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Prince George Citizen June 25, 2020

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Childhood tragedy inspired Indigenous woman into medicine, page 4 Social distancing options for Canada Day, page 5

Prince George Thursday June 25, 2020

The gardener and the jewelLer Page 14

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Self-imposed isolation part of pandemic reality

Regional Chief calls for policing ‘overhaul’

Ted Clarke Citizen staff

Mike Howell Glacier Media

Leah Coghlan has no worries of a pending zombie apocalypse, but with the pandemic still raging in the world, she’s doing all she can to keep that evil C-virus from spreading.

Coghlan works from home as a selfemployed virtual assistant, as she’s done for years. She gets her groceries delivered and rarely leaves her house. Since the outbreak hit in mid-March, she has avoided direct contact with people and her friends are equally vigilant maintaining their own self-isolation discipline. “This is something my generation or my parents’ generation hasn’t lived through and it spreads and keeps mutating so I just kind of stick to myself,” said the 42-yearold Coghlan. “In the beginning they told us to stay home, to stay away from people, and that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve worked from home by myself since 2017 so it wasn’t much of a big change for me, it was only deciding not to go out. “I really haven’t seen anybody, I’ve had one hug since this happened, because I live by myself. They’ve lifted the restrictions but I haven’t been out to restaurants. It’s the summer and it would be great to go out for a drink to patios, but it’s just not for me at this time. Being able to have people over or going to other people’s places, I just don’t feel comfortable doing that. People are still getting sick.” The provincial curve has flattened with just 65 confirmed cases and no deaths in the Northern Health region, which covers the entire northern half of the province. Coghlan understands why many people don’t recognize the pandemic as much of a threat to their own lives and why they are more relaxed about close interactions with other people. But she says it’s too early to go back to pre-pandemic behavior, especially with another cold and flu season just four or five months away. “Sure, we don’t have a ton of cases up here but it doesn’t mean that I’m not an asymptomatic carrier,” Coghlan said. “A lot of people think I stay home because I’m scared, but I’m just doing my part. I’m not scared of getting it and I’ll deal with that if

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Anger. Frustration. Sadness.

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Leah Coghlan waters her beans in her backyard container. She’s been staying close to home throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic.

it happens. But this is something that’s so different and it’s killed so many people, not necessarily in Canada, but in the States. Florida had its worst day or record (Saturday) with 4,000 (new cases).” She has friends with compromised immune systems and doesn’t want to jeopardize their health and that’s all the motivation she needs to remain cautious about keeping her distance. She’s had a couple friends visit her in her backyard but not in the house. If she does leave home for any reason, she wears a mask and encourages others to do the same, but says it is a personal choice and people should be kind and not give the “stink eye” to others who choose not to wear masks in public. Coghlan says she won’t feel comfortable going out in public places to socialize until there’s a proven readily-available vaccine. This time of year, she looks forward to going to the Show and Shine car show, taking a walk to Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park for Canada Day festivities or showing support to her LBGTQ friends on Pride Day. But not this year, due to COVID-19. “We all have to do our part or it’s going to be another summer when that’s not happening,” she said. “A lot of people say the second wave is coming, well we’re not even out of the first wave yet.” Like many housebound city folks with more time on their hands in these COVID times, Coghlan has taken up gardening and her potted vegetables and herb plants have never had so much love and atten-

tion. She hasn’t been to a hairstylist in months and points to her head and calls it “a science experiment.” “I know that I can go get my haircut, but….” she said. “I’m not going to date for another year, why even try at this point? That’s a story you should do, people trying to date during a pandemic. I wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole. “I was hoping three months of isolation would change perceptions in people, because online dating is so disposable because it’s so readily available, with all these choices. People are always looking for the greener side of the grass. I was hoping if we were locked up long enough people would change that mentality and would really get to know each other before they date six people and lie about it. I’m totally happy not dealing with that right now and just being with myself and talking to my friends.” Leah Coghlan Graphic Design caters to entrepreneurs and her expertise is branding, web design and graphic arts raises their online presence to market their products. The pandemic brought a noticeable drop in her business the past three months. “My clients are all entrepreneurs and some of them have physical locations and some of them are solely online and they’re either adapting or having to close their doors because of this,” she said. “We’re all in one way or another totally affected by what’s happening.”

These are some of the emotions Terry Teegee, the Regional Chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, has felt in recent weeks. News reports present and past of Indigenous people being badly hurt or killed in incidents involving police in Canada have affected him deeply. He lists off some of their names: Chantal Moore, Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adam, Dale Culver and his relative, Everett Riley Patrick, who died in hospital in April after being arrested by Prince George RCMP. “Across this country we’re seeing it more and more with Indigenous peoples being injured or killed while being arrested,” he told Glacier Media. “I’m so frustrated and dumbfounded. When you’re arrested, you shouldn’t end up being dead.” Teegee spoke to Glacier Media in advance of National Indigenous Peoples Day this past Sunday. Teegee, a member of the Takla Lake First Nation, joined Glacier Media via a Zoom call from the Lheidli T’enneh reserve near Prince George, where he lives with his family. The following interview was condensed and edited for length and clarity. Does National Indigenous Peoples Day take on a different resonance with what’s going on in B.C. and across the world, with people taking to the streets to condemn racism and calling for change in institutions, including police departments? It’s a significant day because of what we’re seeing with policing systems in the United States and in Canada, and how the police have racist policies, are enforcing racist policies, and in many respects, are profiling. The vast majority are minorities. What we’re seeing today with the Black Lives Matter and the George Floyd ‘I can’t breathe’ movement…we totally sympathize because it’s cut from the same cloth. The same thing is happening to Indigenous people here in Canada. The RCMP were here to enable law and order, which came from the colonial system. It wasn’t our law, our order. And in many respects, those laws were used to take us from our lands and put us on smaller reserves, and really enforce a colonial system. See POLICE, page A3


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