Melissa
Martin
Winnipeg Free Press
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published in the Winnipeg Free Press on July 13, 2024. It is as originally published and reproduced with permission. This will be part one of a two part series.

KHARKIV, Ukraine — Luka huddled in the foxhole as the growl of Russian tanks crept closer, their steel tracks chewing at the grassy fields of eastern Ukraine. For over two hours, the 33-year-old Croatian and his fellow fighters with Ukraine’s International Legion had been hunted by the drones that prowled the skies around Ternova, a tiny village just five kilometres from the Russian border. Now they were pinned, with no escape.
Tank shells ripped through the lip of the trench. Shrapnel pierced Luka’s right arm and then his leg. He fumbled to tighten two tourniquets, but couldn’t get a strong twist. Beside him, Michael O’Neill, a 47-year-old Australian they called Taz, lay dead. Luka radioed for help but the rest of his company, he thought, was still far away.

Pick up a copy or subscribe online to get the July 24th edition of the Opasquia Times to read more about a local hero.

Last month, one of The Pas Fire Department’s (TPFD) was recognized by the Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs and presented with a 35-year Fire Service Award. Captain Keven Iles, has been serving and helping the community for longer than that.
“I’m on my 42nd year with TPFD,” said TPFD Captain Iles. “In 1982, a good friend, Ken Gurba, asked if I would like to join the fire department. I was already doing ambulance work with him. In those days you had to be voted in by the whole department.
“It was a natural progression of helping the persons of the community to help the whole community as a whole. As with the ambulance, there was a camaraderie that was unique and there was a lot to learn.

Tim Hortons Camp Day was last Wednesday (July 17) with a host of activities ranging from a bouncy castle, face painting, tic-tac-toe game and tug of war...

It wasn’t his best finish at the Calgary Stampede but it wasn’t his worst by far.

Shell Valley’s own Orin Larsen had to settle for fourth place overall among the 30 competitors in Bareback at the world’s largest outdoor rodeo.

Read all about it in this week’s issue.

An important and traditional Indigenous ceremony was held again in the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. Opaskwayak Sundance was from July 4 to 7 and brought forth many to celebrate Indigenous culture and healing. For Cheryl Antonio and some others, this was a first-time experience at Sundance, and it was a remarkable one.
Antonio knew a bit about Sundance ceremonies but never attended one until this year.
“Growing up as a Metis and Ukrainian person, I had very little knowledge of First Nation ceremony,” said Antonio. “Yet, at 10 years old, a book I picked up stands out in my mind, as it was about the Sundance. The story has stuck with me over the years and when I heard about a local event, I was very interested.

When a place of work brings its employees together and they form a bond similar to family, it becomes a remarkable thing to be a part of. The Pas Fire Department (TPFD) has established this kind of bond with its members and has now rallied together to help a fellow firefighter during his time of need. Xander Wadelius is currently in a fight against cancer, and his fellow firefighters want to make sure he knows that he is not alone in this battle.
“TPFD is a family, and we support each other in our challenges,” said TPFD Firefighter Karen Gallagher. “Sometimes that looks like lending each other a hand with dump runs and home renovations and other times we show our support for much bigger challenges, such as the fight for another member’s health and well-being.

An unfortunate event happened in the Otineka Mall last week, that led to a small fire breaking out in one of the units on the main south floor. The fire was not caused intentionally or through vandalism, but rather a mishap.
“The fire started just after midnight on July 9,” said Otineka Mall Manager Gloria Asmus. “It happened in one of the units and was caused by an e-bike plugged in that had a battery explode while it was charging.

While the excess moisture the Dauphin area has received this spring and early summer has been a nuisance for many, for agricultural producers the impact has been far more significant.

As a result, the Rural Municipality of Dauphin council passed a resolution at its July 9 regular meeting declaring a state of agricultural disaster.

“Just look outside. With the moisture that we’ve had starting prior to Apr. 1, the fact that producers couldn’t finish seeding, the fact that we’re losing crop every day, the fact that there’s a whole bunch of people under undue stress that is caused by all this, we had to make a decision,” Reeve Ernie Sirski said.

“That was the decision we made.”

Sirski said the councils of Mossey River and Gilbert Plains have passed similar resolutions.

 “We’re hoping that in conjunction with our sister municipalities . . . we could put some pressure on the provincial and federal governments, saying ‘look, there is a problem here. Let’s try and come to some sort of understanding that we need to do something’,” he said, adding what that “something” is as yet undetermined.

“What’s the something? First of all acknowledging the fact that there is an issue, that’s the first thing. The second one is, is there something that we can do within the existing programs, whether it be AgriInsurance, AgriInvest or AgriStability, to try and help the producers that are affected. The third one is an ad hoc program that government has done in the past to try and alleviate and help the producers that are affected.”

And it is not simply agricultural producers that are impacted, Sirski said, adding municipalities are seeing their budgets take a hit on roads, bridges, culverts and other drainage infrastructure.

“This whole thing goes beyond the producers themselves, the farmers. It goes into what we’ve had to spend as municipalities to try and make sure that people can get to where they’re going,” he said.

In the Dauphin area, total rainfall, according to the Hydrological Forecast Center, is officially recorded as 223 millimetres between  Apr. 1 and July 1, approximately 137 per cent of normal. Those numbers do not tell the whole story.

“We had significant snowfalls in March, which people seem to forget about and significant amounts of precipitation,” he said, adding it   added up to a late start to the crop year.

“We started the crop and our soil moisture content here locally was full and then we had all this precipitation.”

While it is hard to quantify the extent of the problem across the region, Sirski said it is reasonable to expect that many other producers are experiencing the crop year similar to his operation.

Read the full story in this weeks Dauphin Herald.

The new CT Scanner at the Swan River Hospital has been an investment well worth the while. It has been reducing both wait and travel times for people in the Valley to receive diagnostic services. The CT Scanner has been operational for just over a month and has completed over 200 scans.
“The new CT scanner in Swan River scanned its first patient on May 15, 2024, as part of training exercises, with the system formally coming online on June 17, 2024,” said a spokesperson for Shared Health. As of July 8, 2024, 283 patients had received CT scans in Swan River.
“In the first three weeks of operations, approximately a dozen scans per work day have been completed on patients who would have otherwise had to leave the Swan Valley area and travel to Dauphin, Brandon, The Pas or Winnipeg for care.”
Thanks to the local contributions, half of the costs of the CT Scanner was funded from the Valley, with the remainder from the provincial government.
“Community groups raised more than $1 million towards the $2-million-plus capital project, which includes equipment, installation and renovation of the space,” said a spokesperson for Shared Health. “Shared Health assumes ongoing operational costs.
An open house for the Swan River CT Scanner is being planned for the near future.

Treaune Severight from Cote First Nation travelled to participate in Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation’s Traditional Pow Wow last Tuesday, (July 9) in front of Chief Derek Audy Memorial Hall...