Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 17, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba FRIDAY JANUARY 17, 2025 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM SECTION B CONNECT WITH WINNIPEG’S NO. 1 NEWS SOURCE ▼ CITY ● BUSINESS Historic building joins long list of burned-out Main Street properties Sutherland Hotel remains add to inner-city blight A 140-YEAR-OLD building in the heart of Winnipeg’s inner city has been reduced to rubble, leav- ing another gaping hole along a stretch of Main Street that community mem- bers say is being abandoned by the city. The charred remains of the Suther- land Hotel rose only a few feet high off the ground on Thursday morning, hav- ing been demolished overnight, hours after a fire ravaged the vacant three- story building on Wednesday. “It’s just sad,” said Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winni- peg. “Our built heritage is stories about our city and our life and our history. It’s the soul of our city. And we lose a piece of our identity, I believe, when we lose these buildings.” A section of Sutherland Avenue was taped off Thursday, blackened by the soot and residue from the blaze and demolition efforts. The hotel was shuttered last summer after another fire, and had fell victim to others over the years. Within eyesight just a few blocks east stood the gutted remains of the Vulcan Iron Works building that suffered a similar fate last May. A couple of blocks north down Main, another building — Holy Ascension Greek Orthodox Church — was brought to its knees by an inferno a week ago. In between are empty lots where buildings, including Surplus Direct, once stood before they, too, met a fiery demise. Data provided in December showed the city battled 182 fires on vacant properties between January and Sep- tember 2024, eclipsing 2023’s rate of 156 fires. At the time, Winnipeg Fire Para- medic Service deputy fire chief Scott Wilkinson said the city was on track to exceed 200 vacant building fires for the year. “It’s a crisis,” Tugwell said of the va- cant buildings. “If you’re in the north Main area, whether you’re a business or you live there, I’d be very alarmed to want to stay.” Some struggle with the choice. Di Brandt has lived on Austin Street, just behind the Sutherland Hotel, for more than a decade. Her original attraction to the area was affordable home prices. Soon after moving in, she found a vibrant, multi- cultural neighbourhood with dozens of artists like herself, living in close prox- imity. “It gets so many alarming headlines, and it is a troubled area,” she said. SCOTT BILLECK ● FIRE, CONTINUED ON B2 Specialized centre a system-wide example? A SPECIALIZED clinic at Winni- peg’s Health Sciences Centre could be a model for delivering same-day, specific care across Manitoba, its medical director says. For five years, the Wilf Taillieu Thoracic Surgery Clinic and Endos- copy Unit at HSC has diagnosed, treat- ed and operated on patients suffering from esophageal cancer, lung cancer and other conditions. The clinic takes same-day refer- rals and biopsies and can diagnose certain types of cancer in as few as two weeks. Prior to the clinic’s exist- ence, some conditions took up to eight weeks to diagnose. “You will never find an interven- tion like this that is universally kind of a win, win, win,” said Dr. Biniam Kidane. In 2018, before the clinic opened, HSC performed 524 related proced- ures. Last year, clinic surgeons per- formed 1,275 operations. The clinic was funded by a $3.5-mil- lion donation campaign and operation- al support from the HSC Foundation and is publicly operated. It is the only thoracic surgery clinic in Canada. The medical centre is named for the late owner of Taillieu Construc- tion, whose wife, Mavis Taillieu, was instrumental in fundraising efforts. Wilf Taillieu died in 2016 of esopha- geal cancer. He was 67. Prior to the unit’s opening, HSC was short on capacity to diagnose and treat cancer patients, and those needing immediate care could only go to an emergency room. Patients with scheduled thoracic surgeries would often get bumped for more immedi- ately life-threatening cases. “Five years ago I would say we were middle of the pack for Canada for this type of care … but now with this clin- ic, I think we’re sort of top of the pack in Canada. I would say we’re right up there delivering Mayo Clinic-level care,” he said. Kidane, who was recruited to Win- nipeg from Toronto to oversee the clinic, said the success of it is proof that prioritizing specialized care can impact the entire health-care system. “It reduces emergency wait times, emergency room utilization, health- care utilization, so it saves money for (the province), it improves the quality of life for the patients, they feel way better, and they actually feel like hu- mans,” he said. Lung and esophageal cancer rates are on the rise in Manitoba and the clinic helps to intervene on the dis- ease early for higher success rates, Dr. Sadeesh Srinathan, head of thor- acic surgery at HSC, said in a news release. According to CancerCare Mani- toba’s most recent available numbers, 910 Manitobans were diagnosed with lung or bronchus cancer in 2021. In Canada, the five-year survival rate for lung cancer is 22 per cent. Kidane would like to see the clinic’s model replicated across the medical system. “What this shows is it’s a microcosm of what can be accomplished when you focus in on what a population or a group of patients need, and then de- sign the system around it,” he said. nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca HSC facility providing ‘Mayo Clinic-level care’ NICOLE BUFFIE MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Dr. Biniam Kidane in a procedure room at the Wilf Taillieu Thoracic Surgery Clinic and Endoscopy Unit in the