Former Gilbert Plains resident, Erin Knight, has been acknowledged as one of 30 RBC Future Launch’s Future of Good 2022 Young Impact Leaders. Knight’s prior achievements have been instrumental in getting her to where she is today.

“I’ve embarked on a whirlwind of a journey since I graduated high school from Gilbert Plains Collegiate in 2015,” Knight said.

“The Loran Scholarship has been incredible in opening up doors for me since I received it in 2015 and I’m very grateful for everything. Their support is what put me on the path to being appointed to the Prime Minister’s Youth Council (PMYC) in the first place. I was appointed in the summer of 2019, and finished my term in December 2021.

Previously Knight lived in Calgary for 6-1/2 years while attending the University of Calgary. She graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies and a certificate in Sustainability Studies as a Loran Scholar.

Get more in this week's Dauphin Herald!

Editor’s note: This is the first of as two-part series that tells the story of one Sixties Scoop survivor from the Valley and the impacts this has had on her life.
The aftermath of the Sixties Scoop is still having a devastating impact on the families it tore apart. Even though there are settlement programs in place for survivors of the Sixties Scoop, there are very few resources and supports in place to assist them with counseling and legal matters surrounding their identity and family.
Former Valley resident, Susan Chief, was a child claimed by the Sixties Scoop, along with her siblings, and she has experienced the disconnect that resulted from it.
“I’m 68 years old now and I still can’t understand why they took these children to families in the United States, when there were homes all over Manitoba or Canada,” said Susan Chief. “It’s just unbelievable that they would take Metis and Indigenous children to be given to families outside of the country.
“There were 10 children in our family, but we had an older sister who passed away at the age of three. Our family moved from Duck Bay to Birch River, because my dad was a pulp cutter and he worked in the bush. We went almost everywhere, as a family, and my mom and dad never left us anywhere. They made sure we were with them.
“In 1969, we were in Birch River and I would have been about 13 or 14 years old, when we were all taken from my parents,” said Chief. “I still remember, to this day, exactly how we were taken. They pulled up in two cars and put all of us in, except for my oldest brother who ran into the bush when they came. They never bothered to find him. I didn’t know what was going on at the time, because both of my parents were home when they came and took us.
“My parents didn’t say anything, but I knew they were afraid of the authorities, because they had the control. I remember those days. I was very observant and listened to what was said. My parents looked at us with their heads down and had very sad faces as the workers put us into the cars. We didn’t know where we going or why. I remember being excited at first to be going somewhere in a car, but I didn’t know I wouldn’t be coming back or that it was permanent.”
The journey for the Chief children took them to an office in Swan River where they would be divided up into pairs and sent off to live with other people.
“They took us to Swan River and I remember going into this building that was by Merv’s,” said Chief. “It had stairs and an office. They had us lined up against the wall and they never explained anything to us about what was going on. My sister, Alice, and I were taken to my uncle on my dad’s side. I didn’t know where the other ones went.”
Eventually Chief found out where her siblings were placed. She was able to visit with them for a while, before the separation became too much to bare and the visits were ended.
“I later on found out that two of my brothers were in a foster home in Armstrong and the other two brothers were placed with a cop and his wife in a trailer court,” said Chief. “The other two sisters were placed in Swan River. I was able to go visit my siblings here and there. Then one day I wanted to go visit them, so I had to ask the social workers and was told no. When I asked why, they told me that when I went to see my siblings, they would cry and get upset when I had to leave. I never got to see my siblings again after that.
“I often asked the social workers if I could go see my siblings and the answer was always no. I didn’t even know when they were removed from Swan River.”
Chief was adjusting well to life with her aunt and uncle. She didn’t realize that both her sister and her would be removed from family yet again.
