Category: Winnipeg Free Press

Jeremy Skibicki’s ex-wife told court Thursday the admitted serial killer would have sex with her while she was asleep and once threatened to have sex with her corpse “if anything […]

Nearly six dozen purebred Maltese have gone from the dog house to puppy paradise. The 68 young, old and pregnant petite white dogs were treated to a spa day at […]

Winnipeg paramedics have developed new methods of reaching vulnerable people as opioid overdoses and medical emergencies become more prevalent in the city. Paramedics demonstrated their skills at the Winnipeg Fire […]

Confessed serial killer Jeremy Skibicki was a near-daily fixture at a Winnipeg homeless shelter, telling a staff member he went there to “stalk his victims,” a court heard Wednesday. Skibicki […]

Manitoba fire officials say the 500-plus evacuees who fled from their homes on the weekend due to a wildlife near Cranberry Portage may be able to return to their homes […]

The City of Winnipeg may finally be able to start restoring its pandemic-drained rainy-day fund, according to a new financial update. Winnipeg finished 2023 with an operating surplus of $12.3 […]

Instead of a loud, intimidating, harshly lit environment full of people wearing uniforms or hospital scrubs, traumatized kids at the Toba Centre are welcomed into a space designed to make […]

While the Tories blasted Premier Wab Kinew for talking publicly about the pending Big Tobacco settlement — and claimed he had put Manitoba’s share at risk by potentially violating a […]

The city is asking for the public’s input on replacing the Omand’s Creek pedestrian bridge. “This project will be a fresh start to a conversation we started with the community […]

For about two years, persistent leaks have trickled into a Winnipeg public library that could soon become a protected heritage building. As rain poured down outside the Fort Garry library […]

WINNIPEG – The only evidence police have pointing to the identity of one victim of an admitted serial killer is a bit of DNA found on a jacket cuff, a […]

OTTAWA – The president of the Manitoba Métis Federation is blasting the Métis Nation of Ontario at a summit on how leaders are reacting to — and can come together […]

The owner of a historic, long-vacant hotel in the Exchange District expects construction to convert the building into affordable housing will begin later this year. Immigration lawyer Ken Zaifman purchased […]

Uncertainties brought Heather Murray to tears — not knowing where she and her family will stay or if they will have a home to return to, while a wildfire rages […]

Merrill Loeppky was only two years old when the War Amps child amputee program began helping him after he lost his right arm in a grain auger on the family […]

Non-profit care homes for Manitoba seniors are coping with large budget deficits, while making do with aging buildings, due to chronic government underfunding, the Free Press has been told. The […]

Former tenants of a Winnipeg apartment block that was suddenly evacuated after being deemed unsafe due to structural decay are spending the weekend scrambling to find new places to live. Kayla Dussome, who lived in Birchwood Terrace with her partner and four-year-old twins, is hoping to find a home to rent, along with her mother…

Doug Anderson vividly remembers meeting Carol, his wife-to-be, while both were involved as counsellors at a Manitoba camp for children with physical disabilities. They were both 17 years old and […]

CARBERRY — Mayor Ray Muirhead said the community went into panic mode when the emergency room at its hospital closed last September because its doctor had left. “We were always […]

THE provincial government is warning Manitobans to use extreme caution in forested areas after lightning strikes sparked several blazes in the northwest in the past 24 hours. The government said […]

I have to travel through two metal detectors, past a dozen security officers and answer multiple questions to take in Friday’s session in the murder trial of self-confessed serial killer […]

An Indian national accused of smuggling a family of four who froze to death near the Manitoba-U.S. border has lost his bid to be released from custody while awaiting trial. […]

After the discovery of Rebecca Contois’s partial remains in a North Kildonan garbage bin, city police moved quickly to suspend all pickups in the area, only to learn another garbage […]

Manitoba’s new top Mountie might be the first to have been born here. “We are investigating that,” deadpanned Scott McMurchy, a 34-year veteran, who is two weeks into his job […]

The University of Winnipeg is the latest campus to have a pro-Palestinian encampment. The People’s University for Palestine Treaty 1 had set up 14 tents on the front lawn of […]

