Nickel Belt News
Volume 58 Number 11
Friday, March 16, 2018
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
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Serving the Hub of the North since 1960
Volume 61 • Issue 4
Thompson COVID-19 vaccination site started booking appointments for eligible recipients Jan. 25 First doses of Moderna vaccine will be provided at on the Book a way to preserve and pass Thompson Regional Community Centre starting Feb. 1
memories of growing up in Churchill
Manitoba Health and Senior Care medical officer of health Dr. Joss Reimer, a member of the province’s COVID-19 vaccine implementation task force. are also eligible to receive and Senior Care medical return to where Pfizer is cur- to split up the location of the them. Our human resource the vaccine, as are those officer of health Dr. Joss rently stating they will be doses rather than have them team has been working with Northern Manitoba who work in a laboratory Reimer, a member of the returning to, the Thompson all in Thompson,” Reimer Thompson, with The Pas, residents who are eligible handling COVID-19 speci- province’s COVID-19 vac- site would be using Pfizer said on Monday. with Flin Flon to ensure that to receive the COVID-19 mens. Anyone born before cine implementation task simply based on the transReimer didn’t have the staff are fully trained like vaccine can now start mak- Dec. 31, 1975 who works force, said Jan. 20. portation and storage re- exact number of vaccina- they are at our supersites. ing appointments to receive in an acute health care fa“For Thompson we have quirements that make it a tions that could be delivered They are actively working their first dose at the Thomp- cility, emergency response decided temporarily to use better hub for the more com- in a day in Thompson but right now on making sure son Regional Community services, specialty patient Moderna instead of Pfizer plex requirements of Pfizer.” said all staff were going that whoever’s providing the Centre (TRCC) vaccination transportation by land or to ensure that we do get On Jan. 25, Reimer said at to be trained to provide vaccines in those locations Nickel Belt News photo by Ian Graham site, which opens Feb. 1. air meets eligibility re- doses to that area particu- least 500 doses of Moderna them and that lack of staff has gone through all the relAddictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles has written a book about her experiences growing up, mostly in Churchill. Eligible recipients in- quirements along with some larly in response to the vaccine were being sent to wouldn’t lead to vaccines evant training to be able to clude anyone who works home addition the not care workers bornhave be- higher we’re see- the beingwhen administered. thatallboth for this clinic BY IAN GRAHAM the harsh weather to write things that you ‘Oh, I’mnumbers just as bad, right?’ wasnorth. not aInvery safe to thing swallow people say doFor in a clinical care unit, a fore the same date. ing in the Northern Regional Thompson site, vaccinations “We will have whatever and then ongoing as supplies EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET 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 long-term care now home or a when Originally, the Thomp- IHealth she said. will also that take was placeexciting in The should staff is just required to provide bears, increase.” Though she’s written I get through.” need Authority,” to capture them for thought find somewhere deMeulles said if it hospital emergency room sonDeMeulles vaccination at the my “Rather than delaying the until Pas and starting Almost 30,000she doses of the doses to anyone who is had a book about her experiensaidsites she wrote grandchildren really the Flin planeFlon landed and easier to live. been viable would or care andtitled the airport were thatwill sitebe with this and is‘Those eligiblepeople based COVID-19 vaccines have cesurgent growing up department, in Churchill, TRCC her book, Whispers in opening because of they lost if next they week. started throwing the booked “To say, have moved back to Churchor who provides direct care to be adminis“After discussions with on the supply we have,” Addictions Foundation of intending the Wind: Stories from the disruption I don’t.” of Pfizer, we’re fuel off and I realized, ‘Holy choose to livethat there. They been ill in aadministered heartbeat. in Manito individuals in group set- North tering -Pfizer temporarily to be cats, the INorthern Regional Reimer said. “The staff at the toba far, the including 26,349I Manitoba northern director Life invaccines Churchillbut, for now She also has a going reputation was probably sitting should just leave,’ is quite “I so miss shoreline, tings as family vio- due to delays in shipments using Moderna there so that Health Authority ... because clinic will not a limitation first doses and 3,402 second Gisele such deMeulles said writa couple of reasons. as a storyteller herself. on a bomb.’” simplistic. It’sbequite disre- miss the rock, I miss the lence shelters or homeless the manufacturer, the the“Idisruption not have using Moderna and to providing those doses. We polar doses.bears Abouteven 1,900 first ing wasn’t something she from “I just sort of thought, had such does a varied his- we’re Another thing that spectful. If we were in the though shelters.thought People she whowould work you Thompson willthis instead an impact the opening of spurred have a little will ensure the clinic doses and 20dangerous second doses always know site what, his- tory and I on would tell people herbit onmore wasflexthe same boat inthat another area they’re very and in providing Moderna site. In they the long term, [it was decided] that uses up we every single dose have been administered to do.COVID-19 testing sites be tory, this stuffthe that’s in my that hard times facing Churchill I think would scream I really miss the Hudson stories and would go, ibility, or“In immunization clinics vaccine, Manitoba Health assuming that the numbers available when they have northern residents. it would be more beneficial 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 BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
felt good at writing,” she 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
if I don’t write it down,” she ‘Yeah it’s true.’ They’d go, way suspended operations 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 Contact she’s an artist,Nelson she’s got so at 204-307-0281 Looking back, some of now,” deMeulles says. many wonderful stories be- those experiences are things Though she’s not there pruderspropertyservices@gmail.com cause she always tells her she might not do again. any longer, her parents and stories at Parks Canada in “I did some pretty bizarre her sister and other family to discuss your property needs! Churchill and I’ve always stuff like fuel hauls into the members still are. hounded her, ‘Please, just high Arctic at -35,” said “My cousin owns the 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!
have the option to do that? 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?’”
back home, standing on the 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.”