Good morning!
Ready for assisted dying: The man now in charge of all things health in Manitoba maintains the province is prepared to deal with medically assisted death, whether or not the feds can make a court-ordered June 6 deadline on the issue. Provincial Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen ran through a number of topics, including assisted dying, with Free Press legislature reporter Larry Kusch, such as ways to find cost efficiencies in his department and wait time. READ MORE
Your forecast: Brace yourselves for a dismal weather forecast for Winnipeg and surrounding areas. Showers continue this morning, with a risk of a thunderstorm in the afternoon. As much as 10 millimetres of rain could fall today, and the daytime high temperature will hit 18 C. Rain continues to fall overnight, throughout Friday and into the weekend, with a 60 per cent chance of showers on Saturday. There might be some sunshine Sunday and Monday, so keep your fingers crossed as you grip your umbrellas today.
In case you missed it
Ron Siwicki
Accused of letting mom die: Is there enough evidence that a Winnipeg man might have allowed his 90-year-old mother to spend days collapsed on the floor without medical care before she died? That’s what a provincial court judge must decide in the case of Ron Siwicki. He appeared in court Wednesday to begin his preliminary hearing on charges of criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessities of life. None of the allegations has been proven and the local musician is presumed innocent. READ MORE
Paintings fetch $3 million: Three paintings by Group of Seven member Lawren Harris went for more than $3 million at an auction in Vancouver on Wednesday night. The Heffel Fine Art Auction House says Harris’s canvas “Laurentian Landscape” sold for almost $2.2 million, well over the pre-auction estimate of between $1.2 million and $1.6 million. Oil-on-board works “Coldwell, Lake Superior” and “Mount Sampson, Maligne Lake” by Harris fetched $649,000 and $413,000, respectively. READ MORE
Blast in Flin Flon: A propane explosion sent a 33-year-old man to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries in Flin Flon on Wednesday morning. A spokeswoman with Stittco Energy said the explosion occurred at the company’s propane facility and was quickly extinguished, but levelled an out-building. A witness to the blast, Dennis Bouteiller, manager of the Petro Canada gas bar across the street from Stittco, said he was making a pot of coffee at work when the entire store shook from the blast. “I couldn’t see across the street, I couldn’t even see my gas pumps,” he said. “Then it finally cleared and I could see across the street that the building that was there was gone.” READ MORE
Up next
Sea of red: More than 2,000 Liberals are set to descend on Winnipeg today through Sunday for the first Liberal Party of Canada convention since the party’s federal election victory last fall. Almost every cabinet minister and the majority of the party’s 184 MPs will be in attendance, along with Liberal faithful from every province. It kicks off tonight at the RBC Convention Centre with a keynote address from residential school survivor Chief Robert Joseph. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will only be in attendance for the final day of the convention. He is in Japan attending the G7 meeting and will fly directly to Winnipeg to give his speech on Saturday. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is scheduled to speak Saturday morning.
Around the water cooler
DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSLocal River Heights resident Abigail Mickelthwate voices her concerns about a proposed cell phone tower in her area during a town hall meeting with The Hon. Jim Carr, MP for Winnipeg South Centre and minister of Natural Resources at the Radi Centre Wednesday night.
Not in their backyard: River Heights residents voiced opposition to a plan by MTS to build a 20-metre cell tower in the area. Earlier this year, 19 River Heights homeowners were notified MTS planned to erect the cell tower on a property in the residential neighbourhood near Grosvenor Avenue and Niagara Street already occupied by a relay station. The tower would be three times the height of the surrounding buildings. READ MORE
Indigenous governor general: Delegates at the national Liberal convention in Winnipeg will debate a resolution that calls on the government to rotate the appointment of the governor general between anglophones, francophones and indigenous peoples every three years. As Ajay Chopra writes, the appointment of an indigenous governor general would be perhaps the greatest affirmation the Trudeau government and the Liberal Party of Canada are serious about forming a strong relationship with the indigenous people of Canada. READ MORE
Cavaliers crush Raptors: It was definitely hot in Cleveland — for the hosts but not the visitors. The Cavaliers jumped out to a 31-point lead at halftime and cruised to a 116-78 triumph over the Toronto Raptors to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Eastern Conference final. The Raptors face a must-win situation in Game 6 at home on Friday. The club won two games at the Air Canada Centre earlier in the series. READ MORE
Trending now
DAVID VINCENT / THE ASSOCIATED PRESSTimea Bacsinszky of Switzerland celebrates winning her second round match of the French Open tennis tournament against Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard in Paris, France, Thursday. Bacsinszky won in two sets 6-4, 6-4.
Bacsinszky: Swiss tennis player Timea Bacsinszky, the eighth seed at the French Open tennis championship, was down four games to two to Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard but rattled off 10 straight wins en route to a 6-4, 6-4 victory today. She advances to the third round, while Bouchard is done.
#Centrallia: The first day of Centrallia conference was a busy one in downtown Winnipeg as about 700 people from 30 countries participated in day-long conferences on doing business in the Arctic and the southern Americas, playing to Manitoba’s strengths as a gateway for trade both north and south.
On this date
On May 26, 1995: The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Manitoba would join other provinces in contesting the federal long-gun registry. People opposed to a multimillion-dollar plan to keep the Jets in Winnipeg and build an arena at The Forks protested at Portage and Main. The Salvation Army was joining the trend of operating big-box outlets, and planned to close its small shops in favour of opening three or four mega-thrift superstores in Winnipeg. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms prohibited discrimination against homosexuals.
|
