WINNIPEG — A man whose cycling trip across Canada came to a halt in Winnipeg — when his bike was stolen — can resume his bucket-list journey after help from local cyclists.

Fergus Watt, 69, has always wanted to bike across the country, and now that he’s retired, he decided to start pushing pedals toward his goal. However, on Tuesday afternoon his bike — a Norco Search C-Apex-AXS, specially purchased for the trip — was stolen from outside Mountain Equipment Co-op on Portage Avenue.

“You just feel a bit gutted,” said Watt, who lives in Ottawa. “The first thing I said to myself was ‘I’m so screwed,’ but I used a different word.”

Watt said the theft was quick. He went into the store, remembered he had left his phone mounted on the bike, and went outside. However, by the time he returned, all that remained was the cut lock and his helmet. He also had his passport and phone stolen, as they were on his bike. The total cost of the theft is about $6,000. On the plus side, his clothing and camping gear are safe.

Brandon police arrested a man on Tuesday after he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend in a business parking lot the previous day.

The Brandon Police Service responded to reports on an assault in the parking lot of a business on the 1600 block of 18th Street on Monday at around 2 p.m. and determined that a man had assaulted his 28-year-old girlfriend, BPS said in a news release.

The man was driving in the parking lot when he hit a parked vehicle and proceeded to hit the woman and kicked her out of the vehicle, BPS said. Police said she sustained “significant bruising and swelling” on her face.

When officers got to the scene, the man had already left, BPS said.

WINNIPEG — A Manitoba government deputy minister was paid by both the province and the city even though he left his civic position more than a year ago.

The Winnipeg’s public disclosure compensation report revealed the extent to which two levels of taxpayers were on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary payments to Michael Jack, who is Manitoba’s deputy minister of business, mining, trade and job creation and formerly the city’s chief administrative officer.

Jack resigned as city CAO on July 15, 2024 and was paid $410,769 that year — 43 per cent more than his previous year’s salary, $286,782.

In 2025, after Jack was appointed deputy minister at a starting salary of $184,554, he also received $164,007 in compensation from the City of Winnipeg, although he did not work for the city that year.