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The RCMP have responded to threats to schools in Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Steinbach, Russell, and Portage la Prairie in the past two days.
Two incidents occurred on Wednesday.
In OCN RCMP responded because of a threat written on a bathroom wall at Joe A. Ross School. The RCMP are still investigating that incident.
Also on Wednesday, Steinbach RCMP responded to the Steinbach Regional Secondary School because of reports that a student brought a pellet gun to school and threatened another student. A 15-year-old was arrested that day and is facing charges of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, carrying a concealed weapon x2, uttering threats and assault.
Yesterday there were another two incidents.
In Russell, RCMP responded to a threat at Major Pratt School. A threat was posted to asocial media, leading to the arrest of a 13-year-old female. She is facing a charge of uttering threats.
Finally, Portage RCMP responded to Portage Collegiate Institute because of a report that a student brought a gun to school. A 16-year-old female turned herself in with a pellet gun. She is facing charges of carrying a concealed weapon, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
"This is an important reminder that these types of incidents are taken very seriously by the RCMP. Uttering threats or bringing weapons of any sort to school can lead to criminal charges and can impact a student for the rest of their life" said Cpl. Julie Courchaine with the Manitoba RCMP. "We continue to ask that anybody that sees or hears a threat to report it immediately to a trusted adult, teacher, or police officer.”
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
You may have had an early awakening this morning from a thunderstorm.
The Parkland wasn't hit as bad compared to Brandon.
Torrential downpours, strong winds, and frequent thunder and lightning hit Dauphin, but the one thing that didn’t make it to Dauphin was the loonie sized hail that hit Brandon.
According to rain gauges in Brandon upwards of 15mm of rain fell this morning.
Another thunderstorm is expected to hit the Parkland this afternoon.
Environment Canada says the thunderstorm could start as early as 3 this afternoon and go as late as 10 tonight.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Parks Canada says there’ll be numerous infrastructure projects at work this fall in Riding Mountain National Park.
The Ominnik Marsh trailhead in Wasagaming will be under construction for the next several weeks.
The work will be limited to the trailhead area and the hours of work are from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm.
The trail will stay open and can be accessed by following the bush line on the northwest side of the trailhead.
When work is complete, the trailhead will be closer to the road, trees will be planted, and there will be an accessible parking space and a pull-through lane for school buses.
In a press release, RMNP asks visitor planning to hike the Ominnik Marsh to use caution when approaching the trailhead, to park at the south end of the main parking lot in Wasagaming, and to walk along the north side of the Boat Cove Road with caution.
Between September 23, and October 11, there’ll be roadway micro surfacing on multiple roads.
Highway 10 and TaWaPit Drive to Balsam, Highway 10 and Columbine to Wasagaming Drive, Highway 10 and Wasagaming to the Mooswa intersection, and Highway 10 from km 20 to 25.
Micro-surfacing is a treatment to prolong the life of the asphalt.
RMNP says to be prepared for single-lane, alternating traffic, speed reductions to 30 km/hour in the construction zone with traffic control personnel on-site, and occasional delays of up to 20 minutes.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
On Tuesday, Manitoba First Nations Police officers responded to a report of a gunshot on Sandy Bay First Nation.
Officers immediately responded to the scene and observed a truck speeding with no lights on, coming from the direction of the gunshot.
The police then activated their emergency equipment to stop the truck. The vehicle refused to stop, then after a short pursuit, the truck became lodged in the mud.
The driver, Alan James Houle and his passenger, a 16-year-old female, were arrested and taken into custody. A break-action pellet gun was located in the driver seat of the truck.
Alan James Houle, from Sandy Bay, was arrested on:
-Unendorsed Warrant
-Firearms Prohibitions x3 (which includes pellet guns)
-Dangerous Operation of a Motor Vehicle
-Flight from a Police Officer
-Unauthorized Possession of a Firearm
-Possession of Weapon for dangerous purpose
-Weapons Possession Contrary to order and fail to surrender authorization x2
Houle was also wanted on a warrant from an offense in February of this year, and he was charged with robbery, forcible confinement, and assault causing bodily harm.
Houle remains in custody to appear in court, and his 16-year-old passenger was released.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Thousands of dollars were raised for the Whitmore School Playground Project and Breakfast Program during Fuel Good Day on Tuesday.
56003 litres of gas were sold, which means 5600 dollars has been donated to the Whitmore School Playground Project.
Both gas bars had BBQ’s and that raised 1475 dollars.
The Whitmore parent council decided to add to that by writing a 1000 dollar cheque.
That totals 2475 dollars for the Breakfast program.
In total 8075 dollars was raised for Whitmore School on Fuel Good Day.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba has decided to let Swan River MLA Rick Wowchuk remain in caucus, despite an internal investigation finding several breaches of the legislative assembly's respectful workplace policy.
The breaches include showing his assistant a picture of naked women, and calling her while in the bathtub and making comments about her wearing a bikini. Wowchuk has since completed sensitivity training, which along with an apology, was required of him to run in last week's provincial election under the PC banner.
