Nickel Belt News
Volume 58 Number 11
Friday, March 16, 2018
Thompson, Manitoba
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Volume 60 • Issue 39
Community safety survey reveals worries about crime, intentions to leave Thompson among many respondents BY IAN GRAHAM
province. On the subject of crime, more than half of nearly 1,600 respondents said they or a member of their household had been a victim of a crime within the last two years, while close to half said they worried about being the victim of a property crime like vandalism, theft or a break-in on a daily basis. Abut three-quarters of a similar number of respondents said they worried once a month or more about being a victim of a crime against themselves like assault. Of close to 1,600 people who answered a question about what would happen to community safety in Thompson if nothing is done for the next three or four years, three-quarters said it would get much worse. The survey was completed by more than 2,200 residents overall, about 17 per cent of Thompson’s population, more than for any other survey in the past five years. Most respondents have lived in Thompson for 20 years or more and were between the ages of 25 and 59. Positive features of Thompson identified by survey-takers included the city’s small geographical size, which makes it easy to drive or walk anywhere, as well as the beauty of the natural environment, the small-town feel and the friendly people and helpful neighbours. The top five crime-related issues affecting the city were identified as alcohol
Book a way to preserve and pass on memories of growing up in Churchill
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Many respondents to a survey on community safety and well-being in Thompson say they plan to leave the city within two years, that they worry at least once a month about being victims of crime and that conditions in the city will be much worse within four years if changes aren’t made. Those were among the results of the survey, designed by consultants with the Community Safety Knowledge Alliance (CSKA) in association with community organizations, with responses gathered from July 22 to Aug. 17. Mayor Collen Smook said in a press release that there were few surprises among the survey results. “We all live in the same community, and we all see the challenges we face every day,” said the mayor. “What matters now is how we can work together to address them.” More than 50 per cent of about 1,500 people who answered a survey question about whether they planned to move from where they live now said yes, while out of 900 who indicated when they intended to do so, about three-quarters said within two years or less. Asked where they hoped to move to, more than 50 per cent of over 900 respondents said Winnipeg or elsewhere in southern Manitoba, and close to a quarter said they would like to move to another
Image courtesy of City of Thompson A slide from a presentation on key findings from a community safety survey conducted in Thompson this summer shows that more than 50 per cent of respondents to a question about whether they had been a victim of a crime in the past two years said yes. and drug use, assaults and intimidation, public disorder, gangs and property crime. On questions regarding the friendliness of Thompson, acceptance of ethnic and cultural differences, residents’ sense of belonging, their capability to pull together in the face of challenges and the variety of opportunities for people to come together, the largest portion of respondents chose three on a scale of one to five, placing them right in the middle between strongly disagreeing and strongly agreeing. The Community Wellness and Public Safety Ad-
visory committee co-chairs RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Hastie and Dee Chaboyer said the community has to work together to improve public safety and residents’ perception of it. “Addressing public safety in Thompson goes beyond crime and enforcement,” said Hastie, acting officer-in-charge of the Thompson RCMP detachment. “It will be about looking at individual actions, our environment as a city, as well as improving our sense of community and our sense of responsibility that we have to each other.” Chaboyer, executive director of the Ma-Mow-
We-Tak Friendship Centre, and was paid for by the said the committee, which provincial government, includes representatives which pledged $300,000 from 19 organizations, has towards the development to build on approaches that of a public safety strategy are working and develop for Thompson in May 2019, new ideas to deal with old a few months before the last issues. provincial election. “It’s about working with The committee will host the community as a whole, two public forums to discuss to hear their experiences, and build on the feedback and their ideas,” she said. they received from survey Thompson city council respondents. The first was voted unanimously in fa- Sept. 21, while the second vour of entering into an will be Sept. 26 from 2 p.m. agreement with CSKA to to 4:30 p.m. at the Macontinue with phase two of Mow-We-Tak Friendship developing a community Centre. Attendance is limwellness and public safety ited to 40 members of the strategy at its Sept. 8 meet- public. To attend, residents ing, at a cost of $50,000. must pre-register by calling The first phase cost $35,000 204-677-0950. Nickel Belt News photo by Ian Graham Addictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles has written a book about her experiences growing up, mostly in Churchill.
