Servers entitled to money, labour board rules in restaurant owner’s appeal

The Manitoba Labour Board rejected an appeal from a St. Boniface restaurant owner, saying four former servers were entitled to money labelled as advances on their pay stubs.

Chaise Café and Lounge owner Shea Ritchie argued the employees should have to repay those advances.

A Jan. 17, 2025 decision by the labour board, included in the department’s 2024-25 annual report tabled in the legislature Monday, disagreed, stating the money was actually tips the servers had earned.

“The amounts were odd numbers, like $18 or other random numbers versus a whole lump sum like $100 or $200, which one might expect if they were, in fact, pay advances,” the decision read.

City installs remote door locks, buzzers at Sherbrook Pool in response to staff safety concerns

Heightened issues with safety at the Kinsmen Sherbrook Pool have prompted the city to introduce new security measures, including remote door locks that require patrons to buzz in before entering the public facility.

City police charge 72-year-old man after threatening, racist letters sent to Indigenous, female cabinet minister

Cabinet minister and Indigenous MLA Nahanni Fontaine said threatening, racist letters that were sent to her last summer are “pretty violent and grotesque.”

Deer Lodge Centre employee attacked outside building

The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals is calling for increased safety and security measures after one of its members was attacked on Portage Avenue Monday outside Deer Lodge Centre in Winnipeg.

An internal memo to staff later that day, obtained by the Free Press, said a woman was pushed and chased by “a community member acting very aggressively.”

“This incident is being taken very seriously, and appropriate followup has occurred,” according to a second memo from Deer Lodge chief operating officer Arle Jones on Tuesday. “Violence is something no staff member, patient or visitor should have to worry about or experience.”

Winnipeg police confirmed an incident occurred around 8 a.m. Monday. Officers attended, but the suspect had already fled. Police said Tuesday they could not provide further details.

Man responsible for 2022 crash that left victim a quadriplegic not guilty of dangerous driving, judge rules

In March 2022, Tim and Kendra Kelly were preparing to move into their newly built Winnipeg home and looking ahead to early retirement.

Two days before the home was dropped on its foundation, the couple’s dreams were shattered after an automobile collision that left Tim a quadriplegic.

“(Tim) spent maybe three hours in that house and now it’s sold, it’s gone,” said Kendra, who suffered a broken hand in the collision. “Now we have to plan for a wheelchair house and wheelchair van and everything accessible. Nothing ever goes the way you plan it to, never.”

On Monday, the couple was in a Winnipeg courtroom when a judge found the man who caused the crash, Keeno Shawn Paul Wright, not guilty of two counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, ruling he did not have the required mental state to be convicted of the offence.

Residents with medical needs evacuated from Peguis amid flood threat

Some of the most vulnerable Peguis First Nation residents have been evacuated from the flood-threatened community.

Denise Bear, the nurse in charge of the Peguis Health Centre, told the community in a video on social media that three people in the Priority 1 category were evacuated on Monday with more to follow on Tuesday.

Bear said those in the Priority 1 category include people using wheelchairs, those with complex medical needs requiring special equipment, residents needing dialysis, and children with complex medical needs.

She said women who are 35 weeks or more into their pregnancies are also part of the evacuation.

Interest in respiratory therapy training surges as province seeks to fill demand

Nearly half of the first-year respiratory therapy training seats at the University of Manitoba went unfilled this year even though there’s huge demand amid a staffing shortage.

However, application numbers have jumped since Manitoba’s largest post-secondary institution launched an awareness campaign about openings in the profession.

“I hope this year we are going to fill that gap,” said Dr. Jithin Sreedharan, who heads the university’s respiratory therapy department.

Respiratory therapists, who assist people suffering from breathing difficulties, often work in acute and critical-care hospital units.