Really getting a kick out of sleeping together

Each of city's historic bridges has unique story

They span the muddy waters from which Winnipeg derives its name. They connect neighbourhood to neighbourhood. They’re a fundamental feature of our city.

Winnipeg has a reputation as a “River City,” but many don’t know the stories behind the bridges they use every day.

While a bridge may seem to be a boring piece of basic infrastructure, many of Winnipeg’s have fascinating histories that go back more than 100 years.

Letter of the law: WPS, IIU clash in court

A precedent-setting legal dispute between the Winnipeg Police Service and the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba has taken an important step forward.

Competing interpretations of the rules governing police clashed Tuesday in the Court of Queen’s Bench, as lawyers representing the two agencies presented their arguments for the first time in open court.

At the centre of the case is the question of whether WPS cadets — civilian employees of the police service — can be compelled to hand over their notes to IIU investigators.

“At its core, this dispute is between two competing interpretations of a section of the Police Services Act… We suggest there is a duty owed by the Winnipeg Police Service to the IIU that is not being satisfied,” IIU lawyer Samuel Thomson said.

Creep up of COVID cases causes classroom concern

With virtually no COVID-19 restrictions in place, some schools are recording an increase in novel coronavirus activity — a trend prompting public health to issue alerts and worrying parents and educators alike ahead of spring break.

At least four different community notification letters — notices sent out on a case-by-case basis that indicate public health officials have either identified increased virus transmission in a school, initiated a rapid testing program as a result of higher-than-usual absenteeism, or recommended temporary remote learning for one or more classes — have been issued to families in Manitoba over the last 20 days. A minimum of two letters were sent out this week alone.

Winnipeg mother Britt Bauer said she is unfazed by such emails after two years of living in a pandemic, and the latest one from Luxton School was particularly unsurprising, given recent events.

Families in Manitoba’s largest division were informed Wednesday about “increased COVID-19 cases and respiratory disease activity” in the elementary building at 111 Polson Ave.

Embarking on backyard photo expedition benefits science, conservancy says

Manitobans can contribute to a global scientific database that helps scientists further understand local wildlife by simply going outside and snapping some photos.

The Big Backyard BioBlitz, which began earlier this week and ends Monday, is an annual national event organized by the Nature Conservancy of Canada that encourages people to record wildlife observations and submit them to researchers.

People can take photos of animals, insects or plants at any outdoor space and submit them virtually through the NCC website. The program is a great way for people to take part in protecting the environment, said Christine Chilton, the conservancy’s Manitoba region community development manager.

“It becomes really easy to say, ‘The climate is in trouble and things are not going the way we want them to, I wish somebody would do something about it.’ This is a really neat way for people to be a part of the story and help make a difference.”

Hydro scrambling to restore power to remaining 4,500 customers after storm; some outages will continue into Saturday

Power outages could stretch into a third day for some Manitobans — mainly in and around Winnipeg — while crews continued to repair widespread damage caused by powerful thunderstorms.

About 4,500 Manitoba Hydro customers were still without electricity at 2:30 p.m. Friday, after more than 30,000 lost power while powerful winds brought down trees and power lines Wednesday night and early Thursday.

The Crown corporation said it is aiming to have all outages with greater numbers of customers restored by Friday night, but some customers may remain without power into Saturday.

“The challenge is just the sheer scale of this thing — hundreds of different outages spread across a large part of the city,” Hydro spokesman Peter Chura said. “Just getting to all of them in a timely fashion is very difficult.”