News briefs for Friday, March 7, 2025

Jets decimate Devils 6-1

8:46 PM

NEWARK – The Winnipeg Jets dominated the New Jersey Devils on Friday night, skating away with a 6-1 victory inside Prudential Center.

Six different players – Alex Iafallo, Josh Morrissey, Nikolaj Ehlers, Adam Lowry, Kyle Connor and Cole Perfetti – scored for the visitors while goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stopped 22 of 23 shots he faced.

Winnipeg was coming off a 4-1 triumph on Thursday night in Philadelphia which snapped a three-game winless skid. (0-2-1).

They are now 44-16-4 and own the best record in the NHL with 18 regular-season games remaining.

The Jets now travel to Raleigh where they will wrap up the road trip on Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Remains found in landfill belong to slaying victim

7:53 PM

RCMP said late Friday that human remains found in the Prairie Green Landfill are those of slaying victim Morgan Beatrice Harris of Long Plain First Nation.

A government news release says the Harris family has been notified and the province asks that the family’s privacy be respected.

The remains were located during a humanitarian search for the remains of Harris and Marcedes Myran at the landfill north of Winnipeg on Feb. 26.

The news release said Morgan’s remains are one of two sets recovered in the search and further information would be provided when it becomes available.

Both women were killed by Jeremy Skibicki in 2022. He was convicted in their deaths, as well as two other women, Rebecca Contois and an unidentified woman known as Buffalo Woman.

RCMP search for missing Thompson man

7:14 PM

Thompson RCMP are looking for a man they say hasn’t been seen since Monday.

On Friday Mounties received a report about 24-year-old John Spence, who was last seen at a home on McGill Place in Thompson. He is believed to still be in the community, RCMP said in a news release.

Mounties are worried for his well-being.

Spence is described as five-foot, eight inches tall, 170 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing a brown jacket and ash coloured pants.

Anyone with information is asked to call RCMP at 204-677-6909/6911, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com.

Fundraiser to benefit Bruce and Anne Oake Memorial Foundation 

2:58 PM

The Anne Oake Family Recovery Centre will be the beneficiary of this year’s Sons and Daughters of Italy Gala.

The 37th edition of the annual gala, being held at the RBC Convention Centre on March 15, will see proceeds go to the Bruce and Anne Oake Memorial Foundation to support the capital campaign to build the recovery centre.

Scott Oake, the foundation’s president, thanked the Sons and Daughters of Italy for supporting the initiative, which will bring residential recovery services to women and children.

“(The Sons and Daughters of Italy) previous commitment to the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre was instrumental in our success, and their continued generosity ensures that women in Manitoba can access life-saving recovery services without being separate from their children,” he said in a news release Friday.

Tickets for the gala can be purchased online or by emailing dinneradmin@sonsofitaly.ca.

Manitoba budget due March 20

1:05 PM

The 2025 provincial budget will be delivered on Thursday, March 20.

A notice from the provincial government said Budget 2025 will address “health care, the economy and actions to combat tariffs.”

Winnipeg man accused of arranging child sex abuse online

12:59 PM

A Winnipeg man is accused of discussing sexually abusing children with an undercover American police officer in a private online chatroom.

Winnipeg Police Service online child abuse investigators were tipped off in February by the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre that the American officer, from an undisclosed United States law enforcement agency, was speaking with a Winnipeg suspect.

Winnipeg police allege the two discussed sex abuse before the undercover police officer said he knew of a mother that allowed her 10-year-old daughter to be sexually abused.

The two then made arrangements for the Winnipeg suspect to travel to the United States to sexually assault the girl, police allege.

Winnipeg police investigators executed a warrant on a home on the 900 block of Dorchester Avenue on Thursday and arrested a suspect.

Adam Joseph Leszkovics, 46, has been charged with child-pornography-related offences, communicating to via telecommunication to commit sexual offences against a child and arranging to commit a sexual offence against a person under 16. He was given a release order with court-ordered conditions.

Missing girl, 14, safely located

12:32 PM

Winnipeg police were searching for a missing teenage girl who hadn’t been seen since mid-February.

Last seen near Dufferin Avenue and Andrews Street on Feb. 15., Gabriella McKay, 14, has been safely located say Winnipeg Police who sent out a press release Friday afternoon.

Private member’s bill would make daylight time permanent

12:14 PM

A Tory private member’s bill would make daylight time permanent starting next spring.

The bill introduced Thursday — days before clocks spring ahead Sunday — would allow Manitoba to end “the outdated and disruptive practice of seasonal time changes” without waiting for neighbouring jurisdictions to do likewise, Progressive Conservative MLA Ron Schuler (Springfield-Ritchot) said in a news release Friday.

The former PC government passed the Official Time Amendment Act in 2019, making daylight time permanent if and when neighbouring jurisdictions do the same.

Saskatchewan and some other Canadian jurisdictions do not have spring and fall time changes, the news release said.

“Manitobans are tired of losing an hour of sleep and gaining nothing in return,” Schuler said in the release.

