Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 16, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba SCAN THE QR CODE, OR FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW TO BID NOW! can.givergy.com/harvestmanitoba Auction sponsored by: Online Fundraising Auction There are over 100 exciting travel, entertainment and culinary experiences to bid on! FINAL WEEK TO BID! ARNOLD SPOHR INDUCTEE RACHEL BROWNE INDUCTEE EVELYN HART PRESENTER CATHERINE WREFORD PRESENTER CHRISTOPHER STOWELL PRESENTER WINNIPEG CONTEMPORARY DANCERS PERFORMERS SHUMKA DANCERS INDUCTEES DANCE COLLECTION DANSE PRESENTS THE 2025 DCD HALL OF FAME. CELEBRATE PRAIRIE DANCE LEGENDS GET YOUR TICKETS AT HALLOFFAME.DCD.CA NOVEMBER 9TH - AT THE MET PREMIER Wab Kinew plans to intro- duce legislation that would allow the Manitoba Court of Appeal to pre-emp- tively review any attempt by a future provincial government to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override fundamental human rights. “The bill we’re going to introduce is going to be consistent with the inter- vention we made at the Supreme Court, which is basically just saying it’s you, the people, who should have a final say in our democracy,” Kinew said in an interview. “If somebody uses the notwithstand- ing clause, even if the judiciary can’t pierce the veil so to speak, they should be able to still tell the public if this would otherwise violate people’s rights. Then, you the voter can decide at the next election how you feel about gov- ernment disregarding Charter rights in that way.” The notwithstanding clause, a provi- sion of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, allows a province or the federal government to pass a law that violates certain sections of the Charter that deal with fundamental freedoms, legal rights and equality rights. The clause permits a government to pass a law that overrides these Charter rights for five years. The clause cannot be used, however, to override democratic or mobility rights. Of issue for the Kinew government is a provision in Section 33 that shields any law introduced under the notwith- standing clause from being reviewed or struck down by a court. Last month, Kinew announced Mani- toba was joining four other provinces to intervene in a Supreme Court of Canada hearing on Quebec’s Bill 21, a law that seeks to protect Quebec’s secular status by banning public employees from wearing religious symbols, including crosses, hijabs, turbans and burqas. A detox centre could open in Point Douglas as early as Nov. 1, if the NDP government’s proposed legislation to detain highly intoxicated people for as long as 72 hours passes quickly. Bernadette Smith, the minister for housing, addictions and homeless- ness, provided the updated timeline to reporters Wednesday, six days after the province announced a plan to create a “protective care centre” at a govern- ment-owned building at 190 Disraeli Fwy. “We’ve heard from Manitobans that they want to make sure that people who are under the influence, other than alcohol, get the supports they need, and that people who are at a risk of safety to themselves and of safety of others, that they are taken off the street,” Smith said at the legislature. The property was considered a poten- tial supervised consumption site, but the NDP scrapped that proposal after backlash from the inner-city commu- nity. The minister acknowledged there is some opposition to the current proposal, but pointed out the facility is near Main Street Project, which has a 24-hour detox facility. “When we look at Main Street Proj- ect, where it’s situated right now, 190 (Disraeli Fwy.) is a block away. Folks… are going to be brought there by police, so it’s going to be no different than what is happening right now,” she said. The centre’s opening is contingent on the passage of Bill 48, the Protec- tive Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act, she said. Currently, the detention of intoxicated people is limited to a maximum of 24 hours; the law was written when intox- ication meant by alcohol. The proposed legislation seeks to triple the detention limit to account for more potent drugs such as methamphetamine, which can cause prolonged periods of psychosis. C ITY police investigating a bicycle chop shop at a Point Douglas riverbank homeless encampment found evidence it was staffed by mul- tiple people working in shifts, search warrant documents reveal. The Winnipeg Police Service charged two men with possession of stolen property after executing a search warrant in August on a tem- porary structure at the encampment, located on the bank of the Red River near Gomez Street. The search warrant, which was reviewed by the Free Press on Wednesday, was believed to be the first secured by city police for an encamp- ment structure. Search warrants are typically issued for a specific address, but in this in- stance the encampment structure was identified by its GPS co-ordinates. Police were contacted after a city employee, identified as a “senior adviser on homelessness,” reported he had been conducting a “walkthrough” of the encampment on Aug. 11 when he “noticed a large structure that he did not believe was being used as a dwell- ing,” Const. Alexander Laser wrote in a document supporting the issuing of the search warrant. “Within the confines of this struc- ture (the city employee) observed 40 to 60 bike frames, tires, as well as several intact bicycles that (the employee) considered ‘high end,’” Laser wrote. The employee, “who has knowledge about the resources and lifestyles of people inhabiting riverbank encamp- ments, was concerned that this stash of bicycles, components and parts did not lawfully belong to anyone living on the riverbank.” He took pictures from outside the structure and described it as be- ing approximately 900 square feet, constructed with tarps on four sides, and containing multiple “rooms” and no roof. One of the walls was partially down, allowing the man to see inside. The employee reported what he saw to police on Aug. 15. Laser and another police constable went to the encamp- ment later that same day. TODAY’S WEATHER RAIN. HIGH 12 — LOW 10 COMMUNITY SQUARE DANCE ANNIVERSARY SERVING MANITOBA SINCE 1872 PROUDLY CANADIAN THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2025 ● SEARCH, CONTINUED ON A3 ● CHARTER, CONTINUED ON A3 ● DETOX, CONTINUED ON A2 MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS GOOD BOY IN BRONZE Eva Reinus, 2, and her grandmother Judy Tyndall check out the bronze statue at the new K9 unit police dog memorial after the unveiling ceremony Wednesday outside the Winnipeg Police Service kennels on Durand Street. See story B2. DEAN PRITCHARD City employee alerted police to 900-square-foot workshop with dozens of bike frames Workers took shifts at camp chop shop: court docs Point Douglas detox centre could open within weeks if bill passes TYLER SEARLE Manitoba law to target use of notwithstanding clause to override Charter DAN LETT ;