E.K. resident able to get away after confrontation with knife-wielding thief who broke into his truck

Winnipeg Police Service property crime investigators are searching for a suspect potentially tied to several concerning incidents in East Kildonan in recent days.

Doug Vance, a homeowner on Dunrobin Avenue who lives with his wife and two sons, woke early Tuesday and noticed the lights were on in his truck, which was parked at the rear of his home.

He was soon face-to-face with a man armed with a large knife.

“Something, I figured, was up, so I went to go find my keys and lock the (truck) door… the light didn’t go out, so that meant the door was ajar,” said the 47-year-old.

Gillingham says Portage and Main underground should stay open

Scott Gillingham said he hopes to keep the circular concourse beneath Portage Avenue and Main Street open, if he’s re-elected mayor next week.

“I would like to find a way for it to stay,” said Gillingham during the mayoral debate hosted by CJOB Wednesday.

The downtown intersection reopened to pedestrians at street level in June 2025.

When he first supported that hotly debated reopening in 2024, Gillingham called for the underground mall to be closed. At the time, the city estimated it would take $73 million and up to five years of traffic-snarling construction to repair the leaking membrane under the street that protects the properties below.

Breaking bread, building bridges

Last Friday, as the setting sun shone into the high windows of Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, Cantor Leslie Emery opened a pair of sliding brass doors at the front of the sanctuary to reveal six scrolls wrapped in coverings embroidered with Hebrew letters.

Five of the scrolls contain the complete Torah — the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — handwritten with a quill and ink on parchment. Some of the scrolls are more than 100 years old.

The congregation reads aloud from these scrolls several times a week.

“When we read the stories of the Bible, when we read the stories of the prophets, when we observe Jewish holidays, we’re actually recounting the history of our ancestors,” Emery said.

Flood mitigation project in neighbouring Interlake First Nations underway

The federal and provincial governments are moving ahead with a $61.1-million flood mitigation project aimed at protecting hundreds of homes and critical infrastructure in Peguis First Nation and neighbouring Fisher River Cree Nation.

The first phase of the long-term initiative will see clay dikes constructed to protect central Peguis and up to 500 vulnerable homes across both communities, along with road improvements to maintain access during flooding.

Federal Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty and Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor announced Wednesday that work is underway, with Ottawa reimbursing eligible provincial costs through its Emergency Management Assistance Program.

The province previously approved $15.9 million last spring for emergency flood protection and road repairs in both communities, which have faced repeated flooding and evacuations.

U of W, former professor sued over alleged sex assault

A woman who studied and worked at the University of Winnipeg has filed a lawsuit against the post-secondary institution and her former professor — a convicted sex offender — who she alleges drugged and sexually assaulted her.

The woman, a former international student from the United Kingdom and teaching assistant at the university, claims her professor and “mentor,” Derek Spencer, put a date-rape drug in her drink and groped her following a Christmas party for professors and graduate students in 2019.

“The assailant secretly placed a date-rape drug in her drink without consent and sexually assaulted her while she was in an altered and vulnerable state,” reads the woman’s statement of claim, filed in the Court of King’s Bench earlier this month.

“She suffered grave psychological and physical harm as a result.”

Arson probe launched in 3 separate fires at homes under construction

Winnipeg police have launched an arson investigation into three separate fires at homes under construction.

The latest blaze caused significant damage at two houses in St. Vital early Wednesday morning.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic crews were sent to the 200 block of Regal Avenue shortly before 4 a.m. Heavy smoke and flames were coming from the homes and were threatening nearby buildings.

Additional firefighters were dispatched to the scene and some residents of neighbouring homes were evacuated.

Multiple safety concerns in final report on fatal 2025 mid-air collision near Steinbach

A federal investigation into a mid-air collision that killed two student pilots near Steinbach last year identified concerns about radio calls, situational awareness and visual detection methods.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s final report, released Wednesday, said the two planes, belonging to Harv’s Air Service, became entangled and crashed while both pilots were on their final approach to Steinbach airport on the morning of July 8, 2025.

The victims were identified by their families as Savanna May Royes, 20, and Sreehari Sukesh, 23.

Investigators concluded the crash highlighted the limitations of the “see-and-avoid” principle (a basic method used by pilots for visual surveillance and collision avoidance), and why it is important for pilots to actively listen to radio calls from other planes to maintain situational awareness.

Playoff run for Bombers would mean longer stretch away for some

Making it in professional football is a dream come true.

Imagine starting your workday by running out of a tunnel and onto a field while thousands of people cheer you on.

You don’t experience anything remotely close to that while chained to a desk from 9 to 5.

“Like this is my job? It’s crazy,” said Winnipeg Blue Bombers kicker Sergio Castillo after Tuesday’s practice.

‘Canada is the best.’ Kinew applauds separatists’ failure in Alberta

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew threw both hands in the air Tuesday, celebrating Albertans’ rejection of separation from Canada in a referendum one day earlier.

“Yes. Canada is the best,” Kinew said from behind a podium at an unrelated press conference. “Hallelujah. It’s great.”

While votes were still being tallied on Tuesday, about 75 per cent of those who voted in Monday’s referendum in Alberta supported remaining in Canada, while about 25 per cent backed beginning a process that could lead to separation, preliminary results showed on Tuesday.

Kinew had been a vocal opponent of Alberta separating from Canada, repeatedly calling for national unity.

Word test

TESTING

Premier Wab Kinew is an imported Manitoban, born in Kenora and raised on Onigaming First Nation in Treaty Three (in northwestern Ontario) before his family moved to Winnipeg. He’s the son of well-known Anishinaabe leader and traditional knowledge keeper Tobasonakwut Kinew and Kathi Kinew.

These are the words we provided feedback on: Boniface, Cockburn, Dauphin, Dene, Hellebuyck, Iafallo, Íslendingadagurinn, Kinew, Kildonan, Malak Abas, Métis, Newfoundland, Orlikow, Pembina, Portage la Prairie, Premier, Regina, St. Vital, Samyn, Schiefele, vínarterta, Wiebe, Generation Z.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of wounds inflicted on man, murder trial told

The body of a Winnipeg man beaten to death in a North End drug house was outside a Flora Avenue church for nearly a week before it was discovered, a court has been told.

Christopher Kyle Wattman, 38, Hazel Flett, 38 and Victoria Lee Andrews, 28, are on trial charged with first-degree murder in the December 2023 killing of 20-year-old Brooklyn Elijah Hiebert.

Prosecutor Theresa Cannon laid out the Crown’s theory of the case in an opening address before Court of King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey on Monday.

Hiebert and the three accused were at a Selkirk Avenue “trap house” on the evening of Dec. 24, 2023, when Hiebert got into an argument with Flett and a number of unidentified people.