St. Boniface culinary matriarch’s presence, devotion are much missed

Irène Kirouac’s smile was as iconic as her restaurants.

Cases in classrooms, concern at home

The email, with a blunt subject line: Public Health Letter, arrived in Ryan Dueck’s inbox at 9:26 a.m. Thursday — one week after students at Grant Park High School returned after summer break.

The father of four school-aged children says he felt a pang of déjà vu once he opened it and saw a generic COVID-19 case notice: “Well, here we go again."

With the 2021-22 academic year underway, hundreds of families have already received dreaded notices about cases in classrooms.

Manitoba's school dashboard, which is updated twice weekly, indicates 19 cases have been reported among staff and students since Sept. 7.

More residential units subject to rent control: minister

The province is expanding the number of residential units that are subject to rent control.

Starting next year, units with monthly rent as high as $2,000 will be regulated under the Residential Tenancies Act. Currently, the threshold is $1,670 per month.

“This is a good thing,” Right to Housing Coalition spokesperson Yutaka Dirks said Thursday. “For those people who weren’t covered but will now be covered, that’s certainly a positive. It’s something that we called for,” the advocate said.

The change is intended to protect affordable housing for more Manitobans by expanding the number of units subject to rent-regulation rules, a news release said Thursday.

Mail bomber Guido Amsel receives life sentence for ‘extremely calculated’ plan

For trying to kill his ex-wife, mailing three bombs within the city, and causing an explosion that cost a local lawyer her hand, a former Winnipeg autobody mechanic has been sentenced to life in prison and will not be eligible for parole for at least 17 years.

Guido Amsel, 52, was silent as he was led out of a full courtroom after hearing the judge's decision Thursday afternoon.

In a decision that called out Amsel's "extremely calculated" plan to create and mail out potentially lethal explosives, his repeated attempts to kill his ex-wife, and his conspiracy theories against the justice system, provincial court Judge Tracey Lord also recognized the "strength and resilience" of Maria Mitousis, who lost her hand in an explosion after she opened a package Amsel sent her.

"Mr. Amsel is not remorseful. He has not taken responsibility for his actions and continues to deny involvement in the offences," Lord said in her decision, which was broadcast live from the courtroom by Global TV. "He has attempted to place responsibility on others for these offences and alleges corruption at all levels of the justice system as an explanation for his present circumstances.

Heavy rain, wind sweep across Manitoba communities

Kelvin Siemens hoped he was dreaming when a tornado touched down near his home Sunday evening.

When he woke up the next morning, the southwestern Manitoba farmer confirmed it was no dream, as his barn and hay shed was toppled and a pile of rubble was left behind.

“This kind of devastation can really test your constitution,” Siemens, 65, told the Free Press from his farm just south of Kola, a small community in the Rural Municipality of Wallace-Woodworth.

The tornado was reported near Elkhorn, about 105 kilometres west of Brandon, at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. A second tornado touched down near Maryfield, Sask., located southwest of Elkhorn.