Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 7, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba DROP ZONE August 20, 2024 Be part of the excitement thedropzone.ca There is still time to register! Rappel down Manitoba Hydro Place and break down barriers for Manitobans with disabilities. TOP NEWS A3 WEDNESDAY AUGUST 7, 2024 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM However, Gillingham said he understood why questions have emerged about the award. “I can certainly appreciate how the public would wonder why we would award a contract to a company that we’re in court with… There’s a limited number of towing companies in the city and only a small number of bidders for this contract, so we have to maintain the competition,” he said. The mayor said he will speak to the city’s interim chief administra- tive officer about whether the city should disclose more information when it spends taxpayer dollars on private contracts. “These are public dollars… being allocated and expended here, so the public should have access, and coun- cillors should have access, to the reasons behind decisions,” he said. Masood Khan, chief financial officer of Bison Towing, said his company was told verbally that city officials found it wasn’t ready to han- dle the work. Khan said the company priced its bid at the rock-bottom price of $14.70 because it expected to earn money from additional fees paid by vehicle owners throughout the contract. He said Bison has operated for less than two years but met all contract requirements. “We are disappointed. We put a lot of effort into this… We built a yard, we did everything, we did fencing. We did all we could,” said Khan. Zakria Shoaib, Bison’s director, said he doesn’t understand why the contract would go to a company that’s engaged in a legal dispute with the city. “Knowing the fact that the city has sued someone and they have count- er-sued them back and are (still) doing business with each other… it is kind of confusing,” said Shoaib. Nick Roscoe, owner of Dr. Hook Towing, said his company’s bid was notably higher than the others because it aimed to factor in future fuel, insurance and wage costs, since the contract could last for years. “If you have that contract for an extended period of time, one must calculate what could happen,” said Roscoe. He said he didn’t expect the contract would be won by a company that’s being sued by the city. “I think it’s caught everybody by surprise… It’s not necessarily our place to say the city should or shouldn’t (do this), but at the end of the day, they did and now it’s public knowledge what they did. I think it’s a tough pill for everyone to swallow, not just the industry,” said Roscoe. In an email, a city spokesman confirmed the award and the prices each bidder had submitted for the work. Spokesman David Driedger also noted the city lawsuit does not ban Tartan from bidding on city contracts. “In order to prevent a person or company from bidding on city contracts, they would need to be de- barred under… the city’s purchasing policy. Debarment is a structured process with definite causes and steps, and it is completely distinct from litigation,” wrote Driedger. Tartan Towing declined to com- ment on Tuesday. In a statement of defence last year, the company de- nied the city’s legal allegations and argued the municipal government should pay damages to the company for breaching its contract. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca X: @joyanne_pursaga TOWING ● FROM A1 NIC ADAM / FREE PRESS The city is suing Tartan Towing for alleged overbilling, so competitors and councillors are wondering why it won a police towing deal. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Mayor Scott Gillingham says despite the lawsuit, ‘there’s a limited number of towing companies... so we have to maintain the competition.’ Violent long weekend kicks off with pair of unprovoked attacks in Lord Selkirk Park Boy charged in two random stabbings T WO unprovoked stabbings just minutes apart on Friday kicked off a spree of random, violent crime on Winnipeg streets that kept police busy throughout the August long weekend. The stabbings injured two people and raised alarm among investigators, who believe a 15-year-old boy is responsible for the crimes, Winnipeg Police Ser- vice spokesman Const. Pat Saydak said at a news conference Tuesday. “I can’t speak on the specifics of what was going through his mind or what possible mental health issues he may have, but we find it very concerning,” Saydak said. “We’re very happy that we made an arrest.” The youth is in police custody on two charges of assault with a weapon for the attacks that occurred within a few blocks in the Lord Selkirk Park neigh- bourhood, Saydak said. The first incident happened on the 400 block of King Street at about 10:15 a.m. A 50-year-old man was walking when the attacker approached him and, without provocation, stabbed him in the upper body, before fleeing. The victim was taken to hospital in stable condi- tion, police said. About five minutes later, a 27-year- old woman was attacked in a lane near the 700 block of Main Street. She was stabbed repeatedly in her upper and lower body, police said. The woman was taken to hospital in unstable condition and later upgraded to stable. A police canine unit tracked the male suspect to the 100 block of Lusted Av- enue, where he was arrested. The suspect and the two victims didn’t know each other, Saydak said, adding the boy was not known to police. In an unrelated case on Saturday, po- lice