Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press

Excavation and sifting started Monday of a section of a landfill believed to hold the remains of two slain First Nations women.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said he was at the site when the first truck moved a load of refuse from the area to a Quonset hut, where searchers are manually sifting through it in the hope of finding the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran. 

Police believe the remains of the women were sent to the Prairie Green landfill north of Winnipeg in May 2022.

A new report from the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth paints a picture of the state of addictions services for young people in the province and what needs to change. 

It draws on feedback from dozens of young people and more than 120 service providers that work with youth. 

Tackling high grocery prices, freezing hydro electricity rates and commissioning a new statue reflecting Manitoba's past and present are some of the priorities for the coming year the NDP government highlighted Tuesday in its second throne speech. 

The speech largely repeated the government's efforts to address health-care system challenges, public safety and affordability. 

The government is looking at introducing legislation to address anticompetitive contracts that Premier Wab Kinew said drive up the cost of groceries. 

A public memorial honouring former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into residential schools, Murray Sinclair, is set to take place in Winnipeg on Sunday. 

The event, which is being organized by the federal and Manitoba governments, will be at Canada Life Centre, home of the NHL's Winnipeg Jets.

Sinclair died Monday in a Winnipeg hospital at the age of 73. 

The mother of a 17-year-old victim in a mass slaying in Manitoba is suing a child welfare agency for allegedly failing to protect the girl.

Juliette Hastings claims in the lawsuit that Winnipeg Child and Family Services, the General Child and Family Services Authority and the director of Child and Family Services were "reckless, careless and negligent in their statutory duty" to her daughter, Myah-Lee Gratton.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Court of King's Bench. A statement of defence has not yet been filed and the allegations have not been tested in court.

A man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the deaths of his common-law partner and their two children is to serve a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 16 years. 

Court of King's Bench Justice Chris Martin agreed Thursday to a joint recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers at the sentencing hearing for Trevis McLeod in Winnipeg.

"It's horrible, just horrible," the judge told court, calling it "one of the worst cases I've dealt with in my career." 

"At the end of the day, nothing takes away the pain, nothing takes away the shock."

The effort to find the remains of two slain First Nations women believed to be in a landfill is on track and excavation in the target area is set to start in early December, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Wednesday.

"I hope that everybody in the province and across the country sees that Manitoba values and honours Indigenous women," Kinew told reporters as he stood at the Prairie Green Landfill north of Winnipeg.

Kinew also addressed the families of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran, who joined him at the site.

A serial killer has been formally sentenced to four concurrent life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years in the slayings of four Indigenous women in Winnipeg.

Jeremy Skibicki showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down Wednesday.

When asked by Court of King's Bench Justice Glenn Joyal if he had anything to say, Skibicki replied, “No.”

The judge said he was bound by law to impose the automatic sentence after convicting Skibicki last month of four counts of first-degree murder.

When Elroy Fontaine thinks about his older sister, Tina Fontaine, his mind takes him to a park in Winnipeg's Point Douglas neighbourhood. 

It's where the two would sometimes hang out together.

A decade after the tragic death of the 15-year-old girl, one that shocked the country and was the catalyst for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, Elroy Fontaine still stops by the special spot.

The siblings spent time in provincial care but would see each other during scheduled visits that included Slurpee runs and park hangs.

Cheers erupted in a Winnipeg courtroom, spilling out onto downtown streets Thursday, as family members who lost their loved ones at the hands of a serial killer said they had finally received justice.

A judge convicted Jeremy Skibicki of first-degree murder in the 2022 slayings of four women in a case that put another bright spotlight on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.

Jorden Myran, whose sister Marcedes Myran was killed, said she held back tears when the judge delivered the verdict.