“I was happy when I was at my uncle’s because I knew I was with family,” said Chief. “We were there for about a year. During that time, a lady next door would invite me to go bake cookies with her and I would go. She would talk to me about things and invited me over without asking my aunt.
“She would tell me stuff about a lady in Benito that looks after girls. This lady had a girl staying with her that ran away and never came back. The girl was apparently from Camperville and I knew of her mom when I lived in Bowsman. The lady kept telling me how nice this other woman in Benito was. How she wanted more girls in the house and it would be great if my sister and I went to go live there.
“Next thing I knew, we were removed from my aunt and uncle’s place and taken to go live with that woman in Benito,” said Chief. “No one told me anything about this happening or even asked me if I wanted to go. I didn’t want to leave. We were placed with this woman and she made us work hard. We had to do all the garden work, do the laundry, iron out all of her clothes, bring them up to her, and clean the home. I missed my aunt, uncle, siblings and parents so much.
“I remember sitting in that garden and looking around, feeling so very lonely. I never felt loved or wanted. This woman would call me stupid all the time and for reasons I didn’t even know.”
Chief was bussed into Swan River to attend school. She made friends with other children who were foster children in the area and soon built up the courage to leave her foster home.
“We had to take a bus to the school in Swan River and a couple of times I wouldn’t go home,” said Chief. “I would take the bus to go with a friend, who was also a foster child, and go to Mafeking. I used to get into trouble for doing that, because I never asked permission, but I did it anyway. I did it a couple of times and eventually I wasn’t bothered at all.
“I wound up homeless in Swan River. I didn’t have any money, winter clothing or anything and no one came looking for me. No one wondered where I was, how I was doing and if I was safe. I hung out wherever I could and wound up staying with a friend and her mom. They were very nice to me and I was welcomed there.
“I was a lost person in Swan River,” said Chief. “I didn’t know where my parents were and at the time I thought Duck Bay was a great distance away from me, like thousands of miles away. I didn’t realize it was only an hour away.
“I eventually hitchhiked to The Pas with a lady I didn’t even know. I met random people and stayed with them. I was 17 then and eventually got a job at a hotel in The Pas and washed dishes. I was fortunate that I had some survival skills and was able to take care of myself.”
As time passed, Chief soon learned more about where her family was located. She never gave up looking for her siblings and eventually she was able to reconnect with some of them.
“I learned years later that two of my sisters were moved to Gary, Indiana,” said Chief. “Throughout my life, I always tried to find out what happened to my siblings and parents, and where they were. I would look in the phone books or I would call 411 and look for the last name Chief.
I didn’t know my siblings last names were changed, so I was looking under their original given names. I would call every one of them and did that for many years.
“My uncle was a social worker in The Pas and he told my dad he found one of my sisters. They told me this and we had to go get her. My sister Alice, who I was placed in the foster home with, was married and living in Kenora, ON. She, along with her husband and my mom, went to Gary, Indiana, to pick Mary up. She had a little 10-month-old boy and brought him to Winnipeg. Unfortunately, my other little sister who was with Mary in Indiana, had to stay behind because she was younger.
“Mary was apparently kicked out of her foster home when she was 14,” said Chief. “She was staying at some man’s place with her baby, when my family went to pick her up. It wasn’t long after that my other sister, Irene, who is the youngest out of all of us, came to Winnipeg by bus. We didn’t even know who we were looking for because we didn’t even know what she looked like. It was so strange because we stood at the bus depot and watched people get off the bus.
“We wondered when this young girl was going to come off the bus. Once almost everyone was off the bus, we saw this woman sitting there and she came out. It was Irene.”
This was just the beginning of Chief’s reconnection with her siblings. In next week’s edition, Chief’s story continues as she struggles to reconnect with her brothers and bring one of them home.

