News briefs for Friday, December 9, 2022

Two new cases of chronic wasting disease in deer have been found in Manitoba.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal and incurable illness that affects members of the deer family, including elk, moose and caribou. The province monitors for the disease, first found in Manitoba in 2021, as it can become endemic and threaten the wider deer population if it spreads. While not a health risk to humans, eating meat from a deer with chronic wasting disease is not recommended.

Some licensed hunters in Manitoba are required to provide head and upper-neck samples of harvested deer and elk for chronic wasting disease testing. Sample results from harvested animals will be posted at www.gov.mb.ca/nrnd/fish-wildlife/wildlife/cwd-results/cwd-results.html as they become available.

Hunters with concerns about an animal that has been harvested can email the province at CWD@gov.mb.ca or call 1-204-638-4570.

An influx of lab tests for the flu has caused a backlog in Manitoba, and the results haven’t been fully recorded yet, the provincial government stated today.

There were 120 confirmed influenza cases logged last week, but that number is artificially low because of the backlog in documentation, today’s provincial respiratory virus report notes.

Twelve Manitobans have died of the flu so far this season, and the influenza A strain has caused more than 170 hospitalizations and six intensive-care admissions. At least one child between the age of five and 17 has died of the flu in Manitoba, according to the report. It is current for the week of Nov. 27 to Dec. 3.

 

Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams will take the stage at the Burton Cummings Theatre March 26, 2023.

Tickets are available at ticketmaster.ca, with prices ranging from $87.75 to $405.24.

The roots-rocker from North Carolina, who was accused of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct in 2019, issued an apology and was cleared of any legal wrongdoing by the FBI, released four albums in 2022, including Nebraska, which covers the Bruce Springsteen record, on Dec. 7.

A crash has closed a section of the Trans-Canada Highway near Whiteshell Provincial Park.

Highway 1, from Highway 44 to the Ontario border, is closed, the Province of Manitoba announced Friday afternoon.

Further information about the collision is not currently available.

The province previously announced plans to twin the stretch of Highway 1 between Falcon Lake and the Ontario border after a series of deadly collisions, including one that killed a father and son this summer.

More information is expected next week on the impending provincial roll out of Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine booster for five- to 11-year-olds.

Today, Health Canada announced its approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty Omicron BA.4/BA.5 bivalent-adapted booster for use in children 5 to 11 years of age.

Manitoba is finalizing recommendations for its roll out of the vaccine, a provincial spokesperson confirmed Friday afternoon.

“Manitoba public health officials welcome the Health Canada approval of the adapted Pfizer-BioNTech’s bivalent booster for children ages five to 11,” a provincial spokesperson stated.

“As the approval has just been released, Manitoba will use it and the recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) to finalize provincial recommendations. More information is expected to be provided next week.”

 

A 40-year-old man was shot in the upper body in a West Broadway home Thursday afternoon, Winnipeg police say.

Police raced to the reported shooting at the home on the 200 block of Young Steet at about 2 p.m., where they found the man who was taken to hospital in stable condition. Police said an 18-year-old female victim was also there, unharmed, as a well as a suspect. The trio all knew each other.

Police believe the suspect shot the gun first at the woman but narrowly missed during a “heated” argument. The man then intervened and was shot. The suspect gave police a false identity when he was arrested.

A 17-year-old boy from Winnipeg is charged with aggravated assault, eight firearms charges, four counts of failing to comply with the conditions of a release order, and three identity fraud charges. He was detained.

Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smyth wrote to First Nations leaders about the investigation into an alleged serial killer targeting Indigenous women — and rebuffed calls for his resignation.

In a letter sent to the press late Friday, Smyth told the leaders of Long Plain First Nation, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, the Southern Chiefs’ Organization, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak and the Assembly of First Nations that he is supportive of further exploring if it is possible recover the remains of Marcedes Myran, 26, and Morgan Harris, 39, whose remains are believed to be in the Prairie Green Landfill.

Jeremy Skibicki, 35, is charged with first-degree murder in their slayings, as well as the killings of Rebecca Contois and an unidentified woman dubbed Buffalo Woman.

Harris’s daughters and Manitoba First Nations leaders called for Smyth to resign Thursday. In his Friday letter, he said he would not resign.

Fire crews extinguished the second fire in less than a week at a temporary homeless encampment on Higgins Avenue this afternoon.

Part of the encampment in the first block of Higgins Avenue is destroyed as a result and will be a total loss, the fire department stated in a news release. There were no injuries reported and no one inside the tents when firefighters arrived.

At 12:41 p.m. Dec. 9, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service crews were on their way to another scene when they noticed heavy flames and smoke at the Higgins encampment. They searched the tents and structures to make sure no one was inside and sprayed water from a safe distance because there were propane tanks nearby that could explode if ignited.

The fire was declared under control less than 15 minutes later, at 12:53 p.m.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.