The Wrap: CFS settlement, overdose deaths, cannabis candy sentencing, buses without heat, and a curling invitation wasn’t a prank

The Manitoba government has agreed to pay $530 million to settle three class-action lawsuits over child welfare benefit payments in an agreement that plaintiffs should send a message to other provinces.

The proposed settlement, which still requires court approval, would compensate an estimated 30,000 children, some of whom have since become adults, for money the province clawed back from federal payments between 2005 and 2019.

The number of annual drug deaths in Manitoba climbed to a record high in 2023, prompting sorrow and more calls for action from advocates.

There were 445 drug-related deaths last year, up slightly from 2022, based on initial data released Monday by the province’s chief medical examiner.

The number of deaths was highest in December, which logged 54.

A Winnipeg woman who admitted to “inadvertently” handing out bags of cannabis edibles to children on Halloween has been fined $5,000.

Tammy Sigurdur, 54, and her husband were arrested after police received complaints from several parents who said their children returned home from trick-or-treating with bags of candies containing THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

The couple said Sigurdur, who was not wearing her glasses, accidentally grabbed the candies when replenishing an empty bowl of treats.

A year after the previous PC government promised to investigate a Thompson-based bus line accused of operating vehicles with mechanical issues including broken heaters, passengers say it’s obvious the issue hadn’t been fixed.

Erik Skeaff took the nine-hour ride from Thompson to Winnipeg on a Thompson Bus & Freight vehicle on the weekend and said he and other passengers were left shivering the entire nine-hour ride, as temperatures outside fell to as low as -30C.

When a text and a call arrived on Kyle Doering’s phone, allegedly from reigning three-time Canadian men’s curling champion Brad Gushue, Doering thought it was a prank.

But it really was the curling legend himself, reaching out to ask the Winnipegger to come aboard as the team’s alternate at the upcoming men’s world championship, which begins this Saturday in Switzerland.

“When the greatest Canadian curler ever asks you to be fifth, I think you’d be crazy to turn that down,” said Doering, who plays third for Karsten Sturmay’s Alberta-based team.