COVID-19 Daily News Digest – November 7, 2020
Manitoba Hydro rejects claims it was not prepared for outbreak at Keeyask
The Crown corporation said it has had its pandemic response plan in place since the spring, and that it has followed this plan along with implementing additional precautionary measures, including testing all onsite staff at Keeyask and a temporary workforce reduction. Hydro noted staff will be reduced from 760 workers to about 550, who will continue the critical work.
“Throughout the pandemic the plan has been adjusted to reflect new information, pandemic conditions and public health guidance,” Manitoba Hydro said, adding that its Keeyask pandemic response plan has been available to workers, First Nations partners and the public since the start of the pandemic.
Indigenous Veterans Day: Meet 3 First Nations soldiers and veterans from Sask.
For the past 10 years, Pedersen has been offering free health and wellness classes to people in Saskatoon’s inner city and in northern Saskatchewan, in addition to training Indigenous fitness instructors.
Pedersen says learning lessons on leadership and community through the military has helped him to remove barriers to offer inclusive programming for all ages and abilities.
“It’s about that overall umbrella of wellness. Being able to inspire and enable people is a really amazing feeling. It’s humbling to see men and women become successful.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-veterans-day-sask-1.5793275
Dakota Tipi Adjusts COVID Restriction Measures During Alert Level Orange
“Things have been going well here in Dakota Tipi with respect to us not having any local infections that have been recorded or have been listed,” says Pashe. “Back in July, we did have a community member that had contracted the COVID-19 virus. One of the things that we’ve been doing here in Dakota Tipi, as part of new restrictions, is increased restriction time to the community mainly through the evenings. We’ve actually been doing that since June this past year in regards to those restrictions.”
Southern Alberta First Nations get grants to create chartered surgery proposals
“I’m delighted to see so many First Nations willing to work with government to help meet our commitment to provide all scheduled surgeries within clinically appropriate wait times by 2023,” says Health Minister Tyler Shandro. “Partnerships with First Nations could be a big boost to the Alberta Surgical Initiative, helping us to eliminate the backlog from the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, and driving innovation to help us create the strongest surgical system in Canada.”
Education administrators concerned over disparities in COVID-19 funding for First Nations students
“It is essential that First Nations receive equitable funding to support all of their students, regardless of where they live or are enrolled in school,” reads an email statement sent to IndigiNews by the organization’s president Tyrone McNeil. The statement was jointly signed by Dr. Verna Billy-Minnabarriet, chair of the Indigenous Adult and Higher Learning Association. Funding is based on what kind of school kids are attending, rather than whether or not they belong to a First Nation.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/education-administrators-concerned-over-disparities-205831732.html
Amid Manitoba’s COVID-19 surge, First Nations response team leads fight in hard-hit Indigenous communities
Manitoba’s Indigenous community is bearing the brunt of that surge. At one point this week, 69 per cent of COVID-19 patients in the ICU were Indigenous, as were 26 per cent of those hospitalized, according to data compiled by the Manitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Coordination Team.
“That’s still one of the biggest struggles for our First Nation — how do we isolate one person away from their family?”
Quebec invests $15 million to improve cultural security of Indigenous patients
The concept of cultural security refers to a way of operating that ensures that health care is provided with respect for the cultural identity of the patient.Health Minister Christian Dube says the investment spread out over five years will be used to familiarize hospital staff with the concept.
The announcement comes following the death of Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman and mother of seven who captured on video the insults she was subjected to by staff as she lay dying in a Joliette hospital bed in late September.
First Nations Face Higher Levels of Food Insecurity As Canada’s North Warms
Human Rights Watch has criticized the Canadian government for its failure to address the impacts of climate and food poverty for First Nations peoples, and the report includes a call to action for the government—to step up its efforts to mitigate climate change and help our friends in the north. The list of recommendations includes setting up an emissions policy consistent with its Paris Agreement; planning for a transition to clean energy in its COVID-19 stimulus package; and above all, ensuring that First Nations people are provided the support they need to get through the climate crisis and implement changes in their communities to mitigate its effects in the future.
Court asked to intervene over Acho Dene Koe election
Late last year, she represented members of the Mikisew Cree First Nation in Alberta. They were eventually successful in forcing the First Nation’s sitting chief and council to hold an election. At that time, O’Kelly argued that federal regulations allowing elections to be temporarily postponed due to Covid-19 did not pertain to elections held under a custom election code.
Moose Deer Point residents taking COVID seriously: administrator
“We’ve taken a lot of initiative. We have followed the provincial lead. We did a lot of things to keep our people safe,” Isaac said. “We’ve sent a lot of information out to our members. We encourage our members to be aware of the reasons the protocols where put in place and risks involved if they are not followed.”
Government of Canada Partnering with Indigenous Coastal Communities to Enhance Marine Safety in British Columbia
November 7, 2020, marks the fourth anniversary of the launch of the Oceans Protection Plan. Despite the new challenges that have emerged with COVID-19, the Oceans Protection Plan continues to:
- Foster partnerships with Indigenous and coastal communities;
- Improve marine incident response;
- Prevent marine accidents and pollution;
- Protect Canada’s endangered whale populations; and
- Preserve and restore Canada’s marine ecosystems.
Applications for northern B.C. Indigenous community Wellness Grant open
The Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA), the body that represents Inuit in 13 communities on Baffin Island and the northernmost part of Nunavut territory, earlier announced that it had allocated an additional $2.65 million to help offset the economic impact of COVID-19 in their region, and that households would be eligible for a $1,500 grant towards harvesting, groceries and sewing.
QIA says they received more than 2,000 applications for the Qikiqtani Family Support Initiative within 24 hours, something the association described as a “record” response.