The election saw Wowchuk get re-elected in the Swan River constituency with 5,529 votes, which is more than double the amount of votes Shelley Wiggins received for the Manitoba NDP (2,064).
No details about the decision were released after Manitoba's PC caucus met yesterday, other than Lac du Bonnet MLA Wayne Ewasko saying "what happens in caucus, stays in caucus".
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- Contributed by Alec Woolston
You may have noticed gas prices have been on the rise recently.
This is because of a rare attack on a major oil producer.
An oil facility in Saudi Arabia was the target of drone attacks recently. While attacks on major oil producers are rare, events that cause prices to rise or fall, small or big, happen fairly often. Patrick DeHaan, with Gas Buddy, notes the US-China trade war as a reason for gas prices being lower than normal earlier this summer.
DeHaan expects gas prices to rise as much as 4-9 cents per litre.
That would mean prices reach $1.14 or $1.15 per litre and he predicts prices to stay there for about a week and a half.
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- Contributed by Isaac Wihak
Newly re-elected Premier Brian Pallister has outlined a list of 100 issues he wants to tackle in the first 100 days of his new mandate. While most were promised during the campaign, he announced a couple of new ones.
Pallister announced that his government would begin consultations with the private sector on ways to eliminate the use of plastic bags in the province. If plastic bags become banned, Manitoba would be only the third province to do so, behind P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Plastic bags have been banned in different municipalities across the country, including Thompson and The Pas, but province-wide bans are new. Prince Edward Island’s ban on plastic bags took effect in July and Newfoundland’s ban is to take effect soon.
Prime Minister Trudeau said in June that the federal government was starting working towards banning toxic single-use plastics.
Another item on Pallister’s 100-day list is a change to provincial rules so that restaurants can deliver liquor to customers’ doors.
The province also plans to restructure a financing arrangement for Investors Group Field, after the stadium ran over budget and faced costly repairs. Pallister said the goal is to make the deal more transparent and fair to taxpayers.
The government will also identify and land or property no longer in use by the government so that it can be sold, as well as lift many restrictions on shopping on Sundays and holidays.
Pallister was re-elected after fulfilling a promise to reduce the provincial sales tax and bring down the deficit. One of the main promises for his second term is to balance the budget and start to eliminate, over a 10-year period, education taxes on property.
In the immediate future, Pallister plans to reconvene the legislature at the end of the month and pass the spring budget.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
The Dauphin Co-op held Fuel Good Day at both of its gas bar locations yesterday.
The day featured live entertainment from Juno award nominee Desiree Dorian as the D-Town Steppers.
10 cents from every litre of gas sold went towards the Whitmore School playground project, and proceeds from the barbecues at both locations went towards Whitmore’s breakfast program.
Joan Chetyrbok with the Dauphin Co-op was extremely happy with how the day turned out.
“Fuel Good Day was phenomenal, between the amazing performances by Desiree Dorian, and the D-Town Steppers, to the Dauphin Kings players helping out the Whitmore School parent council with the barbecues at both locations, and the beautiful weather, it was truly the best Fuel Good Day ever.” Said Chetyrbok. "We really have to thank the community for coming out to support the barbecue fundraiser for the school breakfast program, and also for fueling up (at) the pumps.”
The Co-op is still calculating the total amount of money raised.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
A new study has found that the life expectancy gap between First Nations people and other Manitobans has grown to 11 years.
The joint report comes from the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba and the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy at the University of Manitoba.
The report shows that the gap has increased by four years since the last report in 2002.
According to the report, First Nations females can expect to live until 72, while other Manitoba female can expect to live to 83. The life expectancy for Manitoba males is 79 years, compared to 68 years for First Nations males in Manitoba.
The study also showed that the rate of premature death -which is any death before the age of 75- for First Nations people is triple that of others.
The report cited multiple contributing factors, such as a lack of primary healthcare, poor housing, poverty, racism, clean water and lack of healthy and affordable food.
Dr. Alan Katz with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy said that the health of Manitobans is improving all the time but the improvement has been much greater in all other Manitobans than in First Nations.
Katz added that primary care services aren’t as readily available in Indigenous communities and people need to travel long distances to get access to the care they need, and when they are provided, it’s never from the same provider.
Two more reports, focused on diabetes and children’s health, are expected to be released in 2020.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
Four men have been charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement in connection to an assault of a woman near Riding Mountain National Park in May.
On May 25th, a woman reported being sexually assaulted in a home in the RM of Harrison Park by five men.
RCMP officers arrested all five suspects within 24 hours of the initial report.
At the time of their arrest, they weren’t formally charged but were ordered to appear in Minnedosa provincial court on August 27th.
Four of the five men have been since formally charged.
A 23- year-old and a 25-year-old man, both from Wawanesa, have been charged with sexual assault and forcible confinement. The same charges have been laid against a 23-year-old man from Winnipeg and a 28-year-old man from Boissevain.
The fifth suspect, also from Boissevain, hasn’t been formally charged.
RCMP say the investigation is still ongoing to determine if charges will be laid against the fifth suspect.
The four men who have been charged will appear in Minnedosa provincial court next week.
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- Contributed by Josh Sigurdson
