Nickel Belt News Volume Volume 58 59 Number • Issue 4711
Friday, March 16, Friday, November 22,2018 2019
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Thompson Bus headed to Winnipeg spins out after colliding with pickup truck stopped on Highway 6 Passenger says friends of his saw the truck on the highway before the crash occurred and reported it to police
Book a way to preserve and pass on memories of growing up in Churchill
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
A southbound NCN Thompson Bus spun out into the ditch on Highway 6 about 20 kilometres south of the Highway 60 junction Nov. 20 when the driver tried to avoid a stationary vehicle. The accident was reported to RCMP around 3:15 a.m. Sid Varma of NCN Thompson Bus said the company was alerted about the accident around 3:30 a.m. “There was a pickup truck in the middle of the road,” he said. Unable to stop in time to avoid the pickup, the bus driver tried to swerve around it and ended up spinning out into the ditch, damaging the front of the bus. RCMP said that the driver of the truck suffered minor injuries. A passenger on the bus, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the truck on the road had been reported to RCMP an hour or two before this collision occurred by friends of his who were driving to Winnipeg. They told him via Messenger that the man had stopped him to ask for a battery boost and that he was “drunk and disorderly.”
Nickel Belt News photos courtesy of Leeron Stern Some of the damage caused when a southbound NCN Thompson Bus driver swerved in an attempt to avoid a pickup truck stopped on Highway 6 and spun out into the ditch Nov. 20. “A life could have been taken,” said the passenger, who was in the back of the bus and thrown to the floor by the force of the collision, sustaining a scrape on his leg. “We’re all shook. A lot of anxiety.” The passenger said he was standing three feet away from the man with the pickup truck and that he appeared drunk. “I know what people look like [when they’re drunk],” he said. Corrine Hart, who was on the bus and sleeping just be-
fore the crash, said she woke up when someone yelled and the bus began to swerve. “For sure I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re gonna roll,’” Hart told the Nickel Belt News. “It was all a flash before my eyes.” Hart said the bus driver said that the other vehicle, which appeared to be damaged afterwards, didn’t have hazard lights or any other lights on. RCMP were at the scene of the crash within 30 minutes, Varma said, adding that none of the bus passengers
were seriously injured in the crash. Regulations prohibit bus companies from continuing a trip in a bus that has been involved in an accident, so passengers were taken back to Grand Rapids to wait inside while a bus made its way up from Winnipeg. The bus that went into the ditch was being towed to Winnipeg as regulations require. “We have a protocol to follow,” Varma said. The passengers were given breakfast at the Misipawistik Cree Nation band
hall in Grand Rapids before getting on the second bus that arrived to take them the rest of the way to Winnipeg when it arrived around 9 a.m. The other passenger who spoke to the Nickel Belt News said that they weren’t yet in Winnipeg as of just before 2 p.m. Wednesday. RCMP said there was an earlier report of an abandoned vehicle but that the information they received was that there was nobody with it and that it was parked on the side
of the highway. Hart didn’t continue on to Winnipeg but stayed in Grand Rapids with one of her children trying to get a ride back to Thompson. She also said she won’t be taking any overnight buses in the future. RCMP continue gathering more information to determine if any Highway Traffic Act or Criminal Code charges may be warranted against the driver of the pickup.
