Brandon Sun – Breaking News, Sports, Manitoba, Canada

Renowned Brandon artist Weiming Zhao paints the last meeting of the 2022-26 council term at Brandon City Hall on Monday. Coun. Tyson Tame (Ward 10) said he commissioned Zhao to paint the meeting as it could be Tame's final council meeting as a councillor. The election is Oct. 28. (Alex Lambert/The Brandon Sun)

Portrait of last council meeting

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Advance voting set to break city record

By Abiola Odutola 5 minute read Preview

Advance voting set to break city record

By Abiola Odutola 5 minute read Yesterday at 10:08 PM CDT

Advance voting in Brandon has increased to levels not seen in 12 years — with two days of voting already producing nearly as many ballots as were cast during all three days of advance voting in 2014.

A total of 1,325 people voted in advance polls for mayor, ward councillor and school board trustees on Oct. 14 and 17, senior election official Heather Ewasiuk said.

The current total is 141 votes short of the 1,466 recorded during the three advance-voting days in 2014, the highest total Ewasiuk said Brandon has recorded.

The final day for advance voting is scheduled for Thursday at city hall.

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Yesterday at 10:08 PM CDT

Maple leaf love: Albertans vote strongly to stay in Canada

Jack Farrell The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

Maple leaf love: Albertans vote strongly to stay in Canada

Jack Farrell The Canadian Press 6 minute read Updated: 8:36 AM CDT

EDMONTON - O Canada, Alberta is staying put.

In a historic referendum Monday, voters marked their ballots in overwhelming numbers to remain in the country that made Alberta a province 121 years ago.

In early returns, about 76 per cent of Albertans said yes to Confederation, while 24 per cent said they wanted the province to hold a second, binding referendum on leaving.

Both Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney lauded the result.

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Updated: 8:36 AM CDT

Farmers harvest 155 acres of soybeans for CFB

By Tim Smith 1 minute read Preview

Farmers harvest 155 acres of soybeans for CFB

By Tim Smith 1 minute read Yesterday at 10:05 PM CDT

Combines were out harvesting soybeans on Monday during the Acres of Hope Rivers and Oak River community harvest in support of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFB).

Farmers from the area came together to harvest approximately 155 acres of soybeans, which will be sold at market with the proceeds going to the CFB.

The foodgrains bank has close to three dozen growing projects in Manitoba this year, and the Acres of Hope harvest is the last of its project harvests for 2026.

The CFB works to help provide resources in food insecure areas around the world, with the aim of ending hunger.

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Yesterday at 10:05 PM CDT

Crown stays sexual assault charges after teenage girl admits lying

By Tessa Adamski 5 minute read Preview

Crown stays sexual assault charges after teenage girl admits lying

By Tessa Adamski 5 minute read Yesterday at 10:01 PM CDT

Charges were stayed for a man accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in an abandoned house mid-trial after the youth admitted she was lying about what happened during cross-examination.

Defence lawyer Bob Harrison peppered the 15-year-old victim with questions in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench on Monday, suggesting she feared getting in trouble if she now spoke the truth despite telling police his client, 22, inappropriately touched her in a July 2024 incident.

The girl, who can’t be identified due to a publication ban, initially held firm in her testimony, saying, “No, he did touch me inappropriately,” before Harrison posed the question again, and she answered, “I can’t really understand.”

Harrison asked the question a third time, saying, “I’m going to suggest that you’re concerned that if you tell the truth that he didn’t touch you, that you may get in trouble. That’s the situation, isn’t it?”

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Yesterday at 10:01 PM CDT

Local

Province sues to keep nearly $1M seized in traffic stop outside Brandon

By Erik Pindera 4 minute read Preview

Province sues to keep nearly $1M seized in traffic stop outside Brandon

By Erik Pindera 4 minute read Yesterday at 9:59 PM CDT

WINNIPEG — The RCMP constable could see that Alireza Haghgoo was nervous.

The 22-year-old, seated as a passenger in a rental Nissan SUV the Mountie pulled over for speeding outside Brandon in late July, was breathing heavily and tapping his foot constantly, as the carotid artery on his neck visibly pumped blood.

He had good reason to be jumpy — considering Mounties found nearly $1 million in cash that justice officials allege is drug money in the car he and Ahmad Shahpoor Ahmadi, 44, were driving from Calgary to Toronto.

The province’s director of criminal property forfeiture filed a lawsuit in the Court of King’s Bench last week in an attempt to keep the more-than-$956,000 in cash seized during the traffic stop on July 31 as well as a more than $70,000 watch.

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Yesterday at 9:59 PM CDT

Local

A map showing the boundaries of Ward 9. (City of Brandon)

Three political neophytes vie for Ward 9

By Rylee Gerrard 6 minute read Preview

Three political neophytes vie for Ward 9

By Rylee Gerrard 6 minute read Yesterday at 10:00 PM CDT

With incumbent Coun. Glen Parker not seeking re-election, three political newbies are stepping up for their chance to represent Ward 9.

