to agreeing: They had to get a Bronco.

Winnipegger in horrific bus crash was trying to sleep, woke up to screams

Matthieu Gomercic was sleeping at the back of the bus when it happened. Or trying to.

He heard the brakes squeal. No big deal, he thought. Maybe an animal crossing the road. Happens all the time.

“So I didn’t even look,” said the 20-year-old forward with the Humboldt Broncos.

A split second later, Gomercic heard a loud bang. Then, for a while, nothingness.

TSN’s Munz fondly remembers his time covering the Humboldt Broncos

Brian Munz has made the trip by bus from Humboldt to Nipawin so many times the route is etched in his brain.

Munz is a radio and TV broadcaster for the Winnipeg Jets and TSN now, but his start in the business began in the mid-1990’s with the Humboldt Broncos, his hometown club.

He spent five years on the bus with the Broncos, to towns across Saskatchewan and into Flin Flon; Kindersley, Estevan, Yorkton, Weyburn, and, of course, Nipawin.

So when Munz first got news of the tragic bus accident that claimed the lives of 15 members of the Broncos team Friday, he could close his eyes and envision the spot.

Winnipeg’s Gomercic survives crash that killed Humboldt teammates

Winnipeg’s Matthieu Gomercic was one of 14 members of the Humboldt Broncos who survived a horrific bus accident Friday night that claimed 15 of his teammates in what is being described as one of the worst tragedies in Canadian sports history.

Gomercic, 20, is a forward who joined the Broncos in 2016 after being traded by the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Steinbach Pistons. Gomercic had come up through the Winnipeg minor hockey system, previously playing for the Winnipeg Warriors bantam and midget clubs.

Gomercic suffered several lacerations, an injured jaw and broken shoulder, according to Donna Mikkola, who was the player’s billet family in Steinbach.

Mikkola confirmed Gomercic’s condition Friday night via Matthieu’s parents, Joanne and Rob, who are in Saskatchewan with their son. They couldn’t be reached for comment on Saturday.

Future rinks on thinner ice

Backyard hockey rinks have been good to Brant Nobel.

When Nobel was a young teen, he used to spend countless hours on the rink of a family down the street, where there lived a red-headed girl. Her name was Celia and they are now married with three children of their own.

Not surprisingly, when the Nobel kids started getting older, Brant and Celia decided to build their own backyard rink, on the eastern outskirts of Winnipeg.

“It’s kind of a quintessential Canadian thing,” Celia reasoned.

Ace of hearts

The sun hasn’t risen yet when Ace Burpee slips behind the microphone at 103.1 Virgin Radio’s headquarters on Pembina Highway.

It’s the morning after Winnipeg has been slammed with a heavy snowfall, which has led the affable longtime DJ to a realization of sorts.

“All of life’s problems can be solved if someone says, ‘You know what, just rock it back and forth,’” he intones to his listeners, just before 7 a.m. “You can apply this to almost any situation or obstacle that gets in your way. Think of all the situations in our lives that would have been dealt with easier had we realized that before today. Right?

“I would have got my degree. Rocked the prof back and forth. Right? That was a good time. Oh, well.”

Barley Brothers sued for alleged back rent

CARA Operations Limited has filed a statement of claim in the Court of Queen’s bench asking for over $470,000 in unpaid rent money from Barley Brothers Inc.

The Barley Brothers location, at 655 Empress St., was closed on Jan. 1, 2017. At the time, owners said the closure was part of a relocation strategy to bring craft beer to downtown Winnipeg, although no new location has opened since.

Filed March 19, the claim states Barley Brothers owes rent and additional costs in the amount of $474,719, based on a sublease dating from Aug. 15, 2013 and expiring March 30, 2019.

The claim says the lease required rent payable from Aug. 13, 2013 until March 31, 2014 to be in the annual amount of $29 per square foot on the 5,032 square foot location, or $145,928 per year, plus GST. The rent payable from April 1, 2014, until March 30, 2019 was to be in the annual amount of $31 per square foot, or $155,992 per year, plus applicable GST, the claim added.

Pollock’s co-op to shutter money-losing Osborne store

Pollock’s Hardware Co-op will be closing its South Osborne location, effective March 31, after four years of operation.

Co-op chairman Blair Hamilton said the location, which never made a profit, couldn’t overcome the challenges created by a limited inventory and lack of brand identity in Winnipeg’s south end.