When Mayor Scott Gillingham announced in March he’d like to see Portage and Main finally open to pedestrians — which it famously has not been since 1979 — he made a comment that would become a front-page headline. “It’s just an intersection.” MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham: “It’s just an…

BRANDON — Carberry Health Centre’s emergency department will reopen today after being closed for eight months due to a lack of staff. Premier Wab Kinew told the Brandon Sun Thursday […]

BRANDON — The former chief administrative officer of the Rural Municipality of North Cypress-Langford admitted Thursday to stealing thousands of dollars from the Carberry Curling Club. Trisha Dawn Fraser, 36, […]

Manitoba’s education minister says a Winnipeg school division must find its own solutions to its overcrowding problem. “We do know the pressures that are there and we know parents are […]

Patty Wiens refuses to tread lightly in her new role as Winnipeg’s top cyclist. Wiens has been bestowed with the title Bicycle Mayor of Winnipeg by an international organization that […]

A group of St. Boniface residents won’t get to swim at their beloved outdoor pool for one more summer after all. Supporters of Happyland Outdoor Pool fundraised $75,000, plus “up […]

A government bill to make adult education an option for Manitobans on welfare would lift the prospects for people who’ve been “fodder for the bottom reaches of the labour market.” […]

A warm winter and sunny spring mean tick season has come to Manitoba. Data from etick.ca, which identifies tick sightings from the public, has received 75 reports of ticks on […]

Winnipeg police have arrested a 50-year old man wanted on a warrant for a fatal shooting in the North End last month. Adam Joseph Morrissette, 50, was arrested for second-degree […]

A downtown shootout that left one man dead and sent another to hospital was sparked by a beef over drug turf, a Winnipeg court heard this week. Twenty-seven-year-old Gunni Hassen […]

The University of Manitoba has received the largest federal cheque in its history to research vaccines and biomanufacturing as well as build two facilities.

WINNIPEG – The Manitoba legislature seat occupied by former premier Heather Stefanson has only been vacant for a few days, but interest is already growing among potential replacements. Stefanson resigned […]

The frightening story of Janice Thomas, who was ignored last month in a St. Boniface Hospital emergency room hallway for 20 minutes while gasping for air, is surely a sign […]

This past weekend, Premier Wab Kinew treated delegates to the NDP annual general meeting to a nugget of exceedingly good news. In his keynote address, Kinew stunned the more than 1,000 delegates in attendance when he said Manitoba would be receiving somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 million over the next year from a lawsuit…

A Winnipeg woman says she’s boycotting Food Fare after witnessing another incident involving an employee Sunday afternoon. Gloria Enns was stopped at a red light at Portage Avenue and Arlington […]

A trial for a Winnipeg man accused of murdering four Indigenous women will now be heard by a judge, not a jury, a court heard Monday. The development came three […]

The biome at The Leaf tropical house at Assiniboine Park has been repaired and will soon host butterflies again. Deficiencies that closed the $130-million building to the winged insects for […]

The Manitoba government hopes to forever change the level of support available for the families of missing and murdered Indigenous people through the establishment of a multimillion-dollar endowment fund that […]

Manitoba is getting hundreds of millions of dollars from a decade-old lawsuit against Big Tobacco in the next year and will use it to fight cancer — starting with a […]

I came back to the Free Press this week just in time, it seems, to witness a century of issues intersect, spark and explode. There is, of course, the trial […]

Manitoba will be home to Canada’s first Red Dress Alert system, which will notify the public when an Indigenous woman, girl, two-spirit or gender-diverse person is reported missing. The province […]

A 24-year-old man is in custody and another man is facing charges after police seized a “concerning and diverse” amount of explosives from a Headingley home on Thursday. “The Winnipeg […]

Nearly half of the foster parents registered to speak at a legislature committee Friday were no-shows — and the association that represents them alleged they’d been warned about voicing their […]

A dog trained to detect accelerants will help investigators probe arsons, officials say, as vacant and derelict buildings burn to the ground with increasing regularity. Scooby, a one-and-a-half-year-old yellow Labrador, […]

