Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 21, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Anagram contest PRESENTED BY + LOCALLY OWNED FOR 40 YEARS!! PLAN YOUR OWN ADVENTURE TODAY WITH Book your dream vacation with a trained & experienced professional, with expertise throughout the orient! Unscramble the weekly anagram for your chance to win an unforgettable VIA RAIL TRIP TO THE CANADIAN ROCKIES Contest runs November 3 to December 7, 2025 Read the News & Ride the Rails SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 204.697.7001 800.542.8900 HOW TO PLAY: • Read the Free Press each day from Monday to Saturday and look for our “Read and Ride the Rails” contest ad that contains our daily letters(s). The daily contest ad can be found in the Free Press print edition and on our Free Press E-Edition app. Be sure to download the app today! • Each week collect all the letters provided over Monday-Saturday and once you’ve solved the anagram, submit your ciphered anagram word by logging in at “winnipegfreepress. com/read-and-ride-the-rails” or by scanning our Contest QR code. This website will contain our weekly submission form, our complete rules, and links to register for both our digital apps and a variety of our newsletters. Each correct answer will be awarded a single entry for our weekly draw. Every week, we will randomly draw 4 winners. EARN UP TO 3 BONUS ENTRIES! If you are a subscriber and submit the correct anagram word…. 1. You will automatically receive 1 additional entry! 2. If our records show that you are logged into our News Break App, you will receive a SECOND bonus entry! 3. If our records show that you are logged into our E-Edition App, you will receive a THIRD bonus entry! PRIZES Weekly Prizes. Each week, four (4) winners will be randomly drawn from all correct entries (including any bonus entries). Deadline to submit is 11pm Sunday November 9,16, 23, 30 & December 7. Each weekly prize winner will receive a Canada Proud Manitoba Strong tote bag, t-shirt, mug, and sticker! Each winner will also be profiled in our Wednesday edition of our contest ad. Grand Prize. You MUST be one of our 20 weekly winners to be eligible for our grand prize draw. This draw is for our Grand Prize consisting of a 9-day Via Rial package for two to the Canadian Rockies! Value of this package is estimated at $10,000! A draw time and place will be communicated at a later date and the winner will be profiled inside the pages of our Saturday December 20th edition. This AMAZING grand prize consists of: • Two round-trip economy airfares from Winnipeg, Manitoba • Via Rail transfer from Edmonton- Jasper-Kamloops • Coach transfer from Kamloops- Kelowna • Hotel accommodation for eight nights • Walking “foodie” tour in Edmonton • Evening wildlife tour, Maligne Lake cruise, Jasper Sky Tram ride in Jasper • Zombie scavenger hunt in Kamloops • Wine tours of four wineries in Kelowna COMING SOON B2 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM NEWS I CITY / PROVINCE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2025 Rob MacKenzie, chair of Winnipeg Crime Stop- pers, said Warren is focused on building trust in his community so residents feel comfortable mak- ing calls directly. MacKenzie acknowledged it is difficult to sep- arate Crime Stoppers from police because of their close relationship, but emphasized every call is anonymous and community-driven. “The idea that Sel Burrows brought to Point Douglas, and now has been brought to William Whyte — (Crime Stoppers) is essentially the same idea,” MacKenzie said, adding the non-profit fields an average of 500 tips per month. When Burrows first set up the Point Douglas Power Line in 2007, the neighbourhood had the highest rate of violent crime in Canada, with residents making 10 to 15 calls a day. Now, it’s around three to four calls per week. Burrows credits the system with cutting the number of local drug dealers from 32 in 2007 to three today. Police data show crime in Point Douglas has dropped five per cent in the past year and 3.5 per cent over five years. “When we set it up in 2007, we didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t have a clue,” Burrows said, adding that community angst led him to give out his own number, where people could call and report crime and suspicious activity, which would then be forwarded to police. “My phone number has been on a fridge magnet and in a flyer for (nearly 20 years), and I’ve never had a prank call,” Burrows said. “Everybody who calls us respected it for what it’s for. People want to make the communities stronger.” Burrows