There’s a future leader in the making who is originally from Sapotaweyak Cree Nation (SCN). Zoe Quill is currently studying at the University of Manitoba in the Faculty of Science and she’s recently been awarded the 2022 Indigenous Award of Excellence for Student Outstanding Achievement through the university. Her academic pursuits in the field of science are opening doors to a promising future for her.
“I was awarded the BMO Financial Group Indigenous Leader of Tomorrow Scholarship to study at the University of Manitoba in 2018,” said Quill. “I entered directly into the Faculty of Science with interest in pursuing Genetics. Throughout high school, I was always interested in the sciences and wanted to explore these fields more in-depth at university.”
Quill has been contributing to researching internships, which has allowed her to combine her science background and work with Indigenous communities. This has allowed her to start her own journey as an Indigenous leader in the realm of science.
“While pursuing my degree, I have had the pleasure of participating in four research internships,” said Quill. “For two of these internships, I was given an opportunity to combine my knowledge of the sciences and work closely with Indigenous communities. I have come to witness the resilience of Indigenous peoples and their ambition in becoming self-determined in research.
“It was inspiring to my own journey to be able to collaborate with leaders of the community and take part in supporting their success. Indigenous representation is growing among the science community, and I hope to always empower Indigenous scholars and communities through research.”
Quill recognizes the challenges that many Indigenous students face while attending any schooling. She is focused on harbouring and fostering nurturing environments for other Indigenous students by being a leader and mentor to them.
“I recognize that there are barriers that Indigenous students still face and gaps in the supports that are available,” said Quill. “As an Indigenous student, it was important to me to create a positive and supportive environment.
“I achieved these efforts through community involvement. I became a mentor to first-year Indigenous students to provide guidance in facilitating a smooth transition into university life and participated in question and answer sessions as an UN Ambassador, sharing personal experiences to prospective students. I also became the Indigenous Students’ Representative for the Science Students’ Association to advocate and uplift Indigenous student excellence in the Faculty of Science. In this position, I have hosted culturally informed events for Indigenous students as a way to support their well-being.
Quill is persevering in the field of Science and has plans to attend graduate school. She has been determined and dedicated in her research, and gaining experiences that will help her to pursue that goal of obtaining a MD or PhD.
“I’m pursuing a Bachelor of Science, Genetics Major,” said Quill. “I have only one more year to go. Since I’m planning on attending graduate school, I sought opportunities to conduct research at both Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the National Microbiology Laboratory of Canada. These experiences will give me the opportunity to explore my interests in Public Health.
“So far, I have gathered four years of research experience in various fields. I have published two peer-review papers and am currently working on publishing three more by the time I graduate.
“I have always had the goal of becoming a doctor and recently, research has become a passion of mine,” said Quill. “After graduation, I’m planning to pursue a Master of Science in Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases that combines aspects of Public Health. Then, I will pursue either a MD or PhD. In research, I hope to always incorporate collaboration with Indigenous communities.”
With National Indigenous Peoples Day happening, Quill has been advocating to see more positive changes for Indigenous people. She feels her experience can be an example for others to overcome any obstacles they may face and be leaders for Indigenous people.
“As an Indigenous student heavily involved on campus and in research,” said Quill. “I have had the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals who are driven, resilient, and aspire to create changes that advocate for the rights of Indigenous peoples. To be part of a community that seeks to empower the next generation of Indigenous leaders, I am always motivated to contribute to these efforts.
“There is evidence that despite the hardships we have endured, we have the power to not only overcome these obstacles but to thrive as a community. I believe National Indigenous Peoples Day promotes a positive message describing this very strength every Indigenous person carries within them.”
Quill realizes that the process has been slow when it comes to the reconciliation portion for Indigenous people in Canada, but she focuses on the Indigenous people who are achieving reconciliation and pushing forward for a better and brighter future.
“I recognize that we still have a long way to go in fulfilling the 94 Calls to Action, but action is happening,” said Quill. “There are many Indigenous leaders in the community whom I met that are breaking barriers in their fields and contributing to the efforts of reconciliation.
“I have had my fair share of hardships experiencing discrimination, but I am motivated to continue to uplift Indigenous voices and support our movements of self-determination.“

