Latest news with #Gimli
CBC
3 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Thick wildfire smoke prompts cancellation of Gimli sailing competition
Thick wildfire smoke hanging over Manitoba has prompted the cancellation of the Sail West regional championships in Gimli. "You want to keep them safe to sail another day. We've made a prudent and wise and defendable quite frankly decision to cancel," said Eric Turner, co-chair of the 2025 Sail West competition and president of Sail Manitoba. The four-day event was scheduled to run from July 17-21, with 40 competitors taking part in the competition over the weekend at the Gimli Yacht Club. "I have no qualms whatsoever about the decision we've made today, because it's the right one," said Turner. Environment and Climate Change Canada issued warnings Sunday morning for a large swath of the province, including Winnipeg and Brandon in the south, the Interlake and Thompson in the north. Winnipeg's air quality health index remained in the "very high risk" 10+ level all weekend. The warnings advise people to limit their time outside and reschedule any outdoor activities due to the poor air quality. Turner said the decision to cancel was made Sunday morning with the help of two doctors on site who were associated with sailors who were racing. The smoke was so thick in Gimli it looked like a fog hanging over the water, he said, and what he thought was gravel dust was actually a coating of ash on his car Sunday morning. He said the volunteers and participants range from teens to seniors. "It would be extremely unhealthy and unwise to go out there, because we have people who are immunocompromised," he said. "When the medical people said 'we think we should cancel,' I said two words: 'do it.'" Turner said they're providing N95 masks to people as they try to minimize their time outside. All awards will be based on the four races that happened on Saturday — the first of two race days, following two training days. "Instead of doing the awards out on the deck where they're normally done, we're going to do them inside in the dining hall," he said. "We're trying to make the best of a bad situation, but it's extremely important that we made a prudent decision that's for the benefit of all. And of course people are disappointed, but they understand." Events shift inside, provide masks The poor air quality forced the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association to move 12 recreational playoff matches indoors after the championship had already kicked off mid-morning Saturday. The Fringe Festival remained open on Saturday, with organizers providing masks to volunteers. Turner said this will lead to changes going forward. "We now need to have a policy on air quality. Some sports do, some don't. We should be developing a guideline so we have a basis on which to decide," he said. "We try to keep people safe, it's safety first." He added the Sail West competition typically happens every three years.
CTV News
09-07-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Manitoba weather forecast: Hot temperatures continue
Daniel Halmarson has your current conditions and updated weather forecast for July 9, 2025. It's going to be a hot and windy Wednesday throughout most of Manitoba. Winnipeg and the surrounding region are looking at a high of 29 C today, while Brandon and parts of western Manitoba could see temperatures climb into the low 30s. The heat is also soaring into the north, with daytime highs ranging from 27 C in Thompson to 32 C in The Pas. Expand Autoplay 1 of 18 Mallard duckling Mallard duckling in action catching insects. (Photo by Wade Munro) The gulls are everywhere The gulls are everywhere (Photo by Pat Payjack) Rainbow Rainbow over St. Malo. (Photo by Linda Gay) Bird River No better way too start our holidays than coffee on the dock! (Photo by Tania Kruk) Split Lake Fire, smoke, Northern lights and the moon from my backyard. (Photo by Taralee Beardy) An artist touches up a mural An artist touches up a mural on the Gimli seawall as a storm rolls through in the distance. (Photo by Desiree Rantala) Northern lights Northern lights over Split Lake (Photo by Taralee Beardy) Sparkles and water Sparkles and water (Photo by Sheryl Twardoski) North Kildonan North Kildonan (Photo by Shirley Wark) Near Gimli Near Gimli (Photo by Cynthia Morrow) Rainbow Rainbow over Rainbow RM of Elton (Photo by Lacey Burdeniuk) Lee river sunset Lee river sunset (Photo by Ken Horn) Near Morris Near Morris (Photo by Sandra Harder) After the storm After the storm in Dropmore (Photo by Dan Watson) Rainbow Rainbow over Altbergthal, Manitoba (Photo by Jennifer Klassen) Stormy Sky Stormy sky Near Elm Creek (Photo by Tina Doell) Somerset storm Somerset storm (Photo by Amber Hacault) Mother Nature's own fireworks for Canada Day Mother Nature provided some spectacular fireworks for Canada Day! (Photo by Kat Hedges) Strong southern winds gusting up to 50 km/h are pushing wildfire smoke north; however, air quality statements issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada are still in effect for much of central and northern Manitoba—including warnings in Thompson and areas around Nopiming Provincial Park. Parts of the north could see scattered showers and thunderstorms develop today, especially near the Saskatchewan border. The severe thunderstorm threat will shift to southern and eastern Manitoba on Thursday, with temperatures climbing into the 30s. Temperatures are expected to dip back to seasonal norms as the weekend draws near.
