The Wrap: Crisis response, Wawanesa’s new digs, mining and caribou, Ligandrol appeal, and a local connection to Dune

A group of community organizations is pressing Winnipeg city council, police and the Manitoba government to set up a civilian-led crisis-response program, similar to those in other major cities.

The Police Accountability Coalition cites concerns about the cost and effeciveness of using police to address “societal failures,” while arguing a police presence is not necessary for all mental health-related calls.

A new office tower in downtown Winnipeg is always big news, but Wednesday’s official opening of the gleaming headquarters of Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Co. is especially important.

The 21-storey building at the corner of Graham Avenue and Carlton Street is the third tower in the True North Square development and is connected to the downtown skywalk system.

“This investment will bring people downtown and all the life and vitality that folks bring with them when they visit our city centre. That is only going to mean good things for Winnipeg and good things for Manitoba,” Premier Wab Kinew said.

An environmental group is raising concerns about a provincial grant given to a nickel-mining company for exploration in the habitat of threatened boreal woodland caribou.

The latest round of funding distributed under the Manitoba Mineral Development Fund included $300,000 for NiCan Limited to support “ongoing drill exploration” in Grass River Provincial Park in northern Manitoba.

According to environmental group The Wilderness Committee, NiCan’s mineral claims overlap the calving and rutting grounds for a herd of caribou.

If there’s one person who can relate to what suspended curler Briane Harris is going through, it’s Olympic canoeist Laurence Vincent Lapointe.

Harris is provisionally suspended for up to four years after testing positive for traces of the banned substance Ligandrol.

In July of 2019, Vincent Lapointe also tested positive for that same banned substance and was facing a potential four-year suspension. But she got her ban overturned after proving she was the victim of third-party contamination.

Harris is looking to do the same as her lawyers maintain she was unknowingly exposed to the substance through bodily contact.

Winnipeg martial arts instructor Alvin Catacutan trained actors Austin Butler, Josh Brolin and Timotheé Chalamet to prepare them for their roles in Dune: Part Two.

Catacutan taught the actors kali, a close-quarters combat system considered the indigenous fighting art of the Philippines.

It took three months of intensive one-on-one training with the three leads for him to get them up to scratch, he tells arts reporter AV Kitching.