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TALKS ON PRAIRIEDALE SCHOOL P. 2 EDITORIAL P. 6
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FLU SHOTS P. 4 CONTEST WINNERS P. 7
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Plea for information
An appeal goes out for witnesses to come forward with what they know Ruth Lloyd Caledonia Courier
As resource development projects grow in number across northern B.C., Northern Health is developing reports to better understand how industrial camps could affect public health services across the region. Cameron Ginn/Omineca Express
Industrial camp unknowns prompt research report Cameron Ginn Omineca Express A report into the state of industrial camps in northern B.C. provides details about how droves of transient workers could potentially impact health care services here. The report, released by Northern Health on Thursday, Oct. 17, offers a glimpse at life inside the camps and reveals how an influx of migrant workers could affect public health in rural and remote towns and villages across the region.
By referencing some 30 years of industrial, academic and medical research, Northern Health has assembled an archive of case studies detailing the health-related implications that resource development has had on some communities in northern B.C. and elsewhere in Canada, as well as in rural Austrailia and the United States. In the months leading up to the report, Northern Health officials met with numerous community leaders, including in Kitimat and Hudson's Hope, who were fearful of how nearby industrial camps would affect local health
care, said Dr. Charles Jago, chair of the Northern Health Board. "We really don't now what impacts those are having," Dr. Jago said on Thursday, Oct. 18. "This study is the first step in trying to understand that phenomenon more fully." Although communities largely benefit from resource development projects, experiencing job creation, high wages, economic development and a rise in property values, the impacts of boomand-bust cycles on public health aren't well understood. Continued on page 9
A plea has gone out to the community for witnesses to come forward in the murder of Fribjon Bjornson. A CBC story last week, both on the radio and on CBC News The National, revealed details of the case. Bjornson, who was from Vanderhoof but working north of Fort St. James, was killed earlier this year, his severed head having been found in an abandoned house on the Lower Road on Nak’azdli Reserve on Feb. 3. The CBC story revealed people in the Nak’azdli community may know who is responsible, and said according to witnesses who approached the family, Fribjon had been at a house on the reserve partying, next door to where his head was found. Fribjon’s parents were told he was taken into the basement by a group of people, who then tortured and killed their son. The CBC story alleges the motivation may have been robbery, as Bjornson had recently cashed a paycheque for thousands of dollars. His body was then reportedly dismembered to hide the attack. Bjornson’s body has never been found. The investigation
Fribjon Bjornson
File photo
cording to Leslie Smith, media relations officer for the North District RCMP, has been very extensive. Smith said investigators have gone door to door in the communities of Fort St. James and Vanderhoof, and they follow up on every tip and name they are given. Investigators are in almost daily contact with the Bjornson family, and any information they pass on to investigators they follow up on. Staff Sergeant Paul Thalhofer, detachment commander in Fort St. James, said the door is always open at the local detachment for people to come forward. Local RCMP are not involved in the investigation itself, but can take The criminal investigation of the statements or help facilitate introducmurder is being done by the North tions between investigators and local District RCMP Major Crimes Unit community members or witnesses. out of Prince George, which acContinued on page 10
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