Nickel Belt News Volume 61 • Issue 24
Friday, June 18, 2021
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Self-taught custom cake maker vying to win greatest baker online contest
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
A self-taught custom cake baker from Thompson is trying to move on to the next round of the online Greatest Baker competition. Mary-Lou Linklater is in the quarterfinal round of the competition and currently in second place in her group. Only the person with the most votes by June 17 by 9 p.m. central time will move on to the semifinals. Linklater originally got the idea of making custom cakes after she had difficulty getting a wedding
cake made. She taught her self the basics by watching YouTube videos and says that since then, she’s usually been successful at making customer’s cake dreams come true. “I like taking on challenging cake orders,” Linklater told the Thompson Citizen. “If someone comes to me with a custom cake and they want something and it interests me, the type of design they would like, then I take it as challenge and usually, 99 per cent of the time, it’s bang on.” Linklater was convinced to enter the contest by
family and friends. “A couple of my friends kept sending me the link to register, so friends and family kind of pushed me into it,” she says. They also helped keep her near the top of the leaderboard. “I held first place for the first three weeks,” Linklater says. “I was actually really surprised with the amount of support my friends and family have given me." It’s the first contest Linklater has ever entered. “I’ve never entered into any other contest ever before so this is all new to me
and it’s really exciting.” If she were to win, she would be featured in Bake From Scratch magazine, win a year’s supply of Stuffed Puffs and $20,000 that she would put towards expanding her custom cake business. “I would definitely try to start up a bakery for myself, convert my garage or one of my rooms into a little commercial kitchen,” Linklater says. One vote per Facebook account for day can be cast for Linklater at https:// greatestbaker.com/2021/ mary-lou-linklater.
Thompson Citizen photo courtesy of Mary Lou Linklater Mary-Lou Linklater of Thompson is trying to advance to the semifinals of the Greatest Baker online competition.
Most northern health districts have 10 or more active COVID cases as of June 14
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
A majority of the health districts in Northern Manitoba had 10 or more active cases of COVID-19 as of June 14, with The Pas/Opaskwayak/Kelsey ahead by dozens with a total of 97 active cases. Fourteen new cases of the virus were reported in the north on Monday. Shamattawa/York Factory/Tataskweyak/Split Lake and Island Lake have the second and third highest number of active cases, with 39 and 38 respectively, followed by Flin Flon/Snow Lake/Cranberry/ Sherridon and Thompson/ Mystery Lake with 14 each. Four other districts have active case totals in the 11 to 13 range. 124 new cases of the virus were reported across Manitoba on Monday, including 80 in Winnipeg, 19 in the southern health region, seven in the Prairie Mountain health region and four in the Interlake-Eastern region. The five-day test positivity rate in the province June 14
was 10.7 per cent and two new deaths from COVID-19 were reported, taking the provincial total to 1,102. The 54th northerner to die from the virus, a man in his 70s with an infection caused by the B.1.1.7 variant, was announced over the weekend. 271 people were in Manitoba hospitals as a result of COVID-19 on Monday, including 60 in intensive care. Another 26 Manitobans are in intensive care units in Ontario and Saskatchewan. 26 who previously were being treated in ICUs outside the province have returned to Manitoba so far. There are 10 northern residents in hospital due to the virus, three of them in intensive care. There were two people linked to Thompson schools who tested positive for COVID-19 in the two weeks leading up to June 8 – one at Burntwood School and one at Riverside – as well as two at Mel Jonson School in Wabowden. There have been 515 COVID cases caused by vari-
ants of concern in the north so far, including 458 caused by the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom and 26 by the B.1.617.2 variant, a sub-type of a variant first identified in India, also known as the Delta variant. 29 of the northern variant cases are unspecified variants. Although dropping case numbers and test positivity are good signs, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said June 14 that there is still risk. “The Delta variant does provide a risk to us. We’ll have to see how that Delta variant propagates here,” he said. “This is exactly why our reopening plans are cautious.” He also asked people to avoid the urge to gather in large groups to celebrate Father’s Day June 20. “This is another special occasion we’re not going to be able to celebrate the same way we did before the pandemic.” 69.3 per cent of Manitobans aged 12 and up have now received at least one dose of COViD-19 vaccine.
In the north the rate is 63.4 per cent and only three health districts have less than 60 per cent of residents at least partially vaccinated. Roussin said Manitoba was on its way to meeting its target of having 25 per cent of residents fully vaccinated by
Canada Day, as outlined in its reopening plan. “We’re going to meet that target before July 1,” said Roussin, encouraging people to get first doses of vaccine as soon as possible and second doses as soon as they are eligible, noting that vaccinated
people are not requiring hospitalization or ICU admission as a result of their infections at this point. Eligibility for second doses expanded Monday to include anyone who receive their first dose of vaccine up to and including May 10.
Cross Lake RCMP search turns up cocaine and cash, one man arrested
Wabowden RCMP use taser to subdue agitated man who threatened officers with a knife A Wabowden RCMP officer used a taser on a knife-wielding man June 9 after he was removed from a bus for being unruly. Police were called around 11:20 p.m. and found the man walking along Fleming Drive in Wabowden towards Highway 6. As an officer approached, the agitated man turned and pulled a knife from his waistband, then walked toward the officer in what
an RCMP press release described as a “threatening manner.” The officer advised the man he was under arrest and ordered him to drop the knife but the man did not comply. A second officer arrived on the scene and the suspect attempted to walk away, still holding the knife and uttering threats. One of the officers used a conducted energy weapon on the suspect, at which point the man
complied with the officers’ demand that he lie down. He was then taken into custody. A 30-year-old man from Tadoule Lake is charged with resisting arrest, uttering threats, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, carrying a concealed weapon and assaulting a police officer with a weapon. He remains in police custody and Wabowden RCMP continue to investigate.
RCMP photo Cross Lake RCMP seized cocaine and cash from a residence June 4 and arrested a man for drug trafficking. Cross Lake RCMP seized 10 grams of cocaine, money and drug paraphernalia while searching a residence on Mcleods Island June 4. Police executed a search warrant at the residence just before 11 p.m. June 4 and arrested a 45-year-old man on charges of drug trafficking, possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime. He was released until a court date in Thompson on Aug. 27 and Cross Lake RCMP continue to investigate.