Brandon & Area Sound Off

07/13/2025

Manitoba’s Accessibility and Gender Equality minister, Nahanni Fontaine, was caught on video making negative comments about an ASL interpreter.

On June 26, 2025, after making a speech to graduates, Nahanni Fontaine was recorded talking about the American Sign Language interpreter who shared the stage with her, saying the interpreter was distracting her.

“I was thrown off—it wasn’t great—but, because the woman, she shouldn’t have been on the stage. I couldn’t see anybody on the side.” “All I could see was her.” Fontaine 'mimics' the interpreter by waving her hands and her aide described the ASL interpreter’s signing as ‘frantic hand movements.' “Yeah. So, I’m like f*ck, why did I have her on stage? I’m like, Jesus. I’m like, ‘You need to leave.’”

An ASL interpreter needs to be visibly accessible to anyone who needs them, which means in order to be an accessible accommodation she needs to be in a highly visible spot when interpreting.

Under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act, all Manitobans are entitled to accessible communication including the provision of ASL translation during public events.

Nahanni Fontaine justified her words by saying the exchange was a private debrief with her staff and issued an apology after the public outrage at her behaviour.

Many people of the public and Deaf community were shocked at her arrogant attitude while complaining and not knowing how interpretation works which is extremely concerning considering her minister role. She gives little thought about the needs of the people she's supposed to be representing. If a government minister can't speak while an ASL interpreter is doing their job, then you shouldn't be one, let alone a minister of Accessibility.

A week later Premier Kinew stated Nahanni Fontaine would not lose her minister position and has apologized and she is "putting in the work with the Deaf community."

It is worth noting the initial apology to the Deaf community was made on a radio station, with no captions or transcript (though was later included on other platforms).

The public and Progressive Conservatives have called on Nahanni Fontaine to be removed from her position as the NDP's accessibility minister.

Two weeks after Nahanni Fontaine was caught, it was revealed she or her team blocked Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) journalists from Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine’s social media feed a few days after they reported on her controversial comments. APTN is based in Winnipeg but have staff across Canada and many of their staff have also been blocked. Staff noticed this about a week after the hot mic incident.

APTN contacted Manitoba cabinet communications the day they noticed and after repeated interview requests, received a statement from Fontaine acknowledging APTN journalists had been blocked from her social media. Nahanni Fontaine said when she "learned" journalists were blocked on her social media account, she immediately directed staff to reverse this decision.

Video from APTN News.

https://youtu.be/0XP-LItw7g4?si=bLoPHg2kZnPWsKom

07/13/2025

Manitoba’s Accessibility and Gender Equality minister, Nahanni Fontaine, was caught on video making comments about an ASL interpreter.

On June 26, 2025, after making a speech to graduates, Nahanni Fontaine was recorded talking about the American Sign Language interpreter who shared the stage with her, saying the interpreter was distracting her.

“I was thrown off—it wasn’t great—but, because the woman, she shouldn’t have been on the stage. I couldn’t see anybody on the side. All I could see was her.” Fontaine 'mimics' the interpreter by waving her hands and her aide described the ASL interpreter’s signing as ‘frantic hand movements.' “Yeah. So, I’m like f*ck, why did I have her on stage? I’m like, Jesus. I’m like, ‘You need to leave.’”

An ASL interpreter needs to be visibly accessible to anyone who needs them, which means in order to be an accessible accommodation they need to be in a highly visible spot when interpreting.

Under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act, all Manitobans are entitled to accessible communication including the provision of ASL translation during public events.

Nahanni Fontaine justified her words by saying the exchange was a private debrief with her staff and issued an apology after the public outrage at her behaviour.

It is worth noting the initial apology to the Deaf community was made on a radio station, with no captions or transcript (though was later included on other platforms).

Many people of the public and Deaf community were shocked at her arrogant attitude while complaining and that not knowing how interpretation works was extremely concerning considering her minister role. She gives little thought about the needs of the people she's supposed to be representing.

If a government minister can't speak while an ASL interpreter is doing their job, then you shouldn't be one, let alone a minister of Accessibility.

A week later Premier Kinew stated Nahanni Fontaine would not lose her minister position and that has apologized and she is "putting in the work with the Deaf community."

The public and Progressive Conservatives have called on Nahanni Fontaine to be removed from her position as the NDP's accessibility minister.

Two weeks after Nahanni Fontaine was caught, it was revealed she or her team blocked Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) journalists from Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine’s social media feed after they reported on her controversial comments. APTN is based in Winnipeg but have staff across Canada and many of their staff were also blocked. Staff noticed this about a week after the hot mic incident.

