The Wrap: Health-care strike fears, seniors scammed, new Payworks HQ, Chantal Kreviazuk
Plus: a third man has been exonerated in a 50-year-old murder

Good evening. Here’s a look at what our newsroom has been working on today:

'Waiting three or four hours, with feces all over me, that’s crazy'

Joel Shefrin has been forced to wait for hours covered in his own feces waiting for home care to come — and that’s even before a threatened strike by the province’s health-care support workers.

Now Shefrin is in fear his care will get even worse if more than 25,000 health support workers represented by CUPE and the MGEU walk off the job on Oct. 8.

Meanwhile, in an email exchange obtained by the Free Press, a health-care worker asked for advice from their union because they had been asked to train “non-union secretaries” to do their job at a Winnipeg hospital if the job action goes ahead.

Kevin Rollason reports.

Kevin Rollason:

‘They really don’t care’

Home care patient, who waited hours covered in feces, fears bad service will get worse if workers strike Read More

Get ready to savour Manitoba's freshest summer flavours

'It is the right thing to do'

Clarence Woodhouse walked out of court a free and innocent man for the first time in 50 years on Thursday.

In 1974, then in his early 20s, the Saulteaux man was wrongfully convicted of murdering restaurant worker Ting Fong Chan. Three other men, including his now-deceased brother, were also convicted.

All but his brother, whose case remains under review, have also been declared innocent.

Reporter Katrina Clarke has the story.

Katrina Clarke:

‘You were wrongfully convicted’

Third Indigenous man declared innocent in 1973 Winnipeg slaying; national advocacy organization calls for federal-provincial task force on systemic racism Read More

'The only fault my parents had is that they were too trusting'

Henry and Mary Braun were just a few years into retirement when someone posing as a friend from their church sent them a message on Facebook about a new, tax-free federal grant supplying up to $150,000 for retired seniors.

They ended up being scammed out of a third of their life savings and they now fear their retirement could be in jeopardy.

Tyler Searle talks to the couple’s son about how they were scammed.

Tyler Searle:

Trusting senior couple fall prey to ‘church peer’ fraud, lose third of retirement funds

A fraudster posing as a friend from church bilked an elderly Winnipeg couple out of more than one-third of their life’s savings this month. Now, Henry and Mary Braun fear their retirement could be in jeopardy, and they are warning others not to fall victim to the same fraud. Read More

'The building has come to life the way we envisioned'

Twenty-four years ago, Barb Gamey started Payworks with a handful of employees.

Today, the company has 600 staff nationwide — and Winnipeg employees celebrated the grand opening of the company’s new $60-million office.

Business reporter Gabrielle Piché took in the five-storey, 94,000-square-foot complex in South Pointe.

Gabrielle Piché:

Cheques & (in-office) benefits

Room to grow, ‘reasons to get up from your desk’: Payworks unveils new $60M south Winnipeg HQ Read More

'I am the luckiest person I’ve ever met'

Chantal Kreviazuk is marking the 25th anniversary of her sophomore album, Colour Moving and Still, with a cross-Canada tour that brings her to her hometown on Saturday for a concert at Burton Cummings Theatre.

Eva Wasney talks to the singer-songwriter about the decades-long career that has taken her from Winnipeg to the Juno Awards to recording studios with the world’s biggest pop stars.

Eva Wasney:

Forward movement

Chantal Kreviazuk takes break from recording to celebrate anniversary of sophomore release Read More