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JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
The Law Courts in Winnipeg.

Sex assault charge stayed against former MP Saganash

Erik Pindera 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:30 PM CDT

A sexual assault charge was stayed against a former Member of Parliament in a Winnipeg court on Tuesday, but his accuser isn’t giving up on her fight for “accountability and justice.”

Romeo Saganash, a Cree lawyer who represented the riding of Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou in northern Quebec from 2011 to 2019, was arrested by Winnipeg police on June 27 last year over an allegation the former NDP MP sexually touched a woman at a meeting on May 1, 2023.

The sex assault charge was referred to the provincial justice department’s restorative justice programming last October.

On Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Bruce Sychuk asked provincial court Judge Rob Finlayson to stay the charge and order a one-year peace bond barring contact and communication with the complainant, Carmen Roy, as a result of Saganash’s completion of the program.

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Philanthropist who gifted $30M to U of M med school ‘appalled’ by valedictorian’s ‘hateful lies’

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Preview

Philanthropist who gifted $30M to U of M med school ‘appalled’ by valedictorian’s ‘hateful lies’

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 6:35 PM CDT

Less than a decade after making a $30-million donation to the University of Manitoba’s faculty of health sciences and its medical college, Ernest Rady, who was born in Winnipeg and graduated from the university, says he is “hurt” and “appalled” by remarks made in a graduating doctor’s convocation valedictory address last Thursday.

In a letter dated Monday addressed to U of M president and vice-chancellor Michael Benarroch and Rady faculty of heath sciences dean Dr. Peter Nickerson, the entrepreneur and philanthropist took aim at valedictorian Dr. Gem Newman — who referred to the “genocidal war that Israel is waging on the people of Palestine” — and the university, for allowing him to “spew these hateful lies.”

The 2016 gift from Rady and his wife was made in honour of his parents, particularly his late father Max, a Winnipeg MD who graduated in 1921 and was one of the very few Jewish students accepted in the university’s medical college at the time under a quota system designed to keep them out.

“Those words are not political opinion,” Rady wrote about Newman’s remarks. “They are hate speech and they are lies.”

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Updated: Yesterday at 6:35 PM CDT

Definition of ‘serial killer’ among Skibicki’s chilling Google searches, court told

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Definition of ‘serial killer’ among Skibicki’s chilling Google searches, court told

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Yesterday at 7:16 PM CDT

One day after strangling Marcedes Myran inside his North Kildonan apartment — the third woman he had killed in the span of seven weeks — Jeremy Skibicki sat down at his computer.

“Definition of a serial killer,” Skibicki typed into Google’s search window on May 5, 2022.

Police uncovered the search and other damning online queries during a forensic examination of Skibicki’s computer following his arrest 12 days later for the murder of 24-year-old Rebecca Contois.

Skibicki, 37, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the May 2022 slayings of three Indigenous women — Contois, Myran and Morgan Harris — as well as a fourth unidentified woman who was killed on or around March 15, 2022. She has been named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by Indigenous elders.

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Yesterday at 7:16 PM CDT

SUPPLIED
Photo of Jeremy Skibicki released by the court.

Victim sues Red River Ex for 2022 shooting

Chris Kitching 4 minute read Preview

Victim sues Red River Ex for 2022 shooting

Chris Kitching 4 minute read Yesterday at 4:03 PM CDT

An 18-year-old man who was shot at the Red River Exhibition two years ago has nightmares and is unable to work, a lawsuit claims.

The man is suing the Red River Exhibition Association, North American Midway-Canada Co. and two employers for damages and health-care costs.

“As a result of the shooting, the plaintiff underwent emergency surgery, was hospitalized for approximately one week and has since been participating in the recovery process,” a statement of claim said. “The plaintiff now has difficulty urinating, has constant burning in his legs and is unable to do the regular activities that he did before he was shot.

“The plaintiff also suffers from ongoing nightmares about the shooting, is afraid of loud noises and is paranoid when he is outside in public.”

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Yesterday at 4:03 PM CDT

JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES
Security personnel search people as they enter the Red River Exhibition Tuesday, June 21, 2022.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS
Debby Chan, owner, at Roy’s Florist which has moved to 150 Goulet St. In St Boniface after 60+ years on Notre Dame.

Roy’s Florist establishes new roots

Notre Dame staple shifts to new home in St. B after six decades

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Yesterday at 5:38 PM CDT

Bear in tree makes for wild afternoon in Wildwood

Kevin Rollason 2 minute read Preview

Bear in tree makes for wild afternoon in Wildwood

Kevin Rollason 2 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:39 PM CDT

No doubt a black bear who wandered into Winnipeg’s Wildwood neighbourhood Tuesday was just looking for a “pic-a-nic basket.”

The area may not be Jellystone Park, but its urban tree canopy is attractive all the same.

The appearance of the bruin — who’s rumoured to be “smarter than the av-er-age bear” had people scrambling for cover, and summoning Ranger Smith, a.k.a. conservation officers.

Residents were relieved when the interloper was no longer a threat.

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Updated: Yesterday at 8:39 PM CDT

BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS
A black bear that is approximately two-years-old is pictured hanging out in an oak tree at the corner of Manchest Boulevard South and Wildwood Street in Winnipeg's Wildwood neighourhood in Winnipeg, Man., Tuesday, May 21, 2024.

Opinion

Only way to end reliance on expensive private-agency nurses is to improve public-sector working conditions Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 2:44 PM CDT
Public service, or self-service? Rochelle Squires 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT
When push comes to shove Dave Taylor 5 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

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Residents pin hopes on new vision for Point Douglas

Joyanne Pursaga 5 minute read Preview

Residents pin hopes on new vision for Point Douglas

Joyanne Pursaga 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:16 PM CDT

One of Winnipeg’s oldest neighbourhoods is set to chart a new vision for its future.

