Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 10, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba Daniel Friedman and Rob Dalgliesh PRESENTED BY T I C K E T S S T A R T A T $ 2 5 TICKETS & INFO wso.ca Stewart Goodyear, piano FRENCH MASTERS THU, NOV 13, 2025 | 7:00 PM Featuring renowned works from Farrenc, Ravel and Poulenc. SERVING MANITOBA SINCE 1872 PROUDLY CANADIAN MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2025 WEATHER PARTLY SUNNY. HIGH 0 — LOW -2 NO PAPER NO FREE PRESS PRINT EDITION ON TUESDAY, NOV. 11 Staffing shortages, trauma impacting Manitoba RCMP officers’ mental health, union says Mountie suicides ‘tragic events’ Kinew talks election prep at NDP convention T HE recent suicides of two on-duty Manitoba RCMP officers have renewed calls to address burnout and revamp the force’s policing model. The union representing RCMP members confirmed one officer died by suicide in September and a second suicide death occurred last month. Both Mounties were on duty when they died. “Suicide and related rates in RCMP are just so incredibly high,” said Bob- by Baker, the prairie director for the National Police Federation. Mental-health issues are on the rise as staffing shortages force officers to work more and longer shifts, Baker said. And while force members have unlimited access to mental-health resources and psychologists, that isn’t the answer, he said. “The issue is that our officers are burned out, and regardless of the care, they’re burned out with too much work, no disconnect from work,” he said. “Whether they’re in Major Crimes or they’re in the field, they’re on call after hours, and they’re getting woken up repeatedly during the night, so it impacts their personal life, and they can’t disconnect and then their cup overflows.” A February 2024 union report titled Beyond the Badge explored mental health among RCMP officers and revealed Mounties are six times more likely to screen for a mental-health disorder than the general public. The study, which surveyed 1,348 active members of the force between June 2022 and February 2023, found 65 per cent of officers screened positive for a mental illness, up from 50 per cent in 2018. Members were more than three times more likely to have contemplated suicide in the past year than the gener- al population and more than five times more likely to have planned a suicide, the report said. Violence, trauma and high-pressure situations, compounded by organiza- tional and operational stressors and mental-health stigmatization were among the risk factors identified in the study. Manitoba RCMP investigated 58 homicides in 2024, up from 33 in 2023. “The Major Crimes Unit guys see so much awful, awful stuff and it’s just traumatic and takes a toll on you,” Bak- er said. “It’s really heavy work and you need a break, but sometimes you can’t get one.” BRANDON — Manitoba New Demo- crats, riding high in opinion polls and taking in large amounts of money in donations, were urged by Premier Wab Kinew to start preparing for an elec- tion still almost two years away. “We have seats that we would like to be able to put the work in, over the next few months, to be able to count as our base and then go on to the march into communities next door,” Kinew told more than 300 party faithful. The message, he later said, was about staying hungry. “We do have to keep that hunger and that motivation, to do the fundraising, to start our nomination process and to look ahead to the next election,” Kinew told reporters after his speech. “In that way, we’re not taking any- thing for granted.” Recent opinion polls suggest support for the NDP has grown since the party captured 34 of 57 legislature seats in the October 2023 election. The party has also had strong showings in byelections — taking a longtime Progressive Conservative stronghold last year in the Tuxedo con- stituency in Winnipeg and finishing 70 votes shy of winning another Tory seat in the Spruce Woods constituency. The New Democrats have also been raising a lot more money than the Op- position Tories. They garnered more than $1.8 million in contributions and fundraising in 2024 — roughly triple the Tories’ amount. Kinew told delegates that trend has continued, with the NDP raising $625,000 in a three-month period around the recent byelection in Spruce Woods. Kinew said he wants to ensure work continues toward the October 2027 scheduled election date. The party has just nominated its first candidate for the vote — Glen Simard, the incumbent in the Brandon East seat — and is hop- ing to make inroads into rural areas. Kinew also announced that Mark Rosner, his chief of staff, will serve as NDP campaign director in the next election. Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Manitoba, said the NDP has not experienced too much trouble in its two years in office. NICOLE BUFFIE STEVE LAMBERT Manitoba teenagers honour war victims during trip to Europe MAGGIE MACINTOSH JAMELLA Hernandez was so over- come with emotion upon learning this summer that she’d been nominated for an all-expenses-paid trip to visit Anne Frank House, among other histori- cal sites in Europe, that she started bawling. Three days into the 10-day journey, the 11th grader told the Free Press it was proving emotional for numer- ous reasons — one of which remains gratitude. The Sisler High School student is among the Manitoba teenagers who are honouring veterans and victims of the world wars overseas as part of a new provincial program. During a phone interview from Amsterdam on Saturday, Jamella reflected on how moving it was to hear firsthand the creaks in the floors of the Frank family’s hideout during the Second World War. “Seeing the place with my own eyes gave me a whole new perspective on the events connected to Anne’s life,” the 16-year-old said, adding that the se- cret annex was the most highly antici- pated stop on her first visit to Europe. A group of roughly 30 students and teacher-supervisors are following an EF Educational Tours itinerary with numerous museums, cemeteries and other memorials. They left on the eve of Indigenous Veterans Day, and will mark the mid- way point on Remembrance Day. The Kinew government announced in the spring that it would start paying for local students to travel to historic and commemorative sites of world war battlefields. The initiative was inspired by the premier’s visit to Normandy, France in June 2024 to mark the 80th anniversa- ry of D-Day. More than a year after marking that sombre milestone, Premier Wab Kinew recalled a “powerful” moment during which he witnessed a group of First Nations youth gather around a grave- stone bearing a familiar surname — Beardy. Kinew took note of the students placing a flag from their home com- munity — Pimicikamak Cree Nation, also known as Cross Lake — by this particular burial at the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery. “More kids in our province should have that same experience so we can keep this memory alive,” he said in an interview last week. Gunner Rose Beardy (1918-1942) was killed in battle about two years after he, then a 24-year-old, enlisted in the military. He registered in Win- nipeg but his parents, Abraham and Madeline Beardy, were from Pimicika- mak. Beardy is buried in a cemetery alongside 2,047 other Canadian soldiers, according to a national war memorial database. “It struck me, with everything going on in the world today, how much we live in the wake of the world wars and the peace that came after it,” Kinew said. LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS CUP ARRIVES Cpl. Erik Goodmansson and Pte. Lucas Switzer carry the Grey Cup at The Forks Sunday after it was rappelled out of a Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter. The CFL championship game will be played on Nov. 16 at Princess Auto Stadium. See story on D3. ● SUICIDES, CONTINUED ON A2 ● TEENS, CONTINUED ON A2 ● KINEW, CONTINUED ON A2 ;