RCMP seize counterfeit goods from Portage Place store

The RCMP seized $500,000 worth of counterfeit merchandise Sept. 14 from a Portage Place store, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. The goods seized during the search warrant included counterfeit DVDs and CDs and knock-off brand name items from designer labels such as Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and other big-ticket merchandisers. The RCMP has not yet laid charges but may use the Copyright, Trademark and Textile Act to charge the store following their investigation. The police did not name the store.

No houses available for flood evacuees

Vacant houses at Kapyong Barracks are not fit for human occupation and cannot hold evacuated Lake St. Martin residents, the Department of National Defence (DND) announced. The Winnipeg Free Press reported the DND said 57 of the 59 unoccupied houses are “beyond economic repair, on hold or require major renovations.” Lake St. Martin’s chief asked for his residents to be put up at Kapyong Barracks in a letter to the prime minister sent just before Labour Day. The First Nation was evacuated in May due to flooding, and its residents have been living in hotels since at the cost of $490,000 a week. Military families continue to inhabit 297 of the homes at the barracks.

City byelection on Nov. 26

The City of Winnipeg has announced the St. Vital council byelection will occur Saturday, Nov. 26. The byelection will replace former St. Vital councillor Gord Steeves, who resigned to run as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Seine River in the upcoming provincial election. The race will officially begin Sept. 24, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. Byelections on Nov. 26 will also elect school trustees in Winnipeg School Division (Ward 1) and Louis Riel School Division (Ward 2). So far, five contenders have expressed interest in running for Steeves’s spot.

‘Leave us alone,’ Katz asks provincial party leaders

Mayor Sam Katz has asked provincial party leaders to leave the city alone. The mayor told reporters that many pledges party leaders have made involve increasing city staff like police and paramedics, but the leaders haven’t made pledges to cover the costs. “We’ll bankrupt the city. ... We get killed on those types of promises and commitments,” Katz told the Winnipeg Free Press. In other election news, the Liberals promised to spend $44 million yearly for building rapid transit, and the NDP stand by their offer to pay for one-third of the rapid transit’s second phase. Katz, however, said the NDP haven’t taken into account construction inflation, offering “to pay for one-third of a number that doesn’t exist.”

Tories focus on Alzheimer’s

Progressive Conservative leader Hugh McFadyen announced his party’s focus on Alzheimer’s disease, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. In his campaign announcement, he said his government would increase “behaviour beds” from 10 to 45 and would work with the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba to update the province’s Alzheimer’s strategy. A Tory government would also spend $350,000 a year to reopen the Memory Assessment Clinic, which closed in 2002. Also, $200,000 would be earmarked each year to fund First Link, a program to connect people with dementia and their families to Alzheimer Society programs and other community services.

Published in Volume 66, Number 4 of The Uniter (September 22, 2011)