Residential school survivors gouged?

Northern stores charge 1.5% cheque fee

Updated at 9:55 PM

By Alexandra Paul

Northern stores are acting as a bank of last resort for in remote communities looking for ways to cash $250 million in cheques.
But there's a price to pay for the service on reserves where there are no banks: Northern is taking a 1.5 per cent cut of each cheque.

About 12,000 people in Northern Canada are eligible for $250 million worth of cheques, averaging $18,000, with maximums as high as $30,000.

About 60 per cent of Manitoba's 5,000 eligible residential school survivors will receive cheques. The remainder will have the money deposited directly into southern bank accounts by the end of January.

Northern stores are processing the cheques for a fee of 1.5 per cent, offering $2,500 cash and the option of credit cards, debit cards or store credits.

"We're the only game in town," said Michael McMullen, executive vice-president with the North West Company, which runs 145 Northern stores in Canada, Greenland and Alaska. "We're trying to do the right thing. And maybe there are other choices people would like, but that's all we can do. We're not a bank."

Some northerners claim Northern's solution is cheating poor elderly people.

"I'm very concerned about this whole situation," said Gabby Munroe, who is a residential school settlement co-ordinator at Garden Hill, one of four fly-in communities in the Island Lake First Nations about 1,000 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. He's outraged by the 1.5 per cent fee, which works out to several hundred dollars per survivor.

"This affects all the First Nations that have Northern stores. They're raking it in," Munroe said.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Ron Evans noted that just two northern communities, Norway House and Cross Lake, have banks, yet all First Nations deal with them, even if it's long distance.

"I'm going to try and put something together, with the other leaders and the banks, so it'll be easier for survivors," Evans said. His first meeting was with the Royal Bank Tuesday.

In Garden Hill's sister community of St. Theresa Point, band officials talked a credit union into opening up a branch just for the cheques, worth an estimated $3.5 million there.

"We got a credit union in our community to give our people an option, so Northern won't get the 1.5 per cent. Median (Credit Union) set up two weeks ago," St. Theresa's settlement co-ordinator Marcel Mason said.

Fred Harper in Red Sucker Lake, another Island Lake First Nation, said he took his cheque to Northern and expected a bank draft back. Instead, he received $2,500 and the option of a pre-paid MasterCard, a Northern Cashlink card that acts like a debit card or a gift card redeemable only at Northern.

"That's what happens to you if you cash it at Northern. They want to keep the money," Harper said bitterly.

Without banks, money usually gets stashed, but this time there's just too much cash for trappers to tuck into baggies or mothers to hide in bras.

A national working group of federal officials, First Nation leaders and commercial executives spent months anticipating problems with the residential school payouts, and trying to solve them.

In the end, the group couldn't settle the problem of no banks. They left it to each community to work out. That's when Northern stepped in.

Store managers worked out the details with chiefs and councils and sought advice from RCMP on what to do. Store managers say they are bending over backwards to be as helpful to customers as possible.

"We expected more (help). But it didn't occur," McMullen said. "The banking institutions didn't move any resources up here to handle this."

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca

Winnipeg Free Press

Ferry freed from ice in northern Manitoba town

Last Updated: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 | 9:08 AM CT

CBC News

Manitoba's Amphibex icebreaking machine has freed a ferry that had become stuck in ice over the weekend near Norway House, cutting off the community's access to supplies.

The community of 6,000, located about 460 kilometres north of Winnipeg, uses a ferry to move food and other supplies in and out in until the Nelson River freezes enough to allow heavy truck traffic.

Normally when the river channel first begins to freeze, a machine is used to break up the ice ahead of the ferry.

But Coun. Mike Muswagon told CBC News an inexperienced operator did not use the icebreaker on Saturday and the ferry became lodged in the ice.

The provincial government's large Amphibex icebreaker arrived Tuesday. Muswagon said workers have since been able to drag the ferry to shore.

The Amphibex is continuing to break up ice on the river in an attempt to create a path for the boat.

The community ran out of gasoline Tuesday. Officials believe other key supplies could run out by Thursday.

A long line of cars and semi-trailers carrying supplies is waiting on the far side of the channel.

Local government officials have declared a state of emergency, giving them the authority to issue orders to prevent or limit loss of life or damage to property or the environment.

