Nickel Belt News Volume 61 • Issue 34
Friday, September 10, 2021
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Pills that may contain fentanyl suspected to be cause of several overdoses, one fatal, in two Northern Manitoba First Nations over a three-day period
One death and several other non-fatal overdoses over a three-day period are believed to be the result of drugs known as “green beans” circulating in Bunibonibee Cree Nation (BCN) and Shamattawa First Nation, RCMP said in a press release Sept. 5. The greenish pills resemble oxycodone tablets and police believe they may contain fentanyl. Anyone who has these drugs is being advised to dispose of them immediately. Anyone with information is also asked to call Oxford House RCMP at 204-5382211, Shamattawa RCMP at 204-565-2350 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477. Tips can also be submitted online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com.
A 36-year-old father of seven children died Sept. 2 in BCN after being found unconscious, Chief Richard Hart told CBC, saying he’s been aware that the drug was in his community for at least two months but that it was only in the last six weeks that medical incidents linked to the pills have risen dramatically. Hart said about a dozen people had been taken to the nursing station with symptoms of opioid overdose in a 36-hour period Several were medevaced to Winnipeg for treatment. Shamattawa First Nation Chief Eric Redhead told CBC that his community saw an alarming rise in opioid overdoses at its nursing station – four in about four days. Hart says that although many of his First Nation’s
members are urging him to crack down on illegal drugs, many people do not want to say where they got their drugs from and even when one dealer is busted, another takes their place. Redhead said better checks of people boarding planes to the communities, which are only accessible by air except during winter road season, would help keep dangerous drugs out of the reach of residents. More access to naloxone, which can reverse an opioid overdose long enough for the person suffering it to seek further medical care, would help the situations, both chiefs told CBC. Hart also said offering more ways for young people to productively spend their time could also keep them away from illegal drugs.
RCMP photo Illegal drugs known as green beans that are circulating in Oxford House and Shamattawa may contain fentanyl and are believed to be the cause of numerous overdoses, one of them fatal, over the course of three days, RCMP said Sept. 5. The pills may not look exactly as pictured, they warn.
Researchers working on software to help detect potential flooding along Northern Manitoba’s Hudson Bay Railway A trio of University of Winnipeg researchers are using $330,000 in grant money to study flooding along Northern Manitoba’s Hudson Bay Railway. Dr. Christopher Henry, Dr. Christopher Storie and Dr. Joni Storie are working with Grant Barkman of DecisionWorks and two master’s degree students to create software that measures water levels near the railway and could be used as an early warning system. Flooding of the rail line in 2017 cut Churchill’s only land transportation connection to the rest of the province for more than a year while former owner OmniTrax refused to repair the rail bed. After the Arctic Gateway Group took over the rail line with support from the federal government, one employee was killed in a September 2018 derailment near Ponton that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada found was caused by a washout created by a beaver dam near the tracks. “We are developing technologies that they can integrate into their operations to monitor their lines on a
Nickel Belt News photos courtesy of University of Winnipeg From left to right, University of Winnipeg researchers Dr. Christopher Henry, Dr. Joni Storie, and Dr. Christopher Storie. daily basis. This will save them money and improve safety, which is at the end of the day one of the most important things,” said Henry. “We are hoping that once this solution is up and running it can also be used for other northern rail lines across Canada.” The grants supporting the project include a $225,000 Research Manitoba Innovation Proof-of-Concept grant that enables the team to examine high-resolution drone imagery, track geometry and mapping of localized hydrologic impacts on the rail line. The information they learn from this will
be applied to larger-scale satellite data being collected in a concurrent project supported by a $105,000 Mitacs Accelerate grant. “With a drone, you can image an area the size of Polo Park mall at high resolution which provides very fine detail of what’s going on,” said Dr. Cristopher Storie, an associate professor of geography who has hosted numerous summer field schools n Churchill. “The satellites can’t do it at that level, but with a couple of satellite images we see all of Northern Manitoba. If satellite imagery detects something, we can deploy a
high-resolution drone scan to see what’s going on. Or if the drone picks up something we can target a satellite analysis to look at the larger geographic area. The ultimate goal is to provide this kind of information on an ongoing basis that they can use to ensure the rail line never gets knocked out of commission again. We’d like to give them as early a warning as possible so that a crew can get out and open up a section of beaver dam to keep that water moving or check a culvert before it backs up, or look at infrastructure upgrading, such as putting in more culverts and creating different hydrological structures that protect vulnerable parts of the track.” While research monitoring surface water in floodprone southern Manitoba informs the project, permafrost creates a unique challenge when it comes to predicting what could happen. “Northern Manitoba is a permafrost region and we don’t always know where surface water is going to go because it changes year to year,” says Dr. Jori Stone, with other factors play-
ing a role in the flooding risk level including beaver dams, hydro generation and climate change. “If a body of water reaches a certain size it will go into an early warning system. That’s the type of information we
would share with the Arctic Gateway Group to let them know that this is one of those events in proximity of the rail lines that they should be aware of, because it could lead to flooding of the rail line.”
Research to develop an early flood warning system along Northern Manitoba’s Hudson Bay Railway involves the use of drones to map the impact of hydrological events on the rail line.