The Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) is receiving national support for its work using cultural burning for wildfire mitigation and habitat restoration.
The We Are Fire project was developed from the broader muskrats to moose initiative. An exhibit at Prince Albert’s On The Avenue Artisans Gallery in August showcased field camps at the Saskatchewan River Delta to teach others about Indigenous-led fire practices.
“Our Indigenous people, that’s a practice they want to continue to do,” said Cliff Buettner, PAGC director of forestry and emergency protective services.
“Regulations and policy I think have restricted it somewhat, so there’s been kind of a lull in the action over a period of time. We’re trying to revitalize the idea of using fire as a habitat restoration tool.”
For example, Buettner explained, burning invasive Phragmites allows other plants to grow that muskrats will eat, such as calamus root and cattails.
For mitigation of wildfires, Buettner said crews will thin trees surrounding Indigenous communities that would fuel a wildfire.
Buettner has been advocating for burning in the Saskatchewan River Delta since 2005 on a moose management committee. According to the We Are Fire website, the practice enhances habitats of cultural keystone species like moose, fish and birds.
The delta provides a critical habitat for about 500,000 birds to breed and raise their young – a large number for the area of land.
“If I look at Solomon Carriere, a guy that lives there and grew up there, he said ‘I was never taught to fight fire, I was taught to light fire.’ His knowledge of the land and knowing when to burn is important,” said Buettner.
Rather than starting prescribed fires through the province’s permitting system, cultural burning listens to the land.
“What this has done has allowed us to use that traditional knowledge to burn past that date, where it’s not a calendar date, it’s the conditions on the land, what they see.”
The opening of the exhibit in mid-August saw an announcement from a federal minister.
Jonathan Wilkinson, minister of energy and natural resources, announced nearly $525,000 in funding for a two-year pilot program in partnership with the PAGC.
“The Indigenous Wildfire Stewards Pilot program will increase capacity to prepare for and respond to wildfires through training and traditional ecological knowledge,” said Wilkinson in a news release.
“This means providing people with the skills needed to identify and fight wildfires in their communities.”
Parks Canada, Prince Albert Model Forest and the PAGC have also invested in the project.
“Overall, the pilot project underscores the indispensable role the First Nations play in safeguarding our communities, ancestral lands and Inherent and Treaty rights, particularly in the face of climate change,” added PAGC Grand-Chief Brian Hardlotte.
Buettner said after the We Are Fire website launched, members presented at a Firesmart conference in British Columbia. Most recently, they were accepted to present at a conference in California in December.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan is hoping its regional workshop in Prince Albert brings various industries together to collaborate on solutions to common safety issues.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan is a partnership between the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety. Every year, it hosts a workshop in a smaller community to collaborate with frontline workers, committees, business owners and government.
“We have to have the involvement of the workers on the frontline that do the job. We have to involve them in solutions, we have to involve them in understanding the problems better,” said Jonathan Sherman, WCB’s director of prevention.
“If we do that, as a whole, regardless of what kind of safety issues we’re trying to solve, we’re going to have better success.”
The one-day event, held on Thursday, began with a presentation by vice-president of prevention and employer services Kevin Mooney.
He spoke about WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s new five-year strategy launched in March. The overall goal, he said, is to reduce the approximately 2,400 workers in the province who are seriously injured per year.
It focuses on three industries – health care, transportation and construction – and addresses the root causes of serious injuries.
“We had a number of transit operators approach us talking about the increasing violence that they’re seeing on transit buses,” said Mooney.
“Some of the things that were brought up in that discussion were things like fare collection and de-escalation techniques.”
Mooney also spoke from his personal experience working at a retail liquor store. When someone would attempt to steal, workers’ first reactions would be to block the door, putting them in danger.
In reality, Mooney said, many of these criminals were known to police and could be caught after the fact.
Mooney added that WorkSafe Saskatchewan is collaborating with experts in Australia on safety solutions in the health care industry.
In its previous three-year strategy, it did a similar collaboration with an expert in Ohio to address the risk of cancer in firefighters. A firefighter himself, the expert conducted a prevention audit at halls across Saskatchewan.
“(Prevention) was quite low, just because we didn’t have that awareness, then we really bridged the gap there and a lot of our fire departments have taken really good action.”