One can only dream about being recognized on a prestigious level for their work, but for former Valley resident, Dr. Evan Eichler, it’s become a reality he never imagined. Dr. Eichler has been named as one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People of 2022. His work and study on the human genome has been groundbreaking and led to his team being selected.
Dr. Eichler’s education has taken him all over the world and resulted in him studying in some of the most outstanding universities in his field.
“I went to the University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, Sask, from 1986 to 1990, where I got an Honors B.Sc Degree in Biology,” said Dr. Eichler. “After a post-back year at the Ludwig-Maximillians University (LMU) in Munich, Germany, I was accepted to the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), in Houston, Texas. Here I received my Ph.D. after four years of study in 1995 in the field of Human and Molecular Genetics.”
Dr. Eichler’s field of genome sciences is a fascinating one. He focuses on what's in a person’s genetics as it refers to genetic disease.
“Genome sciences is the study of the complete genetic instructions of a species,” said Dr. Eichler. “In the case of humans, it is essentially human genetics, but starts by having the complete set of instructions and then using it and new technology which is often referred to as genomics technology to understand biology and the basis of genetic disease.”
His extensive study and research began in Germany and has continued on throughout his career. Dr. Eichler’s work has placed him in many different universities across North America.
“In Germany, I interned in Molecular Veterinary Medicine and at Baylor, I worked on human genetics,” said Dr. Eichler. “My specific work at BCM involved understanding the genetic susceptibility to Fragile X Syndrome, which is a form of developmental delay due to an unstable piece of repetitive DNA on the X chromosome.
“After finishing my Ph.D., I moved to the Livermore National Labs in California, where I completed a postdoctoral fellowship from 1995 to 1997. It was here where I began some of my work on the Human Genome Project. I received offers for faculty positions from the University of Toronto, University of Ottawa and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). I accepted a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Human Genetics at CWRU in Cleveland, Ohio, where I started my research lab in 1997.
“I continued my work on the Human Genome Project with a specific focus on characterizing unstable regions of our genome,” said Dr. Eichler. “I was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2003 and offered a faculty position in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, in Seattle, Wash., in 2004. I was promoted to full professor with tenure in 2008 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2013.”
Dr. Eichler received the honour of being appointed to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) for his work on genome science. This is another outstanding achievement and recognition that comes with an incredible source of funding to do research.
“After I arrived at the University of Washington, Seattle, I was nominated by the University for this honour and was appointed in 2005 to the HHMI. HHMI is a virtual position, which does not require a change of universities, but it has the advantage that it pays your salary and gives you a research budget of approximately $750,000 million per year to pursue research.
“The position involves doing everything that a professor does. This includes running a research laboratory in size from 15 to 20 people; teaching classes; mentoring students and working with them to help get their Ph.D.; considerable travel giving lectures and seminars as well as serving on university and national committees."
Dr. Eichler’s research program is dedicated to understanding human genetic disease in relation to the human genome.
“My research program is focused on understanding the mutation of large repeats called segmental duplications,” said Dr. Eichler. “Our hypothesis is simple; we believe these repetitive regions contribute disproportionately to both human genetic disease and human evolution. We’ve shown over the last few years that many forms of autism, developmental delay and epilepsy are caused by mutation of these regions.
“On the flip side, some of the genes that make us uniquely human correspond to these same regions. Since the original Human Genome Project, back in 2001, our laboratory has been focused on finishing these regions, because we believe they are critical to understanding our species and genetic disease. These were however particularly difficult regions to accurately resolve. Most scientists left these and other regions, which is about eight percent of our genetic code, unresolved back in 2004.
“New sequencing technologies made it possible for us to sequence and assemble these for the first time in 2015,” said Dr. Eichler. “For the last 20 years, we have been working to finish all of these regions in the human genome, which we successfully did with a large team last year. The papers were published in April 2022 and we completed every human chromosome from telomere-to-telomere, from one end to the other without gaps. That’s why the project was called the T2T consortium.”
Being recommended for Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022 has been both an extreme honour and mystery for Dr. Eichler. He was nominated along with his team for their work, but to this date, they still aren’t sure just who exactly recommended them for this honour.
“I honestly don’t know who recommended us,” said Dr. Eichler. “There’s a rumour that the Nobel Laureate, Jennifer Doudna, who wrote the description in the TIME 100 nominated us, but I don't know this for sure. It was a team effort and Adam Phillippy, Karen Miga and I led the project. Michael Schatz was one of about 96 other scientists in the project.
“I was honoured and to be honest completely surprised that we received this recognition. It's not the sort of thing that a human geneticist ever expects and it certainly isn't our usual crowd of peers. When I first received the notice, for example, I thought it was a hoax, but my secretary assured me that it was the real deal."
Dr. Eichler still has plans to continue his research and work in both human and non-human genomes. This time, he plans to focus on characterizing the genomes in children with autism.
“This is only the beginning,” said Dr. Eichler. “The next step is to complete more human genomes as well as non-human genomes to help us understand the genetic basis of disease as well as help better define the mutational processes that occur in our genome. I believe the telomere-to-telomere approach will be applied to children with unsolved genetic diseases. I have already received funding to characterize the genomes of more than 100 children with autism, cases we haven’t resolved with more traditional approaches.
"We believe that T2T sequencing of the genomes of these kids will provide us to new insights into how autism occurs and the genetic variants that underlie it. It's a long road but I believe the methods we have developed will be applied more routinely in the clinic 10-20 years from now.”

