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Winnipeg Crime Prompts Air Canada Hotel Move

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First Posted: 10/01/11 11:56 AM ET Updated: 10/03/11 07:38 AM ET

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Air Canada says its pilots and flight crews will no longer stay in downtown Winnipeg after a security review of the area prompted concerns over their safety.


In a bulletin sent to crews late last month, the airline informed its personnel they would no longer be staying at the city's Radisson hotel because of increased instances of violent crime.


In an email to CBC News on Saturday morning, Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said the safety and well-being of passengers and crew are always a top priority of the airline.


"In this instance, we are acting out of an abundance of caution after conducting a security assessment with both local law enforcement officials in Winnipeg and our own security people," he wrote.


"As a result, we will be using a different accommodation for crew layovers in Winnipeg on an interim basis."


Fitzpatrick said the decision has no impact on Air Canada's service to the community.


The bulletin cited "instances of public intoxication, resulting in several downtown locations being susceptible to crimes of violence and opportunity" and refers to "displaced" people from rural Manitoba forced to relocate to the downtown core due to "recent environmental issues."


It is unclear whether the bulletin was referencing residents of rural areas affected by flooding in the province earlier this summer.


Winnipeg police said its officers have met with Air Canada officials and co-operated with the airline's corporate security to evaluate safety concerns in the area.


But in a statement Saturday to CBC News, a police spokesman said that assessment is not yet completed.


The police spokesman acknowledged violence has been increasing in the city's downtown, but not specifically in the area around the Radisson hotel. The force also wouldn't comment on the report of displaced people causing the public safety issue.


A manager at the Radisson told CBC News on Saturday the hotel was told about the airline's move a week ago and is "sorry to see them go."


Concerns over Winnipeg's crime rate have recently emerged as an issue in the provincial election campaign, with party leaders being called to weigh in on public safety in the downtown core.


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Air Canada says its pilots and flight crews will no longer stay in downtown Winnipeg after a security review of the area prompted concerns over their safety. In a bulletin sen...
Air Canada says its pilots and flight crews will no longer stay in downtown Winnipeg after a security review of the area prompted concerns over their safety. In a bulletin sen...
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roboticteacher
9 Fans
07:06 PM on 10/02/2011
Also it's cold a lot of the time.
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revelationman
4 Fans
11:13 AM on 10/02/2011
I am pretty surprised but Canada is starting to be a scary place, but it does not surprise me NDP type governments have propensity of having weak crime laws . Granted they have done well in certain areas but they have to take a tougher approach to gun and other types of crime. Now with the Jets in town they city will have more tourist coming so they need now is for the Government of Winnipeg to starting acting on devising a tough no nonsense approach on crime.
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cdncommentator
445 Fans
12:54 PM on 10/02/2011
Winnipeg has a terrible crime mostly as a result of generations of government policy toward aboriginals, and exactly what we can do given that we destroyed their culture, took their homeland, and created a wounded generation through residential schools.

Winnipeg's downtown has a terrible crime rate because the city chose to emulate Omaha instead of Toronto or a northern European city. Endless suburb building and strip malls have left the city like a doughnut with a hole in the middle that only fills when there's some special event to which the suburbanites can drive in to and then drive out of. Even the Exchange District, which in a city like Toronto would be a premier location, is mostly derelict and empty. Very few live here and very few would spend a whole day shopping, dining, and partying here.

When Winnipeg decides to put a moratorium on suburbs and gives incentives to build infill downtown, while putting people and shopping on the street (narrow curving streets that shelter from the winter cold), then crime downtown will decrease as the downtrodden aboriginal population will go elsewhere.