Grey Wolf Bay fire damages two townhouses, sends three people to hospital
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Though she’s now written a book about her experiences growing up in Churchill, Addictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director BY IAN GRAHAM Gisele deMeulles said writEDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET ingThompson wasn’t something she Fire & Emeralways thoughtresponded she would gency Services to do. a fire at the Grey Wolf Bay “In my youth townhouses aroundI 1never a.m. felt at writing,” she Sept.good 16, limiting damage to said. “But when I moved the townhouse where the fire to Thompson to get unit. into started and an adjacent theThompson school of Professional social work, at that point I had to write Firefighters Association said for university and page realized, on their Facebook that ‘Holy, I’m not at this, every piece of bad the TFES’s right?’ I certainly developed firefighting equipment was a lot of skill in university used to battle the blaze and and camea out of there with prevent serious incident a verybecoming strong skill in my from a catastrowriting and confidence in phe. Vale Manitoba Opermy writing. I write very ations also contributed to the clear and that’s it. It’s there. effort by bringing their fire Some people say it’s kind of blunt or direct. I don’t tend
to write things that you have to figure out. It’s pretty clear when I get through.” DeMeulles said she wrote her book, titled Whispers in the Wind: Stories from the North - Life Churchill for truck into theincity as backup a couple of reasons. in case another fire broke out “I just sort of thought, while TFES personnel were you know what, this hisoccupied. tory, this stuff RCMP that’s insaid my Thompson head, it’s going to be gone three people were taken to if I don’t write it down,” she Thompson General Hospisaid. “My kids are not gotal with injuries including ing to get it if I don’t do it smoke inhalation and burns. and it’s something I’vewho alJennifer Bottema, ways wantedand my captured mom to lives nearby do. My mom’s an elder photos and videos of and the she’s an artist, she’s got so firefighters in action, said many wonderful stories beher husband helped a resicause she always her dent stuck on thetells second stories at Parks Canada in floor of one of the burning Churchill and I’ve through always townhouses escape hounded ‘Please, on justa a window her, by standing put it on tape, I will write it bench so she could crawl for you onto thebecause screen your doorstory and is going to be lost,’ and she’s never done it and I thought,
‘Oh, I’m just as bad, right?’ I have all these stories and I need to capture them for my grandchildren really because they will be lost if I don’t.” Sheonto alsohis has a reputation then shoulders and as a storyteller herself. slide down to safety. “I hadwas suchyelling a varied‘fire’ his“She tory and I would tell people and ‘help’ and that’s when stories and they go, we jumped out ofwould bed and ‘That’s not true, is it?’ I’d go, ran outside,” Bottema told ‘Yeah it’s true.’Citizen. They’d“We go, the Thompson ‘You all that, did were didn’t runningdoaround trying you? You’ve got to be really to find something she could old.’ I was like,on ‘No, jump down oractually climb Ion. didWe alldidn’t that before was really Iknow 27,’ and they went ‘What?’” what to do in that moment back, of of Looking stress. You just some do what those experiences you have to do.” are things she mightthe notTFES do again. Police, and the “I did some pretty bizarre Office of the Fire Commisstuff hauls into the sionerlike arefuel investigating the high Arctic at said -35,” said fire, but RCMP that, at deMeulles. didn’t dawn this time, it is“Itnot considered on me until after. That was a suspicious. very dangerous thing to do. Being on a plane full of fuel
For all the harsh weather was not a very safe thing swallow when people say to do but I jumped at it. I that Churchill residents and the dangers of polar thought that was exciting should just find somewhere bears, deMeulles said if it until the plane landed and easier to live. had been viable she would they started throwing the “To say, ‘Those people have moved back to Churchfuel off and I realized, ‘Holy choose to live there. They ill in a heartbeat. cats, I was probably sitting should just leave,’ is quite “I miss the shoreline, I on a bomb.’” simplistic. It’s quite disre- miss the rock, I miss the Another thing that spectful. If we were in the polar bears even though spurred her on was the same boat in another area they’re very dangerous and hard times facing Churchill I think we would scream I really miss the Hudson since the Hudson Bay Rail- about that so why don’t they Bay,” she says. “When I go way suspended operations have the option to do that? back home, standing on the north of Gillam last spring. I think right now they’re Hudson Bay looking out on “It used to be a really feeling like they’re pawns the bay, it just gives you an thriving large community in a political game and that’s incredible sense. You feel so and it’s just dwindled down really sad for them because I small and you feel great.” to such a small population think the people of ChurchNow that she’s got now,” deMeulles says. ill really want to thrive. one book under her belt, Though she’s not there They’ve built their worlds deMeulles says she may try any longer, her parents and there. How would we feel to produce another. her sister and other family if someone came to you and “I have another book in said, ‘I’m sorry, you have to me,” she says. “It’s a darker members still are. “My cousin owns the leave your home community more about personThompson Citizen photo story, courtesy of Jennifer Bottema hardware store there,” she and we’re going to displace al growth and struggles. A bystander captured this photo of Thompson Fire & Emergency Services battling a fire says. youinsomewhere else andhours all of Maybe the next five years at the Grey Wolf Bay townhouses the early morning Sept.in16. Because of that, your loved ones and your it’s something I’ll focus on deMeulles finds it hard to history is gone?’” doing.”