If Canadians are to know the true extent to which the federal government has reneged on treaties with Indigenous people, it might come from a new parliamentary treaty commissioner. Prime […]

The wave of university encampment protests that have been set up in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza as they endure a months-long Israeli offensive has reached Winnipeg. Students […]

The local pro wrestler once known as “Man Mountain Mike” had a unique sense of humour, said those who knew him best. “He was quite out there,” said his son, […]

Attendance and security incidents at Winnipeg Public Library branches increased over a six-month period in 2023-24, a new staff report suggests. Inappropriate behaviour, intoxication, threats and assaults were among the most common security incidents defined in the report, which covered the period from October to March. A significant portion of incidents is lumped under “other”…

Last fall, Premier Wab Kinew won the hearts and minds of enough Manitobans to earn the right to govern the province. And if ongoing approval rating polls are any indication, […]

Users of the St. James Civic Centre will be forced to tolerate periodic closures as the popular facility undergoes a $17-million expansion, just two years after a renovation kept it […]

A Ste. Anne man has been sentenced to 18 months house arrest after admitting to pocketing the proceeds from an ice-fishing fundraiser for sick children. Christian Thomas Gord Lillyman, 41, […]

Efficiency Manitoba, the province’s newest Crown corporation, will be providing consultation with Habitat for Humanity on energy-efficient construction and education for low-income homeowners to help keep monthly energy bills low. […]

The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service insists the only way to reach a cost-saving directive from the city is by occasionally taking some fire vehicles off the street — an option […]

BRANDON — A Brandon couple is calling for better emergency veterinary care in the Westman area after their dog died in their truck while rushing to a clinic in Winnipeg. […]

A Food Fare supervisor has been suspended after an incident involving an Indigenous woman who was accused of stealing. Security footage from the Portage Avenue and Burnell Street store, which was viewed by the Free Press, shows a woman and a male employee in an altercation near the cash register on Sunday afternoon. The worker…

OTTAWA – A woman accusing former New Democrat MP Romeo Saganash of sexual assault has filed a civil suit, saying she never wanted prosecutors to divert his criminal charge to […]

Winnipeg police are grappling with an explosion of guns, drugs and violence as organized criminal networks increasingly use Manitoba’s capital city as a national trafficking hub, due to its central […]

A man pulled over by Winnipeg police argued in court he couldn’t have broken his curfew because he was still allowed out of his house — in Alberta. Samatar Mohiadin, […]

Extensive pre-trial media coverage in the case of accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki has biased the jury pool beyond the court’s ability to correct the damage, a judge was told […]

Just days after filing a $1-billion lawsuit over years of catastrophic flooding, Peguis First Nation Chief Stan Bird turned up the heat Tuesday over the health and housing crises making […]

St. Boniface residents say they’re closer than ever to reaching their fundraising goal in hopes of saving Happyland pool. The Friends of Happyland Pool fundraiser has collected $70,848 in donations […]

Former premier Heather Stefanson’s sudden resignation from the Manitoba legislature last week will not spare her from an investigation over allegations she attempted to rush approval of a controversial silica […]

Passengers were sleeping or fighting boredom when screams filled a packed bus on a dark, isolated section of a Manitoba highway early Friday morning. Chad Cook, who was travelling from […]

The city is urging cyclists to sign up for a free bike-registry system. Bike data registered with 529 Garage can be accessed by jurisdictions across the world. The City of […]

Work has officially begun at the site of the former Kapyong Barracks in Winnipeg’s south end. Construction on a 7.66-acre parcel of land at the former military site on Kenaston […]

BRANDON — There are seven new graduates of a Westman therapy program who will soon be visiting personal care homes, hospitals, schools and businesses now that they’ve mastered how to […]

Siloam Mission has released details of a new strategy to bolster Winnipeg’s stock of affordable housing, issuing a plea for community stakeholders to step forward and donate property or funding. […]

When Manitoba’s New Democratic Party made its bid for office last fall, its platform came sprinkled with policy promises to make climate action a priority. Among them was a commitment […]

It was a few months into his overseas tour when a 20-year-old Canadian air force navigator named Douglas MacEwan left the theatre of war behind in order to experience theatre […]

