The Wrap: Accused killer fit for trial, Portage and Main, bail reform and health-care strike

A Carman man arrested in the slayings of five family members, including his three young children, has been found fit to stand trial.

Late last month, Ryan Manoakeesick’s lawyers requested that he undergo an assessment to determine whether he is fit to stand trial and provide instructions to his lawyers.

“We have the results of (the assessment)… finding that he is fit,” Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft told provincial court Judge Kael McKenzie at a hearing Thursday.

Dean Pritchard reports from court.

A proposal to let pedestrians once again cross the street at Portage and Main and close the site’s underground concourse is now one step closer to reality, with the city poised to defer some road projects to fund it.

On Thursday, a city committee unanimously approved a motion to set aside $13 million for the initial opening design and construction to open the surface-level crossing by July 1, 2025. The changes still require a final council vote.

Meanwhile, the widow of Winnipeg artist Bruce Head is wondering what will happen to The Wall, the massive concrete artwork covering the inner wall of the intersection’s underground concourse.

Head’s 127-metre-long geometric relief sculpture is the longest in situ art piece in Canada.

Winnipeg Police Chief Danny Smyth says Winnipeggers will have to wait until the fall for a new police unit that will carry out checks and arrest accused people who allegedly breach their court-ordered release conditions.

The NDP government announced in February that $3 million would be set aside in 2024-25 for 12 new officers who will be tasked with monitoring suspects on bail.

But the Winnipeg Police Service isn’t in a position to reassign any current officers so it will have to wait for two classes of recruits to graduate this year before the new unit can be assembled.

Ten Ten Sinclair Housing Inc. supports about 100 people with physical disabilities and other challenges at seven facilities across the city.

More than 150 of the unionized health-care workers employed by the non-profit started a strike yesterday, saying they’ve been without a contract for four years and wages have increased just 1.75 per cent since 2016.

Tenants say their care degraded almost immediately, with some people forced to lay for hours in soiled bedding, unable to turn on lights and going without baths and meals.