CTV News
05-07-2025
- CTV News
Teen charged in connection with random stabbing death in Selkirk: RCMP
A 15-year-old girl has been charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 39-year-old woman in Selkirk. RCMP announced Friday they had arrested the girl, who is from Gimli, and charged her in connection with the alleged homicide on June 30. The charges have not been tested in court. The stabbing occurred outside of a business on Manitoba Avenue in Selkirk at 11:50 p.m. The victim was taken to hospital where she died from her injuries. RCMP said the victim and suspect were not known to each other. The investigation continues.
CTV News
27-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
‘It's a piece of aviation history': Gimli Glider cockpit makes return trip to Manitoba
Retired pilot Robert Pearson stands in front of the cockpit of the former Boeing 767 aircraft he landed safely in Gimli in 1983. Here he is on Friday June 27, 2025. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg) After a 7,000-kilometre journey from a southern California scrapyard, a part of a plane that was made famous 43 years ago was reunited with the captain that flew it. 'This was my office. I flew this airplane quite a few times and as a matter of fact, I was the last one to use it,' said retired captain, Robert Pearson with a smile. The cockpit from the former Boeing 767 aircraft known as the Gimli Glider was recently recovered and brought back to Manitoba. 'It's great that this has been salvaged by the museum in Gimli,' Pearson said. 'It's a piece of aviation history.' Gimli Glider cockpit control panel A portion of the original side control panel of the Gimli Glider cockpit is still intact. Here it is on Friday June 27, 2025. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg) Back on July 23, 1983, Pearson safely landed the plane on a decommissioned airstrip in Gimli, Man., a lakeside community about 100 kilometres north of Winnipeg. All 69 people on board, who were flying with Air Canada from Montreal to Edmonton, survived the emergency landing. The plane glided to a stop after it malfunctioned in the air and lost fuel. 'Touching down was good. A gentleman came up to me, he put his hand on my shoulder. He said, 'Captain, that was some feat,'' Pearson said. The whole plane went up for auction years ago, but didn't sell, so it was parted out. The cockpit stayed intact, though it has been collecting dust since 2008 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif. The Gimli Glider exhibit volunteers had their eye on it since 2017. They raised funds and thanks to a generous donor, it's now on its way to Gimli to be displayed alongside other memorabilia. 'An American businessman spoke to the owners and said, 'You need to understand how important this museum is,'' said Barbara Gluck, president of the Gimli Glider exhibit. 'Can you cut your price on the cockpit so that they can afford it and get it back for Canadian history?' Volunteers like Peter Grant met the truck driver on Friday afternoon at the border to see it come through. 'Holy mackerel! As soon as I saw the truck coming through the border and I saw the cockpit, my heart started to beat,' Grant said. Gimli Glider volunteers Left to right; Gwen Harp, Robert Pearson, Glen Hooper, Barbara Gluck and Peter Grant worked together to bring the cockpit of the original Gimli Glider home to Manitoba. Here they are together on Friday June 27, 2025. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg) He said the cockpit will be refurbished and put on display in the coming months. He noted he still can't fathom what it took for Pearson to safely land the plane. 'A lot of people don't realize the wizardry that Bob Pearson had to have to fly a plane like that with no fuel, no engines,' Grant said. 'All he had was up, down, left, right and he flew the plane for 100 miles with nothing.' It was all in a days' work, according to a humble Pearson. 'My job was to take off and land an airplane full of passengers and I'm really pleased I could do my job that day,' Pearson said.
