Nickel Belt News Volume 61 • Issue 45
Friday, November 26, 2021
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Construction of work camps, soil stabilization among repair work already completed on Hudson Bay Railway
Establishment of two work camps north of Gillam and the installation of reinforced rail bed at a pair of sidings are among the tasks the owner of the Hudson Bay Railway (HBR) has already completed while grain shipments to the Port of Churchill are suspended this year and next. The temporary halt to grain shipments, previously reported by Glacier FarmMedia, will not affect other freight trains or passenger trains travelling along the railway between The Pas and Churchill. “Our aim is to fix the tracks permanently and pausing grain shipments until that’s done will ensure that we have a permanent long-term solution that will make HBR safe, sustainable and profitable,” said Arctic Gateway Group CEO Sheldon Affleck in a Nov. 16 press release.
Nickel Belt News file photo The owner of the Hudson Bay Railway and the Port of Churchill says substantial work towards rail line repairs has already been completed and that work will resume in June once the rail bed is fully thawed. So far, Arctic Gateway itself owned by a group ities, mostly in Northern Group, which owns the of 29 Indigenous and 12 Manitoba and Nunavut, has railway and port and is non-Indigenous commun- established an 18-person
work camp at the Limestone Pit north of Gillam and a 24-person work camp on a one-acre geocell-reinforced site at the Herchmer siding, halfway between Gillam and Churchill. 1.6 kilometres of geocell-reinforced rail bed has also been installed at the Thibadeau and O’Day sidings, south and north of Herchmer, respectively. Geocell is a cellular confinement system used in construction for stabilizing soil and preventing erosion. Arctic Gateway is planning to use ground-penetrating radar in December to assess the condition of the rail bed between Gillam and Churchill to figure out the most cost-effective way to rebuild each kilometre of track. The company has also purchased 12 new locomotives, which are receiving technological upgrades and paint jobs, as well as
a state-of-the-art geometry test vehicle for biweekly testing of the railway. “I am proud of what our partners, employees and contractors have accomplished in the short timeframe from mid-August until freeze-up,” Affleck said. “Work will resume in early June 2022 when the rail bed is fully thawed again. We are determined to build a trade corridor to the north that will connect with the world and ensure jobs and a strong economy for Indigenous and other northern communities.” Arctic Gateway Group received $40 million in federal funding in August for rail line repairs, which began when HBR and the port were purchased from former owner OmniTrax in 2018, but the company says more investment will be required in order to complete repairs.
Violence against women a ‘shadow pandemic,’ MKO conference told BY DAVE BAXTER
LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER, WINNIPEG SUN
While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused suffering and hardships for many Canadians, a local Indigenous leader and advocate says the pandemic has also led to an alarming increase in cases of violence against Indigenous women and girls across the country and in communities here in Manitoba. Indigenous leaders in Manitoba gathered in Winnipeg last week for the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Chiefs Assembly, with this year’s theme for the assembly being “Leading the Way on Transformative Change.” During the first day of meetings Nov. 16, MKO Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Liaison director Hilda Anderson-Pyrz spoke about the rise of violence against women that has been seen here in Manitoba and around the world since the pandemic first began. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization has also highlighted that there is a shadow pandemic and that is a pandemic of violence
against women and girls,” Anderson-Pyrz said. The MMIWG Liaison Unit offers a wide range of programs and services to support people impacted by gender-based violence and to work to prevent further violence, and Anderson-Pyrz said their team includes 13 employees and a “provincial mandate” with offices in both Winnipeg and Thompson. According to Anderson-Pyrz, that recent rise in violence against women and girls has been noticed here in Manitoba, and rates of violence have spiked in Indigenous communities in this province, leading to an increase in people seeking assistance and services from MKO’s MMIWG Liaison. “We talked to our funder recently and they asked us what percentage of increases in services we have seen and sadly we have seen a 420 per cent increase in our services administered throughout the pandemic,” Anderson-Pyrz said. Anderson-Pyrz is now calling on all levels of government and all portions of society to work together to combat violence against Indigenous women and girls, as she said solutions
must be found through collaboration. “That shows that as politicians and political leaders that we all have a responsibility to act,” she said. “We have to be solutions-focused when we look at strategies and how we address different impacts that we experience within our nations.” And according to Anderson-Pyrz, the issues that have plagued Indigenous people and communities for years and have led to gender-based violence and violence against Indigenous women and girls stem from a system that she said for years has allowed for “systemic racism” towards Indigenous people in this country. “Racism is killing our women and girls,” Anderson-Pyrz said. “In so many aspects of our realities as Indigenous people, racism is a major contributor in all that we experience and the steps to address and redress this genocide must be no less monumental than the combination of systems and actions that have worked to maintain colonial violence for generations.” “We all have a collective responsibility.” A study released in the
fall of 2020 showed that the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns in Canada in the spring of 2020 led to a sharp increase in calls to police for domestic violence across the country, and among all communities and demographics. Data released in September of 2020, which was gathered from 17 of Canada’s largest police forces, showed that in the spring of 2020 police responded to more than 38,000 calls for domestic disturbances and violence between March and June of 2020, an increase of more than 4,000 such calls from the same period in 2019. Support numbers November is Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Canada, and anyone dealing with domestic abuse or who knows someone dealing with abuse in Manitoba has a number of options to seek help including: - Toll-Free Province-Wide Domestic Abuse Crisis Line (24 hours) – 1-877-977-0007 - Victim Services – 204-945-6851 - Klinic Crisis Line – 204-786-8686 - Klinic Sexual Assault Line – 204-786-8631
Nickel Belt News photo by Dave Baxter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Sun Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Liaison director Hilda Anderson-Pyrz spoke at the MKO chiefs assembly in Winnipeg Nov 16 about the rise of violence against Indigenous women and girls that has been seen here in Manitoba and around the world since the global COVID-19 pandemic first began. - Mobile Crisis Services – 204-940-1781 (General) or 204-949-4777 (Youth) — Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative
reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the government of Canada.