Alex Paul, deputy chief of the Prince Albert Fire Department, said the audit likely benefited volunteer departments the most.
“It’s good to see that they’ve taken a very serious stance when it comes to firefighter cancers,” he said.
Mooney said firefighters can reduce up to 80 per cent of carcinogens by scrubbing their gear with soap and water prior to getting back in the truck.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan is still exploring how to reduce carcinogens in the wintertime by using a foam rather than water. Paul added that some of the department’s new units have hot water dispensers, so that firefighters can still hose down in freezing temperatures.
“Decontamination has probably become very high on our priority list over the last three to five years. We wear gear that protects us from heat and smoke and flame, but what hadn’t been taken into account prior to that was the toxins that are seeping into your body,” said Paul.
In the construction industry, added Mooney, asbestos is a huge safety risk. Between 2010 and 2021, 94 per cent of occupational disease fatalities were asbestos-related, according to WorkSafe Saskatchewan.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan hosts a similar event each year, alternating between Regina and Saskatoon. This year is the first since 2019 that the regional workshop has gone ahead.
Sherman said around 130 people registered, which is about capacity.
Prince Albert to receive funding for emergency shelter beds, but would benefit from investments in larger cities
The Saskatchewan government has announced a major investment into a new homelessness and addictions strategy – but local critics say the announcement largely leaves out Prince Albert, which statistics show is one of the areas hit the most by these issues.
On Friday, the province said it’s investing over $40 million over the next two years into emergency shelter and supportive housing spaces.
Prince Albert will share up to 120 new permanent shelter spaces with Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw “and other communities based on need.” This will cost $14.1 million.
The government is also putting over $7 million into 155 new supportive housing units in Saskatoon and Regina. Additionally, $19 million will go towards “complex needs” shelters in Regina and Saskatoon, a medically supervised space where intoxicated people can go for up to 24 hours.
A news release said these shelters are geared towards people who are “exhibiting behaviours that present a danger to themselves and the public.”
This investment is something Brian Howell, manager of the River Bank Development Corporation, says Prince Albert would benefit from.
“It’s getting tougher out there. There’s a lot of people with crystal meth (addictions) and meth psychosis and they’re very hard to manage,” said Howell.
“The hospital won’t touch them; the shelters can’t take them if they’re behaving badly, so there’s a need for a level of facility that has the capacity to manage their behaviour.”
Howell praised the announcement of a central intake system for mental health and addictions, which allows patients to refer themselves for treatment.
“We certainly do welcome a recognition of our needs this winter and an increase in addictions treatment will be very helpful. But in terms of the focus on the two major cities, I would say that Prince Albert’s problems are just as acute and need the same attention.”
Brian Howell, manager at River Bank Development Corporation. — Herald file photo
The River Bank Development Corporation was involved in a Point in Time (PiT) count in March 2022. It showed 150 people in Prince Albert reported being homeless.
A Saskatoon PiT count around the same time, in April last year, showed 550 people reported being homeless.
Prince Albert has a population of about 36,000, while Saskatoon is over seven times the size at about 273,000.
Another report published last year suggests that the Prince Albert region has nearly double the per capital spending on alcohol than the provincial and national rates.
The city’s HIV rate in 2019 sat at 56.4 people per 100,000, 3.4 times higher than the provincial rate and 8.2 times higher than the national rate – injection drug use caused 67 per cent of newly diagnosed HIV infections, according to the report.
Howell said the River Bank Development Corporation and the YWCA had applied for funding for the Stepping Stones shelter, which has a 40-bed capacity.
“If this means that Stepping Stones is approved, we’re very happy to hear that,” he said.
The new Provincial Approach to Homelessness (PATH) is a collaboration between the ministries of social services, health, and corrections, policing and public safety.
Gene Makowsky, the social services minister, said the province is in “decent shape” when it comes to making emergency shelter beds available for the quickly approaching winter.
“We have more to do, I understand that and this work is already underway. It is taking place as quickly as we can and within the next couple months we hope to have even more capacity within the province,” he said.
The five-year mental health and addictions plan includes at least 500 new addictions treatment spaces, doubling the current capacity across Saskatchewan.
