Top News – Winnipeg Free Press

Problems surrounding the police headquarters project at 245 Smith St. have plagued the city for years. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)

Contractor’s bid made ‘no sense,’ WPS HQ project manager testifies

Joyanne Pursaga 3 minute read 2:21 PM CST

A key manager of the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project raised early concerns about cost estimates and changes proposed by its main contractor, a public inquiry into the project heard Monday.

Caspian Projects priced its construction management fee at $50,000 for the first phase of $80 million in construction work. The next lowest bid was $250,000, said Abdul Aziz, the HQ’s initial project manager.

“For the amount of work they were going to do and the number of people they claim they were assigning to the project, you do the calculation, they’re not getting paid … This makes no sense,” said Aziz, who now serves as director of services for WPS.

The payment would be applied to several months of work involving 4.25 full-time staff positions, which he estimated would see staff members get paid about $12.26 per hour.

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Winnipeg couple spends night at Puerto Vallarta airport after violence explodes, flight home cancelled

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Preview

Winnipeg couple spends night at Puerto Vallarta airport after violence explodes, flight home cancelled

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Updated: 2:44 PM CST

Tony and Cathy Mariani ducked for safety when gunshots echoed inside Puerto Vallarta’s airport Sunday amid a wave of violence after Mexican special forces killed a notorious drug cartel leader elsewhere in the western province of Jalisco.

The Winnipeg couple was among thousands of Canadians who were stranded by the turmoil, which led to the airport being locked down, flights cancelled and tourists ordered to shelter in place in some destinations.

“We don’t know who, what, where and why right now, but we do know we can’t sit here until Sunday,” Tony Mariani said from the airport Monday morning, after the couple slept in a lounge overnight.

“We will have some coffee — maybe some Kahlua and a bloody Mary — and begin to sort things out.”

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Updated: 2:44 PM CST

Tony and Cathy Mariani spent the night at Puerto Vallarta’s airport after violence erupted. (Supplied)

Canada deploys staff to help 26,000 Canadians in Mexico as violence continues

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Canada deploys staff to help 26,000 Canadians in Mexico as violence continues

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Updated: 2:28 PM CST

OTTAWA - As officials in some parts of Mexico continue to urge tourists and locals to shelter in place to escape widespread violence, more than 26,000 Canadians in the country have registered with Ottawa.

Global Affairs Canada says it has resolved technical issues that initially prevented Canadians from signing up with the department for safety advice. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is urging all Canadians in Mexico to register with her department to receive the latest information available.

"We have multiple consular officials at the major centres. They are all standing by ready to assist Canadians," Anand told reporters Monday.

"I ask that all Canadians follow local guidelines, including sheltering in place, if that is what local guidelines are dictating."

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Updated: 2:28 PM CST

A soldier stands guard by a charred vehicle after it was set on fire in Cointzio, Michoacán state, Mexico, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, after the death of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as

Accused mass killer prone to seizures that knocked him out: former girlfriend

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Accused mass killer prone to seizures that knocked him out: former girlfriend

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Updated: 1:29 PM CST

WINNIPEG - A former girlfriend of a Winnipeg man accused of killing five people says he was prone to seizures that knocked him unconscious with prolonged convulsions.

The jury trial for Jamie Felix began its second week with emotional testimony from the woman about their three-year relationship before his arrest.

Felix has pleaded not guilty to five counts of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths at a rooming house in November 2023.

The woman, who can't be identified due to a publication ban, says Felix was a loving partner but struggled with periods of drug and alcohol addiction following the death of his twin brother.

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Updated: 1:29 PM CST

Police vehicles are shown outside the scene of a shooting at a home in Winnipeg on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023. Officers were called shortly after 4 a.m. to a home where they found five people wounded. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim

OpenAI safety reps summoned to Ottawa after B.C. mass shooting, minister says

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

OpenAI safety reps summoned to Ottawa after B.C. mass shooting, minister says

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Updated: 2:59 PM CST

OTTAWA - Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon has called representatives of OpenAI to Ottawa to discuss safety concerns after learning the killer in the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., was banned from using the company's ChatGPT platform months before the murders

The company banned Jesse Van Rootselaar's account in June but said the activities on the account didn't meet the threshold for informing law enforcement at the time because it didn't identify credible or imminent planning.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Van Rootselaar's account was banned after it was flagged for troubling posts, including some that included scenarios of gun violence.