APTN contacted Manitoba cabinet communications the day they noticed and after repeated interview requests received a statement from Fontaine acknowledging APTN journalists had been blocked from her social media. Nahanni Fontaine said when she "learned" journalists were blocked on her social media account, she immediately directed staff to reverse this decision.

Video from APTN News.

https://www.aptnnews.ca/videos/manitobas-accessibility-minister-recorded-making-comments-about-asl-interpreter/

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07/13/2025

Alexa Case, 21 from Brandon, recently has been performing in Paris with the world-renowned cabaret troupe Moulin Rouge.

Alexa started dancing at 3 years old at Steppin’ Time Dance Studio in Brandon. After graduating from high school, she moved to Toronto and trained in a pre-professional dance program. She has performed on TV, film and stage performances across Canada.

Alexa earned a spot after a 5.5 hour long audition in France competing against dancers from all over the world.

The Moulin Rouge cabaret was co-founded by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller in 1889.

07/12/2025

07/12/2025

Richard Kofie Asante is a high risk s ex offender recently released and expected to live in Winnipeg. He has not completed treatment and remains a high risk to reoffend.

Richard Kofie Asante, 34, has a history of violent assault. Asante was released from the Edmonton Institution on July 9, 2025 on statutory release after serving part of a three year sentence.

On June 19, 2023, Asante was convicted of s exual assault with a weapon and s exual assault by choking.

He met the victim, became angry and started choking her. When she screamed for help, he held a large knife to her throat and choked her until she was unconscious then committed violent s exual offences against the victim.
He is considered a high risk to s exually reoffend against women.

Richard Kofie Asante is described as 5'10 and 200 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He has a tattoo on his right forearm that reads "Sante" and tattoos on his right wrist of two playing cards.

Asante is subject to several conditions, including not consuming alcohol or drugs, and following a treatment plan focused on emotional regulation, substance abuse and violence.

He is required to immediately report all relationships and friendships with females, and any changes to the status of those relationships and friendships, to his parole supervisor. He is subject to a 10-year weapons prohibition.

Anyone with information about Asante is asked to call the Manitoba Integrated High Risk S ex Offender Unit at 431-489-8056, Winnipeg police at 204 986-6222 or their local RCMP detachment.

07/12/2025

07/11/2025

On July 10, 2025 the Manitoba government declared a second provincial state of emergency in response to a wildfire season that is now the worst on record in the last 30 years.

More than one million hectares (ha) of area have burned in the province this year.

The first state of emergency was issued on May 28 and lifted on June 23.

Manitoba Wildfire Service advises 1,021,544 ha of area have burned in the province as of July 8, 2025. The 20-year average for this same timeframe is 94,022 ha, making the area burned in 2025 ten times higher than the average. The second worst year was 2013 at 720,560 ha burned.

Manitoba Wildfire Service reminds Manitobans to be responsible and to keep fire prevention in mind as human activity continues to contribute to the province’s wildfires. For the safety of both evacuees and front-line and fire-fighting personnel, the province is reminding Manitobans not to enter areas under a mandatory evacuation until communities declare the situation is safe.

Travel permits are required within active fire boundaries. To view active fire boundary maps, visit: www.gov.mb.ca/conservation_fire/Fire-Maps/fireview/fireview_map.html. To apply for a travel permit, contact a Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures district office and visit: www.gov.mb.ca/nrnd/co/index.html to find a location.

The Manitoba Wildfire Service continues to respond to 105 active wildfires across the province, a total of 261 wildfires to date, well above the average for this date of 197 total fires.

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07/11/2025

Chyanne Benn, 36, plead guilty to breaking and entering from 2024.

Benn (and a man who wasn’t identified) broke into the apartment of two sisters who were 15 and 24.

The man kicked the door down. The two broke in demanding money. The male threatened to stab the two victims and stabbed the doors.

Benn grabbed the 24 year old, started fighting her and caused her to fall. Benn lost her glasses in the fight.

The man took a gaming console and left. Chyanne Benn remained in the apartment and asked for her glasses.

After she left the house, she contacted the victims through social media asking for her glasses back. Benn also went back to the house two days after the attack to get them but the victim's mother and boyfriend chased Benn away.

She was sentenced to four years.

07/11/2025

Radio station building in Swan River fire bombed by a person in the early hours of July 10, 2025.

