Bus overhaul leaves gaps in service to Grace Hospital, Assiniboine clinic

Some St. James residents are up in arms after a shift in bus routes cut evening and weekend stops in front of Grace Hospital and nearby Assiniboine Medical Clinic.

As part of the city’s recent Transit overhaul, there are now three feeder routes that stop directly in front of the Booth Drive hospital and within a block of the Lodge Avenue clinic. But they don’t run on weekends and stop in the early evening on weekdays, leaving an unacceptable gap in service, said St. James Coun. Shawn Dobson.

“I can’t fathom you walking in the rain or the cold, all that distance from Portage Avenue up to the hospital, it makes no sense,” he said Monday.

"A frequent express route, the FX3, stops at the nearby Sturgeon Road into the night all week, it’s too far of a walk for seniors and people with medically complex needs, and will only get more difficult for everyone in winter," Dobson said.

Family mourns couple struck on side of Kenaston, man charged with impaired driving

A man with a prior conviction for drunk driving is accused of being impaired while behind the wheel in a high-speed collision that killed two people on Kenaston Boulevard Saturday night.

Winnipeg Police Service traffic officers were called to the vicinity of Kenaston and Enterprise Drive around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, where they found a 31-year-old man dead and a 25-year-old woman seriously injured, police spokesman Const. Pat Saydak said Monday.

“Two people are dead because of an impaired driver,” said Saydak.

Paramedics rushed the woman to hospital, in critical condition, but she later died.

New St. B ER great, but where are all the doctors to staff it?

When governments announce a major hospital expansion, it’s usually billed as a silver bullet solution to long wait times and overcrowding.

The latest example is St. Boniface Hospital’s newly expanded and renovated emergency department, expected to open officially on Oct. 2. (It was supposed to open next week, but there’s been a delay).

On paper, it looks impressive: more treatment spaces, updated facilities, a modern design intended to improve patient experience.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: the facelift won’t do much — if anything — to cut ER wait times. If history is any guide, the experience for patients at St. Boniface will look remarkably similar to what it’s been for years — hours-long waits, gurneys lined up in hallways and admitted patients languishing in the emergency department because there’s no staffed hospital bed to move them into.

Letting the Millennium Library be what it can be

After yet another underwhelming response to a tragic incident, it’s fair to ask whether the City of Winnipeg wants to keep the Millennium Library open.

One man killed himself by jumping over the railing of the fourth floor of the Millennium Library — a railing that overlooks a spectacular glass wall and atrium that runs all the way to the main level — and another attempted a similar act of self harm. The city responded by installing foreboding metal construction fencing near the railings.

The city says the fencing is only a temporary measure until a more permanent safety solution can be found.

However, based on the fact the city has failed miserably to deliver meaningful safety upgrades at Millennium, one has to wonder whether that solution will ever come.

Manitobans raise more than $81,000 for cancer research at Terry Fox Run

Hundreds of runners, walkers and cyclists flooded Assiniboine Park Sunday to remember Terry Fox’s legacy and honour their own loved ones affected by cancer.

The 45th annual Terry Fox Run kicked off by the park pavilion at 10 a.m. Sunday. Manitoba donors raised more than $81,000 for cancer research this year.

Families old and young took to the 2.5-kilometre route all morning, some with shirts bearing Fox’s iconic visage, others carrying signs and mementos of the people they were running for.

Some came in recognition of someone currently battling cancer, like Jason Wells, who ran for his father.

Manitoba cabinet briefing on landfill search for murder victims not being released

WINNIPEG - A report that could shed more light on why Manitoba's former Progressive Conservative government rejected calls to search a landfill for the remains of two murder victims is being withheld under the province's freedom of information law.

Records obtained by The Canadian Press show senior bureaucrats assembled a presentation for cabinet ministers on a potential search in the weeks before the government decided not to proceed with the idea in 2023.

The contents of that presentation — a 13-page digital slide deck that would reveal for the first time what civil servants told politicians — are not being released under Manitoba's freedom of information law, which one expert says is among the most secretive in the country.

Families of the victims and Indigenous leaders had called on the government of the time to search the Prairie Green landfill, a private operation north of Winnipeg, for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran.

The reality of the Canadian criminal justice system

If you are anything like our family and have never been involved with the criminal justice system, I think you will be as shocked as we have been to learn some of this.

It is a rude and cruel exposure to a reality that no one wants to learn during your darkest time of grief.

Jordyn Reimer, a 24-year-old vibrant and innocent victim, was acting as a designated driver on the night of May 1, 2022, when she was killed by Tyler Scott Goodman.

On Nov. 22, 2023, Judge Kael McKenzie handed down a six-year sentence to Goodman for the impaired driving causing death charge and an additional one-year consecutive sentence for failing to stop at the scene. At the time, McKenzie said that no sentence the court can impose would be enough to match the value of a life, that the taking of a life by crime is immeasurable.