OpenAI said it contacted the RCMP after the shooting on Feb. 10 when Van Rootselaar killed her mother and half-brother before going to the local secondary school to kill five students, an educational assistant and then herself.

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Updated: 2:59 PM CST

Chat GPT's landing page is seen on a computer screen, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

Winnipeg couple among those in lockdown as violence erupts in Mexico

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Preview

Winnipeg couple among those in lockdown as violence erupts in Mexico

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 2:12 PM CST

Winnipeg residents Tracey Seida and Jerry Buckland are in lockdown in their vacation rental in Puerto Vallarta amid the Mexican military’s action against the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

“We’ve been watching the fires from our balcony,” Seida in a phone interview on Sunday from the popular vacation destination. “We’ve been listening to explosions all morning.”

Cartels commonly use roadblocks of burning vehicles to block military operations, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.

Seida and Buckland, a married couple, awoke Sunday with plans for a run on a path along the waterfront, near the downtown Puerto Vallarta neighbourhood where they’re staying. As they walked to the path, said Seida, they noticed the smoke from a large fire to their south.

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Updated: Yesterday at 2:12 PM CST

SUPPLIED
Tracey Seida and Jerry Buckland captured this image of smoke and flames from car fires near their vacation rental in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on Sunday.

Opinion

Ottawa’s new jester needs to read the room Dan Lett 5 minute read 6:00 AM CST
Right turns on red — it’s time for a change Brent Bellamy 5 minute read Updated: 9:41 AM CST
An arrest in Britain sends global shockwaves Editorial 4 minute read 2:00 AM CST

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Manitobans continue to draw line in sand, choose not to cross once-neighbourly line on land

Chris Kitching 6 minute read Preview

Manitobans continue to draw line in sand, choose not to cross once-neighbourly line on land

Chris Kitching 6 minute read Updated: 9:01 AM CST

Julie Regner loves to see Canadians tackle the slopes or après-ski at North Dakota’s Frost Fire Park, which has drawn skiers and snowboarders across the border for decades.

While there hasn’t been an official tally of visitors this season, the park’s general manager doesn’t think she’s seeing as many Manitobans amid the steep decline in Canadians venturing south.

“I would say it’s maybe decreased some from last year. They’re definitely still coming down to ski,” Regner said from the park, which is close to Walhalla, just 10 kilometres south of the border.

“We just love having them come down. They’re super nice people.”

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Updated: 9:01 AM CST

SUPPLIED
Julie Regner loves to see Canadians tackle the slopes or après-ski at North Dakota’s Frost Fire Park.

Manitoba urges court to throw out First Nation’s moose-hunt lawsuit

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Preview

Manitoba urges court to throw out First Nation’s moose-hunt lawsuit

Erik Pindera 3 minute read Yesterday at 3:24 PM CST

The Manitoba government is arguing a northern First Nation’s lawsuit over moose hunting on its traditional territory should be tossed out of court.

Misipawistik Cree Nation filed its statement of claim in the Court of King’s Bench in September, arguing licensed moose hunting on its traditional lands northwest of Lake Winnipeg infringes on the community’s treaty rights to hunt moose for food amid dwindling populations of the big game animal.

But in a recently filed statement of defence, the province argues it has upheld its duties.

“Manitoba denies that there have been any unjustified infringements of Treaty No. 5, that it has failed to act honourably toward the plaintiff, or that any court intervention or other remedy is required,” reads the government court filing.

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Yesterday at 3:24 PM CST

A moose grazes in a field of canola bordering the Trans-Canada Highway west of Brandon in this file photo. In a recently filed statement of defence, the province argues a First Nation’s moose-hunting lawsuit should be tossed out. (File)

Canada needs to harness momentum for next Olympic push

Mike McIntyre 7 minute read Preview

Canada needs to harness momentum for next Olympic push

Mike McIntyre 7 minute read Updated: 1:53 PM CST

MILAN — The Games are over. Now let the debate back home begin.