Then, that problem will have to be dealt with as well.
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revelationman
4 Fans
03:26 PM on 10/02/2011
Well I am getting tired of this is their land please how long do we have to continue to listen to that, move on.
I am not from Winnipeg never been but I have grown up in some rough areas in Toronto, I do know that a higher police presence and zero tolerance on crime is the best way. But the problem is you are dealing with addiction issues, gangs, etc, but what is the answer well zero tolerance on gun crime zero tolerance on gangs , as for natives well the excuses have filled up, time to move on. Better save your City before its too late that is all I have to say
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fred53
436 Fans
05:41 PM on 10/02/2011
99% of crime is not a law enforcement e.g. corrections problem, it is an
economic policy problem. I'm a Canadian Expat living in the US and I see
it every day. 100% of our drug and related crime problem is economic and
foreign policy e.g. NAFTA related. The rest is economic related to the
abysmal state of public education in this country. The aboriginal problem
I see in Ottawa, in the red light district and in Montreal and in Vancouver
is driven by disenfranchisement of the aboriginal people and their culture.
We have the same problem in the states.
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Gav Lafreniere
25 Fans
10:32 AM on 10/02/2011
I live in Winnipeg, right in the middle of downtown on Carlton Street. And, I never go out past dark because there is a murderer or rapist on every street corner.
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westcanguy
53 Fans
01:04 AM on 10/02/2011
What I don't understand is why air canada employees need to travel all the way downtown when there are plenty of hotels within blocks of the airport. Are they too good for a hilton?
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chuck53
0 Fans
10:13 AM on 10/02/2011
A Hilton would be better. For long layovers crews have negotiated layovers downtown, where there is usually more to do versus 23 hours in an airport hotel. Before turning this into the usual Air Canada bashing thread, note that Westjet and the American carriers also stay downtown, but the hotels are in less scuzzy areas.
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westcanguy
53 Fans
10:25 AM on 10/02/2011
Other than going to the Forks, there isn't a lot to do downtown. Polo Park and movie theaters are not that far away from the airport area.
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Dew Line
6 Fans
01:01 AM on 10/02/2011
First, there are lots of new hotels near the airport.
Stop wasting money downtown when in essence, it is dead.
There has been so many years of neglect downtown that where do you start???
Why the quick judgment to assume that Native people are to be defended for the crime downtown?
How about there are more options than just downtown.
I guess Petulia Clark was wrong...You cannot always go downtown.
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montSQ
27 Fans
12:29 AM on 10/02/2011
Canada seems to be getting a lot more crime these days....................it's sad.
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Macintosh Sauce
28 Fans
01:19 AM on 10/02/2011
Well... The root of the problem is the parents.
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Tanrioldu
593 Fans
11:06 AM on 10/02/2011
Right, don't hold the actual person who commits the crime responsible, blame their parents. Listen, i had pretty crappy parents growing up, and I didn't end up f*cked up committing crimes. People have to stop blaming other people for their own problems and take responsibility for their own actions.
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Kristopher Leang
training to take down the elite
109 Fans
01:32 AM on 10/02/2011
a) no it doesnt b) the most crime i see on this and every other major national and some prominent local newspapers (G&M, national post ect) multiple crimes committed. which does not mean they are the only ones committing them, just that the media is doing their part at least even if the police internal investigation (ie cleared of all charges committee) is not. or the government by not taking steps to truly protect the people of canada. i cant introduce a law stopping their downright trampling of our canadian constitution (charter of rights thank god we have this or wed be sooo screwed we'd be how do you call it. americans. the elite would of rang us dry. but even a decent number of our elite at least still have a conscience. profit driven yes but at least our middle class has remained damgaed but semi intact.
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mcatch23
5 Fans
11:08 PM on 10/01/2011
If downtown is so scary, how are all those people going to attend Jets games at night?
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cdnbystander
256 Fans
09:15 AM on 10/02/2011
It's not so bad if you travel in large packs, kind of like wolves.
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Macintosh Sauce
28 Fans
11:02 PM on 10/01/2011
I can see Winnipeg hasn't changed since I left in 2002.
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MyTake
Release the Hydrogen Economy now!
404 Fans
10:28 PM on 10/01/2011
This should not be an issue.

Winnipeg just got a NHL Hockey franchise.

So just have them use the same hotel that the visiting NHL teams are using. Then the hockey players will just line up some pucks and take slap shots at these unruly "displaced" rural persons that invaded the downtown core due to environmental issues!

Why doesn't Air Canada just pay for taxi rides to get their fine employee's from Bars A to B and back to the hotel again!
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Blodo
Time to build a better world
697 Fans
10:22 PM on 10/01/2011
For those of you who don't live in Canada and are scratching your heads at the above article, "displaced people from rural Manitoba forced to relocate to the downtown core due to recent environmental issues." is politically-correct Canada-speak for people from Indian reserves that were flooded out. The fact that we still HAVE reserves (we don't call them "reservations" like the US does) is an anachronism from the Indian Act which is arguably the most cruelest and most regressive piece of legislation ever enacted in this country. Under the guise of "Indian rights" it has contributed to the segregation of hundreds of thousands of individuals, according them a special status while at the same time effectively making them wards of the state. They have no ability to use their land as collateral, and so can not acquire loans in the normal way. Hundreds of millions of federal money is funneled through various Indian run political organizations that have become corrupt mini-dictatorships, where funds are often doled out on the basis of family ties and favoritism.

Without a sense of purpose, without a clear line of integration with the broader community, without much hope or vision for a productive future, many young people lead dissolute lives and run into problems with alcohol and with the law.

Of course, none of this is openly discussed in our media. Forget I ever said it.
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jajenkins
160 Fans
10:47 PM on 10/01/2011
Bingo!
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Macintosh Sauce
28 Fans
11:06 PM on 10/01/2011
I still think it is a pathetic excuse for committing crime, etc. I was raised in a poor family. You don't see me killing, robbing, stealing, etc.
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Blodo
Time to build a better world
697 Fans
12:04 AM on 10/02/2011
I agree. But the situation that reserve Aboriginals find themselves in goes far beyond poverty. I was raised in a poor family as well, but when I stepped out my front door, I was in a healthy vibrant community. There were role models, defined and attainable goals, and a clear path (education, part-time jobs, etc.) to get to where I wanted to go. If you've ever spent time with Indian bands (I have), then you know the difference.

Sorry to digress, but one image will stick in my mind until the day I die. I was on a reserve (working for a government-funded program at the time). The school I visited was K-8. It was new, maybe a year or two old at the most; still in excellent shape. The inside was clean, but essentially deserted that day, since it was a holiday.

As I was leaving, I drove along the side and noticed someone had spray painted graffiti. Instead of the usual profanities or artwork, the person had written "God please help me!"

Another time, a different reserve...I noticed a small group of youngsters sniffing something out of rags beside a shed. I am walking on a path above where they are and stop to look at them. The largest of the group sees me and shouts "Don't look at us!" As a country, we have taken that as our marching orders. None of us look anymore.
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