One never knows when a little quirk of a hobby or interest can lead to a calling to work in an industry one never imagined. That is the case for former Valley resident and film editor Andrew Gust. Gust started playing around with a camcorder and is now working on Hollywood feature films.
“Film making, for me, started when I was a kid and my dad had a camcorder that he would use to take videos of the farm and family events,” said Andrew Gust. “When my friends and I started snowboarding and skateboarding, we were really excited to capture our new stunts and tricks on video. We were constantly borrowing our parents’ camcorders to do that. It wasn’t long before we realized we had endless amounts of footage that we couldn’t do much with.
“Finally, when we figured out how to edit a bunch of clips together into a montage, it began to take on a whole different energy,” he continued. “Then we would add whatever music we were into at the time, and it suddenly had this larger-than-life feel. I think that was the first time that I realized I was passionate about filmmaking and editing.”
Gust was first exposed to the art of editing during his time at Swan Valley Regional Secondary School (SVRSS). It was here that he was given the freedom to explore his creativity and develop a keen interest in filmmaking and editing.
“The SVRSS was in its earlier stages of introducing video classes when I was in attendance there,” said Gust. “George van der Walt was the instructor at the time, and the school had purchased some camcorders and computers with editing software.
“He pretty much gave us free rein to have fun with it, so we would go around the school recruiting classmates for silly sketch comedy videos and making various montages that the school would play with the O Canada anthem in the morning. Those classes were really valuable because they provided the tools for us to explore our creative side.
“Near the end of high school, I hadn’t considered making videos to be a career path,” continued Gust.
Once I realized there were schools solely dedicated to teaching filmmaking, I decided to go to Vancouver Film School (VFS). It was a one-year course that covered everything from screenwriting to cinematography. The year that I attended VFS was the last year they were still shooting on 16mm cameras, so we got to work with real film stock, which was pretty special.
“All throughout that year I took different classes, but I found myself to be particularly drawn to editing,” said Gust. “Filming something and working on set can be a chaotic experience with a million different moving pieces and a hundred people on set doing different jobs. It only takes one mistake and the whole thing can fall apart. At the end of the day, you take all that hard-earned footage to the editing room and piece together the best version of the film you can. I really enjoy that process of exploring different versions of the film, because depending on how you put it together you can make entirely different movies out of the same footage. Working with the director to find the best way to put the movie together is what really excites me.”
Working in film requires a number of people doing separate jobs that all impact the outcome of the film. It not only takes everyone doing their job, but a sense of harmony onset in order to make things go smoothly and to produce a successful finished product.
“It takes a network of people to make a film happen from start to finish,” said Gust. “What I would tell upcoming filmmakers is that it’s really important to make the right relationships because there’s more than just one person involved. There has to be cohesiveness amongst the entire group working together.
“The relationship between the director and editor has them spending sometimes 12 hours a day putting the film together and if they don’t get along, it doesn’t matter how talented they both are, it won’t be a good end result.”
Gust has had film editing experience in both Canada and in the U.S., where he now resides. Both areas have had ample film editing opportunities, but Gust really wanted to set his horizons on bigger pictures.
“I first left the Valley and moved west for schooling and some warmer weather in Vancouver,” said Gust. “Now I moved south for some even warmer weather in Los Angeles, Calif., and now it’s too hot, so I don’t think I need to move further. All jokes aside, my mother was born in South Dakota, so when I was born I had dual citizenship.
“After going to film school in Vancouver and working there for a few years, I realized that the biggest concentration of filmmaking was happening in Los Angeles. I knew I would have to make that move to find a bigger variety of projects and opportunities. I do, however, travel between here and Vancouver to work on film projects.”
Over the course of time, Gust has worked for companies like Disney, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, and Apple. Recently he has been working a project for Netflix which will be premiering later on this year.
“One of the first companies I started working for in Vancouver made the original Air Bud movie,” said Gust. “A lot of people don’t realize that movie was made entirely in Canada by a Canadian company. It was only after they started filming that Disney bought the distribution rights and put their name on it.”
When I started working at that company they had already run out of sports for Air Bud to play, so my first job was on Super Buddies, which was about superhero dogs (that talk!) trying to save the world. It was a slightly bizarre start to my career, and I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“There’s a lot of film production that happens in Vancouver, but then the editing often continues in Los Angeles,” he continued. “After arriving in Los Angeles, I worked on a few smaller films for Lionsgate and some TV movies for Lifetime, and eventually a feature called The Hate U Give, which is based on the book by Angie Thomas. Most recently I was a film editor for a series on Netflix called Pup Academy and now I am working on a Netflix animated film called Entergalactic starring Kid Cudi and Timotheé Chalamet. That film will come out this fall.”
Gust has his sights set on doing more film editing work for feature films. He hopes to do more work on films that have a social impact and would like to get the opportunity to work on a film that was shot in Winnipeg.
“I want to continue working on feature films with directors that are making more character-driven dramas that focus on social issues, like The Hate U Give,” said Gust. “The most powerful films are those that are not only entertaining but have some sort of commentary about society. Those films make you think about things in a different way and those are the kinds of films I would like to work on.
“I would also love to continue not only in Los Angeles but also to work on films made in Canada. The industry is always in flux there, but right now Manitoba has some excellent tax breaks for films that are shot there. I would absolutely love it if I could wind up working on a feature film in Manitoba someday.”

