Moony missive calls for curt kiss-off

WRHA directs three care homes to accommodate surge of hospital patients

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has directed three long-term care centres to make space for hospital patients, citing “exceptionally high demand for care across the health-care system.”

“Riverview Health Centre, Deer Lodge Centre and Misericordia Health Centre have been asked to identify additional temporary capacity for patients who no longer require an acute-care hospital bed but continue to need an appropriate level of care before they can transition to their next care setting,” a WRHA spokesperson told the Free Press Thursday.

“This whole-of-system response will help create additional capacity in acute-care hospitals, supporting patient flow and timely access to emergency departments and other hospital services.”

The spokesperson described the measures as part of “standard surge protocol,” atypical and temporary, but did not provide a timeline of how long patients would be staying at the health-care centres.

Truck driver blew stop sign in Broncos crash

MELFORT, Sask. - Grieving families sobbed Monday as they heard how a semi-truck driver barrelled through an oversized stop sign with a flashing red light and failed to avoid a high-speed crash with a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team.

An agreed statement of facts about the collision that killed 16 people on the bus and injured 13 more was entered in a Saskatchewan court as part of a heart-wrenching first day of a sentencing hearing for the truck driver. Roughly half of 75 victim impact statements to be submitted by friends and family members were read out.

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, 30, of Calgary, sat next to his defence lawyers as court heard he was going between 86 and 96 km/h with a load of peat moss when he drove into a rural intersection north of Tisdale last April.

The sun wasn't in his eyes. He wasn't distracted by a cellphone. And he hadn't been drinking or doing drugs. Weather and road conditions were also good, said Crown prosecutor Thomas Healey.

Restrictions to be further eased Friday

Beginning Friday, Manitobans can once again dine in a restaurant, work out in a gym, get their nails done, worship together or play hockey outdoors — as long as pandemic protocols are followed.

The provincial government’s “cautious” easing of restrictions follows weeks of lower COVID-19 case counts and a steady drop in the number of coronavirus patients in hospitals and intensive-care units.

In announcing the changes Tuesday, along with chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin, Premier Brian Pallister called it “a good day for Manitobans.”

The new provincewide public-health order, set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday, is virtually identical to a proposal floated by the Progressive Conservative government last week. It is scheduled to be in place for three weeks.

A voice from within the shelter

On a sticky-hot evening, the bus shacks of Winnipeg sit mostly empty, void both of people waiting for the bus and of people who find under their roofs a sheltered, if not entirely comfortable, place to stay. For all the words about the latter groups that have spackled the news as of late, there are few out tonight. Not on Regent, or Pembina, or Osborne, or North Main. 

There is one person. In a shelter at the awkward intersection where Marion Street and St. Mary’s Road meet, Samantha Thomas sits on the bench, arranging containers of soup. Soon, she’ll pack her cart with all her things — a tent, some blankets, a thrift store Bible — and head south to find a quieter shack to bunk in for the night. 

“I do this every day, back and forth,” she says. “When nighttime comes, I’ll go sleep in St. Vital. It’s actually scary over there, because I’m all alone in the bus shelter and everybody’s gone. I can’t believe I stay out there by myself, but when you’re tired, you’re tired.” 

This bus shelter is already in bad condition. Two of the wall panels have been smashed out; Thomas, 27, was sleeping when it happened. She didn’t even know that it had been busted until the cops came, and she woke up to find the shack inundated by rain.

MGEU resorts to arbitration for 12,000 civil servants

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union filed for arbitration this week, alleging provincial negotiators have refused to make a definitive offer on wages or discuss any non-monetary issues.

Travellers who took refuge in Winnipeg during 9/11 give thanks for the kindness of strangers

Twenty years ago on Sept. 11, Bruce and Kathryn Fleming were walking through Logan International Airport in Boston at the same time as 10 terrorists who were hell-bent on destruction and death.

The couple had just visited his parents and were on their way home to West Vancouver via a direct Air Canada flight to Vancouver.

Instead, their pilot was forced to land in Winnipeg after two planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City and North American airspace was shut down to non-military planes.

“Parts of that day could have been yesterday,” said Fleming, who now lives in San Antonio. “I can still see the fall in Winnipeg, the leaves falling off the trees. I can picture walking down to the river and the collection of stores at The Forks.