It’s been said that giving is good for one’s health. It instils gratitude in both the giver and receiver, and creates happiness, social bonds and community spirit. Literary, scholarly and […]

The Brandon Sun took home awards for editorials and photography while the Globe and Mail was the big winner Friday night at the National Newspapers Awards in Toronto. The Free […]

The province is lifting the mask requirement for most health-care staff who interact with patients. In a memo sent to the province’s health-care workers Thursday, Monika Warren, chief operating officer […]

A long-awaited housing announcement involving a once-promising core-area housing complex shuttered out of safety concerns after years of neglect and criminal behaviour was called off at the last minute Friday […]

A First Nations government backbencher, who is also a foster parent, worries about who will speak up for children in care once their communities assume complete control over child welfare. “As an Indigenous woman and former Indigenous chief and council member, I can say this: I’m really worried about the First Nations handling this authority,”…

A woman who says her teenage son was filmed during an alleged bullying incident while on a camping trip near Norway House First Nation has alleged the situation has been […]

A Winnipeg man and woman who admit attacking and killing a woman with machetes have dodged possible convictions for first-degree murder after one of the main witnesses against them died […]

Sport Manitoba’s Safe Sport Summit What does safe sport mean, exactly? Safe Sport is an environment where individuals can have a healthy, supportive, and respectful sport experience, free from all […]

The owner of Kildonan Park’s popular Prairie’s Edge restaurant isn’t sure whether the doors will be open beyond next month, when its lease with the city expires. Doug Stephen, president […]

Three people accused by Winnipeg police of selling methamphetamine and illegally possessing firearms were acquitted in provincial court Thursday after a judge ruled the search used to secure evidence in […]

A city councillor’s idea to extend the downtown Whiteout parties to The Forks will be considered by council next month. Coun. Russ Wyatt introduced a motion to broaden the Winnipeg […]

A jury has been selected in the trial of accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. Twenty-one prospective jurors appeared before Court of King’s Bench Justice Rick Saull over the course of […]

A rural crisis centre for sexual assault survivors is scrambling after its federal funding was cut at the end of March, putting a long-term counselling program in jeopardy. Survivor’s Hope […]

WINNIPEG – A jury has been selected for the trial of a Winnipeg man accused of killing four women. Jeremy Skibicki has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree […]

Manitoba’s largest First Nation is suing the federal and provincial governments and two rural municipalities for $1 billion in damages after repeated severe floods displaced residents and caused “widespread” damage. […]

A man accused of smuggling an Indian family who froze to death near the U.S.-Manitoba border is seeking his freedom while awaiting trial. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, was arrested in […]

The City of Winnipeg doesn’t expect to meet the 2030 provincial deadline to complete its more than $2.3-billion upgrade of the north end sewage treatment plant, in part because there’s […]

It’s a cost of business Phil Klein never expected, but now knows all too well. The owner of Bagelsmith in downtown Winnipeg has been burglarized four times since opening his […]

A spine care program announced by the province Tuesday seeks to speed up surgeries and lessen the suffering of Manitobans waiting for relief. “Until now, folks living with spine pain […]

THE Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp., is suing a Selkirk steel company for millions of dollars over an explosion and fire on a barge that caused significant damage and hampered the […]

Relaxing with friends inside a North End apartment, Creedence Justin Beardy likely had no idea why an armed intruder set upon him in a violent knife attack that claimed his […]

Tasha Spillett was on a long drive back to Winnipeg from a funeral Saturday, when one of her vehicle’s wheels began making the kind of sound no one wants to […]

For Paula Parks, Passover this year will be bittersweet. “Passover is always a wonderful time with family and friends,” the president of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg said of the […]

A record number of Manitobans donated and received kidneys last year. Eighty-three Manitobans received a kidney through the adult transplant program at Health Sciences Centre in 2023, surpassing the previous […]

Manitoba’s NDP government is poised to lift the ban on growing recreational cannabis at home. A government bill on the order paper — the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Amendment […]

Solange Lagassé has always tried to help people. “I grew up in a small town and it’s what people did,” says Lagassé, who was raised in St. Adolphe. “It was […]