Winnipeg Free Press – Breaking News, Sports, Manitoba, Canada

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An encampment along Mayfair Avenue sits empty after its inhabitants were removed by the city in early December.

Getting a handle on homelessness

Scott Billeck 6 minute read 10:12 AM CST

Designated encampment zones in Halifax gave civic officials and outreach workers a clearer understanding of the scale and day-to-day realities of the city’s homelessness crisis.

Now, after reducing the number of people living in those encampments from more than 200 by approximately three-quarters over the past two years, the city is preparing to gradually close its two remaining sites — a strategy that may offer lessons for Winnipeg as it prepares to study the viability of a managed-encampment pilot of its own.

“They were created at time where we needed an emergency response,” said Rachel Boehm, executive director of community safety with Halifax Regional Municipality, noting the designated spaces were set up in 2023 as a response to an emerging crisis coming out of the pandemic.

“More people were living outside, far more people living outside, than we had indoor capacity.”

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Teen boy facing theft, weapons charges after car rams into Winnipeg transit bus

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Teen boy facing theft, weapons charges after car rams into Winnipeg transit bus

The Canadian Press 2 minute read Updated: 10:04 AM CST

WINNIPEG - A teen boy in Winnipeg is facing over a dozen charges after a vehicle was stolen and a city transit bus was rammed.

Police say the 16-year-old's charges include vehicle theft, dangerous driving and possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm.

The charges come after officers in Winnipeg's north end tried to stop a 2014 Mazda 3 GT on Friday, but the driver sped off.

Investigators say the vehicle drove through a stop sign just a few blocks away and plowed into the side of a transit bus, but nobody was injured.

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Updated: 10:04 AM CST

Photo of a Winnipeg Police Service shoulder badge on an officer in Winnipeg Tuesday, November 5, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Carney meets Zelenskyy in Halifax as Trump prepares to host peace talks

Emily Baron Cadloff, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Carney meets Zelenskyy in Halifax as Trump prepares to host peace talks

Emily Baron Cadloff, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:18 PM CST

HALIFAX - Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned new Russian air attacks and announced additional economic assistance for Ukraine as he and the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stood side-by-side and spoke to reporters at a Halifax-area airport.

The two leaders embraced as Carney welcomed Zelenskyy to Canada. Zelenskyy touched down for a brief stop on his way to Florida for planned peace talks with U.S. president Donald Trump this weekend, which he called “very important and very constructive.”

Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with missiles and drones on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding 27. The Russian Defense Ministry said the strike targeted energy infrastructure used by Ukrainian forces, though several residential buildings were hit.

Carney said Canada will provide a further $2.5 billion of economic assistance for Ukraine, noting the money will help unlock financing from other organizations, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for reconstruction.

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Updated: Yesterday at 5:18 PM CST

Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy take part in a meeting during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Students tasked with designing shelter for homeless

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read Preview

Students tasked with designing shelter for homeless

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read Yesterday at 12:49 PM CST

Concerned about the state of empathy at her suburban high school, a St. Vital teacher has tasked teens with designing transitional homes for their unsheltered neighbours.

Collège Jeanne-Sauvé made headlines in September when a student was involved in an altercation with a man living in nearby Dakota Forest.

Winnipeg police and the Louis Riel School Division reported at the time the man came out of a tent and chased after a group of students, injuring one. Allegations the teenagers provoked the man by hurling insults and items at the man’s tent were also reported.

The Sept. 9 incident — as well as the gossip in its aftermath — led Kay Wojnarski to reach out to End Homelessness Winnipeg for advice.

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Yesterday at 12:49 PM CST

JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES
Collège Jeanne-Sauvé teacher Kay Wojnarski

Jets bring 5-game losing streak into matchup against the Oilers

The Associated Press 2 minute read Updated: 9:44 AM CST

Edmonton Oilers (19-14-6, in the Pacific Division) vs. Winnipeg Jets (15-17-4, in the Central Division)

Winnipeg, Manitoba; Monday, 7:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: The Winnipeg Jets will try to end their five-game skid when they play the Edmonton Oilers.

