Winnipeg under tornado alert

As southern Manitoba is being pummelled by rain, hail and gusting winds, hundreds of customers have lost power and cellphone users received tornado alerts throughout the late afternoon and evening.

Environment and Climate Change Canada said the brunt of the storm is hitting areas outside city limits toward the southeast, although Winnipeg was under a red alert for a tornado just before 7 p.m..

About 15 minutes later, it was downgraded to an orange alert.

Chris Stammer, a meteorologist with the national forecaster, said parts of southern Manitoba were walloped by extreme weather on Tuesday afternoon with severe thunderstorms, hail and strong winds widespread, including in Winnipeg.

Brandon police officer charged with assault for conduct in arrest of teen after school sword attack

Manitoba’s police oversight agency has charged a Brandon Police Service officer with assault in relation to his conduct while arresting a teenage boy during a sword attack at a high school in the western Manitoba city last June.

Embalming younger brother ‘hardest decision of my life’

Michael Vogiatzakis has spent his career helping grieving families navigate the deaths of their loved ones.

But nothing prepared the longtime funeral director for embalming his 51-year-old brother Kyriakos Vogiatzakis after he died following a prolonged attack outside his Portage Avenue restaurant nearly two and a half years ago.

Michael Vogiatzakis and fellow funeral director Michael MacIvor identified Kyriakos’s body at the Health Sciences Centre morgue and brought him back to Voyage funeral home where Vogiatzakis made “the hardest decision of my life,” he told court at a sentencing hearing Tuesday for his brother’s killer, Curtis Dalebozik.

“Was I going to embalm my little brother? I decided that no matter how hard, that it would break my heart, I wanted to take care of Kyriakos myself alongside MacIvor,” he said.

The Forks celebrates decade of hospitality at The Common

The Forks marked the milestone Tuesday evening with a celebration that included live music, a photo booth and drink specials.

Odd pairing of Kraft Dinner and cheesecake a hit for city bakery

It’s the food mashup that appears, at first glance, to be a match made in culinary purgatory.

Featuring a Canadian childhood staple baked into a New York-style cheesecake, the star of the show is the ubiquitous blue-and-yellow box lurking in nearly every pantry across the country.

It’s the ultimate time-saving saviour — firmly lodged in memories as a comforting dinner rapidly whipped up and just as swiftly snarfed down between after-school activities and homework.

But now Kraft Dinner is stepping boldly — some might even say wildly — out of its lane.

Sea Bears president proof there’s no one path to pro sports success

Rhéanne Marcoux — who was Recently appointed president of the Winnipeg Sea Bears— has been making waves in the city’s sports industry for over 15 years.

Winnipeg reports drop in encampment numbers since ban enacted

The City of Winnipeg has identified 120 people living in 62 encampments — a far cry from the 700 people in roughly 100 camps last August, before the municipal government’s clampdown on such sites began in late 2025.

The figures were discussed during Tuesday’s community services committee meeting in which city officials provided a ward-by-ward breakdown of encampments.

Data collected by Main Street Project through outreach work and point-in-time counts shows Point Douglas has the highest number at 19 sites, followed by Fort Rouge–Fort Garry with 15 camps.

Chris Brens, the city’s community development manager, said the 62 encampments do not include people who stay in bus shelters, vehicles or other spaces. He told the committee MSP had identified 128 people in encampments, including 63 in Point Douglas and 30 in Fort Rouge–Fort Garry, as of May 31.

Number of sewer overflows, volume of sewage spilled into city rivers lower last year than in 2024

Combined sewer overflows spilled over 8.8 billion litres of diluted raw sewage into Winnipeg rivers last year, a significant drop from the year before, attributed to dry weather and low river levels.

The city counted 1,015 combined sewer overflow events — overflows during rainy weather to protect homes from flooding, causing untreated wastewater to enter waterways — in 2025. That’s a drop from the 1,332 events that caused 12.2 billion litres of spillage in 2024, according to a report set to be discussed by city council’s water and waste committee next week.

“Things are moving along, actually, pretty good,” water and waste committee chair Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) said Tuesday.

The amount of sewage spilled into city rivers has varied widely over the years, largely influenced by weather. In 2023, just under 5.4 billion litres of sewage was spilled, and in 2022, 27.5 billion litres spilled.

Nearly 8 million cigarettes worth $3.1M seized

As much as $3.1 million in illegal cigarettes was seized and two men were arrested last month during one of the largest busts of its kind in Manitoba.

Cartons containing 7.8 million cigarettes were found inside a semi-trailer when it was inspected by an officer from the provincial government’s motor carrier enforcement unit at the West Hawk Lake weigh station May 29, said RCMP, who took over the investigation.

“It ranks among the larger contraband tobacco seizures we’ve seen in Manitoba in recent years,” motor carrier enforcement Chief Kevin Mantie said Tuesday.

“While not necessarily the single largest, it is substantial. It reflects the scale of the illicit market and the level of organized activity behind it.”

Man accused in Charleswood sex assault no stranger to community

A man accused of sexually assaulting a mother walking with her children in Charleswood last week has a long history of harassing people who live and work in the area, residents say.

Brian Joel Levreault, 49, was charged with sexual assault in the Thursday incident, in which he approached the family, blocked their passage and made sexually explicit comments before assaulting the woman, police said.

Levreault was released from custody with conditions the following day, court records show. He has no prior convictions.

The Free Press spoke with several of his neighbours, who said Levreault lives with a cognitive impairment that is exacerbated by frequent alcohol use.

Woman seeks accountability after car damaged in freak skywalk incident

A Winnipeg woman whose vehicle was damaged by glass after it fell from a Health Sciences Centre skywalk while she was driving seeks transparency about the incident so it doesn’t happen again.

The woman, who the Free Press is not naming, said she was driving down William Avenue on May 24, when she heard a loud noise on the roof of her car.

“All of a sudden, a bunch of glass came raining down on my car, it felt really heavy and there was just a ton of it,” she said late last week. “I didn’t know at all what happened.”

She said the STARS air ambulance helicopter was operating in the area at the time. She initially thought something was thrown at her car, but soon realized that wasn’t the case.