Shoal Lake assaults result in charges

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Shoal Lake assaults result in charges

Two men are facing charges following series of altercations in Shoal Lake at 8:50 in the evening of New Year’s Day.

Carrot River RCMP said they are investigating serious assaults following reports of a series of altercations between a group of people.

Two men were injured at a residence with one being transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The other injured man had left the residence in a vehicle, which was then located by police after it had left the community.

Officers provided first aid until EMS arrived.

The man was then taken to Saskatoon via STARS with serious injuries.

As a result of investigation, Carrot River RCMP arrested and charged:

Sonny Whitecap, age 25, of Shoal Lake Cree Nation with:

– 1 count, assault causing bodily harm, Section 267(b), Criminal Code

– 1 count, obstruct peace officer, Section 129(a), Criminal Code

– 1 count, assault, Section 266, Criminal Code

– 2 counts, uttering threats, Section 264.1(1)(a), Criminal Code

Denzel Head ,age 24, of Shoal Lake Cree Nation with:

– 1 count aggravated assault, Section 268, Criminal Code

 Both were scheduled to make their first appearance in Melfort Provincial Court via phone on January 4, 2021.

Carrot River RCMP continues to investigate this incident.

Prince Albert Police look for accused assailant

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Prince Albert Police look for accused assailant

UPDATE JAN 10, 2022: PAPS said they arrested Cook on January 9. He has been remanded into custody and appeared in Prince Albert Provincial Court today at 9:30 am.

Police say that two men were involved in an altercation and one man is accused of assaulting the other and stealing his vehicle.

The second man was taken to hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries.

Cook is charged with one count of aggravated assault and one count of robbery with other offensive weapon. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Cook is described as approximately 5’9” and 155 lb. He has black hair and brown eyes.

Prince Albert RCMP are actively working to locate and arrest him. The stolen vehicle has been located.

Anyone with information on Cook’s whereabouts should call the Prince Albert RCMP at 306-765-5500. Information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1‐800‐222‐TIPS (8477) or www.saskcrimestoppers.com.

Man missing from Melfort may have gone to Prince Albert

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Man missing from Melfort may have gone to Prince Albert

A 30-year-old man has been reported missing from Melfort  and could be in Prince Albert.

Quade Ballantyne was reported missing on Jan. 3 at about 10:50 pm

He was last seen on Kennedy Drive that evening and may have been on foot. He was last heard from at about 1:00 am.

His family is concerned as he was not dressed properly for the weather and has not been in contact since.

Quade is 30 years old. He is approximately 5’9” tall with a slim build. He has black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black winter coat with a fur hood, blue jeans and running shoes.

Melfort RCMP are actively trying to locate Quade. If you have information on his whereabouts, please call the Melfort RCMP at 306-752-6420. Information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1‐800‐222‐TIPS (8477) or www.saskcrimestoppers.com.

Fundraising goal of $4 million in sight for hospice

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Fundraising goal of $4 million in sight for hospice

With the purchase of another 200 planks of lumber, the long-running fundraiser for the Rose Garden Hospice construction in Prince Albert will have reached its goal.

Working with Econo Lumber, the fundraising committee announced on Jan. 3 that Econo’s commitment of a $1,000 for the first 100 planks had been exceeded but then came another welcome twist.

“Our story has caught the imagination of many people and families. One of those families are Les and Irene Dube from Saskatoon. They are very well known philanthropists that happened to recently learn of our project and specifically The Help Build the Hospice Campaign,” said Marina Mitchell, a member of the committee.

In addition to the Econo donation, the Dubes will fund a similar idea, also donating for every board purchased but at five times that amount for a maximum of $500,000.

“We are just over the moon thrilled with their incentive that we are going to extend the Campaign to Jan 31,2022 to give more people a chance to purchase a 2 x 6. We have set a goal of 300. Thank you to everyone for your generosity. We are almost there,” said Mitchell.

People who buy a board will have their donation recognized, including a certificate of where in the hospice their board is. Donations are also tax deductible.

 

Jan. 1 a family tradition for Prince Albert’s New Year’s baby

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Jan. 1 a family tradition for Prince Albert’s New Year’s baby

For Olivia Rae Ruth Hanson, Jan 1 was the first day of the year and the month and first day of her life.

But, as a New Year’s baby in her family, she was not the first. Olivia joins an auntie and grandpa with a January 1 birthday.

She was due on Jan. 3 but came a few days early after 36 hours of labour at 1:42 pm at Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert.

“I was hoping she would have her own special day but she was very determined to come out on the first,” said new mom Jessica Johanson.

“At the end of the day, I was kind of cool that its being kept in the family,” she said.

Jessica’s labour last for 36 hours before the birth.

Jessica and Olivia’s father, Troy Hanson are both from Nipawin, along with extended family.

