City installs remote door locks, buzzers at Sherbrook Pool in response to staff safety concerns

Heightened issues with safety at the Kinsmen Sherbrook Pool have prompted the city to introduce new security measures, including remote door locks that require patrons to buzz in before entering the public facility.

City police charge 72-year-old man after threatening, racist letters sent to Indigenous, female cabinet minister

Cabinet minister and Indigenous MLA Nahanni Fontaine said threatening, racist letters that were sent to her last summer are “pretty violent and grotesque.”

Foster parents in The Pas charged in 2024 head-trauma death of six-year-old in their care

Two foster parents in The Pas have been criminally charged after a little girl in their care died in 2024 of a traumatic head injury believed to have been caused by an assault.

The Pas RCMP were called in after one of the caregivers took the six-year-old girl, with “serious injuries and bruises,” to the local hospital on Oct. 29, 2024, Mounties said Tuesday.

Health officials had the girl airlifted to Winnipeg for medical treatment. She died on Nov. 3 that year of head trauma.

Officials were initially told the girl had fallen from her bed, but RCMP major crime investigators later determined that she had been assaulted the day before she was taken to the hospital.

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.

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 those in the Priority 1 category include 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.

Servers entitled to money, labour board rules in restaurant owner’s appeal

The Manitoba Labour Board rejected an appeal from a St. Boniface restaurant owner, saying four former servers were entitled to money labelled as advances on their pay stubs.

Chaise Café and Lounge owner Shea Ritchie argued the employees should have to repay those advances.

A Jan. 17, 2025 decision by the labour board, included in the department’s 2024-25 annual report tabled in the legislature Monday, disagreed, stating the money was actually tips the servers had earned.

“The amounts were odd numbers, like $18 or other random numbers versus a whole lump sum like $100 or $200, which one might expect if they were, in fact, pay advances,” the decision read.

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.

Deer Lodge Centre employee attacked outside building

The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals is calling for increased safety and security measures after one of its members was attacked on Portage Avenue Monday outside Deer Lodge Centre in Winnipeg.

An internal memo to staff later that day, obtained by the Free Press, said a woman was pushed and chased by “a community member acting very aggressively.”

“This incident is being taken very seriously, and appropriate followup has occurred,” according to a second memo from Deer Lodge chief operating officer Arle Jones on Tuesday. “Violence is something no staff member, patient or visitor should have to worry about or experience.”

Winnipeg police confirmed an incident occurred around 8 a.m. Monday. Officers attended, but the suspect had already fled. Police said Tuesday they could not provide further details.

Man responsible for 2022 crash that left victim a quadriplegic not guilty of dangerous driving, judge rules

In March 2022, Tim and Kendra Kelly were preparing to move into their newly built Winnipeg home and looking ahead to early retirement.

Two days before the home was dropped on its foundation, the couple’s dreams were shattered after an automobile collision that left Tim a quadriplegic.

“(Tim) spent maybe three hours in that house and now it’s sold, it’s gone,” said Kendra, who suffered a broken hand in the collision. “Now we have to plan for a wheelchair house and wheelchair van and everything accessible. Nothing ever goes the way you plan it to, never.”

On Monday, the couple was in a Winnipeg courtroom when a judge found the man who caused the crash, Keeno Shawn Paul Wright, not guilty of two counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, ruling he did not have the required mental state to be convicted of the offence.