The plan has three focuses: building capacity for treatment, improving the system itself, and transitioning to a recovery-oriented system of care.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Tim McLeod said the latter is needed for people to overcome addictions, whereas the traditional 28-day treatment model isn’t enough for drugs like methamphetamine and opioids.
Carla Beck, leader of the opposition NDP, has been in Prince Albert for the last two days. She said she’s had meetings with school boards, community groups and businesses to hear where both their challenges and hopes lie.
NDP leader Carla Beck addresses the media during a stop in Prince Albert on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. — Jason Kerr/Daily Herald
Beck said Prince Albert being largely left off out of the funding announcement shows that the province isn’t addressing the need across the north.
“Looking at the situation in Prince Albert, I think there is reason to be concerned. As I’ve said, there’s visible concerns,” she said.
“I don’t think it can wait. If you drive down coming into Prince Albert, it is very jarring. It’s so concerning to see people so desperately, obviously in need of support.”
Beck said although the funding is “on the surface, good news,” she said there’s still a lot of unanswered questions about staffing and consultation.
“It is a small amount given the extent to which the Sask. Party has allowed this crisis to grow in our province.”
She added that an NDP government would scrap the Sask. Party’s “redundant” Marshals Service and, instead, invest that money into local police forces and addictions treatment.
The province says the Marshals Service would deter criminal activity in remote areas and increase enforcement for farming and agricultural offences, such as trespassing and theft. It would cost $20 million per year.
Beck said the NDP would “get more boots on the ground” by reallocating $10 million to local police services and the RCMP and the other $10 million to fighting substance use.
– with files from Thia James, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Editor’s note: This story contains details of death that readers may find disturbing.
Justin Mirasty’s family wants others to know who he really was.
The 31-year-old was struck on Highway 2, north of Prince Albert near the Wahpeton turnoff, just over two years ago on Sept. 28, 2021. An orange SUV was reported to have fled the scene.
“You know when people hit a deer on the side of the road, they just leave it and then they drive? Justin being hit, I felt like they just left (him) and it was just no remorse or no feeling associated with hitting someone who meant so much to our family,” said Wendy Mirasty, Justin’s cousin.
“The walk, it will just help us knowing we’re doing what we can for him and it will help with our healing.”
The walk is scheduled to begin at the location where Justin died on Saturday at 11 a.m. Wendy anticipates they’ll arrive at Prince Albert Provincial Court around 4 p.m.
Wendy described her cousin as having an unmatched sense of humour.
“He was a very easy going guy. He was really funny. You could just have a conversation with him and whatever the conversation was, you’d just be laughing,” she said.
“I never heard anything bad about him at all, he was always just a really nice, good-hearted person.”
Justin was also a talented musician, she said, who was able to listen to a song and play it on the guitar by ear.
Justin Mirasty. – Wendy Mirasty/Submitted
Both Wendy and Justin lived in Little Red River Reserve. She said Justin had been walking home from Prince Albert when he died.
“It really hit our family hard, it really did, and we didn’t have any idea that it was Justin until the day after because there was so much trauma. When they gave us the body back and we were planning the funeral, it was a closed casket and they did a viewing, but it was only his hand that we were able to see.”
Wendy said the family feels a lack of closure, not knowing who hit Justin or why they allegedly fled.
For her, the incident has created lasting impacts.
“I have children, and my worst fear from that event is that they would get ran over. I fear my children walking on the road or even being outside,” she said.
“I’m not able to sleep properly.”
Wendy said her family is unsure what the future holds – whether to anticipate the police laying charges or, if they did, how she would react.
Hosting an awareness walk, however, celebrates Justin’s meaning in their lives. She hopes it also spreads the message to other families in similar situations that they’re not alone.
“He wasn’t just somebody. He was loved and he meant a lot,” said Wendy.
The walk is open to the public.
Justin Mirasty’s funeral pamphlet shows his love for music, particularly playing guitar. – Wendy Mirasty/Submitted
Carlton Comprehensive Public High School held its fifth annual Indigenous Day on Wednesday. According to organizer Bonnie Vandale, the event is intended to create community and bonding among both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and staff. The following photos show the Indigenous Day opening ceremonies, which included a grand entry, speeches from dignitaries, and a presentation on the late Victor Thunderchild, who was on the committee during the event’s first years.
