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Speaker Tom Lindsey said Monday that MLAs on both sides of the chamber are a problem, with excessive heckling and unparliamentary language and behaviour. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)

Speaker bans five unparliamentary words, strikes blow for decorum in Manitoba house

Carol Sanders 5 minute read 8:53 AM CDT

Manitoba legislature Speaker Tom Lindsey on Monday banned MLAs from calling one another a “bigot,” “homophobe,” “racist,” “misogynist” or “transphobe” in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly chamber.

The ruling came on the same day he evicted an MLA for refusing to apologize after saying last month that the premier was drinking.

“Setting this new standard for our legislature is necessary to ensure that the people’s business is conducted in a civil, orderly manner consistent with the practices of the federal parliament and every other jurisdiction in Canada,” Lindsey told MLAs returning after a weeklong break.

Speaker Tom Lindsey said Monday that MLAs on both sides of the chamber are a problem, with excessive heckling and unparliamentary language and behaviour. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)Nahanni Fontaine questioned the speaker’s ban, saying her role as government house leader is to ensure NDP colleagues — in the only caucus with a trans man, Indigenous woman, black man, Sikh, Asian Canadian members, a black queer and gender non-conforming member of legislature — are protected.

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Neepawa man admits sexually assaulting adult niece

By Skye Anderson 2 minute read Preview

Neepawa man admits sexually assaulting adult niece

By Skye Anderson 2 minute read Yesterday at 9:52 PM CDT

A Neepawa man has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his adult niece in 2024.

The 63-year-old man pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual assault in front of Justice Sandra Zinchuk in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench on Monday.

The Sun is not naming the accused, as it could identify the victim.

Crown attorney Reid Girard read an agreed statement of facts in court.

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Yesterday at 9:52 PM CDT
The Brandon courthouse. (File)

City hall becomes beacon for FMD awareness

By Tessa Adamski 4 minute read Preview

City hall becomes beacon for FMD awareness

By Tessa Adamski 4 minute read Yesterday at 10:15 PM CDT

Brandon City Hall — along with other landmarks and buildings across Manitoba — are being illuminated with red and blue lights throughout May, providing a “beacon of hope” for people struggling with a rare vascular disease.

“It gives the feeling that there is a change coming in spreading awareness and providing relief to people affected by fibromuscular dysplasia,” Julie Vogelsang told the Sun on Monday.

The Winnipeg woman contacted the City of Brandon, which agreed for the first time to illuminate city hall to mark Fibromuscular Dysplasia Awareness Month. The lights were set to be turned on at sunset Monday and will remain on every night for a week.

In 2022, Vogelsang was diagnosed with fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) — a condition that causes one or more arteries in the body to have abnormal cell growth that can lead to aneurysms, dissections and narrowed blood vessels.

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Yesterday at 10:15 PM CDT
04052026 Renee McKinnon of Brandon and Julie Vogelsang of Winnipeg outside Brandon City Hall on Monday evening. McKinnon and Vogelsang both live with fibromuscular dysplasia and Vogelsang is a volunteer with the FMD Society. For the first time, Brandon City Hall’s sign and flagpole area are lit up in red and blue from May 4-11 in recognition of Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD) Awareness Month. Other landmarks across Manitoba are also being lit up this month for FMD awareness. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

Pickle fest rebranded over trademark issue

By Abiola Odutola 4 minute read Preview

Pickle fest rebranded over trademark issue

By Abiola Odutola 4 minute read Yesterday at 9:58 PM CDT

Organizers working to revive the Downtown Brandon International Pickle Fest this summer have changed the name of the event to the Brandon Brine Bash due to a trademark issue.

The volunteer committee said it will move forward with the new name after receiving notice that “Pickle Fest” is a trademarked title held by Picklefest Canada.

Aly Wowchuk, who is one of the organizers, said the trademark issue forced a name change — but not a change in spirit.

“It’s the same event, we have the same heart and soul, it just has a different name,” she told the Sun.

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Yesterday at 9:58 PM CDT
The logo for the Brandon Brine Bash, a revival of the Downtown Brandon International Pickle Fest.

Firefighters’ union warns staffing near ‘unsafe level’

By Alex Lambert 6 minute read Preview

Firefighters’ union warns staffing near ‘unsafe level’

By Alex Lambert 6 minute read Yesterday at 9:54 PM CDT

A union official is calling on the City of Brandon to increase its fire services funding after resources were stretched thin last week.

Brandon Firefighter Paramedics Local 803 union president Gage Wood said the city needs to speak with the union and up its funding to become more on par for firefighting with other cities across the country.

On Friday, Brandon crews responded to a grass fire just south of the city, where three people experienced minor injuries, including one firefighter.

Five Brandon Fire and Emergency Services (BFES) staff responded to the fire at first, before an additional nine members and about 10 first responders from Wawanesa and CFB Shilo also helped control the blaze.

