David Bowie’s extensive music catalog is sold to Warner

Federal Court awards OCN $27M, 62 years after construction of hydro dam

The Federal Court has ordered Ottawa pay Opaskwayak Cree Nation $27 million over damages suffered due to the construction of the Grand Rapids hydro dam in the 1960s.

In a decision dated Sept. 3, Federal Court Justice Sébastien Grammond says the federal government had a fiduciary duty to protect the community from the impacts of the dam.

“When the Crown exercises a discretionary power over an Indigenous interest, it has a fiduciary duty and it must exercise the discretion in the best interests of the Indigenous group,” the ruling said. “Canada breached its fiduciary duty to OCN because it approved the (project) without ensuring that the impacts of the Grand Rapids dam on OCN’s traditional way of life were mitigated or compensated.”

The First Nation took the federal government to court in February over impacts on the community after the dam, located about 145 kilometres southeast of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, was installed on the Saskatchewan River in 1964. The case was heard over 14 days in a judge-alone trial in Winnipeg.

Man serving time for 2018 second-degree murder pleads guilty to manslaughter in 2024 prison slaying

A Manitoba man is now serving his second life sentence in prison after an unexplained technical mistake resulted in a fatal seven-on-one attack on another inmate.

Randal Hastings pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter for his part in the July 2024 killing of 37-year-old Dean Tyler Young at Stony Mountain Institution.

Hastings, 33, was previously convicted of second-degree murder for a 2018 killing in Thompson and, at the time of Young’s death, was serving a life sentence with no chance of parole until 2033. His latest sentence comes with a seven-year period of parole ineligibility.

“It may be a very long time before any parole board is asked to consider whether you can and ought to be safely released into the community,” Court of King’s Bench Justice Sarah Inness told Hastings.

A development infused with personal memory

I haven’t written here in a while. Early this summer, my mom was unfairly taken from us — from me. Healing, as much as it’s possible, takes time.

Seven years sought for serial harasser

Alexander Beaton finished serving a two-year jail sentence for criminally harassing six women and didn’t last two days in the community before he was back at it, sending unwanted obscene messages and videos to a dozen women.

Now prosecutors are seeking a seven-year prison sentence for the 30-year-old Winnipeg man, whose latest string of victims includes a police officer who investigated his earlier crimes.

“He essentially continued (offending) unabated,” Crown attorney Brett Rach told provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald at a sentencing hearing Friday. “It caused more than a nuisance to these victims — it caused them to fear for their safety.”

Beaton pleaded guilty to 14 charges of criminal harassment, sending indecent communications and breaching court orders for a campaign of harassment waged between 2015 and 2025.