The Wrap: Crisis centre in crisis, NCR cases, an interview with the PM, Assiniboia Downs
Plus: 25 years of photography at Art City

Employees at a mental health crisis centre in Winnipeg are concerned about the safety of themselves and patients.

Staff told the Free Press employees and security guards at the Health Sciences Centre unit are often attacked or threatened by patients.

Clients “go AWOL” amid long waits at the facility, which is not secure and doesn’t have enough locked or isolation rooms for patients waiting for an involuntary psychiatric assessment, the sources said.

Chris Kitching reports.

More than 100 Manitobans have been spared imprisonment because they have been found not criminally responsible for their crimes.

But every time a prominent case surfaces with NCR as a defence, intense scrutiny follows.

Kevin Rollason talks to experts about the threshold that must be met before such a determination can be reached, and what happens after an accused is found not criminally responsible.

Despite reaching historically-low approval levels, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who showed up in Winnipeg, seems to show no sign he’s lost the will or the energy to find a way — any way — to once again snatch electoral victory from what appears to be almost certain defeat.

Trudeau sits for a podcast interview with Free Press columnists Dan Lett and Niigaan Sinclair.

Listen to the full podcast and Lett’s take on his conversation with the Prime Minister.

Each Monday afternoon in West Broadway, a collection of shutterbugs flutters out the doors of Art City to capture a photographic survey of themselves and the neighbourhood around them.

Over the course of 25 years, hundreds of participants have taken the same weekly excursion as part of Art City’s free photography program.

A retrospective of the program, Outside at Young and Broadway, on view at the Platform Centre, tells three stories — of a neighbourhood, of an organization and of a generation — all at once.

The horses don’t start lining up in the starting gate until Monday evening, but the architect of everything that goes on at Assiniboia Downs is already off and running.

Darren Dunn believes this season has the potential to be the best one yet.

“The sky is the limit on what we’re prepared to do out there,” the long-time CEO told the Free Press on Friday.

Although the 50-race meet which kicks off on Victoria Day is the main event, there are plenty of other appetizers on the menu. From music festivals and night markets to the RCMP musical ride and Indigenous cultural celebrations, the “little track that could” is busier than ever.