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