Your forecast
Sunny, with increasing cloudiness this afternoon. Wind becoming south at 20 km/h this morning. High 25 C. Humidex 28. UV index 6 or high.
What’s happening today
🏈 The Winnipeg Blue Bombers host the Montreal Alouettes at Princess Auto Stadium, starting at 7:30 p.m. “I can see why people maybe aren’t as optimistic, but at the end of the day, everybody in this room is optimistic that we’re going to go out there and win this football game,” receiver Nic Demski told the Free Press after Wednesday’s closed practice. For full game-day Bombers coverage, click here.
Winnipeg Blue Bombers wide receiver Nic Demski (10) (Nathan Denette / The Canadian Press files)
Today’s must-read
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service responded to more than 136,000 calls last year, a 30 per cent increase over five years earlier.
Every 911 call first goes through the city’s main emergency call centre. Those requiring fire or paramedic response are then routed to a separate dispatch location roughly the size of a classroom.
The lights are kept low, partly to ease the eye strain that comes with staring at banks of screens for hours at a time. Red lights glow beside each dispatcher’s desk, illuminating whenever a call comes in. If they were brighter, the room might be mistaken for a rave.
The rainy weather and scant details in a 911 call add to the challenges facing first responders who assist a man who had fallen in a walkway off of Main Street. (Robert Lee / Free Press)
Dispatchers are the first of the first responders. And they are getting hammered. The room is designed for 12 people. Some days, staffing is closer to half that. “It’s insane,” one dispatcher says. Scott Billeck has the story here.
On the bright side
Fifty years after Dr. Pravinsagar Mehta began caring for residents at Actionmarguerite, a courtyard he had long watched deteriorate is getting a new life after he and his wife committed $500,000 to its redevelopment and long-term maintenance.
The renewed courtyard at Actionmarguerite St. Boniface on Despins Street will officially open Friday, giving its 299 residents an accessible place to spend time outside.
When Mehta, now 80, began working at St. Boniface Home in 1976, the new courtyard reminded him of a park near his childhood home in Uganda — one of the highlights of his upbringing.
“I said, ‘Wow, isn’t it amazing that I can go out, sit outside, and relax there?’” Mehta recalled. Zoe Pierce has more here.
The renovation of the courtyard at Actionmarguerite St. Boniface was made possible after Dr. Pravinsagar Mehta and his wife committed $500,000 to its redevelopment and long-term maintenance. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press)
On this date
On Aug. 28, 1988: The Winnipeg Free Press reported Atomic Energy of Canada developed a process at its Whiteshell Research Centre for transforming toxic PCBs into a form of salt, but nobody was interested in adopting the method owing to cost, and fear of an (erroneous) association with radiactivity. Winnipeg Jets captain Dale Hawerchuk wed Crystal Skuba at Holy Family Ukrainian Church.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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