Health Sciences Centre. Committee votes to set aside cash for Arlington Bridge THE City of Winnipeg could soon ear- mark $30 million to complete the first steps toward replacing the Arlington Bridge. On Thursday, council’s public works committee approved a plan to devote future money to fund the demolition of the bridge, which is closed, and com- plete design work for its replacement. The motion called to authorize $20 million of capital funding in 2026 and to allow the funds to be accessed this year as a “first charge” from that future budget. The proposal also calls to add $10 million to the 2027 capital budget forecast for the project, pending city council and future budget approvals. “It’s a critical link to allow transit to go north and south. … I’m a big trades corridor supporter, and this will allow trucking and more vehicles. … There’s a huge component of active transporta- tion, both north and south of the Arling- ton Bridge and people will be using it,” said Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of public works, prior to the vote. The Waverley West councillor ex- pects the city would take on debt to fund the work, if council approves the proposal. Lukes said the borrowing is justified, deeming the bridge replace- ment a “generational project.” “I’ve heard a lot of feedback on the importance of the Arlington Bridge,” she said. The preliminary 2025 budget did not earmark money for the bridge replace- ment. Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) raised the motion for the funding, arguing the city must get work started to replace the “critical” transportation link. “The motion will be to keep the pro- ject moving forward, with continuous design and planning. If we just didn’t fund anything right now, it would lie dead and there would be no work done because there’s just no authority to spend money,” Eadie said. In November, the city released a pro- posal to replace the bridge at its cur- rent location. It would cost $166 million, plus up to $27 million more in interest, and require six years to build. However, the city had just $149 mil- lion left to borrow within its council-im- posed debt strategy when that estimate was released. Eadie hopes to secure at least some of the funding from the other levels of governments. The Arlington Bridge, which opened in 1912, closed suddenly on Nov. 21, 2023, due to structural concerns. The latest price estimate to replace the bridge plummeted from a 2019 pro- posal, which was expected to cost $319 million and offer a much wider, three- lane structure with two protected one- way bike lanes and two sidewalks. The new cheaper plan would produce a nar- rower, two-lane bridge with two shared, multi-use active-transportation paths. Council will cast a final vote on the budget on Jan. 29. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca X: @joyanne_pursaga JOYANNE PURSAGA No parole for 18 years for ‘Jekyll-and-Hyde’ character Life sentence for killing gang rival ERIK PINDERA A “JEKYLL-AND-HYDE character” who was considered a role model in his community was sentenced to life in prison Thursday without the possibility of parole for 18 years for fatally shoot- ing a gang rival on a downtown Winni- peg street. Gunni Abdi Hassen, 27, was convicted last fall of second-degree murder in the death of Abdulwasi Ahmed, 30, who was shot in the forehead on Garry Street on Feb. 9, 2022, during a shootout sparked by a beef over drug turf. Hassen, clad in a bow tie, dark suit and shackled feet, showed no visible emotion as he heard his sentence read. “He was seen as a stellar citizen by family and friends, but as a drug-deal- ing killer by facts established at trial,” said Court of King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin of the difficulty of assess- ing Hassen’s character when determin- ing his parole ineligibility. The sentence was just shy of the 20 years sought by Crown prosecutor Libby Standil. The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life with- out a chance at parole for 10 years. Hassen came to the country as an Eritrean refugee at age 11 and did well academically and socially. He worked for the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba — which, ironically, included being a facilitator for a gang prevention program, said Martin — and was inter- ested in becoming a firefighter. He was described as a commun- ity-minded person in support letters filed in court, with people who knew him expressing shock at the charge. Standil argued those plaudits were a smokescreen to obscure who he really was. Defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg had asked for 12 years of parole ineligibil- ity, arguing Hassen fell into a lifestyle “that he wasn’t proud of” and hid it from friends, family and co-workers out of shame, having fallen prey to the lure of easy money and the “siren song” of unsavoury acquaintances. “In the end, Mr. Hassen appears to be a Jekyll-and-Hyde character,” said Martin. “Even in court, sitting in the prisoner’s box wearing a suit and bow tie, he was well dressed and mannered … with a gentle … demeanour.” Martin said that was the opposite of the expression shown in his 2022 po- lice photo and his criminal lifestyle as a “menacing drug dealer who was able to arm himself with a loaded handgun, and for unknown reasons, chose … to kill another east African gangster in a wild shootout.” At trial, court heard evidence that the two gangs had been sparring over drug dealing and there had been “tit-for-tat violence and killings” since 2019. Hassen and other members of his gang were doing dial-a-dealer drug sales, packaging crack cocaine in a Mc- Dermot Avenue apartment suite, before two caretakers there would drive them to drug deals the night of the slaying, court heard. ● SLAYING, CONTINUED ON B2 ;