Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 9, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba Save big on some of Winnipeg’s top attractions! Go to tourismwinnipeg.com/pass or scan here 5.00% * * Rate subject to change. GICs require a $500 minimum deposit 13-MONTH GIC SPECIAL (RRSP/RRIF/TFSA/FHSA*) SCU.MB.CA/GICS SERVING MANITOBA SINCE 1872. FOREVER WITH YOUR SUPPORT. FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2024 WEATHER MAINLY SUNNY. HIGH 20 — LOW 10 CITY POLICE ZERO IN ON HIT-AND-RUN SUSPECT / B1 Winnipeg’s Skylar Park battles to taekwondo bronze at Paris Olympic Games ‘Super thrilled and overjoyed’ PARIS — Skylar Park has an Olym- pic medal around her neck and a heart full of gratitude after battling through a turbulent and emotion- al taekwondo tournament to take bronze at the Paris 2024 Summer Games. The 25-year-old from Winnipeg defeated Laetitia Aoun of Lebanon 2-0 to win her first Olympic medal in the 57-kilogram event, staged in the soaring main hall of the Grand Palais in central Paris Thursday. “It feels amazing,” Park told the Free Press after receiving her hard- ware, complete with a piece of the Eiffel Tower embedded in its centre. “I’m super thrilled and over- joyed.” It was was a moment of pure joy and gratitude on the podium, said Park — both for her family and the experience of competing in the “perfect” atmosphere of the Grand Palais, in which finalists enter the arena from the top of the hall’s imposing main staircase. “I couldn’t have asked for a better day. Obviously, you always want to be on the top step of the podium, but, I mean, I’m just so grateful to be here,” she said. “My family and I have gone through so much over these past eight months to be here.” Park, who has trained since childhood for the Olympic stage with her father and coach Jae Park at their south Winnipeg taekwondo academy, said the medal is a win for her entire family, all of whom are black belts. Brothers Braven and Tae-Ku (the latter travelled as official training partner with Team Canada to Paris) have also represented Canada as members of the senior national tae- kwondo team and narrowly missed out on a spot at the Summer Games. “We’ve always worked as one and as a team,” Park said. “It was a com- mitment that we all made and work that we all put in to achieve this. So this medal is won by Team Park, for sure.” Park, a two-time Olympian, took the first medal round against Aoun by notching more hits than her opponent, despite not scoring any points. In Round 2, she scored a three-point head kick early and forced a penalty on Aoun to lead 4-0 with half a minute remaining. Park took two penalties in the final sec- onds to finish the round victorious with a 4-2 score. After the final buzzer, she was quick to embrace her dad on the sidelines before taking a lap around the mats with the Canadian flag draped over her shoulders. “Just winning that bronze medal, I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” said an exhausted but elated Jae Park. “Having my whole family here, just enjoying it together and having the team surrounding us, it’s amazing.” His daughter’s poise, confidence and control over the medal match, despite some nerves and the fatigue of fighting eight rounds over a 17- plus hour day, was impressive, he said. “You know you’ve got to rise to the occasion, and especially (in) the Olympics, anything can happen,” he said. “You’ve got to be ‘on’ that day and you’ve got to have a little bit of luck on your side, as well, and we had both.” And while Park was a medal favourite, entering the Summer Games ranked fourth in the world, an appearance on the podium was put into question early Thursday after she was defeated in the quar- ter-final 2-0 (6-7, 5-9) by eventual gold medalist Yujin Kim of South Korea. DANIELLE DA SILVA New contract harmonizes pay, is among richest in Canada Teachers’ salaries to skyrocket M ANITOBA’S first mega-contract for public school teachers will raise general wages by more than 12 per cent and establish a stan- dardized salary scale for 2026-27. By the end of the historic agreement, which combines 37 division-specific contracts and spans July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2026, the province’s most vet- eran and highly trained educators will earn upwards of $125,000, regardless of where they work. “These salary figures are astro- nomical. Manitoba teachers are now among the highest paid in the country and Canada is already known for being relatively generous when it comes to teacher salaries,” said Cameron Hauseman, an associate professor of educational administration at the Uni- versity of Manitoba. Hauseman said the new contract should entice more people to enter the teaching workforce at a time when schools are grappling with staffing shortages. The Manitoba Teachers’ Society rallied its anglophone members — who have been without a contract for the last two school years — to vote on a new tentative collective agreement between Aug. 1 and Wednesday. Ninety-five per cent of voters cast ballots in favour of the deal. The turn- out rate was nearly 70 per cent. Teachers endorsed annual salary hikes of 2.5 per cent, 2.75 per cent, three per cent and three per cent with an additional “retention adjustment” of one per cent during the final year. MTS said members can expect an overall increase of 12.85 per cent. Substitute rates are being topped up accordingly. The public-sector union has long advocated for provincial bargaining to harmonize salaries and working conditions. The former Progressive Conservative government introduced legislative changes in 2020 to lay the groundwork for a singular, all-encom- passing contract. “When the extra one per cent came onto the salary offer from the employ- er’s organization, along with even- tual harmonization of the collective salaries — those things sealed the deal for us,” lead negotiator Arlyn Filewich told teachers during a virtual briefing last month. Filewich said staff members con- cluded binding arbitration was likely to yield a similar or worse deal, owing to a recent pattern in public-sector negotiations that does not include a “retention adjustment.” An impasse in salary negotiations led union and employer representa- tives to schedule arbitration hearings for this fall. The parties continued to meet in the hopes of reaching an agreement beforehand. A tentative deal was reached July 11. MAGGIE MACINTOSH Drug dealer sentenced on weapons charge He pulled the trigger, but escapes murder rap HOMICIDE charges were stayed against a Winnipeg drug dealer who killed a man he thought was about to rob him at gunpoint in a West End drug house — but a Manitoba court gave him a 4 ½-year sentence for ille- gally possessing the sawed-off shotgun he used to shoot his would-be assailant in the neck. Winnipeg Police Service homicide detectives flew to Toronto to arrest Neigel Ryan Noel, 55, on June 2, 2022, where he had fled after investigators identified him as their suspect in the killing of 39-year-old Scott Matthew Catcheway in a two-storey triplex on Young Street between Ellice and Sar- gent avenues a month earlier. Police found Catcheway dead outside the Young Street residence, after offi- cers were called to the scene about a disturbance and assault at about 9 p.m. on May 4, 2022. But the day before Noel was put in cuffs in Ontario, Crown prosecutors in Manitoba entered a stay of proceed- ings on the second-degree murder charge, court records show. The stay was entered out of court, so the exact reasoning behind the pros- ecution’s decision is unclear, though details included in his sentencing for the gun charges suggest a self-defence argument could have been raised if the matter went to trial. The WPS released few details of what occurred at the time, saying only that Noel shot Catcheway in a dispute at the house. ERIK PINDERA ● TEACHERS, CONTINUED ON A2 ● WEAPONS, CONTINUED ON A2 ● BRONZE, CONTINUED ON A2 ANDREW MEDICHINI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Winnipeg’s Skylar Park celebrates after winning a bronze medal in taekwondo against Lebanon’s Laetitia Aoun Thursday in Paris. ;