Your forecast
A few showers ending this morning, then mainly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers, with a risk of a thunderstorm. Wind becoming northeast at 20 km/h gusting to 40 near noon. High 24 C. Humidex 30. UV index 8 or very high.
What’s happening today
The Winnipeg Police Service’s minimum number of cruiser cars per shift is increasing today for the first time in decades.
A two-officer general patrol vehicle is being added to each shift in west district — the largest of the city’s four districts — where significant neighbourhood expansion and population growth have occurred. Chris Kitching reports.
Winnipeg Police Service Insp. Max Waddell, west district commander, says the district was the ‘obvious choice’ for an additional cruiser. (Mike Deal / Free Press)
Today’s must-read
A Grade 12 student has been charged after a police investigation into harassment against a teacher who was bombarded with sexually explicit messages — including intimate images of her generated by artificial intelligence.
The Winnipeg Police Service arrested a 17-year-old male on June 20 and charged him with one count each of criminal harassment, cybercrime-related mischief and the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
He is also accused of making, printing, publishing, circulating and possessing explicit material.
“The emotional toll of this has been so huge,” said a newly certified teacher as she described the “sickening” messages she started receiving during her final practicum in the River East Transcona School Division. Maggie Macintosh has the story.
(Daniel Crump / Free Press files)
On the bright side
On a busy Saturday morning, in a building on River Avenue, a parent and their child sit in a room stocked with games and puzzles, engrossed in a board game while Deanna Jones observes them.
Jones, 51, is an educational assistant with a decade of experience working with children. She’s recently completed a degree in psychology and Indigenous studies at the U of M, and in the autumn she will begin her Master of Social Work in Indigenous Knowledges.
Today however she is a volunteer visitation monitor at Winnipeg Children’s Access Agency (WCAA).
The WCAA is a trauma-informed independent and visitation exchange service with a strong focus on the well-being of children involved in high-conflict separations when there has been evidence of interpersonal violence.
Deanna Jones, a volunteer at Winnipeg Children’s Access Agency (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)
“When I first started, my training taught me monitors just sit there silently taking notes without interacting with the families. Now, I’ve been in that position as a child and having another adult in the room staring at you and then writing things down is terrifying.
“That approach never worked for me, so I actually interact with my families. Not enough to get in the way of their visit, but I interact with the kids and the parents because I want them to see me as a person who is there as a friend. Not to spy on them, but to help them along.” AV Kitching has more here.
On this date
On June 29, 1940: The Winnipeg Free Press reported the Red Army’s occupation of Romanian territories ceded by King Carol was transformed abruptly into actual invasion by Soviet tanks and infantry of old Romania itself. As Great Briatin was rumoured to be preparing a counterattack on Germany, Canadian soldiers in London were keen to take part; as one soldier from Winnipeg working security put it, “We are here to share greater risks than civilians.”
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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