Winnipeg Free Press

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You make amazing things happen at St. B When you buy a Mega Million Choices Lottery ticket today, you offer hope for tomorrow. You keep brilliant medical professionals here in Manitoba by equipping them with the best tools, technology, and training. You revitalize our St. Boniface Hospital campus to power compassionate patient care. You arm courageous researchers to discover new ways to save lives. With you on our team, amazing things happen. Say “YES” to St. Boniface Hospital. N E W 3 WINNERS! OUR BIGGEST LOYALTY BONUS EVER! DEADLINE: MIDNIGHT, JANUARY 30, 2025 CARS | CASH | VACATIONS | SHOPPING SPREES FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2025WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● A5 NEWS I TOP NEWS Dauphin school division mandates playing of God Save the King DAUPHIN-AREA schools are being asked to include God Save the King during morning an- nouncements to align themselves with a provincial regulation that has not been enforced in 25 years. The Mountain View School Division has issued new marching orders to employees to update daily protocols to include the royal anthem, a seven-line song that pays tribute to King Charles. The divisionwide change honouring Canada’s reigning constitutional monarch was anticipated to begin Thursday, but there have been delays in the rollout that require reprogramming internal public address systems. “Good governance is about adhering to laws and regulations that are in place,” school board chairman Jason Gryba said in an email. “While some legislation may become less prominent over time, it remains our responsibility to uphold it as long as it is valid.” Gryba did not say what prompted the sudden request to follow a long-ignored regulation. Schools across the province typically play O Canada and issue a land acknowledgement, in addition to sharing hyperlocal news to begin every instructional day. Manitoba became the first and only province to legislate the royal anthem in 1964 — a decade into the late Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The Schools Patriotic Observances Regulation states every regular school day must begin with pupils singing the national anthem, while either opening exercis- es or end-of-day protocols must include singing the first verse of the royal anthem. The Manitoba School Boards Association is unaware of any member currently enforcing the regulation. “This is where the whole local-choice, lo- cal-voice comes into play,” said Sandy Nemeth, president of the association representing 38 elect- ed boards of trustees. The return of the abandoned tradition in Moun- tain View is being celebrated by the Monarchist League of Canada. Lawrence Prout, co-chairman of the league’s Manitoba branch, said Mountain View’s update will, for many of its young students, serve as an introduction to the country’s electoral system. “These students, ultimately, once they’re 18, they’re going to be voting so they should under- stand how our parliamentary system works,” he said. One parent — who asked their name not be printed, citing concerns about their two children’s safety given the politically charged climate in the division — questioned why families were not con- sulted or notified about the changes. “I’m dumbfounded, to be perfectly honest. I’m dumbfounded. If this is something that is going to happen divisionwide, how did we get here? I don’t recall anything being discussed at a board level,” the parent said. From their perspective, the addition will eat into instructional time confuse younger students. They are also concerned about the well-being of Indigenous community members who have mixed emotions about historic relations between the Crown and First Nations. The school board and its members’ decisions have come under widespread scrutiny since Ward 2 trustee Paul Coffey decried anti-racism efforts and defended residential schools last spring. Manitoba Teachers’ Society president Nathan Martindale said his members have questions about request that appears to be “coming out of nowhere” and the relevance of the historical regulation. “It’s important to ask the question, in a time when we’re all supposed to be working on recon- ciliation and moving forward, especially in the public education system, ‘Is following the regula- tion doing harm to our Indigenous students and broader community?’” Martindale said. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca MAGGIE MACINTOSH LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER Man charged in fatal crash near Portage out on bail A MAN charged with stealing a truck, driv- ing impaired, then killing a woman on a highway near Portage la Prairie Wednes- day, was out on bail and had breached his release conditions at least five times, including on New Year’s Day, court records show. James Lorne Hilton, 24, of St. Andrews, is ac- cused of being involved in a three-vehicle high- way crash Wednesday morning. Mounties were sent to the scene on Highway 26, about three kilometres east of Portage, at 10:50 a.m. where they found a High Bluff woman dead, RCMP said in a news release Thursday. “We have someone that we believe was under the influence of either alcohol or a drug, so for that time of morning to be getting behind the wheel — it’s completely senseless, it’s pointless and, unfortunately, we have a 28-year-old woman who has paid the ultimate price,” Manitoba RCMP spokesman Sgt. Paul Manaigre said. “There are many family and friends that are going to miss this person for something that was easily preventable; that shouldn’t have occurred.” The preliminary investigation determined a pickup was headed westbound when it veered over the centre line, causing an eastbound pick- up to swerve. The westbound truck went into a ditch and rolled, while the eastbound truck collid- ed with a westbound SUV driven by the victim, RCMP said. The driver of the westbound pickup was able to get out of the truck and was picked up by a pass- ing motorist, who dropped him off at a nearby gas station. It was later found that the pickup truck he was driving had been stolen in Arborg, police said. “We had witnesses on scene that basically saw the truck roll. It rolled and the driver ended up basically kicking the window out to get out,” Man- aigre said. “Someone stopped to check up on him and he asked for a ride.” The driver told the person who picked him up that he needed to go to the gas station to contact his family. After he dropped the man off, the Good Samaritan grew suspicious and went back to the crash site to tell officers what had happened, Manaigre said. “That’s when we started putting two and two together,” Manaigre said. A staff member at the Flying J Travel Centre on the Trans-Canada Highway told the Free Press a man believed to be the suspect was spotted at the gas station shortly after the collision. “He had just come from that way (the direc- tion of the crash) and then like 10 minutes later the RCMP came here looking for somebody and it seemed to be the same guy,” the staff member said. The suspect entered the gas station and told staff he was waiting for a ride to Brandon. He dis- appeared before police arrived, the worker said. Investigators learned the suspect was picked up by a cab and believed to be headed to Winnipeg. The cabbie told police the man had been dropped off near a motel on the Trans-Canada Highway in Headingley, RCMP said. Police arrested the suspect within two hours of the crash, Manaigre said. “Lucky for us he rolled. Imagine he didn’t hit the ditch and kept going — would we have wit- nesses to identify him? … It just basically puts the whole timeline between the collision and the time of the arrest (so) we know what he did.” A second victim, the 21-year-old man who was driving the eastbound pickup, was taken to hospi- tal with non-life-threatening injuries, RCMP said. Manaigre said he believes that victim, who is from Portage, was treated in hospital and re- leased. A review of court records shows Hilton has a criminal history that dates back to July 2024, when he pleaded guilty to drug possession and was released on a conditional discharge. Hilton was charged the same day with break and enter, and then again in September for tres- passing, possessing tools for break and enter and failing to comply with his curfew. On Dec. 14, 17, 31 and Jan. 1, he was given sep- arate charges for violating his release conditions. None of those charges have been tested in court. On Wednesday, RCMP charged him with dan- gerous driving causing death, driving while impaired, failure to stop after a fatal collision, possession of property obtained by crime and re- sisting arrest. In addition, he has been charged with possess- ing a controlled substance for the purpose of traf- ficking. Manaigre said officers found drugs in the stolen pickup truck. Vehicles involved in the collision were seized by police and will be subject to further forensic investigation, including the retrieval of internal computers which can provide more data about the circumstances of the crash, Manaigre said. — with files from Erik Pindera tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca TYLER SEARLE MICHAEL BLUME / PORTAGEONLINE NEWS A vehicle involved in the collision. Police believe the driver who caused the crash was driving while impaired. ;