Winnipeg Free Press News

Stunning finish to murder trial

Two men are charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of three people in a farmhouse near St. Leon. A third man pleads guilty to the same three slayings after making a deal with the Crown for a reduced charge and less time before parole. A trial is ...

Police officers walking the beat

EIGHT Winnipeg police officers have a new beat -- the sidewalk. Const. Lorraine McDonald is just days into a new gig with the foot patrol, where she'll walk the sidewalks of downtown for six to eight hours a shift. The aim of the job is to be visible, sai...

Sisters spoke hours before death

Hours after speaking by phone with her sister, Betty Rowbotham was in a deep sleep when she was awoken and told the same sister was missing. Only a few hours later, she heard the worst news possible -- her sister, Beverly Rowbotham, was found slain inside ...

Selinger, Allan share the pain

Premier Greg Selinger and Education Minister Nancy Allan face school-tax hikes on their personal property tax bills this year after Louis Riel School Division received zero increase in provincial operating grants. Every penny of increased costs will come f...

Bringing Hope to orphans in Ukraine

DAUPHIN -- Much to its shame, modern-day Ukraine has become one of the world's largest exporters of sex-trade workers, as organized crime in the country recruits vulnerable young people once they leave orphanages at the age of 16. "They know these kids hav...

First Nations focus on violence prevention

THE call from police to the woman's shelter was about a woman in a domestic dispute: "Can I bring her in? She hasn't been beaten up, yet." The way the officer said "yet" made the worker on duty pause, and Sheila Swasson said Wednesday in Winnipeg it's a me...

Martin stands by latest expletives

OTTAWA -- Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin added fuel to the obscenity-laden firestorm he created this week when he cursed at a Conservative senator who suggested murderers should be given ropes to hang themselves. On Wednesday, Martin called Sen. Pierre-Hugues ...

Residential schools pact needs review: coalition

It's the largest-ever compensation deal in Canadian history -- but groups that represent thousands of aboriginal people have come forward to say it's flawed. The National Residential School Survivors Society is calling for a judicial review of the $5-billi...

Province giving that freezing feeling

Finance Minister Stan Struthers won't come right out and say it, but it looks like he'll be asking more provincial government workers to accept wage freezes. The province saved somewhere in the neighbourhood of $120 million in 2010 and 2011 by negotiating ...

Grad from Class of '49 gives big gift to U of M engineering

A 1949 graduate has presented the University of Manitoba engineering faculty with a $4-million gift to create a state-of-the-art electrical engineering teaching and research facility -- the largest gift from an individual engineering has ever received. Sta...