If supplies aren't replenished by Thursday, the Norway House band plans to ask the province to fly in supplies, which could cost thousands of dollars more than expected.

CBC News

Fingers crossed at Manitoba reserve as icebreaker arrives, frozen ferry moved

NORWAY HOUSE, Man. - A big machine that smashes ice was giving hope Wednesday to a remote Manitoba reserve cut off from its supplies.

The Norway House Cree Nation was under a state of emergency because a ferry that ships food and fuel to the community became stuck in ice last weekend and supplies for the reserve's 6,000 residents were running short.

Councillor Mike Muswagon said the province's ice-breaking machine arrived late Tuesday and worked through the night.

Crews managed to move the ferry ashore early Wednesday morning and there was hope it could be returned to the Nelson River and continue on its way once the icebreaker cleared a channel.

Norway House is about 460 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

Canadian Press

State of emergency in Norway House

A state of emergency has been declared in Norway House, a Northern Manitoba first nation...
A ferry that delivers food and fuel to the community has been stuck in thick ice in the Nelson River since Saturday.
Band councillor Michael Muswagon says the community of six-thousand could run out of such essentials as milk, eggs, and bread as soon as Wednesday.
An icebreaking machine is on its way to Norway House, 460-kilometres north of Winnipeg.

CJOB news

New dialysis stations added across province

By PAUL TURENNE, SUN MEDIA

Manitoba will add 26 new dialysis stations across the province, Health Minister Theresa Oswald announced this morning.

The units, promised in last week's government throne speech, will be located in Winnipeg, Peguis, Norway House, Russell and Berens River.

Dialysis helps rinse toxins from the body, a task that is normally performed by properly functioning kidneys.

It is not a cure for kidney problems but is simply a treatment to stabilize patients' lives.

An additional 10 stations at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre can accommodate another 60 patients per year in the city, while the additional rural units increase the rest of Manitoba's capacity by 72 patients, according to Manitoba Health.

The new stations will cost the province about $20 million.

Winnipeg Sun

State of emergency in Waterhen

Updated at 9:35 PM

By Lindsey Wiebe

A state of emergency has been declared in the community of Waterhen north of Dauphin, due to worrisome water levels on the Waterhen River.

The river has gone up more than a metre since Friday, but is believed to have stabilized about half a metre from the top of dikes set up this year, said provincial flood forecaster Alf Warkentin.

Still, Warkentin said the state of emergency is “a signal that there is significant concern.” The main problem is river jamming caused by frazil ice, the name given to slushy ice that forms over moving water.

Warkentin said the Waterhen River has not traditionally been an area to watch, but high levels on Lake Winnipegosis have made the river a cause for concern in recent years.

As of this morning, roughly six homes were surrounded by water, Warkentin said, but all were protected by dikes. A few homes were evacuated as a precaution.

Warkentin said the province had been preparing to send its Amphibex icebreaking machine to clear the riverway in Waterhen. But at the last minute, the machine had to be sent to the northern community of Norway House instead, to deal with a ferry frozen into the Nelson River.

“It’s kind of unusual,” said Warkentin, adding that the few previous times a ferry has frozen in the water, local staff have been able to break the ice and set it free.

“This year, for some reason or other, it got stuck in one spot and the ice formed around it, and now it can’t budge,” he said.

Manitoba Water Stewardship is also keeping an eye on the Fairford and Dauphin rivers, where frazil ice is likely forming and minor ice jams are expected to start.

Meanwhile, water levels on the Winnipeg River in the Whiteshell area are not expected to go up further, although boathouses and cottages in the area could be affected by ice. While it’s possible ice jams could occur on smaller streams in the area, flooding of buildings is unlikely.

In southern Manitoba, a thin ice advisory is in effect, meaning snowmobiles, skiers and hikers are warned to stay off rivers, lakes and streams.

lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

Winnipeg Free Press

Tories paid $25 billion in grants and subsidies over first year in office: report

OTTAWA - A citizens' group says the Conservative government paid out $25 billion in grants, contributions and subsidies during its first fiscal year in office, with the two largest going to a Quebec-based aerospace company.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has compiled a list of the top 100 grants and contributions paid out between April 1, 2006, and last March 31.