CBC
24-06-2025
- CBC
Manitoba flight school now barred from training pilots put students in 'significant danger': whistleblower
A Manitoba flight school was banned from training pilots "in the interest of public safety," Transport Canada says, more than a year after a former instructor came forward with allegations the school failed to follow aviation rules and put students in "significant danger." Transport Canada cancelled the flight training unit operator certificate of Gimli-based LS Airways Flight Academy on Nov. 19, 2024. The federal government department said in an email to CBC News that the certificate cancellation was a "serious action," and is only taken when oversight and monetary penalties do not lead to compliance. Wayne Liu said he and several other students alerted authorities about safety concerns at the school. They decided to report the school to Transport Canada in September 2023, he said. "I really hope this [doesn't] happen again to other students," Liu said about why he spoke up. WATCH | Gimli flight school put students in danger, whistleblower claims in lawsuit: Lawsuits allege Manitoba flight school endangered students 7 minutes ago Duration 2:39 His lawsuit is one of four filed against the school in the past year alleging that the Gimli flight school faked logs of flying hours, told students to fly with jerry cans of gasoline on board, altered maintenance records and exploited students. The school's owner, Noura Gharib, declined to be interviewed. She said in a phone call with CBC she intends to fight the revocation. 'So regretful': student Liu first enrolled at the school to convert a U.S. flight instructor licence into a Canadian one, and taught at LS Airways for about a month in 2023 after passing a flight test. But Liu says he should never have gotten the instructor rating, because LS Airways did not give him the number of flight hours needed to qualify for the certification in Canada. The owner "never put me on the flight schedule," Liu said. "I [told] her … even though I have some experience, we still need to practise and meet requirements for the exam. Until two or three days before the flight test, she still never flew with me and [faked the] hours on the PTR." "PTR" stands for pilot training record, a logbook required to obtain pilot permits and ratings. I was telling myself, 'Hey, I shouldn't do this.' - Wayne Liu, former LS Airways flight instructor A pilot must complete a minimum of 30 hours of dual flight instruction (training where a certified instructor is in the aircraft) for a Class 4 instructor rating, among other requirements. Applicants receive some credits if they previously held that rating — through foreign accreditation, for example. In lawsuit documents filed on May 23, 2025, Liu alleges that Gharib instructed him to record false numbers on the training record. He said he needed 15 flight hours to qualify for the licence, but got just over one hour with a student — not a certified instructor. "I was telling myself, 'Hey, I shouldn't do this,'" he said. "I accepted her wrongful instruction.… I was so regretful I did those wrong things." Company fined more than $46K Liu, from Taiwan, trained as a pilot in the U.S. and taught at a flight school in Georgia before coming to Canada, planning to eventually settle in the country. He was under a lot of stress to get his Canadian instructor's licence because he wanted to get a job in aviation and then bring his family to live with him, he said. Liu said that after he came forward, government officials told him his instructor rating was no longer valid and that he had to go to a different flight school to get it back. The school "took all my savings," he said. The lawsuit says LS Airways wrongfully accepted $15,495.54 in tuition payments. "I was expecting like, hey, just follow the rules, go to a flight school, get my instructor rating … so I can get more hours, then moving on to maybe charters." Liu now wants the money he paid for tuition at LS Airways back, so he can reapply for the training he needs to become an instructor in Canada. "Because of this school, I feel so depressed," he said. "It's like I couldn't complete my plan — wasted money and time here." A public post from Sept. 9 on Transport Canada's website shows the flight school — identified as 10113158 Manitoba Ltd., its business registry number — was fined $28,500 for three counts of violating Canada's aviation regulations. The violations are related to transporting people or cargo without being certified to do so, operating an aircraft without proper registration and failing to meet personnel record requirements. The charges stemmed from incidents between July and August of 