Nickel Belt News Volume 62 • Issue 13
Friday, April 1, 2022
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
RCMP appeal for tips in unsolved hit-and-run that killed 41-year-old man just north of Thompson three years ago
Solomon McDonald, who was struck by a vehicle and killed while walking on the highway just north of Thompson on March 22, 2019. Three years after 41-year-old Solomon McDonald was hit and killed by a vehicle on Highway 391 just north of Thompson, RCMP still don’t have answers about his death. McDonald, a Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation man who had 10 children, seven of whom were under the age of 12 at the
RCMP photos A memorial to Solomon McDonald next to Highway 391 just north of the Burntwood River where he was hit and killed by a vehicle in an unsolved hit-and-run on March 22, 2019.
time of his death, is believed to have died sometime near 1 a.m. on March 22, 2019. Thompson RCMP received a report of a vehicle-pedestrian collision around 1:05 a.m. that day, but there was no vehicle at the scene just north of the Burntwood River when police arrived. Investigation assisted by a forensic colli-
sion reconstructionist and the RCMP Criminal Collision Investigative team determined that McDonald’s death was the result of being hit by a vehicle while walking on the road. RCMP say they conducted many interviews in relation to McDonald’s death and they continue to look for the vehicle that hit him or any witnesses or other people
with information about the fatal collision. Anyone who saw the vehicle hit McDonald or who has information about the collision is asked to call Thompson RCMP at 204-677-6911 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477. Tips can also be submitted online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com.
Manitoba shutting down youth jail in Portage, shifting more resources to deal with young offenders into the north BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
The provincial justice minister announced March 24 that one of two youth jails in the south will be closing permanently this July and more resources shifted to Northern Manitoba, which is where the majority of incarcerated youth are from. Agassiz Youth Centre in Portage la Prairie, which is currently only at about 30 per cent capacity, will shut down July 22, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced. Approximately 100 Justice Department staff who work there will be offered employment in other areas and the land it occupies may become the site of a previously announced new hospital for the city. Youth currently housed at Agassiz will be transferred to the Manitoba Youth Centre in Winnipeg, which has been below 50 per cent capacity for the past five years. Over the past decade, Goertzen said, youth incarceration has gone down nearly 75 per cent in Manitoba, from more than 300 youth in custody in 2012 to
fewer than 90 today, mainly due to the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act. Meanwhile, in the north, there are no youth jails and no transitional facilities, meaning incarcerated young offenders from the region have to complete their entire sentences at Agassiz or MYC, though a transitional phase before they return to the community is better for reducing reoffending and re-incarceration. “We have many jurisdictions in Manitoba, and certainly in the north, which are really in need of justice services,” said Goertzen, noting that the “vast majority” of youth in custody are from Northern Manitoba. The justice minister announced a healing lodge in Thompson for northern youth offenders on March 25 in Winnipeg, alongside Thompson Mayor Colleen Smook and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee. “We’ve been working with First Nations partners and other partners over several months, really, in terms of what that might look like,” said Goertzen, noting
Nickel Belt News photo courtesy of Rose Kuzina/Manitoba Historical Society One of the older buildings at the Agassiz Youth Centre in Portage la Prairie, which houses youth who have been sentenced to jail for their crimes and is going to shut down in July due to dropping youth incarceration. that open custody models provide better opportunities for young offenders to transition back into their communities gradually and have access to appropriate and culturally relevant services. The Manitoba Government and General Employees Union, which represents jail guards and other staff at
Agassiz, told the Canadian Press it was not consulted about the closure. “This will impact youth incarcerated there and it will eliminate over a hundred good-paying jobs which support Manitoba families in the community,” said union president Kyle Ross.
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs acting Grand Chief Eric Redhead said closing the youth jail and enabling youth sentenced to custody to spend at least part of it closer to their home communities is not a complete solution to the many problems that lead to Indigenous youth being overrepre-
sented in Manitoba’s legal and correctional system. “The AMC is in a process of developing our own justice and law centre that would be grounded in our understanding of traditional laws that promote diversion and restorative justice as a response to conflict,” he said.