Residents escape Burrows Avenue townhouse fire
6:43 PM
Residents of a townhouse suite that burned on Burrows Avenue on Friday afternoon managed to escape the flames unscathed.
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service says crews were called to the two-storey townhouse on the 1600 block of Burrows Avenue at about 3:40 p.m., where they found smoke coming from the house.
Firefighters got inside and declared the blaze under control in just under a half an hour.
The fire department says no one was hurt.
Workers Compensation Board CEO leaves job
4:35 PM
The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba’s top executive has left the job.
The organization, which promotes safe workplaces and handles workplace injury compensation claims, said that president and CEO Richard Deacon left the job on Friday after three years in the lead role.
It was not immediately clear why exactly Deacon left the role. Board chair Michael Werier said in a statement that the organization wants to move in a “different leadership direction.”
The WCB’s vice president of legal, compliance and corporate services, Catherine Skinner, has been appointed acting boss while the organization searches for a permanent CEO.
Teen charged, Steinbach high school closed after threat posted online
3:34 PM
A Steinbach teen was arrested Thursday night after allegedly posting an online threat targeting his high school.
RCMP spokesman Sgt. Paul Manaigre said the threats directed at Steinbach Regional Secondary School, posted on social media, were reported to the Steinbach detachment at about 7:45 p.m. Thursday.
The youth has been charged with uttering threats. Manaigre said no weapons were found by officers who made the arrest.
Hanover School Division superintendent Shelley Amos said in a message to parents that officials became aware of the threats on Thursday evening and decided to cancel classes Friday “in an abundance of caution.”
“We will reassess the situation and provide a communications update before classes start on Monday,” Amos said.
Several schools in the southern Manitoba division were repeatedly threatened over the phone early last year in incidents unrelated to the threats Thursday.
RCMP and American law enforcement said the previous threats seemed to have originated south of the border.
Missing girl found safe
2:32 PM
Winnipeg police say they have found a teen girl who had been missing since early February.
Twyla Shingoose, 17, went missing from the Seven Oaks area Feb. 8, say police.
She was found safe on Friday.
Date chosen for LRSD school trustee byelection
2:13 PM
A date has been set for the byelection to fill a seat vacated by a Louis Riel School Division trustee who quit in late November.
The vote to fill the Ward 1 seat previously held by Francine Champagne will be held June 6, the City of Winnipeg and the LRSD said Friday.
Champagne resigned in late November, just over a year after she joined the board and in the wake of the LRSD beginning the process of filing a court application seeking to unseat her.
Champagne had previously been suspended for making false and controversial comments on social media.
Bowman to be sworn in as King’s Bench judge Friday
12:16 PM
Winnipeg’s former mayor will be sworn in as a Manitoba Court of King’s Bench judge this afternoon.
The ceremony, officially dubbing the former municipal politician as Justice Brian Bowman, begins at 1 p.m. at the downtown Winnipeg law courts.
Bowman was elected the city’s mayor in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. The federal justice department announced the 52-year-old’s appointment to the bench last December.
Bowman, who was called to the provincial bar in 2000, worked as a privacy lawyer before entering politics. The Métis man was the city’s first Indigenous mayor.