2023, according to a decision issued by Transport Canada last May, which mentions the school didn't keep proper records for Liu as an assigned flight instructor. The fines were outstanding as of Jan. 25, and the school had not filed for a review, federal court documents say. The unauthorized transport service violation is related to operations from Gimli to Island Lake and Little Grand Rapids in eastern Manitoba on July 24, 2023. This month, Transport Canada made two more violations public. In March 2024, the company let an aircraft take off when it had not been maintained in accordance with an approved maintenance schedule, or in accordance with "airworthiness limitations," according to Transport Canada. The two violations resulted in $18,000 in additional fines. In his lawsuit, Liu alleges the school required students to keep "incorrect maintenance paperwork" that left out operational time used to calculate oil changes. Liu's lawsuit also alleges LS Airways directed students to travel to a flight test in Lindsay, Ont., with five 20-litre jerry cans of fuel in the cabin to avoid charges at the Lindsay airport. The lawsuit calls that a "serious safety violation" that exposed students to "significant danger." No statement of defence has been filed, and the allegations haven't been tested in court. Lawsuits filed by 3 other students LS Airways advertised itself as a "designated learning institution-registered Canadian flight school" on its now-unavailable website. The designated learning institution, or DLI, status allows Canadian schools to host international students. A spokesperson for the provincial government, which manages designated learning institutions in Manitoba, said in an email the province revoked LS Airways' DLI status on March 18, 2024, following an investigation launched in January of that year. The spokesperson said the investigation found there had been an unreported change in ownership. Since the designation is non-transferable between owners, the school's DLI status was revoked. The ownership change had happened "several years earlier," the provincial spokesperson said. LS Airways applied for a new DLI status, but the application is presently paused, according to the spokesperson. "The department is prepared to resume its review once LS Airways has resolved any and all outstanding items with Transport Canada," the spokesperson said. The Canadian Civil Aircraft Register shows two Cessnas that once belonged to LS Airways were no longer owned by the school as of June. A lawsuit filed in December by another former LS Airways student claims he entered an agreement with Gharib to teach at the school once he got his instructor rating there. His suit alleges that Gharib unilaterally dismissed him after he complained about the services the school provided. The statement of claim also alleges, among other things, that Gharib falsified training records with another instructor who was not Liu. In a statement of defence, Gharib denied all allegations in the December lawsuit. Another lawsuit was filed on Feb. 20 by a different student, who claims she was employed as a part-time dispatcher at the school and was also unjustly dismissed after complaining. The student alleges she was not allowed to fly, despite paying $1,600 in fees. She claims she also had to pay for fuel out-of-pocket twice and wasn't reimbursed, and that she didn't get her money back after paying fees for a flight test she didn't complete. The student also said she was also never given a pilot training record, despite numerous requests. In another statement of defence, Gharib denied all the allegations in the February lawsuit, saying the student was never employed by the school. Gharib countersued the student for defamation, saying in court documents the student failed multiple flight tests and disclosed a "history of dangerous manoeuvres" at a previous school. And another lawsuit, filed by a student from Thailand on April 24, said that flight instructors at the school lacked valid teaching licences and had obtained them through processes "not evidently in compliance with" regulations. The school denied the allegation in a statement of defence. It said it "meticulously maintained" all required documentation, including instructor credentials and aircraft records, and that it conducted maintenance "strictly in accordance" with approved procedures. None of the allegations contained in the four lawsuits filed by students have been tested in court. Meanwhile, Liu said he would still like to bring his family, including his four-year-old child, to Canada, but his future is still up in the air. "I'm still struggling about my plan. I don't know what can I do," he said.
