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BRANDON — A serial arsonist who believes controlled burning is his “calling” was sentenced to nine months in jail and barred for two years from a southwestern Manitoba community after he deliberately set multiple grass fires during a fire ban in May.

Phillip Andrew Unrau, 72, created a dangerous situation for residents of Margaret and a nearby Hutterite colony on the evening of May 21 when he set fire to several patches of grass along a railway bed, provincial court Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said on Wednesday.

People in the community, located 45 kilometres southeast of Brandon, called the fire department. While no residents saw Unrau light the fires, he made incriminating comments to witnesses and was found alone near the burning land that stretched for 274 metres, the judge said.

“The damage to property here was minimal, but the emotional and psychological harm that Mr. Unrau causes to his neighbours is significant,” she said.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I married the wrong man. I was 18, and two brothers were interested in me at the same time, and chose to go out with the handsomer of the two. I married him three years later, and we looked like Barbie and Ken dolls.

Manitoba could soon have an autism strategy for the first time, thanks to a private member’s bill that’s garnered rare all-party support in the legislature.

Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux’s Bill 232, the Autism Strategy Act introduced in March, would require the government to establish a policy designed to improve the screening and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and support research.

It would identify ongoing supports and services needed by people with autism and their families and caregivers. It calls for annual reports tracking the implementation of the measures identified in the strategy, with a mandatory review and updates of the legislation every five years.

The bill goes before the legislature’s standing committee on social and economic development committee Friday. As of Wednesday, 87 private citizens and organizations registered to weigh in on the proposed legislation.