Winnipeg has a 15-17-4 record overall and an 8-7-2 record in home games. The Jets have a -5 scoring differential, with 105 total goals scored and 110 allowed.

Toxic spill from northern paper mill generates lawsuit from second First Nation

Erik Pindera 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CST

A second First Nation has filed a lawsuit over a massive 2019 spill of toxic manufacturing byproduct from the paper mill in The Pas into the Saskatchewan River.

In December 2023, Manitoba’s provincial court ordered Canadian Kraft Paper to pay a $1-million fine after the company pleaded guilty to a charge under the federal Fisheries Act for the spill — marking one of the largest-ever environmental fines issued in the province’s history at the time.

The company admitted the mill released black liquor, which Environment Canada calls an acutely lethal toxin, into the river over six days, beginning Feb. 27, 2019. A total 181 million litres of the byproduct flowed into the river.

Chemawawin Cree Nation, in a statement of claim filed earlier this month in the Court of King’s Bench, alleges the mill breached its treaty rights by failing to prevent the spill, failing to consult the community about how it was mitigating the incident and by contaminating the waterways its members have traditionally used to fish, hunt and trap.

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Brandon teen sentenced for role in attack on mall worker

Skye Anderson 5 minute read Preview

Brandon teen sentenced for role in attack on mall worker

Skye Anderson 5 minute read 10:49 AM CST

A 17-year-old Brandon girl has been sentenced to two years of supervised probation for her involvement in a group beating and robbery at a downtown mall.

“She wasn’t on the sidelines, she wasn’t someone who threw just one punch or one kick — she was fully, actively engaged in the attack,” Judge Shuana Hewitt-Michta said in Brandon provincial court on Tuesday.

The girl, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, previously pleaded guilty to the charge of robbery.

Surveillance cameras captured the teen, along with three co-accused, punch and kick the victim inside The Town Centre mall on March 1, Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup said.

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10:49 AM CST

Delay in construction prompts lawsuit against city, consulting firm

Nicole Buffie 4 minute read Preview

Delay in construction prompts lawsuit against city, consulting firm

Nicole Buffie 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 11:09 AM CST

A contractor is suing the City of Winnipeg and a consulting company in relation to the permitting process that it claims delayed construction of a townhouse complex in the Prairie Point neighbourhood.

Prairie Point Inc. contractors filed a statement of claim in the Court of King’s Bench on Dec. 19, naming the City of Winnipeg and Affinity Architecture as defendants.

The lawsuit alleges the city issued permits for the residential complex and underground parking lot, but later claimed the project violated Manitoba’s building codes.

Prairie Point, which claims it suffered a financial loss, seeks unspecified general, special damages and $750 in costs from the city and Affinity Architecture because of delays and incurred costs to address the violations.

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Updated: Yesterday at 11:09 AM CST

The Manitoba Law Courts building (John Woods / The Canadian Press files)

No easing the tempo for versatile rocker plugged into North American music scene

David Sanderson 9 minute read Preview

No easing the tempo for versatile rocker plugged into North American music scene

David Sanderson 9 minute read Yesterday at 1:26 PM CST

The late James Brown was commonly referred to as the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” but a Winnipeg-born musician has been giving the legendary soul artist a run for that title.

On New Year’s Eve, Canadian rock band Toque, featuring Brent Fitz on bass guitar and vocals, will perform live at the Club Regent Event Centre. Early the next morning, Fitz, who is originally from St. James, will board a flight to Las Vegas, where he and his wife Chrissy, a native of Edmonton, have lived since the early 2000s. There he will make final preparations for Ikons of Rock, a tribute show he’s co-producing that will begin a residency at Las Vegas’s Hard Rock Café on Jan. 8.

The multi-instrumentalist returns to Winnipeg in February to play drums with Streetheart, for that group’s Feb. 13 concert, again at the Club Regent Event Centre. Following that, Fitz will enter into rehearsals with Triumph. The Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees recently enlisted his services on keyboards for their much-anticipated 50th anniversary North American tour, which kicks off April 22, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. All of that and he just helped wrap up a new album by Slash of Guns N’ Roses fame — with whom he’s worked on-and-off since 2010 — which is due in stores sometime in the new year.

