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MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Birchwood Terrace’s roughly 250 residents were given just 12 hours notice to move out Thursday night.

‘This is a nightmare’: Former Birchwood Terrace residents scramble to find new homes

Chris Kitching 5 minute read Yesterday at 4:14 PM CDT

Former tenants of a Winnipeg apartment block that was suddenly evacuated after being deemed unsafe due to structural decay are spending the weekend scrambling to find new places to live.

Kayla Dussome, who lived in Birchwood Terrace with her partner and four-year-old twins, is hoping to find a home to rent, along with her mother and stepfather, who resided in a separate suite.

“We’re all left to find out what to do next,” Dussome, 24, said. “This is a nightmare. I feel it’s the worst dream. I just hope no one ever has to go through this situation.”

Birchwood Terrace’s roughly 250 residents were given just 12 hours’ notice to move out Thursday night, after engineers determined the five-storey building was at risk of collapsing due to deteriorating support beams.

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MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
The former Bank of Montreal building at the intersection of Portage and Main.

Crossing our heart, hoping to thrive

Immortalized, romanticized, criticized and politicized — Portage and Main is, as the mayor said, ‘just an intersection’; but it represents much more to those who know its history and some who can envision its future

Jen Zoratti 12 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

Flyers lose in shootout to SJHL champs at Centennial Cup

Staff 3 minute read Preview

Flyers lose in shootout to SJHL champs at Centennial Cup

Staff 3 minute read Yesterday at 6:08 PM CDT

Ryan Duguay’s shootout goal proved to be the winner as the Melfort Mustangs edged the MJHL champion Winkler Flyers 6-5 in preliminary round action at the Centennial Cup in Oakville, Ont., Saturday afternoon.

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League champs now have a victory and a shootout win, which is good for five points and top spot in Group B at the national junior A hockey championship being played at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.

The Flyers, who opened tournament play with a 4-2 triumph over the Superior International Junior Hockey League’s Sioux Lookout Bombers Thursday, are second in the Group B with four points.

The loss ended an eight-game winning streak for Winkler, which hadn’t tasted defeat since dropping a 4-1 decision to the Virden Oil Capitals in an MJHL semifinal series on April 9.

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Yesterday at 6:08 PM CDT

HEATHER POLLOCK / HOCKEY CANADA IMAGES
Winkler goaltender Malachi Klassen stretches out to make a pad stop on Melfort defenceman Ty Thornton Saturday afternoon.

SUPPLIED - Photo from security video shown to Jeremy Skibicki during questioning.

Discovery of remains led police to landfill, court hears

Officer testifies about search for victim in admitted serial killer’s trial

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

Searching for Buffalo Woman

Years later, jacket, shred of DNA remain only evidence of admitted killer’s unidentified victim

Erik Pindera 5 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

Province purchases drug-testing machines to tackle crisis

Katrina Clarke 5 minute read Preview

Province purchases drug-testing machines to tackle crisis

Katrina Clarke 5 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

The NDP government is moving on interim measures to address Manitoba’s toxic drug crisis as plans for a permanent supervised consumption site are hammered out, the Free Press has learned.

In an interview Friday, Bernadette Smith, minister of addictions, said the province has purchased two drug-testing machines called fourier transform infrared spectrometer, which determine the components of illicit drugs. One will be placed with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Healthy Sexuality and Harm Reduction’s street connections team, and the other will be accessible at a yet-to-be-revealed community-based organization downtown.

Smith said the province is in discussions on a funding deal with drop-in and resource centre Sunshine House to assist with running its mobile overdose prevention site, MOPS, an RV that provides people a space to use illicit substances under supervision. She said more details will be announced “shortly.”

“They’ve been doing lifesaving work,” she said of MOPS, which is paid for by federal funding and donations.