Even though she joined a line of other members of the family celebrating their births on the first day of the year, Olivia is the first girl in her generation and has four older cousins, all boys.

“I’ve been waiting to have a little girl,” said Troy, who added that she is doing “awesome”, despite Olivia having a rough first night at home.

 “It was a surprise but it’s an amazing chapter of life. We’re both pretty excited,” Troy said.

susan.mcneil@paherald.sk.ca

Troy Hanson and Jessica Johanson welcomed baby Olivia on New Year’s Day. Murphy the dog seems unsure about the whole thing. Photo submitted by Troy Hanson.

Shooting suspect arrested in Flin Flon

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Shooting suspect arrested in Flin Flon

An 18-year-old suspect in the shootings of three people in Creighton and Flin Flon has been arrested.

Xander Tardiff was taken into custody by police after being found in the Aspen Grove area of Flin Flon.

Tardiff is charged with second degree murder, discharging a firearm with intent, reckless discharge of a firearm and possessing a firearm while prohibited in connection with the incident in Flin Flon.

He is also charged with discharging a firearm with intent and possessing a firearm while prohibited in connection with the incident in Creighton.

At about 12:10 on New Year’s Day, RCMP officers from Creighton and Flin Flon were called to the outside of a community hall on Main Street in Creighton.

They found a 24-year-old man from Cranberry Portage suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to hospital in Flin Flon in stable condition.

At 1:05 the same morning, officers received a second report of a shooting on Bellevue Avenue in Flin Flon.

There, officers found a 47-year-old man from The Pas who had been shot and a deceased 26-year-old female from Flin Flon.

The Pas resident was taken to local hospital in stable condition.

Officers confirmed that both incidents were targeted and linked to a single suspect.

A large scale search for Tardiff was launched with Manitoba RCP deploying a number of extra units and officers to the area.

This included officers from its Emergency Response Team, Police Dog Services, Major Crime Services, Forensic Identification Services, Air Services and a number of officers from neighbouring detachments.

The Saskatchewan RCMP also deployed additional officers from nearby detachments and its Critical Incident Response Team to the scene.

Officers searched a number of locations in Denare Beach, Creighton and Flin Flon.

They found and arrested Tardiff at 11:30 that evening.

He has been remanded into custody and is scheduled to appear on January 4, 2022, in The Pas provincial court for charges related to the shooting in Flin Flon and in La Ronge provincial court for charges related to the shooting in Creighton.

Deborah Chatsis “honoured and surprised” by Order of Canada medal

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Deborah Chatsis “honoured and surprised” by Order of Canada medal

Given a path that took her from a childhood in the West Flat area of Prince Albert to a career in the Canadian foreign service and degrees in mechanical engineering and law, unique accomplishments are part of Deborah Chatsis’ makeup

But it was still a surprise when she knew she would be honoured with an Order of Canada medal.

“It was quite a surprise, I hadn’t expected it for sure,” said Chatsis from her home back in Prince Albert.

As a civil servant for many years, she knew it was uncommon for federal government employees to be nominated.

“I was deeply honoured that my colleagues thought enough of me and my work to nominate me for the award,” she said. “I was shocked. It took a long time to sink in.” 

Chatsis had a gradual transition from small city to the broader world, leaving to go to Saskatoon first.

Chatsis graduated from Ecole St. Mary in Prince Albert before earning a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Saskatchewan in 1983.  That wasn’t quite to her satisfaction, so she then took her masters in law at the University of Ottawa and found even that wasn’t quite what she wanted.

Progressively, she left Saskatchewan and entered the bigger world. The first city was Beijing, China with a population at the time of over seven million.

“There was just people all over the place. It was a bit of a culture shock to be surrounded by people all the time,” she said. “But I got used to it.”

Coming back does not hold the same level of shock as she is close to family.

“I have some medical issues so I was on a posting in Guatemala and I decided it was better to come back to Canada to get treatment and to be with family,” said Chatsis, who retired in 2019.

Her sister and husband live in the city as do cousins, nieces and nephews.

Chatsis a member of the Ahtahkakoop First Nation and her father is member of the Poundmaker band near North Battleford.

Memories of visiting grandparents and other family are part and parcel of who she is.

“It’s important to know who you are and where you come from,” she explained. “That’s always been at the back of my mind. I am who I am because I grew up here. It made me the person that I am.”

Guatemala in particular has a high indigenous population and her background helped her talk to people there about their issues.

“It helped me bring something to the job that maybe not everybody would have,” she said. “Conversely, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to students in Prince Albert and on Ahtahkakoop about the work I was doing overseas to give them a sense of what’s outside and beyond Prince Albert.”

This is something she enjoys and the students show a strong interest in her experiences.

It wasn’t until she was in university that it even occurred to her to enter the foreign service. It was a friend who was interested that sparked the thought so she took the exam.

