Federal government invokes Emergencies Act for ‘illegal’ blockades

Messing credits teammates for support

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - The rink had always felt like home for Keegan Messing. But in the days and weeks after his brother's death, the Canadian figure skater struggled to find solace on the ice.

In a sport that requires steely nerves to reel off big jumps, and the ability to dig deep to push through searing pain, Messing had lost his will.

"It was the question of: why am I doing this?" Messing said. "In the grand scheme of life, it was: should I still do this? Can I still do this?"

Less than four months after his younger brother Paxon died in a motorcycle crash in Anchorage, Messing is aiming for his first national title at the Canadian figure skating championships, and a spot on the world championship team. He credits fellow Canadian skaters Nam Nguyen and Piper Gilles for getting him to the start gate.

House of horrors burned for TV film

The boy watched as fire began to consume the farmhouse, while a film crew taped the blaze for a movie.

As flames engulfed the two-storey farmhouse near Kipling, Sask., the boy was looking at more than a movie moment -- he was witnessing the destruction of the house of horrors where he was held prisoner and raped three years ago by one of Canada's most notorious child molesters, Peter Robert Whitmore.

"He didn't really care about the movie," the boy's father said Wednesday, recalling the blaze that bitterly cold day in February.

"We were all glad to see the place go."

Seven Wilsons, one regional spirit

In Dryden, Ont., a 34-metre suspension bridge crosses the Wabigoon River rapids. It is named after a man who paid for a quarter of the bridge himself. A plaque recognizes Roy Wilson’s “many contributions to City Revitalization” and mentions his 40 years in the Rotary Club, whose motto is “service above self”.

My father sold business machines from the 1970s through the ’90s, during the shift from carbon copy machines and typewriters to photocopiers, fax machines, and early office computers and printers. His sales territory — which he covered mostly by car but also by propeller plane — was Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, and northwestern Ontario, though much of it really belonged to the Wilsons.

In business machines, selling the machine was only half the job — the other half was ensuring a technician would fix it in January. Wilson’s set the standard for dealers across most of my dad’s regions. My father worked with Roy’s son Greg (who would later go on to become mayor of Dryden) but really respected Roy for teaching Greg to run the company with the towns they served as the priority.

Wilson’s service routes went beyond where roads stopped. Even if customers lived north of the highway system, Wilson’s still found a way to help, using three company planes based at the Dryden airport. As a result, a stationery shop from a paper mill town served all of northwestern Ontario and later northern Manitoba. Imagine a photocopier strapped into a small plane, a technician beside it, and a gravel runway waiting at the other end.

Pimp sentenced to 11 years in prison

A man who picked up a vulnerable 17-year-old child-welfare ward on the streets of Winnipeg and coerced her into providing sexual services for several months has been sent to prison for more than a decade.

After a trial, Hassan Kargbo, who’s in his early 30s, was found guilty of sexual exploitation, making child sexual abuse and exploitation material, receiving a material benefit from sexual services provided by a person under 18, procuring a person under 18 and advertising sexual services.

Provincial court Judge Julie Frederickson sentenced him to 11 years behind bars late last month.

“Mr. Kargbo picked up a young Indigenous girl walking over the Osborne Street bridge and quickly got her involved in drug use and escorting,” Frederickson said in a written decision.

The women’s 100 metres in Tokyo ended with Elaine Thompson-Herah’s celebration. It might have cost her a world record

Thompson-Herah beats compatriot Fraser-Pryce and leads a Jamaican sweep of the podium.

Dozen of Manitoba highways remain closed weeks after storms

Thirty five highways remain closed weeks after torrential rain caused destructive flooding in several Manitoba communities.

Crews continue to assess flood damage and repair roads and highways as conditions allow, after historic precipitation washed away many routes.

Some areas in the Parkland region of the province received more than 200 millimetres of rain between June 6 and July 1.

The majority of road closures are in the Roblin area. A storm at the end of June undid a lot of repair work in the Municipality of Minitonas-Bowsman after an early June deluge, officials said.