Jets add veteran experience in Schenn, Tanev

11:58 AM

NEWARK – The Winnipeg Jets are adding a physical defenceman with championship pedigree, acquiring Luke Schenn from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a pair of draft picks.

Schenn was recently moved to the Penguins by the Nashville Predators and Kyle Dubas has flipped him for a second and fourth round pick.

The 35-year-old has one goal, five points and 41 penalty minutes in 61 games with the Predators this season.

The right-handed shooting blue-liner has a contract that carries an AAV of $2.75 million and extends through next season, so this isn’t a temporary fix.

Schenn figures to slot in on the third pairing.

The Jets are also bringing back winger Brandon Tanev in a trade with the Seattle Kraken for a second round pick in 2027.

Tanev, who spent four seasons with the Jets after signing with them as a college free agent, has nine goals and 17 points in 60 games with the Kraken this season.

Tanev, 33, is a strong penalty killer, plays a physical game and provide some complementary scoring on the third and fourth lines, depending on where head coach Scott Arniel decides to slot him in.

Tanev is a pending unrestricted free agent that has an AAV of $3.5 million.

Even with both Schenn and Tanev joining the Jets, they still have enough cap room to make another addition before the NHL trade deadline arrives this afternoon.

The Jets figure to still be shopping for a second-line centre and potentially another defenceman.

New deal inked for Port of Churchill

10:50 AM

The company spearheading the Port of Churchill’s revitalization has signed an agreement to collaborate with a growing Saskatoon-based fertilizer producer.

Arctic Gateway Group and Genesis Fertilizers Limited Partnership made the announcement in AGG’s Winnipeg headquarters Friday. Going forward, the two plan to import phosphate through the Churchill port for Genesis’s production needs. Exporting Canadian-made goods is likely in the future, they added.

Timelines and GDP impact are among the items still being worked out.

UMFA postpones potential strike date

10:27 AM

Manitoba’s largest faculty association has delayed its deadline to reach a new deal or take strike action by 24 hours.

University of Manitoba academics have pushed back the start of potential job action until Tuesday, if they do not come to an agreement by 11:59 p.m. Friday.

Their union, representing about 1,300 professors, librarians and other employees, is meeting with administration today.

“We think we have very reasonable demands, that we’re trying to meet them in the middle and we are, of course, thinking of our students who are the COVID generation and have had a lot of disruption,” said Erik Thomson, president of the faculty association.

Available child care spaces for members on campus and equity policies are among the key issues at the table.

RCMP arrest second man after Portage la Prairie homicide

9:56 AM

A second suspect has been arrested in connection to a double homicide that took place on Dec. 1, 2024 at home on Oak Bay in Portage la Prairie, the RCMP said in a Friday update.

Jeremy Whincup, 54, of Portage la Prairie, was arrested on March 5. He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder.

Preston Whitford, 30, of Portage la Prairie, was arrested on Jan. 9 and has also been charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Both Whincup and Whitford are in custody.

The victims of the double homicide have been identified as James Borden, 42, and Emily Smoke, 37. The pair were in a relationship.

The Manitoba First Nations Police Service added more detail about Whitford’s arrest in a January release. They said the suspect sped off in a car, before sliding into a ditch. The man inside fled on foot. Officers tracked the suspect to an abandoned mobile home, where the man allegedly threatened police with a gun before eventually surrendering. The weapon was later determined to be an imitation firearm.

Whitford was charged with four additional offences related to his Jan. 9 arrest.

Manitoba Major Crime Services (MCS) and Portage la Prairie RCMP are still searching for the firearm(s) used in the offence. Police are asking that if anyone has information that may be useful in the recovery of firearm(s) to call the MCS tip line at 431-489-8106, call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or submit a secure tip online.

Two stabbed in separate, random attacks 

9:15 AM

A man is facing charges after two victims were stabbed in separate, unprovoked incidents on Main Street on Wednesday.

Police found the first victim, who had suffered serious “upper body” injuries, on the 800 block of Main Street at about 12:40 p.m. The 37-year-old man was involved in what police called an “unprovoked verbal confrontation, which escalated with the suspect stabbing the victim.”

In the second incident, a suspect approached a 61-year-old man in the area of Main and Pioneer Avenue and asked for a cigarette at about 2:15 p.m. He then stabbed the victim in his upper body.

Both victims were taken to hospital in unstable condition and later upgraded to stable.

Police arrested a 23-year-old Winnipeg man on the 300 block of Portage Avenue shortly after 3 p.m. He is facing two counts of assault with a weapon and one count of possession of a weapon.

Tentative deal on new contracts for allied health workers

8:10 AM

The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals reached a tentative agreement on new contracts with Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and the Northern Health Region early Friday.

The strike was set to start at 12:01 a.m. but has been postponed pending a ratification vote by MAHCP members in the coming weeks.

MAHCP members voted 96 per cent in favour of a strike mandate in January.

The union represents more than 7,000 allied health professionals, who have been without a contract since April 1.