Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 22, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba PmmSTRJDES $5 ENTRY / KIDS UNDER 12 FREE LGCA # 750-RF-46735, 750-RF-46703, 750-RF-46734, 750-RF-46734 Saturday && Sunday FEBRUARY1 && 2 10 AM TO 4 PM - BOTH DAYS ASSINIBOIA DOWNS 3975 PORTAGE AVE ALL PROCEEDS FROM THIS EVENT SUPPORT Pmm strjdes Horses Helping Children With DisabilitiesFree PressSERVING MANITOBA SINCE 1872. FOREVER WITH YOUR SUPPORT.WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2025 Part of plan to 'improve safety and security': health minister Weapons scanners to be installed at HSC CHRIS KITCHING WEAPON detectors powered by AI will be installed at three entrances on the Health Sciences Centre campus in a few weeks, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told the Free Press Tuesday. The technology will be used at the adult emergency room, children’s ER and the Crisis Response Centre, which provides mental health services, in response to concerns about violent incidents and safety. “We’re moving as quickly as we possibly can to get these scanners into HSC at the entrances there,” Asagwara said. “The weapons detectors will be on site in a few weeks, and we’re looking forward to this being another part of a comprehensive plan to improve safety and security.” Health officials did not disclose the name of the company that was selected to provide scanners, nor the cost of the program. “Procurement is not yet complete, so it’s still premature to disclose,” a spokesperson for Shared Health, which operates HSC, wrote in an email. Two different systems were tested by trained staff at ER and Crisis Response Centre entrances last summer. Officials concluded both were effective at finding “items of concern,” after reviewing data from the trial period, while feedback from staff, patients and visitors indicated they felt safer, Asagwara said. The health minister said the model that was chosen has “less of a presence” than the other system that was trialled. “It’s great when you can have weapons detector technology that is not very disruptive to the space and not intimidating, and also very effective,” they said. “We also recognize there’s no one method of security that’s 100 per cent effective. This is about taking a comprehensive approach.” Asagwara did not identify the successful vendor. In response to a question about which company was chosen, the minister said they would get that information for a Free Press reporter. Asagwara said officials consulted experts and spoke to AI detector users, including True North Sports && Entertainment, to ensure the government is following “best practices” and making “informed investments” to improve safety and security. True North uses U.S.-based Evolv Technology’s Express detection system at the downtown arena. Evolv has faced claims its scanners failed to detect weapons in U.S. schools several times. A student who was stabbed at a school in Utica, N.Y., in 2022 claimed an Evolv detector failed to find the knife used by his attacker. • WEAPONS, CONTINUED ON A2 JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS 'DONALD TRUMP DOESN'T LIKE ME' Liberal leadership contender Chrystia Freeland tells supporters in Winnipeg Tuesday she considers that to be the highest accolade / A4 Rollins quits mayor's cabinet over transparency MALAK ABAS AN influential councillor blamed a lack of transparency at city hall for her sudden decision to step down from the mayor’s cabinet on Tuesday. Sherri Rollins resigned as chairwoman of the property and development committee, a position that gave her a seat at executive policy committee, considered the mayor’s cabinet. In a two-sentence letter sent to Mayor Scott Gillingham Tuesday afternoon — minutes after EPC adjourned for the day — the two-term Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry councillor said she was resigning. The letter didn’t give a reason for her departure. While she did attend a scheduled gathering of committee members prior to Tuesday morning’s meeting, she was not at the meeting. Later, Rollins told reporters she decided to step down because of repeated instances of council members not being able to access necessary information to inform their decisions about projects and expenditures, including from the mayor’s office. “The public service, in particular, I’m concerned that their information and the available time that we’ve had in the past to get briefings from them aren’t really getting through to council,” she said Tuesday. When asked to give examples, she cited a case this month in which St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes was forced to file a freedom of information request to obtain a report on federal housing funding because he said it had been withheld from council. Rollins was elected to council in 2018 and had served on the executive policy committee since then. Her departure leaves an opening on EPC. Gillingham received her resignation while speaking to reporters and said it would take “a few days” to decide on a replacement. He suggested the two don’t agree about the city’s response to the provincial government’s strategy to tackle the nagging homeless issue, which was unveiled last week by Premier Wab Kinew. “I don’t think we see eye to eye quite on how our staff is responding or ready to respond,” the mayor said. Last week, a city report called for the end of a pilot project involving weekly encampment cleanups because city staff said trash just kept piling up and the provincial government was ushering in its own plan. On Tuesday, EPC voted to end the project. Rollins noted her ward has some of the largest encampments in the province and told reporters neither the city report nor the provincial plan factored into her decision. She said she decided to quit Tuesday, but added there was an “accumulation of concerns” that informed her choice. • ROLLINS, CONTINUED ON A2 Canada ready to respond to U.S. tariffs: Trudeau SARAH RITCHIE AND KYLE DUGGAN MONTEBELLO, Que. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reached for a sales pitch instead of revealing any of his cards in his first public reply to U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Canadian imports could face heavy tariffs as early as Feb. 1. Trudeau insisted Tuesday that if Trump wants to usher in what he’s called a “golden age” for the United States, he’ll need the energy, critical minerals and resources that Canada is ready to sell. “We are there to be constructive partners,” Trudeau said at a federal cabinet retreat in Montebello, Que., that’s focused on the Canada-U.S. trade strategy. While Trump had been threatening to impose punishing tariffs on Canada on his first day in office, he opted instead on inauguration day to announce a plan to study alleged unfair trade practices. The president signed an executive order directing that the study be completed by April 1. But late Monday evening, Trump mused about giving the Canadian and Mexican economies a black eye with damaging tariffs on Feb. 1. “We are thinking in terms of 25 per cent on Mexico and Canada because they are allowing vast numbers of people — Canada is a very bad abuser also — vast numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in,” he told reporters at the White House. Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, said Trump’s bluster is part of his strategy of generating “distraction” as he seeks leverage. “Canadians know the facts. There is no criminal trafficking of fentanyl to the United States from Canada,” she said. Trudeau also pushed back on Trump’s claim, saying less than one per cent of the fentanyl and migrants that enter the U.S. come from Canada. He also boasted about the $1.3 billion his Liberal government has pumped into border security to appease Trump. But that border security plan — which includes the deployment of dozens of new drones that Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said Ottawa bought from the U.S. — has not convinced the president to stand down. Trudeau said Trump will be focused on moving quickly in the “extreme short term” and he suggested Ottawa is crafting its messaging to respond to that sense of urgency. He acknowledged there’s no telling what Trump will do or say next. “There is always going to be a certain amount of unpredictability and rhetoric coming out from this administration,” Trudeau said. The prime minister said his government’s focus is still on avoiding tariffs. If that effort doesn’t succeed, he said, Canada will respond and “everything is on the table.” • TRUDEAU, CONTINUED ON A3 WEATHER PARTLY SUNNY. HIGH -17 — LOW -27 SPORTS JETS GM TALKS TOEWS, TRADE DEADLINE / D1 ;