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Yesterday at 9:54 PM CDT
01052026 Firefighters battle a grass fire on Friday afternoon south of Brandon. The fire started just east of Highway 10 and south of grid road 54 N. It spread eastward south of 54 N and south along 109 W threatening homes in the area. Firefighters and volunteers battled the blaze throughout the afternoon, as it picked up over and over again. Brandon Fire and emergency Services was joined by members of the Oakland Wawanesa Fire Department. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

Sentence at ‘extreme low end’ for abuse of children

By Skye Anderson 4 minute read Preview

Sentence at ‘extreme low end’ for abuse of children

By Skye Anderson 4 minute read Yesterday at 10:13 PM CDT

A man has been sentenced to just shy of a year in jail after he abused his former partner’s children over the span of a year in a southwest Manitoba First Nation community.

“You did terrible damage to these kids,” Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said in Brandon provincial court on Friday.

The 27-year-old man previously pleaded guilty to two counts each of assault, assault with a weapon, counselling the commission of an offence and administering a noxious substance.

A publication ban protecting the identities of the four child victims prevents the Sun from naming the offender.

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Yesterday at 10:13 PM CDT
The Brandon courthouse on 11th Street. (File)

Dauphin suspect emerges from hidden room

1 minute read Preview

Dauphin suspect emerges from hidden room

1 minute read Yesterday at 10:11 PM CDT

Mounties arrested a Dauphin man on Sunday after he emerged from one of the two hidden rooms police uncovered in the home.

The RCMP went to a home on Hawthorne Avenue in Dauphin at around 12:20 a.m. to arrest a man who was wanted on multiple theft-related charges.

Officers announced themselves and went inside the residence, where they found a man who said he was home alone, RCMP said in a news release.

When officers searched the room, they found a hidden room behind a false wall, Mounties said. Police found various weapons inside the room, along with a trap door that led to a second hidden room, RCMP said.

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Yesterday at 10:11 PM CDT
Dauphin suspect emerges from hidden room

Bear-mace attack; ex-partner assault

2 minute read Preview

Bear-mace attack; ex-partner assault

2 minute read Yesterday at 10:12 PM CDT

Bear-mace attack

A 16-year-old boy faces several charges, including assault with a weapon, after he allegedly sprayed a man with bear mace in downtown Brandon on Friday.

Officers with the Brandon Police Service responded to a report that a 30-year-old man had been sprayed with bear mace in the 800 block of Rosser Avenue at around 1 p.m.

The victim was treated at Brandon Regional Health Centre and later released, police said.

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Yesterday at 10:12 PM CDT
The Brandon Police Service station at 10th Street and Victoria Avenue. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun files)

$3B turbine project goes to utilities board for review

1 minute read Preview

$3B turbine project goes to utilities board for review

1 minute read Yesterday at 9:56 PM CDT

The provincial government has referred a major Manitoba Hydro turbine project in Brandon to the Public Utilities Board for review and recommendations.

The referral is a required step in the regulatory approval process for the facility, the province said in a news release Monday.

The 750-megawatt dual fuel combustion turbine facility is expected to cost the province $3 billion and would be used during peak usage times.

The PUB, which is independent from the government, will assess the need for the project, potential alternatives and potential impacts on electricity rates before the province’s NDP cabinet makes the final decisions, the release said.

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Yesterday at 9:56 PM CDT
The Manitoba Hydro Brandon Generating Station off Victoria Avenue East. The provincial government is proposing a $3-billion combustion turbine facility at the site to meet the increasing demand for power. It is expected to be in place by 2030 at the latest. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun files)

Man who served 10 years before murder acquittal can’t sue Manitoba government: court

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview

Man who served 10 years before murder acquittal can’t sue Manitoba government: court

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Updated: 8:48 AM CDT

WINNIPEG - Manitoba's highest court has ruled a man who served a decade in prison before he was acquitted of the 1984 killing of a Winnipeg girl can't continue with his lawsuit against the province.

Mark Grant filed the suit in 2019 seeking $8.5 million against Winnipeg police and the provincial government, alleging they engaged in a negligent investigation and malicious prosecution that left him wrongfully convicted of murdering 13-year-old Candace Derksen.

The province twice tried to have the suit struck in Court of King's Bench. The Court of Appeal granted the government's motion last year to hear its appeal.

In its decision Friday, the Appeal Court found that a Court of King's Bench justice had erred in law by dismissing the province's motion.

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Updated: 8:48 AM CDT
The Manitoba Law Courts building in Winnipeg on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

PM Carney expected to name new governor general today

The Canadian Press, The Canadian Press 1 minute read Preview

PM Carney expected to name new governor general today

The Canadian Press, The Canadian Press 1 minute read Updated: 8:48 AM CDT

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to name a new governor general today at a press conference in Ottawa.

The governor general is appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the prime minister and usually holds office for five years.

Mary Simon, Canada's first Indigenous governor general, will reach the five-year mark of her tenure in July.

Whit Fraser, the viceregal consort, told the Globe and Mail newspaper last month that he and Simon were apartment hunting.

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Updated: 8:48 AM CDT
Governor General Mary Simon speaks with a student before they plant messages in a heart garden on the grounds of Rideau Hall on National Indigenous Peoples day, Friday, June 21, 2024 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

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