Much of the exam was general but also included questions to gauge foreign awareness, from the United Nations, World Bank and IMF.

After entering the foreign service in 1989, she worked in Beijing, Bogotá, Miami, Geneva, New York City, Hanoi, and Guatemala.

She was also Canada’s Ambassador to Vietnam, Ambassador to Guatemala and High Commissioner to Belize.

“You have to have interpersonal skills, communication skills. That’s part of it. In some cases you need language,” Chatsis said.

The ambassador is also a manager, overseeing staff and budgets and development programs run out of the embassy.

“There’s a fair amount of administrative work. You have to be a good manager,” she said. “It’s a great job but there’s not as many cocktail parties as you would think, but it is a fun job.”

Contemplating another career change in 2006, Chatsis attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard as a Fulbright scholar from 2006 to 2007 and also has a master in public administration.

Even retired, the pandemic and with health issues, Chatsis is still learning.

In the last few months, she has taken a writing class, an agility class with her dog and is taking Cree lessons.

Given the pandemic, the normal method of having a ceremony where recipients are presented their medals by the Governor General will not happen.

Chatsis anticipates the government may instead choose to send Mary Simon to each province to present the medals that way.

Province bets on vaccines, rapid tests and apparent mildness of Omicron

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Province bets on vaccines, rapid tests and apparent mildness of Omicron

The province of Saskatchewan is betting that the most recent COVID-19 variant is less deadly despite being massively more contagious as authorities continued to not add any gathering restrictions and announced that the isolation period for infected people would drop to five days from 10 for fully vaccinated people.

Omicron is significantly more contagious than even the Delta variant but, so far anyway, hospitalizations have not increased to the same extent.

“It is more resistant to vaccines at least in terms of how it transmits between people but being vaccinated most certainly does keep you from becoming seriously ill or sick,” said Premier Scott Moe in a media conference on Dec. 30 that was also streamed live on Facebook.

Questioned about why restrictions have not been tightened, Moe said that the provinces that have announced restrictions are still seeing massive growth in diagnosed COVID cases.

“Yes, the number of cases in Saskatchewan is rising and will continue to rise,” he stated, “but hospitalizations and ICU admissions continue to fall.”

As of Dec. 30, there are still no known cases of Omicron-infected hospitalizations in the province.

NDP leader Ryan Meili called on the province to increase public health measures instead, pointing at the consequences of a decision to ease restrictions and the resulting deaths in the Delta wave.

“What is frustrating is that it’s Scott Moe who has refused to learn any lessons, while Saskatchewan people continue to pay the price,” said Meili. “We know that it takes two weeks for new measures to take effect to lower hospitalizations. If we are waiting to see an increase in hospitalizations and ICU admissions before acting, we will be two weeks too late. Again. Why this government won’t take proactive measures is beyond comprehension.”

Meili said that in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta, hospitalizations have increased with the growth of Omicron in those provinces.

Despite the lack of provincial rules on gathering sizes, recommendations are still being made.

Dr. Saqib Shahab, provincial medical officer of health, said groups should be limited and people should refrain from visiting more than one household on New Year’s Eve.

“I would really request that we stick to close family and friends and maybe have up to 10 people over from a limited household,” he said.

Most of the Omicron cases in Saskatchewan and across Canada are in the 20 to 39 years age group, which is why the recommendation to limit New Year’s gathering sizes was made.

Provincial guidance on testing has also changed.

Effective immediately, people who are asymptomatic but receive a positive rapid test will no longer get a recommendation to follow up with a PCR test.

Instead, they should assume they have COVID and isolate for five days if vaccinated or for 48 hours following the end of symptoms. Unvaccinated people should isolate for 10 days or 48 hours after symptoms have ended, whichever is later.

Infected people are also being asked to notify their close contacts, defined as anyone you have been within two metres of for longer than 15 minutes.

Rapid antigen test are available throughout the province. In Prince Albert, the Chamber of Commerce and the Prince Albert Fire Dept are distributing the kits. Lake Country Co-op had some available at their food store and schools will be sending kits home with students starting in January.

“If you are going to be with a group of people, you should test yourself before you do so,” Moe said. “This is very much a large part of our offensive strategy as we look ahead through the next number of weeks and months.”

Today, the province has 12.6 million rapid tests available and four million more are expected in January.

Saskatchewan is in the process of changing how the pandemic severity is assessed.

“We are changing the metric we look at as a key indicator away from the daily case rates to the hospitalizations and our ICU admissions,” Moe said.

The Sask. Health Authority is also expected to start reporting the number of hospitalizations that are due to COVID, along with numbers from patients who are in the hospital for other reasons but also test positive.

A study in South Africa, where omicron was first identified, has shown that 63 per cent of their hospitalizations were incidental omicron cases and not the cause of the hospitalization.

