Grim discovery postpones announcement on future of controversial inner-city housing complex

A long-awaited housing announcement involving a once-promising core-area housing complex shuttered out of safety concerns after years of neglect and criminal behaviour was called off at the last minute Friday after a body was discovered inside.

Housing Minister Bernadette Smith, Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine and Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs representatives were scheduled to begin the event at Centre Village on Balmoral Street at 9 a.m.

It had to be cancelled when Winnipeg Police Service officers arrived at the Manitoba Housing apartment complex at about 8:30, responding to a report of a body inside, spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said, adding the person appeared to be a male and the death is believed to have been medical matter, not a criminal one.

“I’m not seeing anything… suspicious in nature,” he said, offering no other details.

Witness complications result in plea deal for machete killers

A Winnipeg man and woman who admit attacking and killing a woman with machetes have dodged possible convictions for first-degree murder after one of the main witnesses against them died and another disappeared.

Amos Joe Kematch and Leah Carol Clifton entered guilty pleas to second-degree murder Thursday in the February 2022 slaying of 26-year-old Heather Marie Cheyane Beardy. The pair’s guilty pleas came as the result of a plea bargain reached shortly before a jury was to be selected that same day in their impending trial.

The mandatory sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. A conviction for second-degree murder also results in a mandatory life sentence, but parole eligibility can be set anywhere between 10 and 25 years.

The distinction between first- and second-degree murder is that first-degree murder refers to a killing that is both planned and deliberate, while second-degree murder refers to a killing that is deliberate, but not planned.

AFN chief says Air Canada offered a 15% discount after her headdress was mishandled

OTTAWA - After the Assembly of First Nations' national chief complained to Air Canada about how staffers treated her and her ceremonial headdress on a flight this week, she says the airline responded by offering a 15 per cent discount on her next flight.

"It must have been a generic response," Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said in an interview, calling the entire experience "humiliating" and "unbelievable."

Woodhouse Nepinak said in a social media post Thursday that her headdress and its case were taken away and put in a garbage bag.

She clarified Friday the case was removed from the flight, but she was able to hold her headdress throughout the trip after pleading with staff.

‘There’ll be a lot of people watching’: sell-off of Scott-Bathgate inventory begins

Scott-Bathgate, parent company of the recently shuttered Nutty Club, is selling off its assets via online auctions. Items from its Calgary, Edmonton and Delta, B.C., locations are up first.

Taking lacrosse to a new level

A game of online poker more than three years ago between Kelson Borisenko and his pals turned into a three-hour tirade about the underwhelming hand Manitoba lacrosse players were being dealt.

The group of 20-somethings, who all played at a high level, agreed that while the province’s talent pool was on par with the rest of the country, the opportunity here to get noticed was not.

“For us, it was really frustrating to see all those guys around us that had that talent, who wanted to compete at that next level, but were never given that opportunity,” said Borisenko, who was drafted by the Saskatchewan Rush of the National Lacrosse League in 2020 after spending four years at Manhattan College (New York), a Division 1 program in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

Out of those discussions came a plan for a local training program.

Manitoba promises review after school trustee’s comments on Indigenous people

WINNIPEG - A school trustee's comments on Indigenous people and residential schools have led to condemnation from many quarters and a review by the Manitoba government.

Paul Coffey, a trustee in the Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba, told a school board meeting Monday that residential schools started as a good thing.

"They were essential for reading, writing, arithmetic, also enforcement of school attendance," Coffey said in his half-hour presentation, which was posted online.

"It was all nice until its well-documented and openly expressed intention to use schools to assimilate, eradicate Indians' languages, cultures and spiritual beliefs."

New CME regional vice-president for Prairies seeks to expand Manitoba success to Saskatchewan, Alberta

Manitoba’s manufacturing sector is not the largest in the country or the most automated, nor does it have the largest employers — but it’s likely the most diversified and export-oriented and its trade association, CME Manitoba, is the most engaged and supportive of its members.

With the recent retirement of long-time Manitoba division vice-president Ron Koslowsky, the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters national organization decided to take advantage of the local operation’s depth and breadth of service by putting his successor, Terry Shaw, in charge of Saskatchewan and Alberta, as well.

This week, Shaw started his new job as CME regional vice-president for the Prairies.

Chad Brick, chair of CME Manitoba’s advisory board and president of the Eastside Group of Companies, said: “We have a huge sense of pride with the CME team here. We definitely punch above our weight.”