Point Douglas residents will be consulted over the next few months to help create a neighbourhood plan, which will guide development.

The head of a local residents group hopes that will help the area become less industrial and add homes and services, while still respecting its character.

“We’d like to see most of the industrial (use) out of there… We’re putting a lot of emphasis on the environment, diversity, services, maintaining our housing stock. We don’t want to see a whole bunch of fourplexes go in,” said Catherine Flynn, chairwoman of the Point Douglas residents committee.

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Yesterday at 6:16 PM CDT

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The railroad tracks in Point Douglas, photographed Wednesday May 31, 2023.

‘Premises were safe’: First Nation denies responsibility in deaths of three children

Tyler Searle 4 minute read Yesterday at 3:19 PM CDT

A Manitoba First Nation says it bears no responsibility in a fire that killed two teens and a toddler, shifting the blame onto the children’s parents and asking the courts to dismiss their lawsuit.

In a statement of defence filed May 10 in the Court of King’s Bench, Cross Lake First Nation denied claims from Melodie and Patrick North that it failed to provide adequate and safe housing for their family.

The Norths named Cross Lake as the sole defendant in a January lawsuit seeking damages for the deaths of their children: 17-year-old Kobie North and sisters Jade, 13, and Reed, 2.

According to their statement of claim, the children — along with their parents, another child and Kobie’s girlfriend — were asleep inside a single-room shelter provided to them by the Cross Lake band, when a fire broke out around 4:30 a.m. Feb. 12, 2022.

Bombers’ pre-season loss to ‘Riders good for evaluating talent

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Preview

Bombers’ pre-season loss to ‘Riders good for evaluating talent

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Yesterday at 8:02 PM CDT

It’s the only time of year when losing in Regina doesn’t matter.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, featuring mostly new faces and aspiring pros, fell 25-12 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders Monday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium in the first week of pre-season action.

The final score wasn’t important, it was about getting some answers on players who are in the running for one of the several job openings the Bombers have. The Blue and Gold open the regular season at home in a rematch of last year’s Grey Cup against the Montreal Alouettes on June 6.

There will be one more chance to make an impression before then as the Bombers play their second and final exhibition game May 31 against the visiting Calgary Stampeders.

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Yesterday at 8:02 PM CDT

HEYWOOD YU / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Blue Bombers quarterback Terry Wilson Jr. tossed the pigskin for 115 yards and a touchdown Monday against the Roughriders.

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Eadha Bakery Worker Co-op, at 577 Ellice Ave., offers meal vouchers to those in need.

Appetite for paying it forward

West End meal vouchers feed hunger for food and community connection

Eva Wasney 5 minute read Yesterday at 5:36 PM CDT

‘It’s been a tough ride’: Roughage Eatery to shutter

Gabrielle Piché 3 minute read Preview

‘It’s been a tough ride’: Roughage Eatery to shutter

Gabrielle Piché 3 minute read Yesterday at 6:25 PM CDT

Although a wrecking ball looms, Candice Tonelete had hoped to stay.

Tonelete and wife Jessie Hodel started Roughage Eatery, a vegan restaurant, along Sherbrook Street in late 2019. She learned last year the Winnipeg building she rents — plus three other lots along the road — were set for demolition to make way for a new apartment block.

Tonelete is unsure when the destruction date may come. She’d planned to stick around until then, but a series of unfortunate events — continuous building breakdowns, rising food and labour costs, a drop in customers — have led to a shortened stay.

Throw in a recent oven failure, sketchy stairs and washrooms needing repair … and May will be the restaurant’s last month on Sherbrook.

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Yesterday at 6:25 PM CDT

JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES
Jessie Hodel (left), and Candice Tonelete, co-owners of Roughage Eatery, will hold their last event May 30 to celebrate the city’s annual Pride festival.

Woman warned for taking goslings: province

Free Press staff 2 minute read Preview

Woman warned for taking goslings: province

Free Press staff 2 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 4:07 PM CDT

A woman who snatched two Canada geese goslings from a Regent Avenue parking lot last week will not be be charged under wildlife laws.

The provincial government confirmed on Tuesday the Conservation Officer Service probed the complaint and “based on the circumstances and mitigating factors,” a warning was issued to the woman.

“The service appreciates the public bringing this to their attention,” a provincial spokesman said.

“The investigation determined the goslings were alive and had been placed on another nest with a goose that accepted them.”

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Updated: Yesterday at 4:07 PM CDT

SUPPLIED
Mother goose with goslings before they were abducted.

Fish blast past Dogs in home-opener

Joshua Frey-Sam 4 minute read Preview

Fish blast past Dogs in home-opener

Joshua Frey-Sam 4 minute read Yesterday at 10:22 PM CDT

A healthy Adam Hall is a weapon for the Winnipeg Goldeyes.

In his first game back after missing a week with quad tightness, the 24-year-old went three-for-four with a walk and a home run as the designated hitter to spur the Goldeyes’ offence in a 6-1 win over the Chicago Dogs in Tuesday’s home opener at the downtown park.

“You see what he’s capable of tonight and you kind of really wish you could have had him through the stretch on the road there because we lost some close games and he could have been one of the guys that tipped us over the edge on a couple of those close games,” said manager Logan Watkins.

Hall, who has been tasked as the club’s leadoff hitter to start the year, continues to sizzle out of the gates with a .545 batting average through the first three contests of his career in Winnipeg.

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Yesterday at 10:22 PM CDT