Stop the online world, I want to get off

One day, I won’t need to keep up.

I look forward to that. When I won’t need to know what is happening with tariffs and governments, when I won’t have to fill my morning cup with a daily dose of man’s inhumanity to man, when I don’t have to dig through dross.

I’m just back at work after a few weeks out in a non-media world, realizing after several days I felt like I was coming up from underwater — and that, crucially, I was actually thinking about things beyond the regular churn of news. That I was having thoughts not directly connected to work purposes, that delightful meanderings of mind were still possibly in my weary head.

Thoughts about the domed shape of a sea urchin’s pale-green shell once all of its spines have fallen away; about the feel of small smooth beach rocks as you hold them in place against your index finger and rub them with you thumb. About the distance and weight of the horizon on a grey day, and the slap and lop of small waves on a beach protected by offshore rocks.

Day of free services, entertainment offers heartwarming helping hand to city’s homeless

After three years of homelessness and endless hours walking Winnipeg’s streets, Vineet got a rare chance to put his feet up Friday.

The 49-year-old immigrant from India was one of hundreds of people without homes who received free, hands-on care from volunteers at the Gizhe Waa Ti‑Sii‑Win Service Delivery Expo.

A nurse was checking, cleaning and treating blisters, calluses and toenail issues — small irritants that can quickly become big problems if they get infected, a worry for people exposed to the elements who don’t have regular access to medical care.

“This is something good for me… we walk all day,” said Vineet, who offered only his first name.

Widespread availability of graphic Charlie Kirk shooting video shows content moderation challenges

Immediately after Charlie Kirk was shot during a college event in Utah, graphic video of what happened was available almost instantly online, from several angles, in slow-motion and real-time speed. Millions of people watched — sometimes whether they wanted to or not — as the videos autoplayed on social media platforms.

Video was easy to find on X, on Facebook, on TikTok, on Instagram, on YouTube — even on President Donald Trump's Truth Social. The platforms, generally, said they were removing at least some of the videos if they violated their policies, for instance if the person was glorifying the killing in any way. In other cases, warning screens were applied to caution people they were about to see graphic content.

Two days after Kirk's death, videos were still easily found on social media, despite calls to remove them.

“It was not immediately obvious whether Instagram for example was just failing to remove some of the graphic videos of Charlie Kirk being shot or whether they had made a conscious choice to leave them up. And the reason that it that was so hard to tell is that, obviously, those videos were circulating really widely,” said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University.

Kemp and Elizarov intend to keep the party going

On a 10-point scale, just how excited are ascending pairs skaters Ava Kemp and Yohnatan Elizarov as they contemplate what lies ahead this Olympic season?

“Ten,” Elizarov said without hesitation. “I’m very excited. I think it’s going to be a good season.”

Kemp concurred.

“Yeah, I would say 10. Last season showed us when we sat and watched others compete, we were eager to compete and wanted to, but couldn’t,” she said, referring to her back injury that sidelined the pair for several months last fall before they rebounded to claim their second Canadian junior title.

Road through popular dog park proving divisive

Users of a large and popular city dog park fear renovations that will cut a road through the expansive property will transform the serene space into a busy traffic route.

By contrast, the city expects the updated park would serve more people and make better use of its entire property.

Frequent visitors to the 48-hectare off-leash dog area in Kilcona Park, adjacent to Highway 59 in the northeast quadrant of the city, say it’s a well-loved spot that the road would disrupt.

“Putting a big road through that… park, it just seems so intrusive. It’s beautiful just the way it is, there’s prairie wildflowers, there’s wildlife,” said Tom Moody.

Number of private agency nurses rises

As the province tries to move away from its reliance on private agency nurses, data show the practice continues to increase in Manitoba.

A report Thursday from the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba shows there were 1,611 nurses working for private agencies in 2024, up from 1,418 in 2023.

“Our fundamental mandate as the professional regulator is to ensure public protection and provide the conditions that work towards supporting and ensuring patient safety,” said college spokesman Martin Lussier.

“When there is a significant shift in the practice of (nurses) that we regulate, part of our work is to assess: does that create new challenges or risks.”

Alberta bans sexual images in school library books under revised order

EDMONTON - The Alberta government made good Monday on its promise to revise its school book ban, stating that from now on written descriptions of sex are OK, but images and illustrations of sex are not.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told reporters that visual depictions had been the government's main concern from the start.

When asked by reporters why the government wasn't concerned with written descriptions of explicit sexual material, he said, “An image can be understood and conveyed at any grade level with any degree of comprehension.

“Whereas, of course, vocabulary and understanding progresses and develops throughout the school year."