“COVID is going to be around and going to be in our communities for some time, if we want to avoid going back to restrictions and lockdowns and limits on individual freedoms that we all enjoy…there are things that we can do to ensure that can happen. Got get your first dose if you have not and your second dose if you have not,” said Moe.

The definition of fully vaccinated is anyone who is two weeks past their second dose of an mRNA vaccine (Moderna, Pfizer) or the single dose of Janssen vaccine.

Booster shots have been approved for all adults 18 and older.

“Go out and get your booster shot,” said Moe. “A booster shot may not prevent you from getting COVID, but it should prevent you from getting seriously ill.”

Boosters were made widely available to all adults just before Christmas, and Moe said 30 per cent of people who could, have received their booster.

COVID growth remains low in North Central, one new death reported

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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COVID growth remains low in North Central, one new death reported

In the first update since Dec. 23, the province reported six new cases of COVID-19 in the North Central region and one new death.

With the additional death, 89 people have now died in the North Central zone. Seven people remain in hospital with none in the ICU.

Provincially, 80 people are hospitalized with 16 receiving intensive care. Of the 80 patients, 47 were not fully vaccinated.

One other death was reported in the province in the same time span in the South East zone.

With the six new cases, there are now 53 active cases in the North Central zone.

For vaccines, 114 new doses were reported and 60,070 are now fully vaccinated in the zone.

Provincial highlights are as follows:

As of December 28, there are 896 (single day case counts were: 205 on Dec 24, 241 on Dec 25, 151 on Dec 26, 137 on Dec 27, 162 on Dec 28) cumulative new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 83,558 reported cases

The new cases are located in the Far North West (2), Far North Central (0), Far North East (15), North West (44), North Central (37), North East (4), Saskatoon (262), Central West (20), Central East (75), Regina (229), South West (21), South Central (63) and South East (56) zones and sixty eight (68) new cases have pending residence information

-23 SK residents tested positive out-of-province were added to the case counts in the North Central (from December 17 (1)), Saskatoon (from December 21 (2), December 23 (2), December 24 (1), and December 25 (2)), Central East (from December 22 (1)), Regina (from December 20 (2), December 21 (2), December 22 (1), December 23 (1), December 24 (2), and December 25 (1)), South Central (from December 23 (1), and December 25 (1)), and South East (from December 17 (1), December 22 (1), and December 24 (1)) zones

-10 cases were assigned to North Central (from December 26 (1)), North East (from December 25 (1)), Saskatoon (from December 23 (1), and December 24 (1)), Central East (from December 25 (1)), Regina (from December 23 (1), and December 25 (2)), South Central (from December 25 (1), and South East (from December 22 (1)) zones

-One (1) case was removed from case totals from North West zone on August 30, 2021

83,558 cases are confirmed

-20,107 cases are from the North area (8,931 North West, 8,314 North Central, 2,862 North East)

-20,074 cases are from the Saskatoon area

-16,430 cases are from the Regina area

-10,548 cases are from the South area (2,229 South West, 3,095 South Central, 5,224 South East)

– 9,420 cases are from the Far North area (4,425 Far North West, 541 Far North Central, 4,454 Far North East)

– 6,362 cases are from the Central area (1,487 Central West, 4,875 Central East)

-617 cases have pending residence information

-1,438 cases are considered active and 81,183 cases are considered recovered

-Nearly three-fifths (60.1 per cent  of new cases are in the age category of 20 to 39

-Less than one-half (48.7 per cent) of new cases eligible for vaccination (aged 5 years and older) were fully vaccinated

– As of December 28, a total of 80 individuals are hospitalized, including 64 inpatient hospitalizations and 16 ICU hospitalizations. Of the 80 patients, 47 (58.8 per cent) were not fully vaccinated.

-Two new deaths reported today. 947 Saskatchewan residents with COVID-19 have died, with a case fatality rate of 1.1%.

-1,324,030 COVID-19 tests have been performed in the province. As of December 22, 2021, when other provincial and national numbers are available from PHAC, Saskatchewan’s per capita rate was 1,113,380 tests performed per million. The national rate of 1,346,185 tests performed per million. (Please note that the last update on PHAC website was December 22, 2021).

-The 7-day average of new COVID-19 case numbers was 174 (14.4 new cases per 100,000).

Robbery suspect arrested

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
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Robbery suspect arrested

A man wanted in connection with a robbery on the Sturgeon Lake First Nation has been arrested.

Joshua Naytowhow, age 29, was arrested by Prince Albert Police Service in Prince Albert on December 27, 2021

He appeared in Provincial Court on Dec. 28.

Naytowhow is facing charges of robber with a firearm, using an imitation firearm while committing an offence and two counts of failing to comply with a probation order.

The charges stem from an incident on Dec. 14 in which a man approached a vehicle and threatened the occupants with what was described as a gun.

The occupants escaped with no injuries.

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