Bail practices for accused persons in custody in Northern Manitoba should ‘shock the conscience’ of reasonable people, judge says Nickel Belt News photo by Ian Graham BY IAN GRAHAM Addictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles has written a book about her experiences growing up, mostly in Churchill. EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET pair GRAHAM of Northern Mani- to write things that you have ‘Oh, I’m just as bad, right?’ was not a very safe thing swallow when people say BYAIAN For all the harsh weather tobans charged with criminal to figure out. It’s pretty clear I have all these stories and to do but I jumped at it. I that Churchill residents and the dangers of polar EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET offences had their Charter Though she’s now written when I get through.” I need to capture them for thought that was exciting should just find somewhere bears, deMeulles said if it of November 2017 for not custody awaiting a bail hear- Lake was arrested in Thomp- situation, and the hearing there were still cases on the rights violated as a result of dayDeMeulles a book about her experiensaid she wrote my grandchildren really until the plane landed and easier to live. had been viable she would resolved until Jan. docket, resulting in many excessive delays in having complying with an undertak- ing, and Justice Chris Martin son on Jan. 1, 2018 for a wasn’t ces growing up in Churchill, her book, titled Whispers in because they will be lost if they started throwing the “To say, ‘Those people have moved back to Churchof aggravated assault 23, when his bail was denied. accused having their aptheir bail applications heard in ing she had signed upon her found that she had not given charge Addictions Foundation of the Wind: Stories from the I don’t.” fuel off and I realized, ‘Holy choose to live there. They ill in a heartbeat. initial arrest for assault char- her consent to being held in stemming from an incident in Some of the delay between plications “timing out” and Thompson, a Manitoba Court Manitoba northern director North - Life in Churchill for She also has a reputation cats, I was probably sitting should just leave,’ is quite “I miss the shoreline, I from Nov. 2 to Nov. his hometown of Split Lake. Jan. 8 and Jan. 23 was the then having to wait for the of Queen’s Bench judge said ges about five weeks earlier. custody Gisele deMeulles said writ- a couple of reasons. as a storyteller herself. on a bomb.’” simplistic. It’s quite disre- miss the rock, I miss the The charges against Balfour 24 of that year, or for other His bail application began in result of judges being under next day when bail applicain a Nov. 14 ruling. ing wasn’t something she “I just sort of thought, “I had such a varied hisAnother thing that spectful. If we were in the polar bears even though were eventually stayed and delays in her bail application provincial court in Thompson “strict instructions” from the tions were being heard, usuOne of the applicants whose always thought she would you know what, this his- tory and I would tell people spurred her on was the same boat in another area they’re very dangerous and had no criminal record at being heard from Dec. 7-Dec. Jan. 8, but the judge wanted province’s chief judge to end ally Mondays, Tuesdays and rights were violated was Les- she do. tory, this stuff that’s in my stories and they would go, hard times facing Churchill I think we would scream I really miss the Hudson the time of her arrest, but she 19, 2017. more information about his bail application hearings at Thursdays. ley“In Balfour of Norway House, my youth I never head, it’s going to be gone ‘That’s not true, is it?’ I’d go, since the Hudson Bay Rail- about that so why don’t they Bay,” she says. “When I go spent more than 51 days in Dwayne Young of Split address and employment 5 p.m. regardless of whether who was arrested on the first Continued on Page 2 felt good at writing,” she if I don’t write it down,” she ‘Yeah it’s true.’ They’d go, way suspended operations have the option to do that? back home, standing on the
Delays in bail hearings that violated Charter rights of accused people from Split Lake and Norway House are result of systemic issues
said. “But when I moved to Thompson to get into the school of social work, at that point I had to write for university and realized, ‘Holy, I’m not bad at this, right?’ I certainly developed a lot of skill in university and came out of there with a very strong skill in my writing and confidence in my writing. I write very clear and that’s it. It’s there. Some people say it’s kind of blunt or direct. I don’t tend
said. “My kids are not go- ‘You didn’t do all that, did north of Gillam last spring. ing to get it if I don’t do it you? You’ve got to be really “It used to be a really and it’s something I’ve al- old.’ I was like, ‘No, actually thriving large community ways wanted my mom to I did all that before I was and it’s just dwindled down do. My mom’s an elder and 27,’ and they went ‘What?’” to such a small population she’s an artist, she’s got so Looking back, some of now,” deMeulles says. many wonderful stories be- those experiences are things Though she’s not there Contact Nelson 204-307-0281 cause she always tells her atshe might not do again. any longer, her parents and stories at Parks Canada in “I did some pretty bizarre her sister and other family pruderspropertyservices@gmail.com Churchill and I’ve always stuff like fuel hauls into the members still are. hounded her, ‘Please, justproperty high Arctic at -35,” said “My cousin owns the to discuss your needs! put it on tape, I will write it deMeulles. “It didn’t dawn hardware store there,” she for you because your story on me until after. That was a says. is going to be lost,’ and she’s very dangerous thing to do. Because of that, never done it and I thought, Being on a plane full of fuel deMeulles finds it hard to
Yer snow gotta go!
I think right now they’re feeling like they’re pawns in a political game and that’s really sad for them because I think the people of Churchill really want to thrive. They’ve built their worlds there. How would we feel if someone came to you and said, ‘I’m sorry, you have to leave your home community and we’re going to displace you somewhere else and all your loved ones and your history is gone?’”
Hudson Bay looking out on the bay, it just gives you an incredible sense. You feel so small and you feel great.” Now that she’s got one book under her belt, deMeulles says she may try to produce another. “I have another book in me,” she says. “It’s a darker story, more about personal growth and struggles. Maybe in the next five years it’s something I’ll focus on doing.”