Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 25, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2024 B2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I CITY / PROVINCE “And I think she’ll make a really great contribution to our executive policy committee,” he said. Gillingham responded to a question about his decision to remove Mayes by saying it’s crucial to have committee members fall on the same side of issues. “Getting housing built in the City of Winnipeg to meet our ever-growing needs for housing is very important to me. I want to see people, to the degree possible, be aligned,” Gillingham said. In November Mayes voted against zoning changes to access federal Hous- ing Accelerator Fund cash, but last month voted in favour of infill guide- lines that address the demand for new housing while preserving established neighbourhoods. “You should be able to handle some different opinions,” Mayes said Wed- nesday, citing motions his colleagues have voted against in recent months. “There’s always been some flexibility.” New appointee Santos said she guessed the difference in opinions led to Mayes’ ouster. “It’s time for some change and an in- ner-city voice at the table,” she said. Santos said she’ll push for more recreation funding and has already been briefed on the responsibilities of the community services chair. “(Gillingham) knows recreation is an important component of lifting people out of poverty…. I appreciate the may- or’s opportunity to give EPC an in- ner-city lens,” she said, adding it has been a long-term goal to get a seat on EPC. Mayes’ said his parting desire for EPC is to advance the file on the en- vironment. nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca EPC ● FROM B1 MOUNTIE CHARGED WITH ASSAULT A MANITOBA RCMP officer has been charged with assault following an incident in The Pas last year. The Independent Investigation Unit said in a news release Wednesday that Const. Kyle Kruzer has been charged with one count of assault. The officer is accused of using excessive force to detain a woman while responding to a domestic incident at a residence in The Pas on Sept. 29, 2023. Kruzer is scheduled to appear in court July 23. The police watchdog launched an investiga- tion into the incident last fall. FIRE AT THOMPSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL RESIDENTS were advised to stay indoors after a Thompson elementary school caught fire in the early morning hours Wednesday. RCMP and firefighters were alerted to the blaze at Westwood School about 3:20 a.m., a news release said. No one was believed to be in the building. Thompson Fire Department and Vale Manitoba Operations Mine Rescue Firefighters remained on the scene into the afternoon battling the blaze. “The fire is still active, they are trying to see if there’s a possibility to save the gymnasium at this time,” Thompson Deputy Mayor Cathy Valentino said while on scene Wednesday. Crews were conducting air quality testing and advised residents in the vicinity to keep their windows and doors closed. “Thompson residents should stay out of the Westwood School area until further notice so that they do not interfere with firefighting efforts or block access for emergency vehicles and personnel,” a memo sent to Thompson residents published online reads. Valentino said crews are “assuming its elec- trical” but have not been able to determine a cause. No injuries have been reported. “It’s terrible. It’s a huge infrastructure fire,” she said. “It’s sad.” MAN DIES IN COLLISION NEAR GRANDVIEW A 19-YEAR-OLD man is dead after his vehicle collided with a grain truck Tuesday east of Grandview. The man was travelling west on Highway 5 in the Rural Municipality of Grandview shortly before 10:50 a.m. when his vehicle crossed the centre line and collided with the east- bound truck, an RCMP news release stated. The vehicle’s driver, who was from Grandview, was pronounced dead at the scene. The truck driver, a 72-year-old man from Grandview, was sent to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Dauphin RCMP continue to investigate. SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN JEWELRY STORE THEFTS WINNIPEG police have arrested a group of suspects they allege were responsible for the theft of thousands of dollars in jewelry from a retail store on two different occasions. In the first incident, suspects entered a jewelry shop on Portage Avenue just after 5 p.m. on Dec. 3 last year. The individuals entered at different times to try to distract the employee while compromising the display case to take items, police said. They made off with more than $17,000 worth of jewelry. On June 12, at about 6:30 p.m., the group did the same thing and made off with about $35,000 in merchandise, police allege. Property crimes investigators, who were probing the thefts, recently obtained war- rants for two residences in Morden, where they recovered about $16,000 worth of the jewelry. A 55-year-old man has been charged with two counts of theft under $5,000 and one count of theft over $5,000. A 34-year-old woman has been charged with two counts of theft over $5,000 and one count of possessing stolen property for the purpose of trafficking. A 53-year-old woman and a 37-year-old will be charged later with possessing stolen property. A teen boy will be charged with theft over $5,000. WOMAN DEAD IN ST. ANDREWS CRASH A WOMAN was found dead inside her vehicle after losing control on a gravel road Tuesday in the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews. Selkirk RCMP were sent to the scene of the single-vehicle collision on Chalet Beach Road, about three kilometres east of Highway 9, at 7:45 p.m. A passerby came across the vehicle, which had rolled on its hood and was partially submerged in one metre of water in a ditch. A 69-year-old woman from the RM of Rockwood was declared dead at the scene. She was wearing a seatbelt and alcohol does not appear to be a factor, RCMP said. HEALTH WORKERS INK TENTATIVE DEAL THE union for 18,000 support workers have reached a tentative contract deal with four health authorities. “We are pleased that we have been able to reach an agreement that we can present to our members, and we believe the tentative agreement is fair and reasonable,” said Shan- non McAteer of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, in a statement Wednesday. The workers are employed by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Shared Health, Southern Health and the Northern Regional Health Authority. CUPE says the four-year deal includes gen- eral wage increases, marker adjustments and improvements to contract language. It was reached after four months of negotiations, which the union said is in stark contrast to the 21 months it took to hammer out a deal with employers under the previous Progressive Conservative government. That deal expired in March. “These negotiations are led by front-line health workers who dedicate