When it opened in November 2013, the 550 Osborne St. store was an offshoot of the more iconic Pollock’s (1407 Main St.), which has been in existence since 1922; however, the new location lost around $35,000 in its first year, and $15,000 the next.

After flirting with closing last year, the store did see a surge in sales, but still lost $3,000, officials said. In the end, the board decided it would not be feasible to renew the lease, which expires at the end of March.

Winnipeg students show solidarity with U.S. teens in protesting gun violence

Hundreds of Grant Park High School students staged a short walkout Wednesday morning to honour the 17 victims in last month's shooting at a Florida high school.

The Winnipeg demonstration was part of a North America-wide walkout that included 3,000 protests involving students from elementary to college levels. The demonstrations lasted 17 minutes -- one for each victim of the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre one month ago.

"With this walkout, we hope to show our solidarity with these students," said Katie Delay, one of five students who spoke during the walkout. "Students who have, as of late, done a better job of solving this issue than any American legislators."

Delay said the American students were protesting the influence the National Rifle Association has on U.S. politicians, while at the same time demanding more restrictive gun laws.

U of M team tops at global aircraft design competition

A team of engineering students from the University of Manitoba reached new heights last weekend, soaring above global rivals to capture first place in an aircraft design competition.

The event, called SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Aero Design East, was held in Lakeland, Fla. It was the first title for the U of M, which placed third in a similar competition last year in Texas.

“We were hoping for it (to improve), but we weren’t expecting to do better than last year,” said Amory Wood, head of the project’s wing department. “It’s still taking a while for it to sink in. It’s totally huge for us.”

The essence of the competition is designing, building and flying a fixed-wing, radio-controlled aircraft that can (most notably) carry as much payload as possible while weighing as little as possible.

Six people killed in snowmobile accidents since January

Speed has been the common denominator in several snowmobile fatalities that have occurred in Manitoba over the last two months.

In all, there have been six deaths relating to snowmobile accidents since Jan. 20, coinciding with a significant increase in snowfall across the province.

There were two fatalities this past weekend alone.

On March 11, a 29-year-old male from Oakview appeared to have driven over the edge of a ravine bank in the RM of Riverdale, about 15 kilometres west of Rivers, dropping 20 metres and landing in the frozen Little Saskatchewan River. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

YouthCEO event opens students eyes to opportunities

Steve Kroft was in a business meeting.

The president and CEO of Conviron, a Winnipeg-based environment control company that has 250 employees from here to China, was in the midst of offering a group of prospective future colleagues some advice on Thursday morning.

"Every single person that starts at our company knows nothing about what we do," Kroft was saying. "What you'll find out is everyone is in the same boat that you are.

"Remember, everybody starts somewhere," he added, speaking to about 20 young prospects, seated in a circle. "There are no dumb questions. You have to realize that you are the future of all of our businesses. You are going to do as least as much for us as we can do for you. All of you should feel that you have it in you."

MP ‘sorry for the Stanley family’

Robert-Falcon Ouellette’s family is from Red Pheasant First Nation, Sask., the home of Colten Boushie, whose death — and the subsequent acquittal of the man who fired the gun that killed him — sparked nationwide protests over the weekend.

So Ouellette, the Liberal MP for Winnipeg Centre, has paid close attention to the trial of Gerald Stanley, the Saskatchewan farmer who was acquitted of second-degree murder in a courtroom in Battleford, Sask., on Friday.

The court heard Stanley fired three shots from a pistol after an SUV containing Boushie, 22, and some friends pulled into his farmyard near Biggar, Sask., the night of Aug. 9, 2016, and that the death was accidental.

Ouellette was concerned about the the all-white jury in the trial. He expressed objections to how the incident was framed in RCMP press releases at the time of the incident in August 2016.

Owner wants to pull down ‘murder mansion’

The notorious Winnipeg rooming house dubbed "murder mansion" may soon be on death row.

The owner of the 22-unit building, located at the intersection of Balmoral Street and Cumberland Avenue, is in the process of applying to the city for a demolition permit and hopes to sell the property, which has been infamous for drug dealing and death in the last decade.

"Doesn't everybody want it bulldozed?" asked Jeff Shwaluk, who purchased the building, along with his father, Ron, in 2011.

The building has been abandoned since a fire in December forced the handful of remaining tenants out. Recently, Shwaluk retained a demolition company by tender and a security fence has been erected around the property.