Youth in jingle dresses walk in Carlton High School’s Indigenous Day grand entry on Oct. 4, 2023. – Jayda Taylor/Daily HeraldTwo drum groups participated in the fifth annual Indigenous Day event at Carlton High School on Oct. 4, 2023. – Jayda Taylor/Daily HeraldThe grand entry for Carlton High School’s Indigenous Day included PAGC Vice-Chief Joseph Tsannie, Mayor Greg Dionne, interim police Chief Patrick Nogier, Metis Nation – Saskatchewan Vice President Michelle LeClair and several Prince Albert Raiders. – Jayda Taylor/Daily HeraldElder Liz Settee, who led the opening prayer, hugs another dignitary at Carlton High School’s Indigenous Day on Oct. 4, 2023. – Jayda Taylor/Daily HeraldStudents and dignitaries clap for a jigging demonstration at Carlton High School’s Indigenous Day on Oct. 4, 2023. – Jayda Taylor/Daily Herald
The Prince Albert Food Bank is seeking donations as part of its Thanksgiving drive on Thursday.
According to executive director Kim Scruby, the non-profit is looking for donations of basic, non-perishable items such as dried pasta, rice and canned goods. The food drive will take place at Walmart from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Scruby said the food bank has seen a “big time increase” in the need for hampers over the last six years or so. At that time, they were distributing around 750 hampers a month. Last month, he said, they gave out 1,290.
Each hamper includes a three-day supply of food, depending on inventory.
“Inflation kind of kicked in, that type of thing, mortgage rates going up. It makes a big difference for some folks. Say two years ago, people were getting by paycheque to paycheque and everything was fine.”
Now, for many, paycheques aren’t meeting the demands of inflation – an issue that can be particularly stressful around holidays like Thanksgiving.
“It does get busier (around) Thanksgiving, you know, there are other things to spend money on,” said Scruby.
“Demand increases, so we just try and get as many of the basics that we can to give out.”
Scruby said food drives help to stock up on non-perishables, but also to spread awareness on food insecurity.
The importance became transparent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the food bank couldn’t hold any public events.
“We’re hoping that’s all kind of passed us now and we see a pretty good turnout,” said Scruby. “Every bit helps.”
The food bank is also accepting cash donations at the food drive.
Linda Buffalo’s motion sickness began when she was just seven years old, loaded into the back of a truck from her home First Nation and taken to residential school. The next eight years would be forever etched into her memory, the trauma showing through to this day.
“That’s when I started my motion sickness, is when I was getting sick in the vehicle in the back and I got heck for that. It wasn’t my fault I was sick,” Buffalo recalled, now 71 years old.
“I got scolded and the other kids were upset because of that.”
The federal government first recognized the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021. Each year, it’s observed on Sept. 30 – known for the last 10 years as Orange Shirt Day – to recognize the harmful history of residential schools and to listen to survivors.
According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), residential schools were a “systematic, government-sponsored attempt to destroy Aboriginal cultures and languages and to assimilate Aboriginal peoples so they no longer existed as distinct peoples.”
The first school opened in Ontario in 1831. In 1996, 165 years later, the last residential school closed in Punnichy, Sask.
Buffalo was one of over 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Métis children who were stripped from their families and culture – while she would make her way home, many did not.
“I just feel so cheated on life,” said Buffalo, describing how she’s felt inferior ever since.
“I can’t even enjoy swimming, I’m scared to drown. I can’t go and enjoy a picnic because of people having picnics around me, wondering what they think of us…I have to live with my door locked all the time,” she said.
“Eventually, through the years as I was going in life, I felt intimidated even by a little tiny baby.”
Buffalo continues to live in Wahpeton Dakota Nation north of Prince Albert, where she lived with her family until she attended the St. Michael’s Residential School in Duck Lake. She lived there for 10 months out of the year, with no contact with her family, sometimes returning for holidays like Christmas or Easter.
Her siblings also attended, including her little sister.