themselves to serving the community as well as their co-workers,” added Gina McKay, president of CUPE Manitoba. CUPE members will be informed about the details in the next few weeks and will vote on the contract from Aug. 20 to 22. In Manitoba, CUPE has 37,000 members who work in places such as health facilities, care homes, home care, school divisions and municipal services. IN BRIEF SUPPLIED Westwood School in Thompson caught fire early Wednesday morning, prompting air-quality concerns in the area. The building was believed to be empty when the fire broke out. Man charged with injuring police has extensive record A MAN accused of throwing a heavy metal object at two Winnipeg police of- ficers last week was once convicted of manslaughter in a robbery that turned fatal. Police continued their search Wed- nesday for Waylon Joseph Paul, 44, who is charged with two counts each of as- saulting a peace officer with a weapon and breaching his release order. Police say he is a “high-risk offender” who is considered dangerous. On July 18, the officers were sitting in a marked police cruiser as they spoke to people in a parking lot on the 300 block of Sherbrook Street short- ly before 6 p.m. A man walked up and threw the object at them, leaving them with minor injuries, police said. Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Claude Chancy would not speci- fy what type of object was thrown, but said Wednesday it was not an item the suspect had picked up off the street, such as a piece of pipe. Paul has a criminal record dating back to 2001 that includes a conviction for a 2004 manslaughter that put him in a federal prison for nearly 10 years, along with a lifetime weapons ban. He and his brother, in their 20s at the time, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in June 2005 after the Crown agreed to stay second-degree murder charges. The brothers, high on alcohol and prescription pills, hatched a plan to rob Ernest Anderson, 58, a fellow tenant of a Boyd Avenue rooming house in April 2004. Instead, they savagely beat him and lit four fires to try to cover up the attack, court was told. Anderson, who was pulled from his suite by firefighters, died in hospital of blunt trauma to the head and body, court heard. Paul’s record includes assault, theft and drug possession. He is currently before the court on a raft of charges, including robbery in Winnipeg, two counts of uttering threats in Ashern and a slew of court order breaches. He was granted release pending fur- ther court proceedings at an uncontest- ed bail hearing May 3 in Winnipeg. Police have asked for anyone with in- formation about Paul’s whereabouts or video of the assault to contact the major crimes unit at 204-986-6219, or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477 or online. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca ERIK PINDERA Serial killer Skibicki to be sentenced Aug. 28 S ERIAL killer Jeremy Skibicki will be sentenced at the end of Au- gust after he was found guilty in the 2022 slayings of four Indigenous women earlier this month. Skibicki’s sentencing hearing will be held Aug. 28 at 10 a.m., a senior court official said Wednesday. Court of King’s Bench Chief Jus- tice Glenn Joyal found Skibicki, 37, guilty on July 11 of four counts of first- degree murder for the slayings of Reb- ecca Contois, 24, Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, and an un- identified woman known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe or Buffalo Woman. Skibicki targeted the Indigenous women at downtown shelters in early 2022. Skibicki’s six-week trial began in May, and he had pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disorder. Joyal re- jected that defence, finding Skibicki understood the planned and deliber- ate killings were legally and morally wrong. The automatic sentence for a convic- tion of first-degree murder is life with no ability to apply for parole for 25 years, but Joyal reserved sentencing in July to allow families of the victims to prepare victim impact statements. Those statements will be read in court on Aug. 28, before Skibicki is sen- tenced. He will serve his time in a fed- eral prison. The killings became emblematic of the issue of missing and murdered In- digenous women and girls. The serial killings also sparked wide- spread protests after Winnipeg po- lice decided not to search the Prairie Green landfill north of the city, where the remains of Harris and Myran are believed to have been deposited. Po- lice concluded the search would be too dangerous and difficult because of the large volume of waste, including toxic material, that had been dumped and compressed. The federal government eventually funded studies that concluded such a wide-scale search was feasible. In July 2023, then-Progressive Con- servative premier Heather Stefanson said her government would not support a search because it would put workers at risk without a guarantee of success. The Tories later campaigned on the issue, drawing condemnation. After the fall election, NDP Premier Wab Kinew put up $20 million for the search, as did the federal government. The excavation and manual search is expected to begin this fall. The Assembly of First Nations has since called on the province to call a public inquiry into the police investiga- tion of the killings. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca ERIK PINDERA Wildfires ‘of concern’ burning in Manitoba THUNDERSTORMS in northern and western Manitoba have resulted in “several fires of concern,” the Mani- toba Wildfire Service said Wednesday. Multiple fires 27 kilometres east of Pukatawagan have grown into one large blaze approximately 2,392 hec- tares in size, a provincial wildfire up- date stated. Water bombers and crews remain on scene and are holding the fire south of Churchill River. In northern Manitoba, a fire north- east of Thompson has grown to at least 6,000 hectares in size and is spreading north. Creeks and swamps are expected to reduce the fire’s spread south. Other, smaller fires continue to burn in areas near Garden Hill, God’s Lake Narrows, Red Sucker Lake and Marcel Colomb First Nation. “Smoke from the wildfires continues to impact communities in the areas of these fires,” the bulletin reads. “Area residents are advised to take precautions to protect against harm- ful smoke inhalation including limiting outdoor activity, staying indoors with windows and doors closed, setting air conditioning units in homes and ve- hicles to recirculate to avoid drawing smoke indoors and drinking plenty of water.” The smoke is also reducing visibility for those travelling along Provincial Trunk Highway 391 and possibly Prov- incial Trunk Highway 280. The number of active wildfires burn- ing in the province is still well below average — there are 58 actively burn- ing and there have been a total of 153 wildfires to date this year, compared to the recent yearly average of 257. ;