Brewery’s new patio designed to add spark to Exchange District

Waiting for Cormier verdict the ‘calm before the storm’

As the jury room door closed behind the seven women and four men who are now deliberating on the evidence against Tina Fontaine’s accused killer, Thelma Favel rose from the chair she’s occupied for most of Raymond Cormier’s second-degree murder trial.

Almost every day over the past three weeks, Favel, the woman who raised 15-year-old Tina, has sat right up front, directly across from the jury box, listening, sobbing and soaking in disturbing details of the teen’s last days that have come to light over the course of Cormier’s second-degree murder trial.

On Wednesday afternoon, after Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal instructed the jury and sent them off to be sequestered until they decide whether 56-year-old Raymond Cormier is guilty of killing Tina, Favel got up and hugged Crown prosecutor Breta Passler. It was one of many moments, this one shielded from jurors, that have long since proven the emotional impact of the case and the lasting power of Tina’s legacy.

Tina’s death sparked a public outcry that renewed calls for a national inquiry into disproportionately high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls across Canada, and the criminal trial for the man accused of killing her hasn’t happened in a vacuum.

City rec facilities crumbling

Throughout Winnipeg, decades-old community assets — pools, arenas and recreation and leisure centres — are deteriorating so quickly that service disruptions are inevitable.

Meanwhile, the city’s community services department, which is responsible for managing those assets, operates with an annual deficit of roughly $80 million, meaning there are scant resources to do little more than bail water on a sinking ship.

Soon, Winnipeggers will have a choice: fewer community services or higher costs.

“It poses a huge challenge because we have very limited dollars that we have to invest in our existing facilities. We also have growing demands for new amenities in new areas. We have to be very strategic,” said Ken McKim, manager of asset management for the department.

No Christmas trees, no Christmas trees — the lots are empty as can be

It might take a Christmas miracle to get your hands on even a scraggly Charlie Brown-style tree this holiday season.

Winnipeg garden centre owners interviewed Monday morning said they are totally sold out and they’ve never seen stock vanish this quickly in all their years in the business.

They likened it to the holiday version of panicked shoppers binge-buying toilet paper when the COVID-19 pandemic first arrived in the province back in March.

“I’m sold out,” declared Ray DuBois, owner of Ron Paul Garden Centre on St. Mary’s Road. “I could see it coming back in August. When we placed our order, I bumped it up by 10 per cent.”

Election results: School trustees 2026

Below you’ll find live 2026 election results for school trustees in Winnipeg divisions.

We can display results only for wards in which Winnipeg voters cast a ballot; we do not have access to live results reporting for school boards outside of Winnipeg.

Transit driver killed in knife attack on U of M campus

A Winnipeg Transit driver was killed early this morning after he was stabbed by the only passenger on his bus at the University of Manitoba campus.

Irvine Jubal Fraser, 58, was rushed to hospital in critical condition but later died, police said.

The attack occurred at about 2 a.m. in the area of Dafoe Road West and Gillson Street.

Witnesses pointed officers led by the canine unit in the direction of the Red River, where a 22-year-old suspect trying to cross to the St. Vital side was arrested and taken into custody.

‘Thank you, Winnipeg’: Gillingham wins second term as city’s mayor

Scott Gillingham won a second term as Winnipeg mayor in Wednesday’s municipal election, while Noah Redden surged to a top-three finish and more than half of the city’s 15 councillors seats were claimed by political newcomers.

Unofficial results gave Gillingham 39.82 per cent of the vote, followed by Kevin Klein (20.71 per cent), Noah Redden (19.84 per cent) and Mike Vogiatzakis (9.66 per cent) in a field of 12 candidates — the most since 1992.

“Tonight, you have given me the honour of serving as your mayor once again,” Gillingham, joined by his wife Marla and other family members, said in front of more than 100 cheering supporters who waved blue and orange pompoms at the Birchwood Inn in St. James. 

“I have to tell you, it means even more to me this second time. Thank you, Winnipeg. I will never take your trust for granted. I still believe our city’s best days are ahead of us.”