Collective encourages BIPOC networking

It’s a warm weekday morning and Saintuary Café is filled with strangers chatting about their work and passion projects over lattes and croissants.

This has become a regular scene for the co-working café club hosted by the Value Able, a growing grassroots community designed to help BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) creatives in Winnipeg meet and collaborate.

The idea started percolating when founders Star Tactay and Daezerae Gil met at a networking event in February.

Tactay — a marketing professional and software development student from the Philippines — had recently moved to the city from Texas and was looking to meet other people of colour working in creative fields. Gil, a Winnipeg-born photographer, realized she was looking for the same thing.

Gather ’round, folks… it’s bail-reform story time again

By now, it’s a ritual as predictable as a pothole in spring: a high-profile crime occurs, public outrage builds and politicians rush to microphones to demand “bail reform.”

First Nations call on Ottawa to crack down on drug traffickers in their communities

OTTAWA - First Nations chiefs voted Friday to call on Ottawa to crack down on the people selling drugs that are claiming lives in their communities.

They're also calling for the Assembly of First Nations to declare a state of emergency spanning all First Nations, and to call for more support from the federal government for treatment and prevention.

Chief Angela Levasseur of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation said she brought the resolution forward for a vote at the Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting in Winnipeg because the opioid epidemic is killing members of her community.

"In Manitoba and across Canada, fentanyl poisonings are taking lives daily. Our front-line workers and families are doing all they can, but support from federal and provincial governments remains fragmented, underfunded and reactive," Levasseur said.

Attorneys general warn OpenAI and other tech companies to improve chatbot safety

The attorneys general of California and Delaware on Friday warned OpenAI they have “serious concerns” about the safety of its flagship chatbot, ChatGPT, especially for children and teens.

The two state officials, who have unique powers to regulate nonprofits such as OpenAI, sent the letter to the company after a meeting with its legal team earlier this week in Wilmington, Delaware.

California AG Rob Bonta and Delaware AG Kathleen Jennings have spent months reviewing OpenAI's plans to restructure its business, with an eye on “ensuring rigorous and robust oversight of OpenAI’s safety mission.”

But they said they were concerned by “deeply troubling reports of dangerous interactions between" chatbots and their users, including the "heartbreaking death by suicide of one young Californian after he had prolonged interactions with an OpenAI chatbot, as well as a similarly disturbing murder-suicide in Connecticut. Whatever safeguards were in place did not work.”

Oakland Ballers to use artificial intelligence to manage Saturday home game against Great Falls

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Oakland Ballers manager Aaron Miles will leave it to artificial intelligence to decide when to pinch hit or replace his pitcher.

The playoff-bound Ballers of the independent Pioneer League are turning to AI to manage most aspects of Saturday's home game against the Great Falls Voyagers at Raimondi Park. So it might feel almost like a day off for the skipper, whose lineup and in-game decisions will even be made for him — from a tablet he will have in the dugout providing instructions.

The starting pitcher is already set.

“Luckily it’s only game. Maybe we've done so well that the AI will just keep doing what we're doing,” Miles joked Wednesday. “Being a 70-win team we've got a very good bench. It's hard to write a lineup without leaving somebody out that's really good. This game I'll be like, ‘Hey, it’s not on me for not writing you in there, it's on the computer.' It won’t be my fault if somebody’s not in the lineup, I guess I’ll enjoy that.”

AI chatbots changing online threat landscape as Ottawa reviews legislation

OTTAWA - Wrongful death lawsuits citing the activities of artificial intelligence chatbots are underway in the United States, as reports emerge of mental health issues and delusions induced by AI systems.

These incidents are drawing attention to the changing nature of the online threat landscape — just weeks after the Liberal government said it would review its online harms bill before reintroducing it in Parliament.

"Since the legislation was introduced, I think it's become all the more clear that tremendous harm can be facilitated by AI, and we're seeing that in particular in the space of chatbots and some of the tragedies," said Emily Laidlaw, Canada research chair in cybersecurity law at the University of Calgary.

The Online Harms Act, which died on the order paper when the election was called, would have required social media companies to outline how they plan to reduce the risks their platforms pose to users, and would have imposed on them a duty to protect children.

Supervised consumption site expected this year will ‘definitely’ open before NDP’s first term ends, addictions minister says

The province will have a supervised consumption site before the next election, Manitoba’s addictions minister promised Friday after unveiling a memorial stone to those who’ve died of drug overdoses.

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith told reporters that the government isn’t going to rush the establishment of an overdose prevention site.

“We want to do our due diligence in terms of consulting, making sure that we’re getting it right,” Smith said on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature after an International Overdose Awareness Day rally.

Last month, Smith said the province was “forging ahead” with opening a supervised consumption site in Winnipeg this year. On Friday, she was asked again about an opening date — if it might not be until next year or later in the government’s four-year mandate, which is nearly half over.