Looking Back — May 29, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/05/2024 (839 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Esther Lodge 84 and Unity 52 of the LOBA were joint hostesses at a dinner in the Orange Hall recently in honour of retiring grand mistress of Manitoba, T.W. Pentland of Justice.

The first unmanned model of the Apollo moonship circled the Earth in an orbit more than 100 miles high today, buoying United States hopes of manned landings on the moon by 1969.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

The Manitoba government is planning to start construction on 210 additional low-rental public housing units in 1974, 100 of them to be seniors housing and the rest to be family units.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Municipal officials say southwestern Manitoban communities will hit paydirt if a $500-million potash mine is built in the Russell-Binscarth area.

Brandon’s Dawn Holder and Dauphin’s Robert Kowbuz returned home from Vancouver, where the pair struck gold at the Canadian youth 10-pin bowling championships. The pair finished with a 4-0 record in the mixed doubles event to take first place. Holder was also a member of the Manitoba girls’ team, which placed second.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it will spend $275 million to renovate the 122 Woolco stores it purchased in Canada and replace most of their cafeterias with McDonald’s restaurants.

Carman Hurd dominated the junior girls’ competition, racing to first-place finishes in both the 800 and 3,000 metres yesterday at the provincial rural high school track and field championships in Neepawa.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Those who brought it here hope the new Sioux Valley circuit court will foster a sense of accountability among those who break the law in this community. “In the past, people have gone to court in Brandon, and even Portage and Winnipeg,” Chief Vince Tacan said. “They would appear there on charges, but the impact on them was lessened because they weren’t appearing in their own community. The accountability wasn’t there.” Community members, politicians and justice officials packed a small room in the resource building at Sioux Valley this week for traditional prayers and songs to open the new court, which will sit once a month.

Brandon University president Louis Visentin unveiled the details of the BU And You fundraising campaign at the Brandon University foundation’s annual luncheon at the Victoria Inn yesterday. The goal of the three-year campaign is to raise $8 million to support campus infrastructure, enhance learning and teaching resources, and support research endowments.

TEN YEARS AGO

The death of a 96-year-old MacGregor man described by residents as “a lovely old gentleman” has been ruled a homicide by RCMP. However, longtime residents of the community concede they know little about the victim, Niels (Arne) Nielsen, who was found at his home around 5 p.m. on Sunday. Police aren’t saying how they learned of the death or what they found at the scene.

Christopher Shewchuk admitted luring a stranger into an isolated field, shooting him dead and then burning his body — all because the man had the audacity to flirt with his ex-girlfriend inside a bar. Shewchuk then kept the deadly secret for years, literally getting away with murder while the victim’s family wondered where their missing loved one had gone. But the truth finally emerged in a dramatic “Mr. Big” sting operation, the details of which were revealed publicly for the first time Wednesday.