As the curtain closed on the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, leaders of the Canadian Olympic Committee were sounding the alarm.

Yes, there were highlights and memorable moments over the past two-and-a-half weeks. But should 21 medals — Canada's lowest Winter Games haul since Salt Lake City 2002 and good for eighth place in total medals (11th by the gold-medal standard) — be cause for concern?

Those on the front lines believe the country’s high-performance sport system is under growing strain — and that what unfolded in Italy could be a troubling sign of things to come without a significant boost in federal funding.

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Updated: 1:53 PM CST

NATHAN DENETTE / THE CANADIAN PRESS
From left: speedskaters Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin and Valérie Maltais. The trio repeated as back-to-back Olympic gold medallists in the women’s team pursuit.

Police in Britain arrest former ambassador Mandelson in probe into Epstein ties

Pan Pylas And Jill Lawless, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Police in Britain arrest former ambassador Mandelson in probe into Epstein ties

Pan Pylas And Jill Lawless, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: 12:40 PM CST

LONDON (AP) — British police on Monday arrested Peter Mandelson, a former U.K. ambassador to the United States, in a misconduct probe stemming from his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein. It came days after a friendship with Epstein landed the former Prince Andrew in police custody.

Both men are suspected of improperly passing U.K. government information to the disgraced U.S. financier, and the high-profile British arrests are some of the most dramatic fallout from the trove of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents released last month by the U.S. Justice Department.

London’s Metropolitan Police force said “officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office” at an address in north London. He was taken to a police station for questioning.

The man was not named, in keeping with British police practice, but the suspect in the case previously was identified as the former diplomat, who is 72. Mandelson was filmed being led from his London home to a car by plainclothes officers on Monday afternoon.

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Updated: 12:40 PM CST

Peter Mandelson is seen outside his home in north west London, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)

News Quiz

The week that was: Feb. 17-23

Updated: 11:47 AM CST

Weekly Quiz 2026-02-23 (2026-02-17 - 2026-02-21 )

Man accused of assaulting child with baseball bat after assaulting bus passenger

Free Press staff 1 minute read Preview

Man accused of assaulting child with baseball bat after assaulting bus passenger

Free Press staff 1 minute read Yesterday at 3:16 PM CST

Winnipeg police arrested a man who is accused of randomly assaulting a child and a city bus passenger before attempting to steal a car on Saturday afternoon.

The suspect was riding a Winnipeg Transit bus at about 12:30 p.m. Feb. 21 when, unprovoked, he assaulted a 66-year-old man. The victim wasn’t hurt, and the bus driver kicked the suspect off the bus. The man then went into a retail store in the 3600 block of Portage Avenue, picked out a baseball bat and then hit a school-aged child in the upper body, knocking the child to the ground and continuing to hit the boy while he was on the ground. The child’s father fought off the suspect, who fled from the store.

The child was taken to hospital in stable condition and store staff contacted police.

The suspect then went to an auto collision repair centre in the 3500 block of Portage Avenue and stole a customer’s vehicle keys. Staff also contacted police. Officers arrived and quickly located a suspect.

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Yesterday at 3:16 PM CST

A Winnipeg Police Service shoulder patch is seen in Winnipeg, Sept. 2, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski

Ottawa launching countrywide survey in buildup toward formal men’s health strategy

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Ottawa launching countrywide survey in buildup toward formal men’s health strategy

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Updated: 6:17 AM CST

OTTAWA - The federal government is taking its first steps toward developing a national men's health strategy, launching a survey for Canadians to weigh in.

As previously reported by The Canadian Press, federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel is working on a strategy on men’s and boys’ health, to be released later this year.

The national online survey will launch in early March and will run until the beginning of June.

Advocacy group Movember and researchers from the University of British Columbia released a report last summer calling on the federal government to create such a strategy.

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Updated: 6:17 AM CST