Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 5, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 5, 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 ‘I am scared for my life’ A CORE-AREA business owner, who requested anonymity and declined to share details about his company out of fear for his life, says he and others feel they have no choice but to comply with extortion demands. “We don’t have any other option,” the man said Tuesday. “I have to work. I have to keep going for my family. I have to work for my family. I am scared for my life.” He said he continues to hand over money in exchange for promised pro- tection — but the demands never stop. “They keep coming, and they keep asking for more money,” he said, de- clining to say when he was last ap- proached. “We feel helpless. Nobody will pro- tect us.” Another business owner in the same area said it’s become like the “Wild West.” “I’ve been here for 35 years,” the man said. “There’s no solution. Even the cops can’t solve it. I’ve felt help- less for a long time. “But we have no other options. I have a family I have to support. The good thing is (my children) are almost finished with university now. So I’m happy.” Both men said they had seen a video circulating on social media of the latest arson targeting a convenience store on Logan Avenue last week. Nei- ther seemed surprised. The charred remains of Logan Convenience at 1521 Logan Ave., which was set ablaze early on Oct. 28, were visible to passersby Tuesday as contractors removed plywood from the doors and began working on the store’s gutted interior. Police confirmed the fire is being investigated as arson, though they have not said whether it is connected to a string of extortion-related attacks on local businesses. Surveillance footage of the inci- dent, which later circulated on social media, shows two people entering the store shortly after 1 a.m. One suspect appears to point a gun at the clerk while the other pours liquid from a gas can across the floor. Moments later, the armed suspect leads the clerk outside as flames en- gulf the 1½-storey building — con- structed in 1906 and once home to a CIBC branch. The attack is the latest in a growing series of violent incidents targeting businesses, many in the city’s North End, where owners say they’re being forced to pay for protection from an organized extortion racket, or face having their livelihoods go up in flames. “We are begging for help. It’s affect- ing all types of businesses,” Ahmed Muhammad, owner of the Quickie Mart on Selkirk Avenue, said in July after several businesses were hit. “People are going to get hurt. People are going to die. People have been in- side when they’ve firebombed these places.” Business owners at the time alleged four men had been demanding large sums of money to allow them to con- tinue operating. Businesses are set on fire when the owners refuse to com- ply. The owners started a group chat to detail their experiences and share information. The men, they said, also visited Ur’s Convenience Store on Sel- kirk and Magnus Foods Grocery and Convenience Store on Main Street. They said the same people threat- ened an automotive business on Sel- kirk and a beauty salon in the area. “The asks have ranged from any- where between $1,000 and $3,000 monthly or, ‘We will burn you down,’” Muhammad said, adding he received a text from one of the men demanding $500,000. Recent arson at gunpoint amplifies extortion threats for core-area businesses SCOTT BILLECK MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Firefighters clean up after the early-morning blaze. A clerk had a gun pointed at him, while another person poured an accelerant believed to be gasoline across the floor, video shows. INSTAGRAM Security video of a fire at Logan Convenience on Oct. 28. Police have not confirmed whether the fire is connected to a series of extortion-related attacks on local businesses. Former homeless man urges managed encampment CLAUDEMIER Bighetty lived in home- less encampments on and off for more than 10 years. “During that time, I was gang-in- volved, sold (and) used drugs. I did what I thought I had to do to survive. I know how vulnerable people are forced to make choices to stay alive on the streets,” Bighetty told members of city council’s community services commit- tee on Tuesday. After getting sober, finding a home, securing a job and getting married within the past two years, he came to city hall to share his thoughts on how the city can best help people in encamp- ments. Bighetty supports the city’s new policy to ban encampments in many public spaces, including around schools and daycares. However, he said his sup- port hinges on the addition of a “man- aged encampment to housing” site. “I have seen how the lack of safe sup- port spaces drives cycles of violence, theft and instability. Simply displacing people does not fix these problems. Managed encampment sites where people can access continuous (sup- ports)… provides a path out of survival mode and into recovery, stability,” said Bighetty. Such a site would offer safety and fire prevention service, portable toi- lets, a water supply, tents and heaters. People who stay in the spaces would be required to work on a housing plan. Bighetty, who is now a homeless out- reach worker for St. Boniface Street Links, said he once broke into a busi- ness, then waited for police to arrive and arrest him, all in the hope of find- ing addictions treatment. He said he would have explored the managed encampment option, if it had been available. In September, city council approved a policy to prohibit camps from play- grounds, pools, spray pads, recreation facilities, schools, daycares, adult care facilities, medians, traffic islands, tran- sit shelters, bridges, docks, piers, rail lines and rail crossings. They are also prohibited when a “life-safety issue exists” and wherever they could pose a hazard or obstruction to vehicle or ped- estrian traffic. On Tuesday, Bighetty was one of sev- eral members of St. Boniface Street Links who urged councillors to pair that policy with a managed encamp- ment-to-housing project. “I think that we need to think about a way forward that does… protect the public while at the same time protects interests of those living unsheltered,” Marion Willis, executive director of Street Links, told the committee. JOYANNE PURSAGA ● RACKETS, CONTINUED ON B2 ● ENCAMPMENT, CONTINUED ON B2 Drug rehab staffer injured in attack by armed resident A STAFF member at a Winnipeg drug rehab centre, frequently used as an inpatient facility for people involved in the criminal justice system, was at- tacked and seriously injured by a resi- dent armed with a weapon. City police responded to reports of an assault at the Behavioural Health Foun- dation at 35 Avenue de la Digue short- ly after 9 p.m. on Oct. 24. The victim, a person in their 20s, was transported to hospital in unstable condition, and later upgraded to stable condition, Win- nipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said. Officers arrested a 29-year-old woman and charged her with assault with a weapon and breaching a release order. Police withheld further details about the victim. The Free Press has confirmed the ac- cused involved in the attack is Jennifer Marie Pollard, who was being treated at the foundation’s inpatient facility in St. Norbert. A judge in Manitoba’s mental health court had ordered her to complete ad- dictions programming during a hear- ing on Aug. 14, after she pleaded guilty to a pair of robberies at Winnipeg gro- cery stores. In one case, she stole about $55 worth of batteries and hygiene products, and then tried to punch a loss prevention officer. In another case, she threatened an employee at a different grocery store with a knife while attempting to steal a donation box containing about $20, court heard. A review of court records shows Pol- lard has had a handful of other convic- tions in recent years. Crown prosecutor Eric Hachinski once told court she suffered from an “exceptionally traumatic past.” “From the Crown’s perspective, cer- tainly, our primary concern is that she gets help, I think both for the sake of the public, in terms of what’s being go- ing on, and for her, as well,” Hachinski said to Judge Sidney Lerner during a sentencing hearing in August 2023. At the time, Pollard was appearing before the court on charges of breaking and entering, and mischief. Defence lawyer Amado Claros said Pollard was born in B.C. and spent time in Chilliwack in the early years of her life. Her father killed her mother when she was a child, at which point her grandparents brought her to Winnipeg to live with them. He said Pollard turned to the “heavy consumption” of marijuana as a coping mechanism. “That, unfortunately, was worsened by her hanging around with the wrong crowd, where she started experi- menting with meth,” Claros said. Lerner urged Pollard to stay off drugs, warning her, “Meth is going to turn you into a regular customer at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.” During the hearing in August, Judge Kael McKenzie granted Pollard release into the drug treatment program. She was ordered to appear weekly in men- tal health court; records show she had been complying with that requirement. TYLER SEARLE ● ATTACK, CONTINUED ON B2 MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Street Links outreach worker Claudemier Bighetty has first-hand experience with homelessness, which he uses to inform his approach. ;