Two caregivers charged after six-year-old Manitoba girl dies from head injury

WINNIPEG - Two caregivers have been charged in the death of a northern Manitoba girl who suffered a head injury more than a year ago.

Mounties say the six-year-old was brought to hospital in The Pas, near the Saskatchewan boundary, in October 2024.

An initial report said she had fallen from her bed.

RCMP say the girl had serious injuries and bruises and was airlifted to Winnipeg, where she died a few days later.

Council to vote on removing Wyatt from civic committees while he faces sex assault charge

Winnipeg city council will vote on removing Coun. Russ Wyatt from most of the civic committees he participates in, in the wake of a sexual assault charge.

The Transcona councillor has declared his innocence and vowed to continue doing his job, despite calls from Mayor Scott Gillingham and others to step away to deal with the charges.

Wyatt was arrested and charged in March with sexual assault and administering a noxious substance. It’s alleged that during a gathering in December in the east area of the city, the victim was sexually assaulted after being given an illicit drug.

The executive policy committee voted at city hall Tuesday to recommend that council rescind Wyatt’s membership on the property and development committee, the Winnipeg Food Council, Transcona Museum Board, Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corp., and Winnipeg Public Library Board.

Free Press reporters nominated for national data journalism award

Two Free Press reporters have been nominated for a Canadian Association of Journalists award for their deep dive into Winnipeg’s transit overhaul last summer.

Julia-Simone Rutgers and Malak Abas were recognized in the data journalism category for Overhaul upheaval: Transit overhaul created significant gaps in service, hitting low-income areas and bus-dependent populations hardest.

The feature analyzed the major route changes for Winnipeg bus riders using maps and graphics to help tell the story.

Rutgers and Abas will go up against nominees from Radio-Canada, the Edmonton Journal/MacEwan University and Canada’s National Observer.

Residents with medical needs evacuated from Peguis amid flood threat

Some of the most vulnerable Peguis First Nation residents have been evacuated from the flood-threatened community.

Denise Bear, the nurse in charge of the Peguis Health Centre, told the community in a video on social media that three people in the Priority 1 category were evacuated on Monday with more to follow on Tuesday.

Bear said the Priority 1 category includes people using wheelchairs, those with complex medical needs requiring special equipment, residents needing dialysis, and children with complex medical needs.

She said women who are 35 weeks or more into their pregnancies are also part of the evacuation.

Man, 72, arrested after threatening, racist letters sent to Indigenous cabinet minister

Winnipeg police have arrested a 72-year-old man who is accused of sending racist and threatening letters to an Indigenous Manitoba cabinet minister.

Manitoba summit to explore solutions to chronic truancy

Winnipeg teachers are cutting class on Thursday to strategize how to improve student attendance and remove barriers so more children show up for lessons on a regular basis.

Interest in respiratory therapy training surges as province seeks to fill demand

Nearly half of the first-year respiratory therapy training seats at the University of Manitoba went unfilled this year even though there’s huge demand amid a staffing shortage.

However, application numbers have jumped since Manitoba’s largest post-secondary institution launched an awareness campaign about openings in the profession.

“I hope this year we are going to fill that gap,” said Dr. Jithin Sreedharan, who heads the university’s respiratory therapy department.

Respiratory therapists, who assist people suffering from breathing difficulties, often work in acute and critical-care hospital units.

Crown appeals stay of proceedings against man accused of killing his mother

The Manitoba Prosecution Service is appealing a judge’s decision staying a second-degree murder charge against a man who went to trial two times accused of killing his mother when he was a teenager.

NDP announces menopause clinic to open next year

The NDP government announced Monday it will make good on a 2023 election promise to resurrect a provincial menopause clinic by fall 2027 — around the time the next provincial election is due.

Poll shows slim majority of Canadians in support of Churchill port expansion

More than half of Canadians support expanding the Port of Churchill, although the proposed mega-project faces environmental concerns and a lack of public awareness outside Manitoba, a new poll suggests.

Shooting at Mexico pyramids that killed Canadian tourist was planned: officials

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government said Tuesday it was a planned shooting at an internationally famous pyramids site that took the life of a Canadian tourist.

José Luis Cervantes Martínez, the attorney general of the state of Mexico, said the gunman carried a tactical-style backpack and had literature related to the deadly 1999 Columbine High School shooting in the U.S.

He said the gunman -- 27-year-old Julio César Jasso Ramírez of Guerrero, Mexico -- acted alone Monday as he rained bullets down on tourists at the Teotihuacan pyramids, north of Mexico City.

Authorities say he then shot himself to death.