“I had seen my sister sitting at a pole, they call it a pillar, that’s that pole that keeps up the building. She sat there, I went upstairs, did a bit of homework and I went down to check and she was still sitting there. I said ‘go play,’” said Buffalo.
“This nun, she poked me in the back real hard, did she ever hurt me. I straightened out my back and I looked and she said ‘Mind your own business, you have no business here, your sister’s in trouble again – longer.’”
Students were scolded for “normal things,” she explained, such as lying, arguing or wetting the bed.
“Naturally, they were scared to get up and go use the bathroom,” she said.
“If they peed their bed, they’d get a spanking on the butt with a wooden brush and they wouldn’t use the smooth part, they would use that bristle part and whacked them.”
Tom Roberts, another survivor who lives in La Ronge, also remembers the punishment from peeing the bed.
“You can’t go to the washroom after seven or eight o’clock in the evening or you’d get a licken, but if you peed your bed, you got another licken anyway. We used to take turns being night watchmen, watching for the supervisor to come out and some kids would sprawl to the washroom,” he said.
Roberts attended the residential school in Prince Albert from age nine. According to the TRC, this school grew to be the second largest in the country.
He was flown from Stanley Mission to La Ronge in 1958, then bussed to Prince Albert.
“The first few weeks, couple weeks for sure, it was hard. No mom and dad. A lot of crying, a lot of loneliness and frustration, not knowing where you are, which way is home,” he described.
“Being there all those years, we did get an education, but not at the cost of losing your language, your culture, your heritage and your identity. It took that away from us when we were there and that’s the part that hurts the most – our parents’ way of life didn’t matter at all.”
An aerial view looking southeast over the Prince Albert Indian Residential School on Mar. 30, 1965. — Prince Albert Historical Society
Roberts said he spoke Cree at home and barely any English. Since speaking his own language was forbidden at residential school, he had to learn English “hard and fast,” sneaking other students away to help him translate.
“A friend of mine used to tell me ‘Tom, it took me about three to five years to learn the English language, and now I’m spending the rest of my life learning my Cree language,’” said Roberts.
“Now, kids are taught Cree in school. They encourage us to do that and I always come up with this: Now, you’re telling us to talk Cree after beating it out of us for over 100 years. Then, they say ‘learn your culture,’ they beat that out of us for over 100 years.”
That abuse became normal, and the kids didn’t know any different.
As students returned home and grew into adults, eventually building their own families, Roberts said many raised their children the only way they knew.
“In my generation, we failed as parents because we were never taught how to raise children, we were never taught how to respect women. We weren’t even allowed to talk to the girls at the residential school. All that stuff has boiled down to a lot of our people are angry,” he said.
“All those combined to what’s happening now with our people, our parents, our communities. It’s starting to really show.”
Now into the third generation, Roberts said survivors are teaching children about what happened to them, and working to sustain their cultures through youth. This includes respecting elders.
“We have to keep the momentum going and not stop or it might fizzle out. We have to keep talking about it.”
For Buffalo, the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential school sites across Canada was an “eye-opener,” especially for non-Indigenous people.
In May 2021, ground-penetrating radar revealed over 200 potential graves at a former residential school site in Kamloops, BC. Ever since, Buffalo has been hosting an awareness walk from Wahpeton to Duck Lake yearly.
Radar is continuing to reveal more and more potential spots of buried children today.
“Right now, there’s lots of schools, lots of people that are lost in those graves,” she said.
Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne meets with Linda Buffalo on her residential school awareness walk in July 2023. — Jodi Waditaka/Submitted
Roberts said the federal government giving employees paid time off for Truth and Reconciliation Day is a positive step. Still, it’s not recognized by the provincial government.
He added that more programming is needed to help survivors heal. While this will take time, and the memories will never leave them, Roberts said it’s important to move forward.
“You can be a professor, have a master’s degree, but if you haven’t lived life in residential school, you have no right to talk about residential schools. The people that have lived it, they are the professionals,” he said.
Roberts continues to speak about his residential school experience at schools and conferences, in hopes that children will have a different upbringing than he did.
“We had no love at the residential school, nobody…to say I love you or goodnight, or to hug you when you’re crying. It was ‘Get the hell to bed,’” he remembered.
“The most beautiful words I hear when I go see the grandchildren are ‘I love you, grandpa.’”