hopes forfeiture funds will help ex- pand power lines across all of Winnipeg’s low-in- come neighbourhoods. “We need to look at giving power back to the people in the community,” he said. A tip line is also in place in the city’s Notre Dame ward, which encompasses Sargent Park, Daniel McIntyre and West Alexander neighbour- hoods. The number is 204-588-7111. scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca TIP LINE ● FROM B1 “I’m pleased that the Seven Oaks Pool is getting structural repairs done,” Sharma said Monday. “While we know the closure of the Seven Oaks pool for the next 14 months will be an adjustment for many in our community, this essential work is necessary to ensure the facility remains safe, welcoming and enjoyable for years to come.” The outdoor kiddie pool and splash pad will be open for part of next summer, but the likely six-week closure has not been scheduled. Seven Oaks Pool previously closed for more than a year beginning in 2017 for upgrades, including new family change rooms, access- ible washrooms, an expanded lobby, meeting space, a small teaching pool and Winnipeg’s first indoor spray pad. Seven Oaks will join a growing list of city-operated facilities under repair, includ- ing St. James Civic Centre Pool and Bonivital Pool, while the Transcona Kinsmen Centennial Pool sauna is also shut down for maintenance. Sharma and a city spokesperson said Bonivital Pool is expected to reopen before Seven Oaks closes. Earlier this year, the Joyce Fromson Pool at the University of Manitoba was also closed. The province’s largest university is currently in the planning stages for replacing the facility. scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca POOL ● FROM B1 $4.5M FOR INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE PROGRAMS THE province is spending more than $4.5 million on new Indigenous language degree programs at two post-sec- ondary institutions. The University of Winnipeg will get $2.3 million to cre- ate a bachelor of arts in Indigenous language immersion in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwa). It will be Manitoba’s first immersion degree program designed for second-language learners. The program will provide a pathway to teacher certification, helping fill immersion teaching positions, the Manitoba government said in a news release Monday. The province is also giving University College of the North in The Pas $1.49 million for capital costs to trans- form an existing site into a new Centre for Aboriginal Languages and Culture, and $759,000 to support program operations. A new bachelor of Indigenous languages program will focus on fluency development in Ininimowin (Cree). “Preserving the Indigenous languages of our province means passing them on to future generations. Indigenous youth will be healthier if they can speak the traditional language of their communities,” Premier Wab Kinew said in the release. “These programs train a new generation of fluent Indigenous language speakers and teachers to carry on Manitoba’s Indigenous traditions.” POLICE WARN OF OFFENDER’S RELEASE POLICE are alerting the public about a sex offender being released from jail Monday who is considered a high risk to reoffend. Sheldon Nelson Flett, 30, was expected to live in Winnipeg after serving a portion of his sentence for possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose; carrying a concealed weapon, prohibited device or ammunition; identity fraud and failing to comply with court orders. He was released from Milner Ridge Correctional Centre on Monday. The Winnipeg Police Service sent a news release Mon- day on behalf of the Manitoba Integrated High Risk Sex Offender Unit, a joint unit composed of WPS and RCMP officers. Flett has a history of sexual and violent offences and numerous breaches of probation and recognizance orders, police said. He was convicted in September 2020 of a violent sexual assault in which he threatened to kill the 16-year-old victim and her child. In 2014, Flett was sentenced as an adult for an unpro- voked robbery and beating that left a man with perma- nent brain damage. Flett was 16 at the time of the June 2011 attack inside an apartment complex. “Any form of vigilante activity or other unreasonable conduct directed at Mr. Flett will not be tolerated,” the release said. MAN CHARGED IN SUNGLASSES THEFTS A MAN is charged with stealing 40 pairs of designer sunglasses worth more than $19,000 from a store in five incidents earlier this month. The incidents happened at a retail store on the 1400 block of Portage Avenue between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a