News briefs for November 26, 2020

A new fund named after a late Winnipeg author will fund the University of Winnipeg’s writer-in-residence program starting next year.

The Jake MacDonald Writer’s Fund, will support the hosting of a writer every year to help students and the surrounding community.

The writer chosen for the position will help students and others by giving editorial and creative feedback on their essays and other work.

The writer’s fund was created in September with a $100,000 donation from pollster Angus Reid to honour MacDonald.

MacDonald, an award winning author who wrote the Houseboat Chronicles, died after accidentally falling earlier this year.

To donate to the fund, call 204-786-9995 or go to https://netcommunity.uwinnipeg.ca/crowdfunding/2020/jake-macdonald-writers-fund 

The city will consider extending parking breaks it has offered to support Winnipeggers who are working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, council referred a motion to its public works committee, which aims to extend the one hour of complementary parking now offered at all of Winnipeg’s on-street metred locations.

That committee will also consider a directive that parking time restrictions not be enforced on residential streets. Those measures are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2020 but would be extended to June 30, 2021, if the change is approved.

Parking time restrictions would still be enforced on some streets around Deer Lodge Centre.

Winnipeg’s new North District Police Station will be built at the Old Exhibition Grounds after all, even though an initial proposal for the site was delayed owing to community complaints.

On Thursday, council unanimously approved a call to locate the station at the 80 Sinclair St. site. Community members opposed that location back in 2017, claiming it would use up scarce recreation space, which sparked a delay in the project.

The new plan is seen as a compromise, since it reduces the footprint for the $25.7-million station, in order to preserve sports fields in the area.

Valour FC has re-signed Congolese international player Arnold Bouka Moutou.

The 31-year-old defender only made two appearances at The Island Games owing to a hamstring injury. Prior to signing with Valour in February, Moutou spent the past three seasons in France’s top professional division (Ligue 1) with Dijon FCO.

Provincial health officials announced 383 new cases of COVID-19 and 10 more deaths in Manitoba Thursday.

There are 8,845 active cases in Manitoba, with 307 people in hospital, 46 of them in intensive care.

The five-day test positivity rate is 14.8 in Manitoba, and 14.8 in Winnipeg.

The new deaths include:

• a man in his 50s from the Southern region and linked to the outbreak at the Bethesda Regional Health Centre;
• a woman in her 70s from the Interlake–Eastern health region;
• a Winnipeg man in his 80s linked to the outbreak at the Maples Long Term Care Home;   
• a woman in her 80s from Southern Health, linked to the outbreak at Menno Home in Grunthal;
• a man in his 90s from Southern Health, linked to the outbreak at Menno Home in Grunthal;
• a woman in her 90s from the Winnipeg health region and linked to the outbreak at Maples Long Term Care Home;   
• a man in his 90s from the Winnipeg health region and linked to the outbreak at the Brightwater Senior Living of Tuxedo;  
• two men in their 90s and one in his 70s from the Winnipeg health region.

Of the new cases announced Thursday, 202 are in the Winnipeg health region, 111 in Southern Health; 26 in Interlake–Eastern; 15 in Prairie Mountain; and 29 in Northern Health.

A RCMP dog tracked and found an injured motorist about a kilometre away from the scene of a collision.

Two vehicles came to rest in ditches along Hwy. 7, just north of Provincial Road 231 in the RM of Armstrong, on Nov. 22, at about 9:25 p.m.

RCMP said on Thursday that when officers discovered the driver of one of the vehicles had wandered off, they called for a tracking dog.

A service dog with the RCMP and his handler tracked the motorist for about a kilometre through fields and forest before finding the man semi-conscious and injured.

The man, a 22-year-old from Winnipeg, was rushed to hospital with serious injuries, while the other driver, a 25-year-old from Winnipeg, was not injured.

RCMP are continuing to investigate.

Selkirk RCMP located an unconscious man while on patrol, who is now in stable condition following emergency chest compressions. 

At around 1 a.m. on Nov. 22, a police officer was patrolling the community when he observed a running vehicle parked outside a business on Main Street in Selkirk. An officer found a man reclined in the driver’s seat. 

After knocking on the window and receiving no response, the officer opened the unlocked door of the car and found the man to be in medical distress, RCMP said in a news release Thursday.

The Mountie immediately began chest compressions on the man, who wasn’t breathing at first. When the man began breathing again, the officer got him out of the car and performed CPR. 

A nearby police officer also assisted in providing assistance until emergency services arrived. 

The man is now in stable condition in hospital, said police. 

Salter Street has reopened to traffic in both directions between Redwood and Alfred avenues this morning after a fire.

Motorists were advised to drive carefully because of slippery road conditions resulting from water used to battle the blaze.

The City of Winnipeg said fire crews were called to the scene, a multi-family residence in the 200 block of Salter Street, shortly after 4:20 a.m.

Firefighters got the blaze under control shortly before 6 a.m., the city said.

No one was inside. The cause of the fire is under investigation. The building is expected to be a complete loss.