News briefs for Thursday, November 6, 2025

Second Lauryn Hill show added at the Burt

5:15 PM

Lauryn Hill announced last month that she would be kicking off her Artist in Residence tour at the Burton Cummings Theatre on Nov. 19. Today the former Fugees member added a second early show to the evening, with a 6 p.m. show preceding the 9 p.m. slot already announced.

The Grammy-winning artist, whose album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was named the best album of all time by Apple Music, is known for such hits as Doo Wop (That Thing). The New Jersey-born rapper also has a reputation for arriving hours late for her concerts.

Tickets for the added show are on sale now at Ticketmaster.ca, starting at $121. There are still seats available for the 9 p.m. concert, most in the $200-plus range.

Blue Rodeo guitarist’s stolen bike found

3:42 PM

Blue Rodeo’s Jim Bowskill took to Facebook on Wednesday to thank Winnipeg police for recovering his bicycle, which was stolen from The Forks during the band’s recent tour stop in the city.

“It’s very exciting news. I never thought I’d see it again,” the guitarist for the Toronto roots act said in a short video posted to the band’s page, thanking fans for keeping an eye out.

He added a friend had already picked up the bike — a Dahon with a folding frame he takes on tour with him — and that, “We will be reunited soon.”

Blue Rodeo, which celebrates four decades together this year, played three shows at the Burton Cummings Theatre in mid-October.

Woman tried to punch officer on bus: police

2:41 PM

A woman tried to punch an officer on a Winnipeg Transit bus in the face after trying to board a bus without paying, city police say.

Officers intervened when the woman became violent while trying to board the bus in the area of Garry Street and Portage Avenue shortly before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Thursday. The officer was not hurt.

A 25-year-old woman is facing charges of assaulting a peace officer and resisting a peace officer. She was released on an undertaking.

The Winnipeg Transit violent crime intervention strategy — which targets violent and disruptive behaviour on buses and at shelters and other stops — started in September. Police have made nine arrests under the Criminal Code and intervened in 41 fare-evasion incidents since the initiative began, the WPS said.

Shots fired into Thompson homes

1:52 PM

Thompson RCMP are investigating after shots were fired into two homes.

Mounties were called about the gunshots on Cornell Place at 11:50 p.m. Monday. An investigation determined the shooter was one of several people wearing dark clothing and masks.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call the Thompson detachment at 204-677-6909/6911 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

Some locked garbage bins already installed downtown

12:37 PM

The city expects crews will finish installing locked garbage bins downtown by Nov. 14.

The work is about one-third complete, the City of Winnipeg said in a news release Thursday. The mayor said this summer that 121 bins would be set up.

Crews are replacing bins on Main Street between Higgins and River avenues and on Portage Avenue between Sherbrook and Main streets.

“One of the most frustrating things to me is seeing trash on the sidewalk and garbage bins with their lids flipped wide open,” Mayor Scott Gillingham said in the release.

“These new lockable bins will help keep downtown cleaner. And, if they work as well as we expect, we’ll look to add more throughout the area.”

RCMP seize cocaine concealed in TV bound for Bunibonibee Cree Nation

9:00 AM

A Bunibonibee Cree Nation woman has been arrested after Thompson RCMP found nearly half a kilogram of cocaine concealed in a TV set to be shipped to the remote community by air.

Mounties were sent to Thompson’s airport at about 10:40 a.m. Monday, where officials had found a “suspicious package” addressed for Bunibonibee. Officers searched the package and found four “tightly wrapped” parcels.

Police said the cocaine would be worth more than $220,000 in Bunibonibee, a fly-in community in the province’s northeast.

The woman, 55, has been charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking and was held in custody.

Her arrest came days after another Bunibonibee woman, 34, was arrested when she tried to board a flight from the community bound for Winnipeg. A local safety officer told RCMP they had found two packages with about $16,500 in cash during a search of the woman.

Manitoba-born Edwards wins $25K Governor General’s Literary Award

8:42 AM

Anishinaabe author Kyle Edwards, who is a member of Ebb and Flow First Nation and grew up on Lake Manitoba First Nation (and is a former Free Press intern), has won the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction for his debut novel Small Ceremonies.

Published in April, the book follows the plight of two Indigenous teens in Winnipeg’s North End, and their struggling hockey team, over the course of a year. Other nominees for the $25,000 prize included Winnipeg Michif author katherena vermette for her novel Real Ones.

In the drama category, Calgary-based Tara Beagan, a member of B.C.’s Coldwater Indian Band, won for her play Rise, Red River, which was inspired by the 2014 Drag the Red movement in Winnipeg; the play was co-produced by Théatre Cercle Molière, Article 11 and Prairie Theatre Exchange in March 2024.

Other winners included Claire Cameron in the non-fiction category for How to Survive a Bear Attack; a complete list of winners, which were announced the morning of Nov. 6, can be found at ggbooks.ca.