The Saskatchewan government wants to implement a policy that would include parents when their children wish to change how they identify in school, even saying it will use the notwithstanding clause to put the policy into action. This has sparked controversy across the province, including the national 1 Million March 4 Children. Local residents argued that exposing kids to LGBTQ+ topics and sexual education creates confusion and leads to child grooming.
Prince Albert Pride’s Chelsea Bleau sat down with the Daily Herald to discuss their personal story and stance on the argument.
Please note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Tell us about how you identify and when you knew you didn’t fit into that societal norm when it comes to gender.
A: I knew very early on that I was different. Right now, I identify as bisexual and I identify as gender queer. Gender queer is like an umbrella term that is basically just I don’t conform to hardline society gender norms. I also really relate with non-binary and I also really relate with gender fluid. Non-binary is also kind of an umbrella term. It’s basically just saying I’m not a computer, I’m not ones and zeros, I’m so much more than that. I kind of see it more as a philosophy as well as an identity. Gender fluid, for me, is the way I express my gender changes from day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month. I wear a lot of guys clothes, I wear a lot of girls clothes. I have really short hair. I shaved my head again this year for the third time in my life and I wear wigs sometimes. Some days I just feel completely different in how I want to express my gender and how I want to perform my gender in front of certain people.
When I first came out as bisexual, I was 12 years old and I came out to my entire class because I was a really awkward, oversharing kid. Then I came out to my parent as well and all of my friends and I was just very, very sure of myself. The gender identity thing I feel is a bit different. I feel like it has changed over time and I’m not so sure that it might change in the future.
Q: How did others respond to you coming out?
A: In school, it was pretty bad. I was called slurs a lot and I also had other friends who also identified as bisexual and gay, and so we were kind of a part of this group of people who were relentlessly bullied. I had a couple friends who actually moved away from the town and even left the entire province because the bullying was so bad. The one particular experience that I had starting in Grade 3 was a lot of my classmates made up this game called the Chelsea game during recess, where it was like tag but I was always ‘it.’ There was no such thing as cooties at our school, it was Chelsea germs.
Q: How did you feel when the province announced it wanted to implement a policy requiring parental consent for youth under 16 years old to use a different name or pronoun at school?
A: It was extremely triggering, especially because I didn’t personally experience the horribleness from my parent growing up when I came out. My parent wasn’t totally in agreeance with it, but she wasn’t hateful towards it. I did have friends with parents where if that did happen to them, if they were outed to their parents with pronouns or their gender identity or their sexual orientation, they would be at very high risk of physical violence and emotional abuse.
Q: A judge has now granted an injunction, which halts the policy until it’s argued in court. What do you hope comes of this?
A: I feel like my biggest hope is that the federal government denounces it. I’m very unhopeful about it. It’s very scary and I feel very pessimistic about it, but I’m trying my best to not be. I’m trying my best to be hopeful and still stand strong. I think (the injunction) was a great thing not even just for the safety, because safety of kids is what’s most important right now. Logically, the policy just doesn’t make sense. It’s the logical and justified decision to put in an injunction and really put in thought and research to see if this is appropriate.
Q: UR Pride is arguing that the policy could out youth and that it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the government says that parents should be involved in these decisions, such as pronoun changes – where do you stand on the government’s side of the argument?
A: I think about that a lot. I can see the side of a parent who is scared and may have a lot of misinformation about the queer community. When you have that misinformation and horrible stigma towards queer people, although it’s not their intention of hating, they are clearly still hating and they are clearly still putting their child at risk.
Their argument is that the queer community is indoctrinating their kids, when the true indoctrination is not being aware and not being educated on the history of the hatefulness towards the queer community for decades in Canada. The fruit machine, which was in the ‘50s and ‘60s, (is) where somebody would go into this machine and be shown gay porn. If their eyes dilated, then they would be seen as gay or a pervert, whatever, and they would be completely banned from any civil service, they would be banned from being in the RCMP and they would be banned from being in the military.
When they argue that bringing more awareness to queer issues and gender identity is indoctrination, it’s just not, because it’s such a small amount of time where we’ve finally made this progress and finally brought more awareness to these identities and the issues that these marginalized people face. I can still have empathy for parents who are scared, but I cannot have empathy with parents who deliberately put their children, and other children who they don’t even know in the province, at risk.