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Friday, May. 10, 2024

A mobile mass spectrometer, which can determine the components of illicit drugs. (Mike Deal / Free Press files)

Opinion

Sad and surreal inside a Winnipeg courtroom Niigaan Sinclair 4 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024
Newsrooms offer plenty of fodder for nuanced comedy Jen Zoratti 4 minute read Yesterday at 3:00 AM CDT
As wait times rise, NDP must bring back out-of-province surgeries Tom Brodbeck 4 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

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Parts of southern Manitoba under severe thunderstorm watch

Free Press staff 2 minute read Yesterday at 4:28 PM CDT

Winnipeg was Canada’s hot spot on a blustery Saturday afternoon, which brought a risk of thunderstorms and concerns about smoke from wildfires, including one that led to evacuations in northern Manitoba.

Environment Canada’s website said the temperature had climbed to 30.6 C at Winnipeg’s airport by 4 p.m.

A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for parts of southern Manitoba. The main threats include wind gusts of more than 90 km/h.

Thunderstorms will weaken and move out of the region Saturday night, said Environment Canada.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Stephen McIntyre was one-time the outreach manager of the Gas Station Theatre.

Local character actor McIntyre made initial mark in improv

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Stefan Bouw drives through a pasture to check for any calves born overnight.

Special deliveries

Spring calving season a rite of passage at Edie Creek Angus ranch

Photography and story by Mikaela MacKenzie 2 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

BRYNN ANDERSON / ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES
Brian Hernandez Jr. celebrates after riding Mystik Dan to win the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/)

Kentucky Derby winner’s bloodline flows through Manitoba

George Williams 4 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

Clear Lake boating ban makes waves for local businesses

Martin Cash 4 minute read Preview

Clear Lake boating ban makes waves for local businesses

Martin Cash 4 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

Uncertainty about boating activity on Clear Lake this summer was already producing softer bookings at some tourism establishments in Riding Mountain National Park.

Now that Parks Canada announced a 2024 ban on all watercraft on the southwestern Manitoba lake — to prevent the spread of zebra mussels and other invasive species — some tourism operators are worried it will turn even more people away.

Karly McRae, owner of Lakehouse Boutique Hotel and Arrowhead Family Resort, both located in the park’s townsite Wasagaming, said local tourism business owners are supportive of Parks Canada’s efforts to “present and protect” the space.

But the ban being announced Thursday — a week before the May long weekend — is problematic.

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Friday, May. 10, 2024

(Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
Concrete barriers block vehicle and boat access to the Wasagaming boat launch at Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park on Thursday. A decision about whether boats and other water craft will be allowed onto Clear Lake this year is expected ahead of the upcoming May long weekend.

No bail for man accused of smuggling Indian family near Emerson

Free Press staff 3 minute read Preview

No bail for man accused of smuggling Indian family near Emerson

Free Press staff 3 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

An Indian national accused of smuggling a family of four who froze to death near the Manitoba-U.S. border has lost his bid to be released from custody while awaiting trial.

An American judge ordered Harshkumar Patel, 28, to be held in solitary confinement while he is in federal custody in an undisclosed corrections facility.

Patel has pleaded not guilty to seven human smuggling charges since being arrested in Chicago in February. He initially waived a detention hearing.

He sought to be released, however, after a grand jury returned the seven-count superseding indictment in March.

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Friday, May. 10, 2024

Sherburne County Sheriff In court papers in Minneapolis, prosecutors allege the 28-year-old Patel had been warned of blizzard conditions that saw an Indian family freeze to death in 2022 while trying to cross into the U.S. on foot in the dead of winter.

Province’s new top Mountie has Manitoba in his blood

Kevin Rollason 3 minute read Preview

Province’s new top Mountie has Manitoba in his blood

Kevin Rollason 3 minute read Friday, May. 10, 2024

Manitoba’s new top Mountie might be the first to have been born here.

“We are investigating that,” deadpanned Scott McMurchy, a 34-year veteran, who is two weeks into his job as assistant commissioner of the Manitoba RCMP. “We don’t know for sure. But it’s safe to say I’m the first in memory.”

McMurchy was most recently in charge of criminal operations in Manitoba.

“I’ve got 34 years of service and my family and I have moved nine times,” he said Friday. “This is my 13th different role with the RCMP… as Manitoba is my home, I am deeply committed to serving Manitobans.”

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Friday, May. 10, 2024