Scott Pedlow, Norah Woychyshyn and Keith Waterfield are hoping to get elected for the first time to represent the ward formerly known as Riverview Ward.

Pedlow, 58, is the only candidate who doesn’t currently live in the ward, but he says he was born and raised in Brandon’s east end and currently owns an independent business in the area.

If elected, Pedlow said he’d like to shift to a more proactive approach within the city and ward.

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Yesterday at 10:00 PM CDT

Local

A young woman pays respects to the victims of a fire that killed four soldiers at CFB Wainwright, at the Memorial Clock Tower on Main Street, in Wainwright, Alta., on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

Residents of Wainwright, Alta., grieving but resilient after tragic fire on army base

David Baxter and Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Residents of Wainwright, Alta., grieving but resilient after tragic fire on army base

David Baxter and Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Updated: 3:31 PM CDT

WAINWRIGHT - Residents of the central Alberta town of Wainwright are grieving after a vicious fire killed four men and injured dozens more at a nearby military base, but the community is handling the tragedy with a sense of military-inspired resolve, says Mayor Bruce Pugh.

"We haven't been faced with the tragedy of this magnitude. I think there is a realization and a sense of strength that we're able to gain from our friends and neighbours and those that we know that serve on the base, that this is what they do," Pugh said.

"Their commitment and their perseverance and dedication is something that we see in them and attempt to mirror. And there is a sense of life has to go on."

The community knows dangerous things happen at the base — residents have said they're used to hearing explosions and gunshots from drills — but Pugh said the horror of Saturday is still sinking in.

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Updated: 3:31 PM CDT

Local

Voter ballot boxes to be used for the 2026 Alberta referendum in Edmonton on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/James Maclennan

Albertans split on remaining nine referendum questions as ballot count continues

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Albertans split on remaining nine referendum questions as ballot count continues

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: 4:20 PM CDT

EDMONTON - While Albertans roundly rejected separation in Monday’s referendum, results remain decidedly closer on the other nine questions as counting continues.

Votes were still being tallied as of Tuesday afternoon, but the yes vote was leading on eight of the nine referendum questions, including all five on immigration-related proposals.

Those questions asked whether Alberta should have more say on who comes to the province to work and whether it’s time to put more limitations — and perhaps introduce fees — on temporary workers who seek access to health care and education.

The remaining four questions saw Premier Danielle Smith ask for Albertan's blessing to lobby her provincial counterparts for support on amending the Constitution to take more power from Ottawa and abolish the Senate.

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Updated: 4:20 PM CDT

Lifestyles

Paramedics load an injured person into an ambulance at the Wainwright Health Centre as injured military members are treated after a fire at CFB Wainwright, outside of Wainwright, Alta., on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Ulan

CFB Wainwright fire highlights long, painful process of burn recovery, specialists say

Nicole Ireland and Hannah Alberga, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

CFB Wainwright fire highlights long, painful process of burn recovery, specialists say

Nicole Ireland and Hannah Alberga, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Updated: 8:40 AM CDT

TORONTO - The coming days and weeks will be critical for patients with severe burns from Saturday's devastating fire at a military base in central Alberta as they face life-threatening risks of infection and a long, painful road to recovery, burn specialists say.

Dr. Vincent Gabriel, medical director at Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Centre at Foothills Medical Centre, said Monday that there are several variables in how a patient recovers, including age, the percentage of the body that's burned and any complications that may arise.

But for serious cases in general, "we would count recovery from burn injury not in days or weeks … but in months and in years, with the hope that a burn survivor returns to their pre-injury role," Gabriel said, stressing that he was not giving details about any of the specific patients involved in the fire at CFB Wainwright.

"Unfortunately, there are times where there's permanent impairment, so it's a long process," he said.

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Updated: 8:40 AM CDT

Lifestyles

Warning signage for suspected cases of measles is seen outside the main entrance of Woodstock General Hospital in Woodstock, Ont., Thursday, May 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne

Measles outbreak over after 2 years, thousands infected in Canada: PHAC

Hannah Alberga, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Measles outbreak over after 2 years, thousands infected in Canada: PHAC

Hannah Alberga, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Updated: 8:38 AM CDT

A measles outbreak that spanned two years and infected thousands of people in Canada is over.

The Public Health Agency of Canada made the declaration in a press release Monday, stating that more than 6,400 people were infected across 10 provinces.

Two infants in Ontario and Alberta who were infected with measles while in the womb died after they were born.

The outbreak began in New Brunswick in October 2024 and about a year later led to the loss of Canada’s measles elimination status due to ongoing transmission of the highly contagious disease for more than 12 months.

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Updated: 8:38 AM CDT