Q: Had this policy been implemented when you were this age, how would it have impacted you?
A: For me, I was a very outspoken kid who was sure of themselves at a young age and that might be the minority, I guess, of queer people. If I did have the right terminology to be like ‘Oh my god, I am non-binary,’ I would definitely, definitely have been sure of that as soon as I learned more about the term.
It would have caused conflict in school; it would have caused conflict with my teachers; it would have caused conflict at home with my family; it definitely would have caused conflict with my church community. That conflict causes so much stress to a kid and I already had the stress of knowing that I was bisexual, so to kind of add to that with gender identity would have been so detrimental to my mental health, which was already awful at the time.
Q: The topic of education on gender diversity and sexuality has also brought forward the conversation on sex education. You’ve previously said this is creating a stigma for LGBTQ+ people, how is it impacting the public’s views on gender diversity?
A: Gender identity shouldn’t be seen as sexual education. I feel like sexual education is seen by a lot of people as they’re teaching kids how to do sexual acts. Teachers do use sex ed as an all encompassing term to teach about this sort of stuff. I said in our last interview that teaching consent is really important and teaching about different family structures is important – some people have single parents; some people are raised by their grandparents; some people are adopted, etc. That can be seen as sex ed, comprehensive sex ed, for kids at a young age even though it doesn’t involve actual sex education, which involves teaching about condoms and stuff like that.
Maybe, in a way, saying sex ed confuses people to think gender identity is sexual, when it’s not. It’s so much more philosophical than that and it can even be seen as spiritual for some people. These identities are not sexual identities, they’re identities for a whole person and so many different aspects of that person and not just sex. Those stigmas are literally the root of all of this discrimination, like seeing these identities as perverse.
Q: What do you think the future holds when it comes to the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people?
A: The potential is kind of limitless because so many people have so many great ideas, and we have so many great leaders in our community who are amazing advocates for creating safe spaces, but it all depends on if we have enough energy to advocate for that. When we get hit with these hateful things, it brings our energy way down.
Especially in rural communities where these people are constantly getting hate, of course they don’t want to counter-protest. It’s exhausting; it’s emotionally taxing; it makes it so difficult to fight against it. Whereas in these bigger city centres, these people are extremely empowered by having the unity that they have. In the prairie provinces, we’re getting so hit, so hard.
I feel like that creates a domino effect for all queer-based organizations and we’ve been feeling that, I think, for the past few years. There’s huge budget cuts for these organizations, people don’t have the energy to volunteer and we’re experiencing lateral violence, for example, in our own communities. It really has to be at least just one person, like UR Pride, giving everyone hope to keep on fighting. It really helps people to see the future of the progress that we could potentially make because if UR Pride is strong enough to fight against this, then all of us are.
Prince Albert Pride chair trying to ‘stand strong’ as controversy progresses
A judge has granted an injunction that halts the provincial government’s pronoun policy until it’s argued in court – a step that Prince Albert Pride says is needed “to really put in thought and research to see if this is appropriate.”
In August, the Ministry of Education announced that it would be requiring parental consent for youth under 16 years old to change their names or pronouns at school.
Lawyers for Regina’s UR Pride Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity sought the injunction, arguing the policy could out or misgender youth and violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The province, however, says parents should be included and informed on these changes, and that the policy had been misrepresented. Delivering his written decision on Thursday, Justice Michael Megaw said it was unclear that UR Pride misconstrued the policy.
“I find this to be one of those clear cases where injunctive relief is necessary to attempt to prevent the irreparable harm referred to pending a full hearing of this matter on its merits,” Megaw wrote.
Chelsea Bleau, chair of Prince Albert Pride, said the injunction protects the safety of kids, which is of the “utmost importance” – but that it’s difficult to remain hopeful that the policy won’t eventually become reality.
“I’m trying my best to be hopeful and still stand strong,” said Bleau. “If UR Pride is strong enough to fight against this, then all of us are.”
“I can see the side of a parent who is scared and may have a lot of misinformation about the queer community,” they said.
