The Wrap: Dean investigation, sex offender ‘loophole,’ farewell Fleet Galleries and hockey program returns

An internal audit found Jonathan Black-Branch, who oversaw Manitoba’s only law school from 2016 to 2020, misused upwards of $600,000 in faculty and endowment funds.

Now, several law professors who worked under the ex-dean are asking police to launch a criminal investigation into the lawyer-academic’s “fraudulent behaviour.”

Convicted sex offenders continue to have the right to change their legal names in Manitoba.

This little-known fact outrages victims and victims’ advocates who say it gives perpetrators a chance to hide from their past and possibly harm others.

While police who oversee the national sex offender registry say they are informed when someone on the registry changes their name, that information is not always shared with the public.

Ask anyone who works, lives or visits downtown and the verdict is universal: poverty, crime and addictions are the worst they’ve ever been.

Adding officers, police cars and cameras hasn’t addressed the core issues facing inner-city writes columnist Niigaan Sinclair. Now, it’s time to try mental-health crisis units, safe injection sites and restorative justice systems.

Art gallery and picture framing business Fleet Galleries will be closing its doors Dec. 31 after 40 years in business.

Jeff Gasenzer, owner of the Albert Street gallery, has made the decision to shut down as he receives treatment for kidney disease.

Maples Collegiate made its return to the Winnipeg High School Hockey League this season, after the program folded in 2010.

While members of the squad are just as inexperienced as the program itself, there’s much to celebrate, writes reporter Joshua Frey-Sam.