There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the loss of the number of bees across Manitoba.

Every year apiaries lose a certain number of bees over the winter months.

Many attributed it to poor weather conditions, pests and it just being part of the nature of things, but there’s also a more politicized angle to this.

“This happens every year with bee numbers,” said Wendell Estate Honey Owner Tim Wendell. “There are some people that lose a lot of hive numbers and there’s different reasons for those losses, as well as some politics behind what’s going on. One of the most notable arguments has been about bringing in packaged bees across the U.S. border and it’s been an issue for over 35 years. The Canadian U.S. Border was closed in 1987 to the importation of packaged bees for sanitary reasons.”

The pandemic has played a slight role in all of this, with beekeepers not being able to access packaged bees from other countries. The delay in flights, shipping and the fact that bees are a perishable item to transport, have impacted honey production overall. Bringing in packaged bees, also presents a variety of different challenges as well.

Read the full story in this week's Russell Banner!

It’s a challenging time all around for agriculture, business and industries all over the world.

The pandemic has left a huge impact and when combined with a drought year in Manitoba and inflation, many are just bearing down and riding it out.

The pandemic put forth challenges for businesses and industries to wear masks and ensure employees were properly social distancing while on the job.

“In many ways it was business as usual for us during the pandemic,” said Canmark Family Farming owner Henrik Thomsen.

Check this week's Banner for more!

Dauphin resident and ABsoluteORIGINAL artist, Patrick Paul, has been working on bringing more Indigenous art to Dauphin to help represent Indigenous people in the community.

He realized the need for more Indigenous representation in Dauphin, after he saw there was not much in the way of Indigenous art in the community.

“I’ve taken to local social media groups about trying to get some Indigenous art out in the community,” said Paul.

This week's Dauphin Herald has lots more details!