ManitobaA rural municipality northeast of Winnipeg says it’s concerned about public safety due to “several disturbing incidents” that include a municipal grader being shot.’We don’t need to live under any kind of fear like that’: RM of Alexander Mayor Jack BriscoDarren Bernhardt · CBC News · Posted: Nov 27, 2025 1:39 PM EST | Last Updated: November 27Listen to this articleEstimated 6 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.A bullet was recovered from this grader belonging to the RM of Alexander after an operator heard a bang and then found this hole in its side. (Supplied by RM of Alexander)A rural municipality northeast of Winnipeg says it’s concerned about public safety due to “several disturbing incidents” that include a municipal grader being shot.”These incidents are extremely concerning,” the RM of Alexander said in a statement on Thursday.”The Municipality of Alexander will not tolerate acts of vandalism, violence, intimidation, or any behaviour that jeopardizes the safety of our staff or residents. We take these matters seriously and will pursue appropriate action, including supporting full legal consequences for those responsible.”Mayor Jack Brisco said the incidents have been happening for a little over a year but have become more dangerous. It started with signs in the Bird River area being vandalized — one at Lakeshore Bay and the other at the Bird River Fire Department. Then a municipal employee’s vehicle was vandalized with a bull’s-eye spray-painted on it, and a water fill station in Great Falls was vandalized.In the latter case, a coin-operated dispensing unit was ripped from the wall with such force it damaged the building, Brisco said.Most alarming was an incident on Nov. 5, when the RM’s grader was shot with a high-powered rifle while being operated, he said.The back of a van belonging to an RM of Alexander employee was spray-painted with a red bull’s-eye. (Submitted by RM of Alexander)The RM covers more than 1,500 square kilometres, stretching from the shore of Lake Winnipeg to the Whiteshell.The incidents have occurred in an area with a 50-kilometre radius between Bird River and the RM office in St. Georges, a small community just south of Powerview-Pine Falls, Brisco said.”All of them were eye-opening experiences, but this last one has really … set off a lot of alarm bells,” Brisco said. “It is being handled as a very serious incident that’s being investigated by the RCMP.”The grader operator was working close to the area of the Bird River fire hall, during “full daylight” hours, when he heard a bang, Brisco said.Bullet given to RCMP”He didn’t think anything about it at that point. When he got out [later], he had a look around the unit and found that there was a bullet hole … around the motor compartment,” Brisco said.The operator had performed a routine morning walkaround of the vehicle before climbing inside for work that day, and “there was nothing wrong with it,” said Brisco, who doesn’t know if the grader was targeted.”I’m really hoping that it was just an accident or an oversight by somebody doing something stupid.”The grader operator was not hurt and the engine was not damaged significantly, Brisco said.Some wiring was hit and had to be repaired but the machine is operating fine again, he said.The bullet was recovered and given to the RCMP.A welcome sign for the RM of Alexander was vandalized, with letters being broken off. (Submitted by RM of Alexander)Brisco said the first incidents occurred shortly after council voted to put in a new wastewater treatment lagoon to serve the Bird River and Pointe du Bois areas.”Some people were getting pretty passionate. They didn’t want it,” he said. Brisco believes the more recent incidents are also connected to some administration decisions.For years there had been a moratorium in Bird River on subdividing land for development, but it is being lifted.”I’m certain things are happening there that people are very passionate about again,” Brisco said.”They don’t want any more traffic on the Bird River, which I can understand, but at the same time, family that have been there forever wanted to subdivide their land to accommodate [other family members] — to split the land up so that they could have, say, seven lots on a huge acreage that’s hundreds of acres big.”The rural municipality of Alexander covers an area more than 1,500 square kilometres in size, northeast of Winnipeg. (Google Maps)The incidents have some people re-evaluating whether they want to keep working for the RM, Brisco said.”We don’t need to live under any kind of fear like that, for people to have to think that something might go wrong with their day at work,” he said. “A grader operator had no control over any of these [administration] things that are happening and shouldn’t have to go to work in fear. Brisco is trying to remain open-minded and give the benefit of the doubt to the cluster of incidents being simple coincidence, rather than something nefarious. “They may be happening at the same time for whatever reason, I don’t know if they’re linked together. I really hope that they’re not,” he said.The shooting could have been a hunter who “made a mistake.””That’s what I’m hoping happened, but we will make sure that we treat it with the concern that it needs.”Incidents in other municipalities have made rural politicians more wary, he said.About a month ago, a homeowner in the rural municipality of Taché set up a display depicting local politicians hanging from a gallows. Four of the five figures have municipal ward numbers painted on them.Mayor Armand Poirier told CBC News at the time that council had discussed possible “legal options” as well as the safety of politicians and municipal officials in the area.The homeowner declined to be interviewed by CBC and later took down the display. RCMP investigated but said no charges were expected to be laid.’I love to go to work'”These things do not need to be happening. That is just not acceptable,” said Brisco, who has heard councillors in other RMs have said they will not run again.”I am not going to quit over something like this and I don’t think any of my colleagues are. I love to go to work there,” he said.”We are a very small community, even though we are 65 miles across.”Anyone who has witnessed anything in the RM of Alexander or who has information related to any of the events is asked to contact the Lac du Bonnet RCMP at 204-345-8685.Anonymous tips can also be called in to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or submitted online.ABOUT THE AUTHORDarren Bernhardt has been with CBC Manitoba since 2009 and specializes in offbeat and local history stories. He is the author of two bestselling books: The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent, and Prairie Oddities: Punkinhead, Peculiar Gravity and More Lesser Known Histories.With files from Meaghan Ketcheson
Grader shot, signs defaced, vehicle vandalized as Manitoba RM contends with ‘disturbing incidents’
