News briefs for Monday, October 27, 2025

Manitoba’s Circle of Courage Awards to honour veterans

6:30 PM

The province’s inaugural Circle of Courage awards will honour the rapidly diminishing population of Second World War veterans.

Premier Wab Kinew said the honour, which will be given out two days after Remembrance Day, will honour all veterans and military members — with an immediate focus on Second World War soldiers.

“While we have the veterans of World War II still with us, I think it’s really important to focus on highlighting their contributions,” Kinew said at an unrelated news conference Monday. “If you look at everything happening in the world today, the consensus that was achieved after World War II paved the way for us today, but also could probably give us a lot of lessons on international co-operation.”

More than 1.1 million Canadians served in the Second World War from 1939 to 1945. About 42,000 died and about 52,000 were wounded. Another 26,000 Canadians served in the Korean War from 1950 t0 1953.

Veterans Affairs Canada estimates there are 5,649 veterans alive — 4,769 men and 880 women — who served in the Second World War and Korean War. The average age of veterans of the Second World War is 100.

Another fire at Sherburn Street house

4:26 PM

A house caught fire Monday morning for the second time since September.

Crews were sent to the vacant house on the 1000 block of Sherburn Street shortly after 7:15 a.m. and declared the fire under control shortly after 7:50 a.m.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The house was damaged in a fire early on Sept. 9. The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service did not call it a vacant house after that fire, in which a firefighter was taken to hospital in stable condition.

Man killed in UTV rollover on Highway 83 

3:07 PM

A Roblin man was killed when a utility-terrain vehicle rolled over in a ditch Saturday.

Russell RCMP were sent to the area of Highway 83 and Road 135 North in the Rural Municipality of Riding Mountain West at 4:30 p.m. The 25-year-old driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mounties determined the driver was headed north in the west ditch alongside the highway when he lost control.

“Speed is believed to be a factor in the incident. The driver was not wearing a helmet or using a seatbelt,” Manitoba RCMP said in a news release Monday.

Man charged in assault, arson

2:57 PM

Police say a man knocked a stranger unconscious with a metal bar in an unprovoked attack before barricading himself inside a business and lighting its garage on fire.

Officers were sent to the commercial property on the 600 block of Ferry Road after being told a man had been assaulted in a parking lot Sunday. Police were told the man damaged the windows of four parked vehicles shortly before 2 p.m. and then attacked a 36-year-old man in the same lot.

The victim was taken to hospital in unstable condition with a head injury and later upgraded to stable.

The attacker used a rock to shatter an office window and went inside, making his way to the garage, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a new release Monday. The fire caused extensive damage to the building.

Arley Alvin Harper, 29, was arrested in the garage. He was taken to hospital in stable condition and treated for smoke inhalation. No one else was injured in the fire.

Harper is charged with aggravated assault, arson causing damage to property, break-and-enter and four counts of mischief under $5,000. He was detained in custody.

He was convicted in 2014 of failing to attend court, break-and-enter to commit assault, and uttering threats. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to a court-order breach.

Harper remains before the court on a slew of charges dating from January 2024 through last month, including multiple break-and-enters, thefts, mischief and an assault.

Man arrested after daylong search

2:57 PM

A man who stole four vehicles led police on a daylong search before a break-in victim fired a gun at him, police say.

A vehicle was reported stolen from a home on Britannia Close in Selkirk on the morning of Oct. 20. Someone abandoned that vehicle on a property on Highway 9 in the Rural Municipality of Gimli and stole a Ford F-250 from the same property. The theft was reported at 12:15 p.m.

Manitoba RCMP said in a news release that people reported someone in an F-250 “causing mischief to properties” and driving dangerously in the Interlake throughout the day.

At 5 p.m., the pickup truck was abandoned on a property on Elderberry Bay in Fisher Branch, where someone stole a GMC Sierra. A Ford F-150 was stolen an hour later, and the Sierra was abandoned on the victim’s property.

Officers spotted the F-150 in the Rural Municipality of Rockwood, but the driver wouldn’t stop.

Shortly after 8:30 p.m., a man tried to kick in the back door of a stranger’s home on Road 87 North in Rockwood. A homeowner fired a gun towards the man, RCMP said, and the man tried to get into vehicles on the property before running away.

Mounties found the F-150, which was significantly damaged, near the home. A police dog and a drone were used to find a man hiding along a brush line at a neighbouring property.

A 27-year-old Selkirk man is facing a dozen charges and was remanded in custody.

Woman facing manslaughter charge in man’s Portage la Prairie death

2:21 PM

A woman is facing a manslaughter charge after someone dropped an injured man off at a hospital and then left before he died.

Portage la Prairie RCMP were sent to the hospital at about 5 a.m. Saturday. The 30-year-old man was declared dead before Mounties arrived.

Investigators learned a woman had left the man there. They found a vehicle parked on 5th Street Southeast and arrested a 29-year-old woman inside a home.

Fisher River Cree Nation switching from RCMP to First Nations police

12:51 PM

A new police service will take over in Fisher River Cree Nation on Friday.

A ceremony will be held that morning to celebrate the start of the Manitoba First Nations Police Service patrolling the community. It is being policed by the RCMP until 8 a.m. that day.

MFNPS Chief Jason Colon and band council members will be at the ceremony, along with representatives of the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council Police Commission and of the federal and provincial governments.

Fisher River Cree Nation will become the 12th First Nation community under MFNPS jurisdiction. The Interlake community is about a 20-minute drive northeast of Peguis First Nation.

St. James Bridge reopens after “danger call” closure

8:51 AM

Rush-hour traffic was rerouted off the St. James Bridge Monday morning as police responded to a “danger call.”

Police received a call at 7:43 a.m. The situation, which involved someone in distress on the northbound span, had been resolved by about 8:30 a.m.

It’s the latest in a number of recent cases in which the bridge has closed as officers attend a person in distress.