The group says the 100 largest payments, doled out by 16 different departments and agencies, total $3.3 billion - much of it spent "questionably, inefficiently and, in some cases, outright irresponsibly."

The group says the government's total grant-subsidy budget accounts for just over 11 cents of each tax dollar spent.

The two largest handouts went to Quebec-based Pratt and Whitney Canada, the first for $213 million and second for $137 million.

Other notable examples of what the taxpayers' group called "corporate welfare" include $47.5 million to Quebec's Mont Tremblant ski resort, $27 million for a soccer stadium in Toronto and $19.1 million for Alcan.

The group says $9 billion a year is funnelled to native bands "despite the lack of accountability to Canadian taxpayers."

It points out that the auditor general is not allowed to scrutinize payments to aboriginal groups.

And it says most cities can only dream of the federal money given to Toronto - besides the soccer stadium, payments include $25 million to the Toronto International Film Festival, more than $24 million to the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization, $21 million to the Toronto Harbourfront Centre and $18 million to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

Here are the Top 25 recipients of federal grants, contributions and subsidies paid during the Conservative government's first fiscal year in office (province, recipient, amount), as compiled by the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation and released Monday:

1. Quebec, Pratt and Whitney Canada Corp., $213 million

2. Quebec, Pratt and Whitney Canada Corp., $137 million

3. British Columbia, Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, $124 million

4. Ontario, Canarie Inc., $120 million

5. Ontario, Canadian Television Fund, $120 million

6. Washington, D.C., World Bank, $115 million

7. Ontario, National Association of Friendship Centres, $77 million

8. Ontario, Canadian Red Cross Society, $70 million

9. Quebec, Cree Regional Authority, $70 million

10. Alberta, Blood Band, $62 million

11. Ontario, Conseil des Ministres de l'Education Canada, $56 million

12. Quebec, Mont Tremblant Resorts and Co. Ltd., $48 million

13. Quebec, Quebec government, $44 million

14. New York, UN Population Fund, $44 million

15. Quebec, Development and Peace, $42 million

16. Manitoba, Manitoba Floodway Authority, $42 million

17. British Columbia, Nisga'a Nation, $42 million

18. Quebec, Societe du 400e Anniversaire de Quebec, $40,000

19. Manitoba, Norway House Cree Nation, $39 million

20. Saskatchewan, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, $36 million

21. Saskatchewan, Lac La Ronge Band, $36 million

22. New Brunswick, Atlantic Wallboard Ltd., $35 million

23. Quebec, Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, $35 million

24. Ontario, National Association of Friendship Centres, $34 million

25. British Columbia, Nuu-Cha-Nulth Tribal Council, $32 million.

The federation's complete list of 100 recipients can be found at http://www.taxpayer.com/pdf/Top100.pdf.

Canadian Press

Native boy wins battle to attend Winnipeg school

Last Updated: Monday, November 19, 2007 | 10:58 AM CT

CBC News

The Manitoba government has ordered a Winnipeg school division to allow a boy from a northern reserve to attend school in the city, even though he is not living with a legal guardian.

Eileen Apetagon recently moved to Winnipeg from the Norway House Cree Nation. She has cared for her 13-year-old grandson for several years, so he moved with her.

She told CBC News in October that when she tried to enrol the boy in school, she was told by the principal that — according to the Public Schools Act — her grandson was not funded to attend the school in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division because his parents still lived in Norway House.

Apetagon said board officials told her she had two options if she wanted her grandson to attend a Winnipeg school: adopt him, or put him into the care of Child and Family Services.

Following a CBC story on the matter, Manitoba's education minister wrote to the school division, ordering officials to accept the boy.

The teen started school in Winnipeg on Monday morning, Apetagon said.

"It's hard for grandparents when that happens, because we don't want to take the parental rights away from our children, but there are times that we have to take on that responsibility for various reasons, and that should have been considered," she said.

Apetagon and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs are determined to change the legislation so no other First Nations families encounter the same problems.

"That's a practice of the past, and it shouldn't any longer continue," said AMC head Ron Evans.

The assembly and the provincial government were to meet on Monday to examine issues surrounding guardianship and school attendance.

