Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 9, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMA2 SUNDAY, JANUARY 9, 2022NEWS The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada WINNIPEG FREE PRESS SUNDAY 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2X 3B6 PHOTO REPRINTS 204-697-7064 SWITCHBOARD 204-697-7000 ADVERTISING 204-697-7122 FP.Advertising@freepress.mb.ca EDITORIAL NEWSROOM 204-697-7301 HOW TO REACH US Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 VOL. 151 NO. 59 INSIDE Local news A3 Canada A3-4 World A4,6-8 Entertainment A10-11 Miss Lonelyhearts A11 Sports B1 Comics B9 Diversions B10-11 Horoscope B11 Television B11 2022 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 A member of the National Newsmedia Council CRIME STOPPERS WINNIPEG 204 786 TIPS CRIME STOPPERS WINNIPEG CRIME STOPPERS WINNIPEG CRIME STOPPERS WINNIPEG (8477) 204 786 TIPS (8477) 204 786 TIPS (8477) 204 786 TIPS (8477) SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING The people in these photos are of interest to police and may be able to provide investigators with information about the offences. These images are released for identification purposes only. The people pictured may or may not be responsible for the crimes indicated. If you are able to identify anyone pictured, call Winnipeg Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (204-786-8477), text TIP170 and your mes- sage to CRIMES (274637) or send a secure tip online at winnipegcrimestoppers.org. CLICK ● WINNIPEG CRIME STOPPERS Incident: 1174 WHEN: Nov. 11, 2021 WHERE: 600 block of Selkirk Avenue Three people stole more than $2,000 in cash and property from a business. A surveil- lance photo captured the image of one suspect without a mask. Incident: 1175 WHEN: Oct. 31, 2021 WHERE: 200 block of Watson Street A group of people entered a secured parkade by breaking into the Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service lockbox. Once inside, they broke into several storage lockers and removed an unknown quantity of personal property. C ANADIANS may have a newly-named house hippo in their living rooms, thanks to a Winnipegger’s tweet going viral. University of Manitoba assistant pro- fessor Dylan MacKay came across a Leon’s furniture store ad for a brown polyester hippopotamus-shaped otto- man, named the “Hippo Storage Otto- man,” while scrolling through his phone with his wife. They were drawn to the ungulate footrest and MacKay noted there was a missed opportunity in the comple- mentary vowels between the two words — why didn’t the company call it the “Hippopottoman?” “We were laughing at the idea and we just sort of turned it into a joke — I went and told my kids, and they were like, ‘Oh, that’s a lame joke,’ so I put it on social media,” MacKay told the Free Press Saturday. He shared a photo of the ottoman with the caption “The fact that this is not called a hippopottoman is a huge failure…” MacKay uses Twitter quite a bit and isn’t one to shy away from posting a joke or two, but wasn’t expecting the tweet to blow up like it did — after just a few days, the tweet gained thousands of likes and retweets. As of Saturday, it has 7,000 retweets and nearly 60,000 likes. “Twitter’s great for science and that kind of stuff, and lately I use it all the time for COVID numbers and the news, so it’s my main social media platform, but I’ve never truly gone viral like this before,” he said. That response — and a direct tweet from MacKay suggesting they change the name — convinced Leon’s to change the name and send MacKay and his wife a Hippopottoman of their own. Leon’s also sells a “Cow Storage Ottoman” and a “Dinosaur Storage Ottoman” (“Look I am not going to say Triceratottoman isn’t a better name,” MacKay noted on Twitter), along with the newly renamed Hippopottoman. “Yesterday, I actually had a socially distant in-person tour, and two of the people were like, ‘Oh, I saw you on the news,’ or ‘Oh, I saw you on Twitter,’ and started making Hippopottoman jokes,” MacKay said. Going viral is a new experience for MacKay, who said the hundreds of new followers he’s gained will be met with “politics, bad jokes and nutritional sci- ence” — and probably not many hippo- potamuses. “It’s been a lot of hippopottoman con- tent lately, and I’m kind of done with it now,” he joked. “But I’m glad that lots of people are finding it funny and making their own jokes and extending it, the kind of stuff that happens on the internet. It’s non-COVID