Sure, it sounds like a hectic schedule, except he’s always enjoyed staying busy, says Fitz, seated in a Portage Avenue coffee shop during a recent visit to the city to check up on his 86-year-old father Mervyn, and to perform with Streetheart at a private event held at the RBC Convention Centre.

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Yesterday at 1:26 PM CST

Dave Swiecicki photo
Winnipeg-born multi-instrumentalist Brent Fitz stops in for a hometown visit in October.

‘We deserved a better fate’: Jets suffer heartbreaking loss in OT to Wild

Ken Wiebe 8 minute read Preview

‘We deserved a better fate’: Jets suffer heartbreaking loss in OT to Wild

Ken Wiebe 8 minute read Yesterday at 10:26 PM CST

Things were supposed to be different for the Winnipeg Jets coming out of the much-needed holiday break.

After recharging their collective batteries and spending some quality time away from the rink, the Jets came back refreshed and ready, determined to leave a consistently inconsistent stretch of hockey in the rearview mirror.

For 59 minutes and change on Saturday night, the Jets did just that, playing a mostly sound defensive game and keeping the quality scoring chances to a minimum against a red-hot Central Division opponent that had collected at least a point in eight of the previous nine outings.

But after surrendering a power-play marker to Mats Zuccarello with 21.1 seconds to go in regulation time, Matt Boldy scored his second of the contest 39 seconds into three-on-three overtime to seal a 4-3 victory for the Minnesota Wild.

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Yesterday at 10:26 PM CST

JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck gets his glove on the puck as Minnesota Wild’s Joel Eriksson Ek tries to knock it in.

Artificial intelligence is slowly finding its way into law offices and courtrooms

Erik Pindera 8 minute read Preview

Artificial intelligence is slowly finding its way into law offices and courtrooms

Erik Pindera 8 minute read Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

At first glance, it was shaping up to be an unremarkable deportation case in front of the Federal Court in Ottawa.

A lawyer seeking a judicial review of an immigration tribunal ruling for his clients filed a motion to admit new evidence and obtain a time extension.

But Associate Judge Catharine Moore had a problem. She could not find some of the cases the lawyer referenced in the court filings and sounded the alarm.

It turns out the cases had been “hallucinated,” with the lawyer admitting he neglected to check the work of an artificial intelligence tool used by Canadian immigration lawyers.

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Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

Alissa Schacter, the Law Society of Manitoba’s director of policy and strategic initiatives (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Carol Barrott

Ace Burpee’s top 100 most fascinating Manitobans of 2025

Ace Burpee 26 minute read Friday, Dec. 26, 2025

Brigitte Bardot, 1960s French sex symbol turned militant animal rights activist, dies at 91

Thomas Adamson And Elaine Ganley, The Associated Press 8 minute read Preview

Brigitte Bardot, 1960s French sex symbol turned militant animal rights activist, dies at 91

Thomas Adamson And Elaine Ganley, The Associated Press 8 minute read Updated: 12:31 PM CST

PARIS (AP) — Brigitte Bardot, the French 1960s sex symbol who became one of the greatest screen sirens of the 20th century and later a militant animal rights activist and far-right supporter, has died. She was 91.

Bardot died Sunday at her home in southern France, according to Bruno Jacquelin, of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals. Speaking to The Associated Press, he gave no cause of death, and said that no arrangements had been made for funeral or memorial services. She had been hospitalized last month.

Bardot became an international celebrity as a sexualized teen bride in the 1956 movie “And God Created Woman.” Directed by then husband Roger Vadim, it triggered a scandal with scenes of the long-legged beauty dancing on tables naked.

At the height of a cinema career that spanned more than two dozen films and three marriages, Bardot came to symbolize a nation bursting out of bourgeois respectability. Her tousled, blond hair, voluptuous figure and pouty irreverence made her one of France’s best-known stars, even as she struggled with depression.

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Updated: 12:31 PM CST