What’s happening today
Vote on site’s sale: The city’s executive policy committee will vote at a meeting today on the sale of the shuttered Vimy Arena to a group planning to build an addictions rehabilitation centre on the site. A neighbourhood group fighting the sale is seeking to make an offer for the arena at the meeting. READ MORE
Sharing their stories: Former NHL star and abuse survivor Theo Fleury and Leah Parsons — the mother of Rehtaeh Parsons, a teen who killed herself after being harassed online — will be speaking this afternoon at a conference for 600 junior high students from across the city. The Youth Matter Wellness Conference is hosted by the Winnipeg Police Service.
Tackling violence: Premier Brian Pallister is hosting a breakfast event at the convention centre today as part of Women’s Equality Week. The theme of the event, in partnership with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, is about the role men can play to end violence against women.
Weather
Your forecast: It will be a sunny and unseasonably warm Wednesday, with a high of 0 C and 30 km/h winds gusting to 50 this morning.
In case you missed it
PHIL HOSSACK / Winnipeg Free Press Union head Alex Forrest has been engulfed in controversy over his salary.
Drawing double pay: Winnipeg firefighters union president Alex Forrest tells the Free Press he’s been getting two paycheques, one from the city and another from the union. “That’s what a union president would normally get paid,” he tells Ryan Thorpe. “With the combination of the two, I’m still probably the lowest-paid union president in the city.” READ MORE
Faithful flock to see relic: Hundreds of people lined up to see the shrivelled forearm of St. Francis Xavier inside St. Mary’s Cathedral yesterday. The saint’s forearm, used to baptize many people, was severed and kept as a holy relic. Bill Redekop reports. READ MORE
Around the water cooler
PHIL HOSSACK / Winnipeg Free Press Workers at a Winnipeg shelter show needles in safe disposal containers they collect from clients.
Out of touch on addictions: Columnist Dan Lett says Manitoba is out of step with the rest of the country, and much of the world, on battling addictions. There is plenty of evidence safe-consumption sites are effective, he writes, and fighting against treatments centres “is the moral equivalent of arguing against the application of water on a raging house fire.” READ MORE
Trending now
Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir: The ice dance duo will be Canada’s flag-bearers for the opening ceremonies for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. READ MORE
On this date
On Jan. 17, 2011: The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Colin Firth won Best Actor for his performance in The King’s Speech and Natalie Portman for Best Actress for her performance in Black Swan at the Oscars. Grand Chief David Harper said running water was a treaty right. Winnipeg police believed their new helicopter could help them catch offenders snowmobiling illegally. READ MORE
|