Winnipeg Free Press

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HIGH 0 — LOW -2 SPORTS PIONK, EHLERS: FROM FRIENDS TO FOES / D1 Man arrested in spree of fires worked at two of the eateries hit Arson suspect ex-staff: restaurants SCOTT BILLECK AND CHRIS KITCHING A MAN accused of setting more than a dozen fires downtown and in the north part of the city has personal connec- tions to at least two of the businesses that were targeted. Jesse Wheatland, 35, who was arrest- ed Monday and charged with multiple arson, break-in and damage-related offences that targeted restaurants and other places — including the constitu- ency offices of two Manitoba cabinet ministers — had worked at both Com- monwealth Kitchen and Bar and the Exchange Event Centre, the Free Press was told Thursday. “He messaged me occasionally asking for work, so I gave him security shifts when available,” Commonwealth Kitchen and Bar owner Nikola Ma- harajh said. “What makes it more odd… my understanding is he had good relations with everyone. He’s been around for a while. I always try to help people when they ask nicely, and he was always nice.” Junel Trinidad, general manager of the Exchange Event Centre, said Wheatland worked for a few months as a bartender’s assistant in 2022, but was fired after poor behaviour. “At the beginning, he was normal, just a regular person wanting to work and be a part of the culture,” Trinidad said. “Quickly, he turned out to be, for the lack of a better word, he just became weird in interactions with my- self, the staff and the patrons. It was just not jibing.” He said Wheatland lacked work ethic and wasn’t reliable. ● ARSON, CONTINUED ON A3 Ex-dean accused of ‘mathematically impossible’ grade change A NOW-SENIOR executive at Brandon University turned a student’s failing grade into an A+ when she was the dean of science, a move that overrode the course instructor’s concerns and is raising questions about grading oversight in the aftermath. Multiple sources corroborated de- tails about an April 2022 incident that took place when Bernadette Ardelli was overseeing eight departments and two programs in the faculty of science at BU. Ardelli has since been promot- ed to vice-president for research and graduate studies. “She gave a grade that was mathe- matically impossible,” one university employee — who agreed to an inter- view on the condition of anonymity — told the Free Press. Concerns about the incident resur- faced internally on campus this fall. The Free Press has learned that, as the winter term was coming to a close in 2021-22, Ardelli replaced a final grade of F despite the instructor’s insistence the student — who is related to someone known to the then-dean outside campus — had not actively participated or completed assignments throughout the course. Leaked documents show the student originally received a 45 per cent in the advanced science course known for being time-intensive, owing to all the hands-on labs required. That mark — which translated to an F in BU’s letter grade system — was updated in the university’s internal database within 24 hours, according to multiple documents. The syllabus was set up so that even if the student in question had earned 100 per cent on every outstanding assignment, presentation and lab, the highest possible mark they could have received was 85 per cent. An A+ is the equivalent of 90 per cent or higher. More than a half-dozen different people with connections to the uni- versity have independently verified the chain of events in recent weeks. Both first-person accounts and emails reveal employees and alumni are concerned the former dean has been sharing an incomplete picture of the three-year-old incident. Leaked documents, school sources detail April 2022 ‘open secret’ on Brandon campus MAGGIE MACINTOSH LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER ● GRADES, CONTINUED ON A2 Union furious as St. B nurse attacked; man, 27, arrested Nurses threaten mass grey-listing T HE Manitoba Nurses Union is threatening to “grey-list every hospital” in the province after a nurse was sexually assaulted in the parkade of St. Boniface Hospital this month — the latest violent incident against a staff member at a health facility. Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson confirmed Thursday the victim was a nurse. “We talk about safety, we give exam- ples of what needs to happen, and noth- ing happens until an incredibly heinous event like this happens, and suddenly the employer is putting out memos, and they’re busy fixing safety.” Grey-listing a care facility means staff discourage other nurses from taking work at the site as a result of workplace concerns, including vio- lence and understaffing. In the summer, nurses voted to grey- list the Health Sciences Centre after a series of sexual assaults in and around the hospital. Winnipeg police said the woman was assaulted around 11 p.m. on Nov. 8 by a man who had asked her the time after she got out of her vehicle. “She was trapped between two vehicles and sexually assaulted,” the Winnipeg Police Service said in a release Thursday. The attacker ran away when the woman screamed; security was noti- fied and police were contacted. Police said the nurse didn’t require medical attention. MALAK ABAS ● HOSPITAL, CONTINUED ON A2 MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FLEETING FORMS, PERFORMED Choreographer and dancer Ralph Escamillan (left), and dancers Julious Gambalan and Carol-Ann Bohrn perform an excerpt of Escamillan’s Croquis, presented by Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, on Thursday. The project explores memory, identity and impermanence through a paper set and garments Escamillan makes for each show. See story on Page C1. ;