“When you have that misinformation and horrible stigma towards queer people, although it’s not their intention of hating, they are clearly still hating and they are clearly still putting their child at risk.”
A recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute suggests that 43 per cent of Canadians say parents should be informed and give consent if their children want to change how they identify. In Saskatchewan, that number was 50 per cent.
Premier Scott Moe said the government is “extremely dismayed by the judicial overreach of the court.”
He announced that the legislative assembly would reconvene on Oct. 10 to ensure the policy is implemented “using the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to pass legislation to protect parental rights.”
“It is in the best interest of children to ensure parents are included in their children’s education, in their classrooms, and in important decisions involving their children,” said Moe.
The notwithstanding clause allows governments to override certain Charter rights for up to five years.
In an emailed statement, the Opposition NDP said it welcomes Megaw’s decision to grant the injunction.
“The government should not come forward with legislation in the fall sitting to put this policy into law, and they certainly shouldn’t do so relying on the notwithstanding clause to push this policy forward,” reads the statement.
“The government should scrap this policy, which will force schools to out vulnerable kids.”
The injunction will remain in place until arguments are heard later this fall on whether or not the policy violates Charter rights.
While Joyce Paradis loves to spend time at home knitting, baking or doing puzzles, getting out is a crucial part of the 82-year-old’s well-being.
She says that wouldn’t happen without the Community Service Centre’s Senior Transportation service.
“I said ‘I’ll represent you, because I believe in you,’” said Paradis. “When I pick something and I believe in it, I’ll fight all the way.”
Paradis is the face of this year’s Two Miles for Mary, a fundraiser to give seniors a safe, efficient and affordable option to get around Prince Albert.
Senior Transportation is a pre-booked service for anyone over the age of 60, and is mobility aid friendly – which Paradis said has been a barrier in the past when it comes to using public transit, a cab, or even acquaintances.
“They’ll say ‘I’d take you, but I don’t want your walker in my car because the walker dirties my car.’ That shows you how people treat seniors like us,” she said.
“Our seniors seem to be neglected.”
Paradis described the Senior Transportation drivers as “angels.” If she’s out getting groceries, for example, they’ll help her put her cart away and load her bags. Once she’s home, they don’t leave without knowing she’s made it safely in the building.
Just this past weekend, Paradis used Senior Transportation to go out for lunch at Bugsy’s, one of her favourite restaurants. Even though she enjoys walking to the library or to restaurants downtown, she still uses Senior Transportation for close trips in the winter because she can’t cross the street with her walker.
“I like to get out. If it wasn’t for them, I’d be lucky if I got out twice a month,” she said.
“They are my lifeline to the outdoors.”
Paradis added that the service is much more cost-effective than taking a cab. She said she purchases a booklet for $50 that gives her 10 rides per month.
‘We can’t leave them behind’
Bill Powalinsky is the CEO of the Community Service Centre. He said if seniors don’t have accessible means of transportation, they miss out on necessities like grocery shopping, medical appointments and prescription pickups, but also the freedom to have social visits, hair appointments or going to church.
“Seniors can be vibrant, contributing members to the economic and social fabric of the community, so we can’t leave them behind. We really need to be supportive of our elder population because they have so much to contribute,” he said.
Powalinsky said the CSC has been hit with inflation costs in recent years and, in particular, Senior Transportation has faced the skyrocketing costs of fuel.
“Last year, we got caught with the fuel prices. Nobody could predict that we were going up to a dollar-eighty something a litre.”
This year’s Two Miles for Mary is “absolutely vital,” he said. In the past, the initiative has remained steady at raising between $30,000 and $34,000, but Powalinsky said they’re aiming for $40,000 this year.
It’s already off to a good start, with the inaugural BBQ at Mr. Mikes last week raising nearly $900.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a large contribution or a small one, every little bit helps,” he said.
The Two Miles for Mary radiothon will take place from 8 a.m. to noon on Friday. You can call 306-763-MARY (6279) to make your pledge, make a donation in person, or e-transfer tmfm@pacsc.com.
The Community Service Centre has also partnered with The S2DIO. You can purchase a clip for $10, with all proceeds going to Two Miles for Mary, and drop in to a spin class on Friday.
