The Black Rod

The Winnipeg police tried communicating with the public Friday and, as usual, failed miserably. They called a news conference to reassure the citizens of the city that the October Spree Killer who shot three people this time last year, was not shooting people at random. The shootings, said the police, might be (hint, hint, are extremely likely to be) connected to drug dealing in the North End . So take it easy, folks, went the official message. You don't need to worry that you or your kids (one of the shooter's victims was only 13) are going to be shot down in cold blood without warning. That might sound comforting to Winnipeg city detectives who don't actually live in Winnipeg, or to mainstream media reporters from the suburbs. But people who actually walk the streets where the shootings took place can see right through the police bafflegab. First, a brief recap of the shootings: * Thomas Beardy was killed outside a home on Dufferin Avenue. In a charitable ...

We don't know what's more alarming---the unprecedented rampage by a spree killer in the North End or how helpless the Winnipeg police appear. On the one hand you have an armed maniac responsible for three senseless attacks in less than an hour, each progressively more frightening. He started by shooting into a crowd of young teenagers, leaving one critically wounded. Then, with police cars flooding into the area, he shot a man in the back as his victim left a house a short jaunt away from the first shooting. After a short break, he finished his night by ringing the doorbell to a house to lure the homeowner out, then shooting him to death when the man realized the danger and slammed the door shut in the killer's face. On the other hand, you have the wimpiest-ever police chief begging for help to catch the killer because the police have no leads. “This is an awful, awful event and we’re certainly committed to the public to do everything we possibly can to get...

David Asper did more dancing than a chicken on a hotplate when he appeared on CJOB Tuesday morning, to give an update on the new stadium he's building. OB was chasing our story three days earlier in The Black Rod that a sports fan with his ear to the ground had heard the cost of the stadium was wildly out of control, as high as $190 million instead of the $115 million the city and province agreed to pay. Asper came armed with an encyclopedia of excuses to avoid putting a total on the tenders. There were more than 100 tenders, he said. They were very complex. They needed to be evaluated. There might be overlap. Time was the enemy. Blah blah blah. "My sources tell me its in over the $130 million mark," said radio host Richard Cloutier, adding that this meant a proper stadium would cost $150-$170 million. Everyone wants a "proper" stadium, Asper volleyed, and that's why he was counting on the partnership (that would be unelected Premier Greg ...

An unprecedented election scandal is unfolding in Winnipeg while the self-proclaimed Democracy boosters in the mainstream media are purposely ignoring it. At least eight people have now come forward to election authorities saying they heard Mynarski candidate Ross Eadie tell an all-candidates forum that the provincial NDP are helping to fund his campaign. Another two attendees at the meeting have posted these internet messages on the New Winnipeg community forum confirming Eadie's public statement: Re: 2010 Winnipeg Civic Election by Northender on Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:04 am I was there. The context was Eadie taking a swipe at the three independent candidates to his left who had just completed their remarks. Eadie seemed out of control and was yelling that they were just as political as he was, but how could he run a campaign without the financial backing of the NDP and after he was elected he would be just as independent as the rest of the candidates... Re: 20...

An election financing scandal with the potential of disqualifying all NDP-endorsed candidates in the Winnipeg civic election has erupted in Mynarski ward. Comments made by NDP candidate Ross Eadie at an all-candidates forum on Monday have prompted a formal complaint to Elections Manitoba. The charges involve such a serious breach of election laws that any investigation must also include everyone running under the NDP banner in the election. It will be the first test of Elections Manitoba since the retirement last April of former chief electoral officer Richard Balasko who helped the NDP cover up a scheme by the party during the provincial election of 1999 to file phony candidate expense forms and fraudulently collect rebates from the public purse. During the all-candidates' forum at the Norquay Community Centre, Eadie...well, why don't we let an eyewitness tell the story. AlexLV, as he calls himself, posted this play by play on the Winnipeg Free Press website W...