Snowfall disrupts Brandon Rib Fest

The Brandon Rib Fest, an annual event at the Riverbank Discovery Centre, faced an unexpected challenge this year as a snowfall warning hit the region, forcing organizers to make significant adjustments to their plans.

The three-day event — which attracts barbecue lovers from across the region with its award-winning ribs, beer tent, live music and kids’ zone — was temporarily halted due to bad weather.

On Friday afternoon, organizers took to social media to announce the closure.

“We are closed today due to weather. Back in action tomorrow at 11 a.m. with all festivities going ahead as planned,” the post said. “No music on stage today but music tomorrow and Sunday will be going ahead with a revised schedule! (Most musicians scheduled for today will be performing on Sunday).”

Beautiful Plains School Division sues mom for defamation over Facebook posts

A Manitoba school division is suing a woman over alleged “defamatory” and “false” comments she made online accusing teachers of wrongdoing — an emerging issue one expert says the law has been slow to address.

Beautiful Plains School Division, which is headquartered in Neepawa, filed the lawsuit in the Court of King’s Bench against the woman on May 14. The woman has not yet filed a statement of defence and could not be reached for comment.

The division, in its court filings, said the woman is the mother of current and former students in the region.

She’s accused of “intentionally and/or maliciously” publishing untrue and defamatory statements about the division and its employees in videos and posts on her Facebook page multiple times between April 30 and May 13.

Life-jackets at top of safe-boating list

The number of Manitobans who have drowned in boating accidents has increased over the last five years, and the majority were not wearing life-jackets, says Christopher Love, Water Smart and safety management co-ordinator with the Lifesaving Society Manitoba.

“For our Manitoba 2024 drowning report in the last five-year period that we have statistics for, which is 2017 to 2021, 74 per cent of boating fatalities were not wearing life-jackets at the time of the incident taking place,” said Love.

“And we can’t say with 100 per cent certainty, but we know that the number of fatalities would go down if people were wearing life-jackets,” he said.

Using data on water-related fatalities from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for Manitoba, the drowning report shows that more men than women drown — 80 per cent compared to 20 per cent.

Board orders deportation for trucker who caused horrific Humboldt Broncos crash

CALGARY - The truck driver who caused the horrific bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team was ordered Friday to be deported to India.

An Immigration and Refugee Board hearing for Jaskirat Singh Sidhu announced its decision in a 15-minute virtual hearing.

"I can't consider humanitarian and compassionate factors,” Trent Cook from the immigration division of the board, who oversaw the hearing, told Sidhu.

“My sole role today is to make a finding on whether the minister has established the facts that support their allegation that you're inadmissible for serious criminality.

Downtown Cruise Night ‘something special’

Hundreds of classic, vintage and antique cars, trucks and motorcycles that line Rosser Avenue once a month in downtown Brandon for Cruise Night create one of the biggest show-and-shine events in western Manitoba. It’s also the envy of car clubs in Winnipeg, says Dave Burba, president of the Road Rebels Car Club.

“Winnipeg people say we have the best street show in Manitoba, and wish they had something like it,” Burba said. “And I was talking with a fellow from Germany, and he told me they don’t have shows like this there, but he’s been to a lot of them in the United States and says we have something special here.”

Cruise Night in Downtown Brandon has been running for more than 20 years. It’s hosted by Brandon and Area Car Enthusiasts (BACE) on the first Thursday of every month, June through September, from 6 to 9 p.m. along Rosser Avenue between Sixth and 13th streets.

For the first event of the season, held on May 16, there were “more than 175 cars and trucks and 20 bikes” said Burba.

Dangerous weapon; domestic assault; theft

Possession of a dangerous weapon

A 40-year-old man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly concealing a large machete in his sleeve.

Police say a business in the 800 block of Lorne Avenue reported that a man was seen injecting drugs and concealing a large machete in his sleeve.

Officers also allegedly found the man to have a small amount of methamphetamine.

Man pleads guilty to ‘sextorting’ teen

A 43-year-old Brandon man pleaded guilty to a “sextortion” charge after attempting to pay a 17-year-old girl for sexual services on what the Crown called a “sugar-daddy” dating website.

Adam Matviuk, 43, pleaded guilty to luring, communicating with a minor for obtaining sexual services, extortion and criminal harassment in a court of King’s Bench courtroom on Wednesday.

After Matviuk entered his plea, Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup read the facts to court.

Beginning in February 2021, Matviuk, who at the time was the manager at Canadian Tire, began talking with a girl on a dating website called seekingarrangements.com.

DEVOTED ANGLER

» Photos by Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun

Supreme Court upholds sexual assault conviction, affirms refusal of evidence

OTTAWA - A man found guilty of sexually assaulting his long-time partner was properly denied a chance to present evidence about sexual activity they engaged in shortly before the offence, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.

The couple, who had been in a relationship for more than 20 years, took a trip in February 2018 and separated upon their return. The man moved into a basement room of their house.

The woman told police she and the accused had consensual intercourse on the evening of April 1, and that he sexually assaulted her the following morning.

The man, identified only as T.W.W., sought to introduce evidence at trial concerning the sexual activity the prior evening.

Security Council approves resolution decrying attacks on UN and aid workers and demanding protection

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution Friday that strongly condemns attacks on humanitarian workers and U.N. personnel, and demands that all combatants protect them in accordance with international law.

The vote was 14-0 with Russia abstaining.

The Swiss-sponsored resolution expresses grave concern at the growing number of attacks and threats against U.N. and humanitarian personnel along with the continuing disregard and violations of international humanitarian law by combatants.

“The goal of the resolution is as simple as it is important,” Switzerland’s U.N. Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl told The Associated Press on Thursday. “It’s about protecting the men and women who work and risk their lives — every day — to help people affected by armed conflict.”

Iran inters its late president at holiest Shiite site in nation after fatal helicopter crash

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran interred President Ebrahim Raisi at the nation's holiest Shiite shrine Thursday, days after he was killed in a helicopter crash that added to the woes of a country already beset by international sanctions, internal unrest and tensions abroad.

Raisi, who died alongside the country’s foreign minister and six others, was lowered by mourners into a tomb at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, where Shiite Islam’s eighth imam is buried and millions of pilgrims visit each year. Hundreds of thousands of people dressed in black crowded around the shrine under its iconic golden dome, wailing and beating their chests in sorrow in a sign of mourning common in Shiite ceremonies.

A hadith, or saying, attributed to the Prophet Mohammad states that anyone with sorrow or sin will be relieved by visiting there. But Thursday's mass processional offered little salve for Iran and its many challenges.

The days of services for Raisi have not drawn the same crowds in this nation of over 80 million people as the 2020 gatherings for Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was slain by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.