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Newspaper delivery delayed this morning

Print newspaper deliveries for Saturday morning editions of the The Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Free Press have been delayed this morning due to technical difficulties with the printing press last night.

As a result, some customers in western Manitoba will see their papers after 9:30 a.m. this morning. Other routes may not be delivered until next week due to the delay.

Our E-edition is available here for paid subscribers. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

-- Matt Goerzen, editor

GALLERY: Game on

Hobbyists are gathering at the Brandon Curling Club this weekend for the 42nd iteration of the city's longest-running table-top gaming convention, PrairieCon.

Drug dealer caught in major busts gets six years

A Brandon man who was arrested for trafficking cocaine as part of two major drug busts in the past two years was sentenced Friday afternoon to six years behind bars.

Prosecutors and defence jointly recommended the sentence as a plea bargain for Scott Bickerton, who had previously pleaded guilty to two different cocaine trafficking charges, one from October 2020 to April 2021 and another from August to November of last year.

During sentencing, Crown attorney Serena Ehrmantraut read the following evidence for the charges against Bickerton.

In October 2020, Manitoba RCMP launched Project Debris, an investigation into drug trafficking where methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine from British Columbia was being distributed in Brandon and western Manitoba.

Police report ride and run, stolen vehicle

Ride and run

A woman’s alleged dash after an unpaid taxi ride Thursday led police to discover she was also a suspect for an earlier theft.

Around 9:30 p.m. Thursday, police responded to a report that a woman didn’t pay her taxi fair in the 100 block of 16th Street. After her ride, the woman went inside a home and refused to pay the fair, police allege.

According to police, the woman initially provided a fake name to officers upon her arrest. After police learned her real name, they found out she was also wanted as the suspect in a theft of power tools from a north-end business on May 9. The suspect was identified using security footage from the business.

Russell celebrates health centre milestone

The power of fundraising has paid off in Russell, says a member of a committee that has raised almost $2 million to build a new cancer care centre next to the local hospital.

Construction has not officially started, but six ceremonial shovels dug into the ground Friday, held by representatives from the fundraising committee, Prairie Mountain Health, the provincial government and CancerCare Manitoba.

“Finally, after eight and a half years of steady fundraising, we’re at this stage,” said Gloria Tibbatts. “The whole committee is ecstatic that this is happening after raising $1.8 million.”

Tibbatts is co-chair of the Expanding Community Cancer Care (ECCC) committee, which is comprised of members from 15 communities and seven municipalities surrounding Russell-Binscarth.

Man denied bail for ‘erratic and dangerous behaviour’

A man who is accused of driving through Brandon streets with a loaded shotgun behind the driver’s seat earlier this month was denied bail Thursday.

Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said the allegations against Matiao Campbell describe “erratic and dangerous behaviour” and decided to keep the 24-year-old behind bars for the protection of the public. Campbell is facing numerous firearms and weapons charges from both Brandon and Killarney.

Sarah Kok, an articling student for the Crown, detailed the following allegations against Campbell in court. The allegations against him have not been proven in court and he remains innocent until proven guilty.

Last August, Brandon police received calls from the public about an erratic driver heading into Brandon. Three callers reported the car was passing unsafely and swerving in between other vehicles that were driving in the same direction.

Military chopper makes rare visit to Brandon

Brandon residents had a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with a Royal Canadian Air Force Cyclone helicopter Thursday morning after the military aircraft landed in the Wheat City.

The stopover in Brandon was part of a cross-country tour, as members of the 423 Maritime Helicopter Squadron fly the chopper from the force’s East Coast base to its Pacific coast base in Esquimalt, B.C.

The helicopter, hosted by the Brandon Flight Centre, was on a static display on the tarmac Thursday, while RCAF members gave tours of the aircraft and answered questions from the public and aircraft enthusiasts.

“Travelling the country is a great opportunity to engage with different groups,” Capt. Alex Manderson, an RCAF air combat systems officer, told the Sun.

