Top court sets sentencing framework for cases involving Indigenous offenders, victims

Mining industry appreciates support for critical mineral extraction in federal budget

This week’s federal budget included an emphatic acknowledgment from the Trudeau government of the importance of the mining industry in this country, in particular the extraction and processing of so-called “critical minerals.”

Cockerill’s already successful year keeps getting better

Life is pretty rich these days for Aaron Cockerill.

Man pleads guilty to manslaughter for chasing, stabbing man downtown

An intellectually disabled man who drunkenly chased down a man he had been arguing with and fatally stabbed him in broad daylight admitted to manslaughter on Wednesday.

Matthew Gerald Tomack Pelletier, now 38, chased Ricky Dwayne Mancheese, 49, down Kennedy Street before stabbing him six times in front of his wife on the sidewalk between Sargent and Cumberland avenues, at about 11:50 a.m. on June 11, 2024.

Pelletier, who police arrested the next day, was charged with second-degree murder, but instead pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter in front of Court of King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey on Wednesday.

“This type of incident on Winnipeg streets is all too common and must be strongly deterred,” said McKelvey.

Law will curb e-scooter enthusiasts

For people concerned about safety on Manitoba’s sidewalks and roadways, the province’s announcement that new rules will be introduced next year regarding the use of e-scooters and other personal electric vehicles (PEVs) was no doubt met with an enthusiastic “It’s about time.”

As their popularity and their presence among pedestrians on sidewalks and/or motor vehicles on the road has increased steadily, so have reports of close calls or, even worse, collisions involving e-scooters or other PEVs — including electric skateboards, hoverboards and unicycles — being operated imprudently and at unsafe speeds.

Traffic laws urgently need to be updated to govern the use of these conveyances, which up until now have remained in a regulatory grey area that has allowed PEVs to operate largely without guidelines and outside conventional avenues of traffic-safety enforcement. Accordingly, updates regarding PEV use will be included in the Highway Traffic Act in 2027.

The new legislation will govern such areas as mandatory helmet use, age restrictions, where PEVs can lawfully operate and the maximum speed at which they can travel (25 km/h). The aim of the new law, according to the province’s website, is “to help keep Manitobans safe when sharing roads, paths, and other public spaces.”

The currency of trust

Over the course of three weeks last month, I saw three very different sides of Dr. Ernest Cholakis — philanthropist, distinguished alumnus and dental surgeon.

The last of these was the most personal. And painful.

A week after watching Ernest receive the University of Manitoba’s distinguished alumni award for lifetime achievement — an honour for which I was one of his nominators — I arrived at his clinic with a tooth that had cracked in half. The pain had become considerable and, although his schedule was full, he found a way to fit me in.

Ernest has been my dentist for more than a decade, although our relationship has extended well beyond dentistry into friendship and a shared involvement in the cultural and community life of Winnipeg. I thought I knew him reasonably well. But helping to prepare his nomination introduced me to aspects of his professional life I had never fully appreciated.