news release Monday. The last theft involved 12 pairs valued at $5,500. Police arrested a 26-year-old man at a home on the 600 block of Toronto Street at noon Friday while investigating an unrelated incident. He has been charged with five counts of failing to comply with a probation order, four counts of theft under $5,000, two counts of failing to comply with conditions of a release order and one count of theft over $5,000. He was detained in custody. FIRE IN VICTOR STREET HOME EXTINGUISHED CREWS extinguished a fire in a multi-family home on Victor Street early Monday. Firefighters were sent to the two-and-a-half storey building on the 700 block around 4:10 a.m. They declared the fire under control shortly after 4:30 a.m. Everyone inside got out before crews arrived. On Sunday, crews were sent to a vacant, single-storey commercial building on the 800 block of Main Street shortly after 2:45 p.m. and declared the fire under control shortly before 3:30 p.m. The building was damaged by several previous fires, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said in a news release Monday. Earlier Sunday, at 1:55 p.m., crews were sent to a vacant, one-and-a-half storey house on the 700 block of Talbot Avenue. They declared the fire there under control shortly before 4:15 p.m. The house was also damaged in a fire Friday. Crews were sent to the house at 11:20 a.m. and declared the fire under control about 20 minutes later. The causes of the fires, including Friday’s, are under investigation. IN BRIEF SUPPLIED Sex offender Sheldon Flett is expected to live in Winnipeg. Fort Garry Legion closing after nearly 95 years O NE of the city’s oldest legions will mark Remembrance Day for the last time before closing its doors. Fort Garry Legion No. 90, which received its of- ficial charter on Feb. 2, 1931, will surrender the licence at the end of November. The closure comes three years after the branch moved from its home at 1125 Pembina Hwy., into a former Pizza Hut a few blocks away at 762 Pem- bina Hwy. “We thought it would be a recipe for success, but it wasn’t,” Garry Reid, the branch’s vice-president, said Monday. “At one time we had 1,500 paid-up members, but today we have 300.” Several other branches have closed in the past few years, including General Sir Sam Steele Le- gion No. 117, Andrew Mynarski Branch No. 34 and General Monash Branch No. 115. Even the country’s oldest legion, the No. 1 on Sargent Avenue, surrendered its charter in 2016. Branches aren’t closing their doors just in Win- nipeg. The La Verendrye Branch No. 220 in Ste. Anne shuttered in 2018. Ron Wachniak, who had been a member of Branch 141 on Selkirk Avenue, known as the Ukrainian Canadian Veterans Branch, since 1969, said he can empathize with members of the Fort Garry Legion because he knows how sad he was when his own legion closed after 75 years in 2022. “They say if you build it they will come, but they built it and they didn’t come, but what are you go- ing to do?” said Wachniak, who also served as ser- geant-at-arms at his branch. Wachniak said many legions are in trouble be- cause they don’t have lots for members to park in and, because of changing times, those who walk through the door don’t buy as many drinks as pa- trons did in the past. He said many who do go to the legion today aren’t connected to the military or veterans. “I’m part of the colour party and people today don’t relate to it,” he said. “I’m also one of the younger guys, and I’m 77. “If you have no veterans left going, how can you have a veterans organization?” Reid said the legion decided to move in 2022 when the membership faced expensive renova- tions and repairs of the building’s basement and roof, as well as the need for a new furnace and air conditioning system. A buyer came forward “with a deal they couldn’t turn down.” “We didn’t have the money for all the renova- tions we needed to do,” he said. There is now a six-storey apartment building at the site. But Reid said the former pizza restaurant that the branch leased needed so many renovations that, including construction-cost overruns, it cost about $800,000 — most of the money it received for selling its former location. The legion is currently in discussions with the landlord about the lease. “It had been vacant for seven years and it was rat-infested,” he said. “We had a lot of work to do.” kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca KEVIN ROLLASON JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Garry Reid, vice president of Fort Garry Legion No. 90 which is closing at the end of November. ;