CBC News

Better than a bullet

Take it from me, despite Vancouver death, you're far better off being hit with a Taser

Sat Nov 17 2007

IN the stampede to judgment in the Vancouver airport Tasering and death of a Polish immigrant, let's remember these four men:

Donald Miles, Matthew Dumas, Dennis St. Paul and Howard Fleury.

What unites them is that they're dead, each killed by a police officer's bullet. Three died in Winnipeg and one in Norway House.

The circumstances of how Miles, Dumas, St. Paul and Fleury each died are uniquely different, but there is one underlying thing they have in common.

They might be alive today if they were zapped by a Taser electric stun gun.

That's why police throughout Manitoba and the rest of the world are now armed with Tasers, or in police jargon "conducted energy devices." Taser, like Kleenex, is a brand name, and there are more than one kind of conducted energy devices on the market, although the Taser is by far the most commonly used by law enforcement.

Up until now, and the release of the harrowing video death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport, the use of the Taser has been widely accepted as just another tool police use to do business.

Police are now trained to use a Taser, firing a 50,000-volt electric jolt, to get an unruly suspect to comply with demands to co-operate with officers, so they can be safely handcuffed without an officer or a member of the public being injured.

The Taser is not designed to kill.

If it was, I'd be dead. And my tombstone would say the date of death was Jan. 16, 2003.

That's the day the RCMP Tasered me and some other reporters as part of news conference on Mounties being equipped with the devices.

That three-second zap will forever be branded in my brain -- almost five years later it still makes me cringe.

Being hit with a Taser does not hurt -- it's worse. It's not like smacking your thumb with a hammer or getting hit in the mouth with a hockey puck. It's not that kind of pain. It's instead the pain of sheer terror.

The Taser's two electrodes, in contact with your clothing, transmit the 50,000 volts between the two points along the surface of your skin and outer muscles.

Your body reacts in a spasm as your brain doesn't recognize what's happening. You cannot help but cry out and fall to the ground. You are absolutely powerless to stop it. Only when the device is shut off do you find relief, and within a few seconds it's almost as if you'd never been Tasered at all.

It's a horrible, horrible experience.

It's also one each police officer trained in the use of a Taser has to go through, so they truly appreciate that they can never, ever allow someone to take it and use against them.

In the three years Tasers have been used in the province, no one has died after being hit with the device.

More and more, police are coming into conflict with potentially dangerous people who disobey orders to stop or give themselves up. It could be because they're high on drugs or have a mental illness and are acting out in a way that is not normal behaviour for them, but poses a safety risk.

More and more, pepper spray and batons don't work on these people.

So police use Tasers.

Of the deaths that have occurred in Canada and the United States, excluding what happened to Dziekanski, most of those who died after being Tasered had drugs in their system combined with cardiovascular problems.

Did Tasers kill them?

Short answer is, we don't know.

Which is why The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police has again asked for another review of their use. A 2005 report for the CACP said Tasers were safe, but in light of what happened to Dziekanski, police across the country want a second opinion.

That's a fair and proper decision, but I'd hate to think because of what happened in Vancouver, police back off on using Tasers and go back to what they did before.

I'm sure the families of Donald Miles, Matthew Dumas, Dennis St. Paul and Howard Fleury feel the same way.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Winnipeg Free Press

Funding flap keeps native boy out of Winnipeg school

Last Updated: Monday, October 29, 2007 | 9:33 AM CT

CBC News

An aboriginal woman living in Winnipeg says a city school division advised her to hand her grandchild over to Child and Family Services as a means of registering him for school.

Eileen Apetagon recently moved to Winnipeg from the Norway House Cree Nation. She has cared for her 13-year-old grandson for several years, so he moved with her.

When she tried to enrol the boy in school, she said, the principal told her that her grandson is not funded to attend a school in the division because his parents still live in Norway House.

Officials with the St. James-Assiniboia School Division told her she had two options, she said: adopt her grandson, or put him into the care of Child and Family Services.

"What she said was, the easiest way for my grandson to enrol at the school is to go through CFS," Apetagon told CBC News. "I said, 'No. That's not going to happen.' I will not allow my grandson to be involved with the Child and Family Services system.

"You know, this was very insulting," she said. "I felt a sense of anger and disbelief, like, I couldn't believe what I was hearing."

School division officials refused to comment, saying only that they were following the Public Schools Act.

