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Nickel Belt News Volume 60 • Issue 18
Friday, May 1, 2020
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Arrival of new cooks at Keeyask at odds with Manitoba Hydro’s plans and Northern Manitoba travel ban, MP says
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Northern Manitoba MP Niki Ashton says Manitoba Hydro should reassess a plan to bring 10 new cooks into the Keeyask generating station work camp in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Workers at the site and First Nations partners in the area near Gillam were informed April 19 that the cooks would be arriving, despite the Crown corporation having said that employees would not be coming and going from the site, where
about 600 people voluntarily remained behind, as of March 21. “This is not in line with Manitoba Hydro’s clear commitment to ensure safety at their site by prohibiting new staff to enter,” said Ashton in an April 20 letter to Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin. “This recent announcement has created major concerns among workers in the camp and First Nations who were willing to recognize Hydro’s previous efforts.” Chief Doreen Spence of
Tataskeweyak Cree Nation at Split Lake, one of four First Nations in the area of the under-construction generating station, told the Winnipeg Free Press that she didn’t like the idea of Manitoba Hydro dictating to them about what they consider safe. The Free Press also reported that Keeyask reopened its gym April 11 and its dining room on April 14, with seating restrictions in place. The bar will be reopened soon if resources allow, according to a daily safety notice sent to
employees, some of whom, along with contractors, contacted the Free Press with their concerns. The new cooks, who work for Sodexo, will not be quarantined, Hydro reportedly informed workers, because they are needed to replace cafeteria staff who have left. They will have their temperatures taken and fill out health surveys at the start of their shifts for two weeks after their arrival. Manitoba Hydro told the Free Press that the Northern Regional Health Authority approved of the company’s
protocols and that all Manitoba Health guidelines were being followed to protect workers and contractors as well as residents of nearby communities. “Communities across our region are aware of the heightened risk of a COVID-19 spread through work camps and back into communities,” Ashton said in her letter the chief public health officer. “We are hearing news of infections in camps and mines in northern regions of the country. Our region cannot afford one infection
and that is why calls for temporary shutdowns must be respected. The travel restriction [into Northern Manitoba, which took effect April 17 and lasts until at least May 1] will do nothing to prevent the virus spreading in work camps and mines across our region that require contractors to continue operations. I therefore would ask your teams to reassess the current exemptions especially in light of this current situation and respect the calls for temporary shutdowns, including at Keeyask.”
God’s Lake First Nation member shot and killed by Winnipeg police April 18 was third Indigenous fatality from police shooting in 10 days
AMC grand chief says gaps in Manitoba Police Services Act may be contributing factors to these incidents BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
A 22-year-old man originally from God’s Lake First Nation in Northern Manitoba was shot and killed by Winnipeg police April 18, the third Indigenous person to die in a police shooting in the city in the span of 10 days. The Winnipeg Police Service said officers responded to a call around 4 a.m. from a resident of Adsum Drive who said he was taking his garbage out when two armed men confronted him and demanded money. He was assaulted by the men but fled and called 911. A second call to police said windows were being broken at an Adsum Drive apartment building. Police located two male suspects, which is when an officer fired their weapon. One of the men, since identified as 22-year-old Stewart Andrews, received emergency first aid from police and was taken to hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The other person, a 16-year-old male, was treated in hospital for minor injuries. He was charged April 19 with rob-
bery, use of an imitation weapon while committing a indictable offence, possessing a weapon, possessing a firearm, pointing a firearm, possessing a weapon/firearm or ammunition contrary to a prohibition order and two counts of failing to comply with a sentence. He was detained in custody. The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba (IIU), which investigates all serious matters involving on- and off-duty police in Manitoba, took over the investigation and deployed investigators to the scene. Because the incident involved a fatality, a request to the Manitoba Police Commission for a civilian monitor was made. Andrews’s sister Alexcia Andrews told CBC that her brother recently became a father and was raising that child and two others along with his girlfriend and that he was also a loving grandson who would do anything for his grandparents. Earlier in April, Winnipeg police shot and killed 16-year-old Eisha Hudson during what they called a chase that began when a group of teenagers robbed
a Liquor Mart. Less than 12 hours later, 36-year-old Jason Collins was shot by police responding to a domestic violence call. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) said in an April 21 statement that the Manitoba Police Commission should investigate the structural causes that contributed to these Indigenous people’s deaths. “Contrary to Danny Smyth, the Winnipeg Police Service’s chief of police, this loss of the lives of First Nations people by the WPS are not an ‘anomaly,’” said AMC Grand Chief Arlen Dumas in a press release. “Over the years, First Nations have been dehumanized, mistreated and have been killed through WPS officer involved shootings since before the J.J. Harper incident and the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry (AJI) in 1991. The scales of justice for First Nations in Winnipeg continue to be broken and need to be fixed immediately. The AMC does not have confidence in the Manitoba Independent Investigation Unit to conduct a full and complete investigation and disclosure of all
UP-TO-THE-MINUTE CORONAVIRUS UPDATES AT thompsoncitizen.net/covid-19
Thompson Citizen photo by Ian Graham Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Arlen Dumas, seen here in Thompson March 2, says that three police shootings of Indigenous people by Winnipeg police in a 10-day span are not an anomaly. the circumstances surrounding each of these shootings. In light of this, the AMC is calling on the civilian oversight committee, the Manitoba Police Commission, to work with the AMC to develop a terms of refer-
ence, as well as assisting to retain an investigator under its mandate to investigate the Winnipeg Police Board for its monitoring of the relationship between First Nations and the WPS. The AMC also recommends that this investigation look into the legislative gaps in the Manitoba Police Services Act that may be contributing factors to the deaths of these three young people and the ongoing race-based violence experienced by First Nations within the City of Winnipeg.” Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Grand
Chief Garrison Settee said in an April 25 press release that MKO extended condolences to the families of Andrews and the others killed in Winnipeg police shootings, even though they do not condone the alleged crimes associated with the incidents. “The police-involved shootings require a thorough investigation,” said Settee. “I urge the Winnipeg Police Service to take a good look at what is happening within their ranks and to work closely with Indigenous leaders to ensure we resolve these serious issues by working together.”