Only by luck, there weren’t people inside at the time like there normally would have been.

Radio station CJ104 Swan River, CJSB-FM Swan River, CJBP-FM Neepawa, CJIE-FM Gimli, CJVM-FM Virden and CJEZ-FM Esterhazy are affected.

Servers for non profit groups such as Parkland Tourism, Swan Valley Chamber of Commerce and other non-profit groups were destroyed.

Statement on Fire Bombing:

Security video shows that at about 5:20am on Thursday July 10th an individual riding a bicycle approached our Main Street Swan River location. They parked their bike and lit a fire bomb they were carrying. They then threw the fire bomb through the glass window of our studio. Fire crews responded minutes later to extinguish the flames.

The studio that was targeted is the location where the Mark and Bill morning show is produced each weekday morning and aired across our network of Manitoba and Saskatchewan stations. On a typical morning our staff would already be in the studio preparing for the broadcast. Due to a scheduling change for July 10th, the staff had not yet walked into the studio.

To be clear, from the amount of accelerant used and the method of which it was thrown into the studio, had our staff been inside that room they would have been covered in burning accelerant and would have not been able to exit the studio. They would have died in the fire.

We condemn in the strongest way possible the actions taken by the individual(s) who targeted our radio station.

We were able to obtain access to the building late this afternoon to assess the damage and begin the process of disaster recovery.

The studios of CJ104 Swan River along with the master control facility that provides supervision and inter-station connections of CJSB-FM Swan River, CJBP-FM Neepawa, CJIE-FM Gimli, CJVM-FM Virden and CJEZ-FM Esterhazy have been completely destroyed.

The servers for Parkland Tourism, the Swan Valley Chamber of Commerce and many other non-profit groups have also been destroyed. We hosted these servers free of charge at our facility to benefit the communities we serve. The equipment that runs our phone lines, websites, email, streaming channels and almost all other services has been destroyed.

Tonight, only CJBP-FM Neepawa is on the air and while it is broadcasting, we regret the weather forecasts and news broadcasts are not being updated. Work continues to restore at least a temporary signal to all of our other service areas.

We will be conducting a bare metal recovery from backup with new equipment. While we stock some spare equipment, other specialty items are moving to us from across North America. Our stations were built over the past 19 years, it will unfortunately take time to put it together again.

We will rebuild our network of radio stations. Work on this began while the fire crews were still extinguishing the flames and it will continue until each station is again operational.

Today's targeted action was an act of terrorism. While none of our staff were physically harmed during the fire the emotional damage is extreme.

We thank everyone who has offered support today both from their kind words and from their offers of equipment and other items.

We thank our advertisers for their patience and look forward to sharing your commercials with our listeners again soon.

We are especially grateful for the quick response from Swan Valley Fire. I could not be prouder of the people who chose to protect our community and I'm glad to have some small part in leading our department.

We will be back soon.

07/10/2025

Dasan Swann-Gurka, 21, was denied bail in court this week. His charges include possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, attempting to steal a motor vehicle, possessing stolen property, carrying a concealed weapon, failing to comply with an undertaking, failing to comply with a probation order and theft under $5,000.

On June 30, 2025, Swann-Gurka used a rock to break a window and get inside a truck. He was looking for the keys so he could drive to Ontario. He was still in the truck, with the rock on the passenger seat, when police arrived. He was also in possession of a bike that was reported stolen earlier that day. He was arrested and released on an undertaking.

On July 3, 2025, BPS responded to a businesses after report of a man cutting himself with a knife. Swann-Gurka was not allowed to possess knives or any weapons. He was taken to BRHC to get stitches for his injury and released with a later court date.

On July 7, 2025, BPS was called to an address where a person said a man was sitting on the sidewalk in front of their home with a weapon. Swann-Gurka had a large filleting knife on him that was concealed in a pants pocket and tucked up into his hoodie. BPS arrested him and held him at the police station to appear in court the next day.

Dasan Swann-Gurka has regularly been in trouble with police from December 2024 until July 2025. He has four prior convictions.

07/10/2025

Oak Lake Dam is receiving $19.7 million in a multi-year rehabilitation project.

It is scheduled to go to tender in 2025. Construction is expected to take two years. In anticipation of this project, five kilometres of the east access road were upgraded in fall 2024.

The multi-year rehabilitation project, cost-shared with the federal government, will include the reconstruction of the dam spillway and the stabilization and protection of its embankments.

Once complete, the upgraded dam is expected to remain safely operational for at least another 50 years.