Ron Evans, head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said he's heard of similar cases. Evans is asking Education Minister Peter Bjornson to change the law.

"That policy has to be revisited," he said. "They need to be sensitive to our culture, to our cultural practices, when it comes to parenting."

A spokesperson for Bjornson said his office is doing everything it can to ensure Apetagon's grandson attends school as soon as possible.

The province will review the case to determine if any policy changes are needed.

CBC News

Drug den busted

By Chris Kitching

Four small children were inside an alleged drug den in northern Manitoba when RCMP conducted a raid early yesterday.

Police arrested a man and woman, and seized 130 rocks of crack cocaine and 213 codeine pills in the home in Norway House.

The children were turned over to Minisowin Child and Family Services. RCMP did not say what the relationship is between the suspects and kids.

Police said the street value of the drugs is in the thousands of dollars.

RCMP members from Norway House and Cross Lake participated in the raid.

Norway House Cree Nation residents George Ettawacappo, 50, and his 51-year-old wife, Dorcus, are each charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking cocaine, possession for the purpose of trafficking codeine, and causing a child to be in need of protection.

Both are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

Winnipeg Sun

Wife charged with murder in stabbing

Fri, October 19, 2007
By CHRIS KITCHING, SUN MEDIA

RCMP confirmed today that a 59-year-old homicide victim in northern Manitoba was stabbed to death.

Police said Leonard Richard William Muswagon died Wednesday as a result of multiple stab wounds he suffered at his home in the Mission Island area of Norway House.

His 45-year-old common-law wife, Gaylene Ruth Clarke, has been charged with second-degree murder.

Norway House RCMP continue to investigate along with the Winnipeg RCMP serious crimes unit and Thompson RCMP major crime unit.

Winnipeg Sun

Not Safe, Not Sound

Is a change in the child welfare system failing Manitoba's native kids?

Allison Hanes, National Post

Published: Saturday, October 06, 2007

The safety of a five-year-old girl on a northern Manitoba reserve has ignited debate this week about the vigilance of the province's child welfare system where foul play, abuse and extreme neglect have already led to the deaths of eight youngsters in care in the past four years.

The latest case involves a shy little girl who has endured more than her share of tragedy. In July her father was fatally hit in the head with a two-by-four -- a beating she may have witnessed. Her 16-year-old half-brother is one of the people charged with the murder. The girl may also have been sexually assaulted at age three. Another older half-brother, then 17, was suspected but not charged. The child has grown up in an impoverished household where drug and alcohol addiction were rife.

But when her aunt in Winnipeg, who is not Aboriginal, demanded the child be removed from this environment, she found herself locked in a three-month battle against bureaucratic resistance, ironclad confidentiality and cultural hostility. She was accused of racism and exploiting her niece for daring to question the motives of a system focused on maintaining the ties of First Nations youth to their communities.

Welfare officials have investigated the case and decided the girl was safe and should remain with her mother under the watchful eye of local child protection authorities.

Manitoba's Minister of Family Services and the province's Child Advocate took the rare step of speaking out despite strict privacy laws to reassure the aunt about the child's well-being.

And Marcel Balfour, the chief of Norway House Cree Nation, a reserve of about 5,000 where the girl lives, also insisted she is in good hands.

"All I can say is that the child is safe," he said. "I am more than confident, in terms of the processes that are in place, in terms of putting all the issues into context -- including these allegations that would have necessarily have to have been looked into-- that the child is safe."

"And I stand by the decision of the local childcare agency," the chief added.

But the aunt remains skeptical that a system that has already failed eight children will adequately protect her niece.

"They're stepping up and saying they will take responsibility at this point as a system, and they will do what they can to ensure her safety, so if anything happens to her, it's on their heads," said the aunt, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the girl.

"I said to them: 'Not one of you would put your children in that home. Let's pack their backpack and stick them in their overnight. You're not going to do that, are you? Not one of you will tell me you would let your children sleep in [that] house -- why do you think [my niece] should stay there?' "

The case has once again put the spotlight on a system where the welfare of the child is sometimes superseded by cultural considerations.

The Winnipeg woman first learned the heartbreaking details of her five-year-old niece's young life as her brother lay comatose in hospital in July.

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