content, and that’s great. Everyone needs a bit of a distraction from the current situation we’re in, I think.” malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Hippopottoman? Tweet prompts product name change MALAK ABAS After the tweet, Leon’s furniture did change the ottoman’s name to hippopottoman. DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS BOARDS AND BLADES Snowboarders Kyle Walker (left) and Travis Beel hit a rail during a session with their friends at the Forks Saturday. Below: Cole Brooks skates in front of the Winnipeg sign. OTTAWA — RCMP anti-corruption in- vestigators say they are probing pos- sible shady practices by several Can- adian companies operating in parts of Africa, Eastern Europe and South America. Firms involved in mining, infrastruc- ture, aviation, rail, engineering and technology are susceptible to corrup- tion, such as paying a bribe to secure a contract, say Mounties with the force’s sensitive and international investiga- tions section. “These are all sectors that are at risk,” said Staff Sgt. Stéphanie Rous- seau, acting officer in charge of the section’s foreign anti-corruption team. The team is responsible for prob- ing possible wrongdoing in violation of Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, which allows the RCMP to charge individuals or corporations in cases with a substantial link to Canada. Rousseau hopes Canadian companies are becoming more aware of the conse- quences of illicit behaviour overseas. “And we’re getting the word out that it’s not a way of doing business,” she said during a recent interview, accom- panied by other team members. The Mounties have another import- ant message for Canadian companies: if they detect possible wrongdoing within their operation, tell the RCMP about it. Firms now have added incentive do so, the Mounties say. Federal legislation passed in 2018 gave prosecutors a tool, known as a remediation agreement, to deal with a range of corporate economic crimes. The idea is to hold organizations ac- countable for wrongdoing while avoid- ing some of the fallout from a criminal conviction for employees, shareholders and others who did nothing wrong. The corporation would have to accept responsibility for the misdeeds, pay a financial penalty, put compliance meas- ures in place to prevent recurrence and make reparations to victims. A judge would also need to be satis- fied the agreement is in the public in- terest, and that the terms are fair, rea- sonable and proportionate. Should the judge approve the agreement, the crim- inal prosecution would be put on hold. Remediation agreements, also known as deferred prosecution agreements, became banner news in 2019 after Montreal-based engineering firm SNC- Lavalin pressed for such a deal in the face of corruption and fraud charges related to business in Libya — touching off a political firestorm in Ottawa. Even so, the prospect of avoiding prosecution has prompted some Can- adian firms to come forward, says the RCMP, though the force would not pro- vide numbers. “With the arrival of the remediation agreement regime in 2018, we’ve seen companies starting to self-disclose, and we’re seeing some every year,” Rousseau said. “So we want to encourage that.” Prior to the legislation, there was no benefit to companies for going to po- lice when dubious activity came to the attention of executives, said RCMP Sgt. Matthieu Boulanger, an anti-corruption investigator. “And it was more of a, ‘Well, we’ll sit on it and if it doesn’t get reported, doesn’t get investigated, then, you know, that’s one less thing to deal with.’” Now, Boulanger said, a company might tell the RCMP about a fishy email that implicates the firm or the fact an overseas agent is suddenly receiving higher commissions for no legitimate reason. “Sometimes it could be that after the investigation’s done, we go back to the company and we say, ‘We don’t see criminality here. So thank you for re- porting and be on your jolly way,’” he said. Other times, there could be more to the allegations. Ultimately, it would be up to prosecutors to decide whether a remediation agreement is warranted. Self-reporting might help companies that find themselves caught up in over- seas misdeeds, but it can also make life easier for the Mounties, given that for- eign corruption investigations can be complicated and lengthy. — The Canadian Press Mounties probe possible overseas corruption cases JIM BRONSKILL A_02_Jan-09-22_FP_01.indd 2 2022-01-08 11:24 PM ;