said a 40-year-old man is respon- sible for a series of carjackings and robberies in east Winnipeg. The first incident happened at a store on the 1000 block of Nairn Avenue at about 12:30 p.m. Saydak said the suspect pulled out a lighter and threatened a cashier as he demanded cash. He fled without get- ting any money. Fifteen minutes later, the suspect confronted a woman in her 80s as she sat in her vehicle. The man pulled her out of the vehicle, threw her to the ground and threatened to stab her be- fore fleeing in her vehicle. The woman suffered serious injuries, police said. The spree continued into Sunday, when, at about 5:45 a.m., the man con- fronted a woman at a business on the 1600 block of Regent Avenue West. He threw the victim to the ground in an at- tempted carjacking, but was unable to start the vehicle because he didn’t have an immobilizer key fob, Saydak said. The suspect stole the woman’s purse and fled. The woman suffered minor injuries. Later, at about 7:30 a.m., the man en- tered a business on the same block and lured a female victim outside by telling her there was something wrong with her parked vehicle. The man punched her several times in the upper body, threatened to kill her and stole the vehicle. Members of the heavily armed police tactical support team found the vehicle on the 500 block of Selkirk Avenue, and a man was later arrested in the area. “People need to go about their busi- ness as unusual. They can’t be afraid of what goes on,” Saydak said when asked about the violent daytime incidents. The constable noted such attacks are “not normal” and assured the public po- lice “take this matter very seriously.” Scott Matthew MacCaull is charged with four counts of robbery and single counts of aggravated assault, uttering threats and possession of property ob- tained by crime over $5,000. He was detained in custody. WPS public affairs director Kelly Dehn agreed the weekend crimes are indicative of the trend in Winnipeg, where police data show violent offences increased by 12 per cent in 2023 and 31.4 per cent compared to the five-year average. “This was a very violent string of attacks, and so yeah, you could say it’s part of that,” he said. tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca TYLER SEARLE Body of missing woman found in Saskatoon landfill SASKATOON police announced Tuesday they had found the remains of a missing woman in a city landfill three months after their search began. Police, dozens of searchers and a forensic an- thropologist began combing through trash at the site in May in an attempt to find Mackenzie Lee Trottier. The 22-year-old Métis woman was last seen in December 2020. Paul Trottier told a news conference it had been a long and difficult time trying to find out what happened to his daughter. The 93 days po- lice spent searching the landfill were particularly tough, he said. “Today, we have our answers. Mackenzie is home,” he said. Trottier thanked police and Métis and Indigen- ous groups for their support. “Our (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) family, victim ser- vices … and our friends and family — you have been the fabric that have held us together,” he said. Police Chief Cameron McBride said an autopsy could not determine the cause of Trottier’s death and the case has been turned over to the Sas- katchewan Coroners Service. Staff Sgt. Corey Lenius said a suspect in Trot- tier’s disappearance died of a drug overdose in December 2023. Because police can’t lay charges against him, Lenius said, the man’s identity won’t be released. He did not say if the death is considered a homi- cide. Lenius added that Trottier and the suspect knew each other, and Trottier stayed at the man’s home “quite often.” It was data from the man’s cellphone that point- ed investigators to the landfill, the officer said. Ernie Walker, a forensic anthropologist who oversaw the landfill search, said finding Trotti- er’s remains was “a fluke.” Walker said the city’s ability to track waste from pickup spots to the landfill was what al- lowed this search to succeed, because it provided a rough estimate of the area to go through. Police estimate about 5,000 tonnes of waste was sorted through in the search for Trottier. Some of her remains were found July 30, and the rest of her remains were discovered Thursday. McBride said an estimated $1.5 million was spent on the landfill search. Police have asked for funding support from the federal and provincial governments, he added. A search for the remains of two slain First Na- tions women is set to get underway later this year at a landfill just north of Winnipeg. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced ear- lier this year there is a multi-stage plan to search the Prairie Green landfill for the remains of Mar- cedes Myran and Morgan Harris. Jeremy Skibicki was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the deaths of Myran, Har- ris and two other Indigenous women. Court heard he killed the women and disposed of their bodies in garbage bins. Winnipeg police and the former Progressive Conservative government refused to search the landfill, saying it would be too complex and dan- gerous. The NDP government, elected last year, prom- ised there would be a search. A provincial spokes- person said Tuesday the forensic anthropologist for the search has been following the Saskatoon case closely. “Manitoba’s team looks forward to meeting with the Saskatoon team to learn from their suc- cess,” the spokesperson said in an email. — The Canadian Press JACK FARRELL ;