Purchase of Brandon radio stations approved

Pattison Media’s acquisition of 94.7 Star FM and Q Country 91.5 FM will finalize on Canada Day after receiving permission from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission earlier this week.

The deal to purchase the radio stations from Westman Communications Group was first announced last August pending CRTC approval.

Both organizations confirmed Thursday operations would be handed over to Pattison Media effective July 1. The company, owned by billionaire Jim Pattison, is headquartered in Kamloops, B.C.

A copy of the approval posted to the CRTC’s website Tuesday lists the value of the sale at $5,549,079.

Dodge man ‘too old to change’

BOISSEVAIN — One of his collector cars purrs like a kitten, his truck has four on the floor and the Olds rides like a big, beautiful boat.

Boissevain’s Bob Chambers loves them all, but there’s one in particular he cherishes the most.

Chambers is a self-professed Dodge man who has had more of them than people have fingers. Out front of his place is a 2012 model, and before that was an ’02, and earlier than that there was an ’86, he said as he listed the vehicles from his past.

“I get shunned in some places. People ask, ‘Why do you have a Dodge?’ And I reply good naturedly, ‘Why do you have a Chevy?’” Chambers said.

City pitching province on Braecrest redesign

The City of Brandon has proposed to the provincial government a cost-sharing agreement to address safety concerns at the intersection of Braecrest Drive and 18th Street North.

This was revealed to residents by Brandon’s director of engineering Mark Allard during a Ward 1 meeting at the Riverbank Discovery Centre on Thursday evening.

He said city and provincial officials had met multiple times earlier this year to discuss the future of the intersection with another meeting scheduled for next week. As part of a provincial highway, Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure has jurisdiction over 18th Street North.

The intersection was raised as a safety concern during last year’s municipal election. An 84-year-old woman died in a collision there in 2016.

First Nations leaders decry patronage appointment

WINNIPEG — The Tory government is under fire for giving a patronage appointment to a former Manitoba attorney general who doesn’t believe the residential school system was a form of genocide.

Indigenous leaders and opposition parties said Jim McCrae — a former Brandon West MLA and former city councillor — should not have been appointed as a citizen member of a committee that helps select judicial officers, or masters, for the Court of King’s Bench.

Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen recommended McCrae for a three-year term, according to a cabinet decree dated May 10.

Goertzen told the Winnipeg Free Press he was unaware of McCrae’s online articles on residential schools, when approached for comment Thursday morning.

18th Street second-worst road in Manitoba

Brandon’s 18th Street has “won” second place on a list of the worst roads in Manitoba, and there’s a long road ahead before it’ll finally be fixed, the mayor says.

CAA Manitoba released its annual rating of the province’s worst roads based on votes cast by Manitobans, and 18th Street climbed the ranks from fifth in the province last year to second place this year. Of the roads in Brandon, 18th Street earned the top spot, and Provincial Highway 10 placed second.

While 18th Street is located within the city of Brandon, it actually falls under provincial jurisdiction, and any repairs to the rutted road are the responsibility of the Manitoba government.

In an interview with the Sun, Mayor Jeff Fawcett said 18th Street comes up in every conversation he has with Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk.

Tory campaign co-chair Bergen bemoans ‘brainwashed’ youth

WINNIPEG — Progressive Conservative election campaign co-chair Candice Bergen lamented the entitlement and disengagement of young people, some of whom she described as brainwashed by the education system, while praising a group of young Tory supporters at the Manitoba legislature.

Bergen, the former member of Parliament for Portage-Lisgar and interim Conservative Party of Canada leader, made the remarks during a reception Wednesday evening.

A 78-second audio recording of Bergen’s speech was released Thursday by the Manitoba NDP.

“I want to thank you for being willing to be involved, especially in this day and age, when so many young people are either disengaged, they’re entitled, they think they don’t need to do anything, they think whatever they will do won’t matter anyway,” Bergen told the crowd, which included at least a half-dozen Tory MLAs and Premier Heather Stefanson.