Protest at Jewish campus sparks call for legislation

WINNIPEG — Federal Liberal MP Ben Carr has called for bubble-zone legislation to ban protests outside “religiously associated facilities,” after a demonstration outside the Asper Jewish Community Campus in Winnipeg on Tuesday.

A pro-Palestinian group held a protest while the campus hosted an event featuring two Israel Defence Forces soldiers who were involved in the offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’ cross-border attack in October 2023. A pro-Israel group held a counter-demonstration.

In social media posts, Carr described the protest as “completely unacceptable,” noting the Tuxedo campus has a school, daycare, community centre and Holocaust memorial.

“I am fully supportive, always, of the right for people to protest peacefully around any issue of importance to them in Canada,” Carr, who is Jewish, told the Winnipeg Free Press. “I do not support the ability for protests to gather within close proximity of religiously associated facilities, whether they be Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Christian or any other.

Lawyers who had Manitoba judge followed to face review in Alta.

WINNIPEG —Two Alberta lawyers banned from practising in Manitoba after they hired a private investigator to spy on a judge in 2021 will face disciplinary proceedings in their home province.

In a written decision issued last month, the Law Society of Alberta dismissed an application by lawyers John Carpay and Jay Cameron to bar the society from seeking further sanctions against them.

Carpay and Cameron had argued that under terms of a National Mobility Agreement allowing them at the time to practise in Manitoba and the Law Society of Alberta’s own rules, it had no jurisdiction to discipline them as they had faced sanction in Manitoba.

“Adopting the lawyers’ interpretation of the NMA and rules would result in the untenable situation that the (Law Society of Alberta) is unable to remove from its rolls a lawyer who is unsuitable for practice,” a law society hearing committee wrote in a decision dated March 11.

OFF THE RAILS

A CN Rail freight train with 14 empty cars derailed around 5 p.m. Monday in Brandon, blocking the crossing at Sixth Street between McTavish and Van Horne avenues near the Co-op Gas Bar. The crossing remained blocked as of press time last night. Authorities are investigating the cause of the derailment. (Abiola Odutola/The Brandon Sun)

Dauphin’s Parkview Lodge a model program

WINNIPEG — When Drake arrived at Parkview Lodge in January, he was in desperate need of help.

The 20-year-old had recently been evicted from his home and ended up in hospital, where he realized it was time for a change.

“It made me a horrible person,” he said of his past struggles with substance use.

Originally from Skownan First Nation, located about 300 kilometres north of Winnipeg, Drake, whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons, was referred to a pilot project operating in an 11-storey Manitoba Housing complex in Dauphin, where he has access to a broad range of wraparound supports that are all located under the same roof.

Tory MLA slams party’s leadership candidate

WINNIPEG — A Progressive Conservative MLA didn’t hold back her opinion about Tory leadership hopeful Wally Daudrich during question period Friday.

Kathleen Cook, the member for Roblin and PC health critic, was responding to Premier Wab Kinew, who asked if she supports the controversial candidate “who opposes a woman’s right to choose.”

Daudrich, who is challenging Fort Whyte MLA Obby Khan to lead the party, is anti-abortion. Daudrich opposes the NDP government’s decision to provide free prescription birth control, saying at the March 19 PC leadership debate that he opposes providing free contraception that allows vulnerable women “to be more sexually active.”

On Friday, the premier dodged Cook’s questions about his government’s homeless strategy to ask for her stance on Daudrich’s platform regarding reproductive rights.