'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Help for the struggling James Bay community of Kashechewan has been slow in coming, as COVID-19 infections surge through overcrowded homes and isolation facilities remain non-existent, Chief Leo Friday said on Wednesday.
The virus has attacked children particularly hard, with those aged 12 and under accounting for more than half the 232 active cases, the chief said. One child was in intensive care but said to be improving.
"Nobody seems to do anything about it," Friday told The Canadian Press. "The process of their help is really slow even though we called a state of emergency."
The cases in the community account for more than one quarter of the 889 active infections roiling Canada's Indigenous reserves, federal data show.
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller insisted help has already arrived in a "very fragile" Kashechewan and more is on the way.
"COVID moves faster than the government," Miller said. "We keep assessing and reassessing how we can go faster."
Miller said 15 Canadian Rangers as well as 15 nurses and three paramedics -- double the normal numbers -- along with 16 Red Cross members were now on site, and more money and help was expected to flow. While high vaccination rates among reserve adults had created a "firewall," children remained vulnerable, he said.
"This does clearly remain an alarming situation," Miller said. "This will be a difficult week for Kashechewan."
Friday said his community, which battles devastating flooding from the Albany River almost every spring, had an effective program early in the pandemic that involved screening and an isolation station. A travel co-ordinator tracked arrivals, two screeners were stationed at the airport and security was in place to ensure no one was sneaking in, he said.
However, federal funding dried up in March and the programs were cut, Friday said. "It worked until the programs were depleted."
The community has asked for a tent city at one end of the town as well as a COVID-19 isolation station to look after people returning from health appointments.
Friday said six people medevaced from Kashechewan to Sudbury, Timmins and Moosonee in northern Ontario, were in ICU. Three were in their late 30s and 40s.
The virus, Friday said, likely originated with people flying into the remote area from health appointments elsewhere in the province. Crowded homes, blamed on a chronic housing shortage, along with a lack of places to isolate, allowed for the rampant spread to more than 10 per cent of the 2,245 residents.
One house, for example, is home to 20 people and about 60 homes are in outbreak, Friday said.
"People blame overcrowding," he said. "That's the main cause of the spread."
The problem is exacerbated by people with mental illness or substance-abuse issues who are left to their own devices because there is no safe place to isolate them. The community has no doctors and its small nursing station has been overrun.
Of primary importance, Friday said, was getting federal help for new housing and relocating the community from its current flood-prone location. Miller has promised to cut red tape and speed up the aid, the chief said.
"I just hope that Minister Miller is going to keep his word."
Miller has also promised financial help for mental health supports. He said the government allocated $453,000 to the community in emergency funding for food, supplies and personnel.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2021.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.