Atwater Park Area At Your Own Risk!

Editorial




Most of us Nunavimmiut are very well aware of the problems that have been reported in the western part of Ste Catherine street near Atwater Park but you truly have to witness it to believe it and understand it better. One sunny afternoon last week I was visiting a patient at the children's hospital and spent a few hours in the park with a relative and I did see a few things that kind of made me understand the situation a little better. Middle aged men both white and black appear to be pimping girls forcing them into a life of prostitution, drugs, std's and many other problems. One Qallunaat with wrinkles on his face that looked as thou he was hit by a bulldozer was sitting with two girls that looked as thou they were in their early twenty's. They were sitting maybe fifty feet away from me and I was able to understand their conversation. The two girls spoke to each other in Inuktitut and sounded as thou they may be from Kangiqsualujjuaq but I could be wrong. They were being exploited by this wrinkled scumbag that was pocketing the money he made from them selling their bodies and he was paying the girls with drugs which I presume must have been crack. I thought to myself, now these girls must have families that are worried sick about them. They might have brothers and sisters that miss them nieces and nephews or cousins that are wondering what ever happened to......? I felt like telling these two young girls to get the hell out of that place and get some help but I did not get a chance to speak with them and I feared for my own safety If the white scumbag heard me. They eventually left and walked towards the McDonald's at the next corner. I waited around thirty minutes to see if the girls would come back alone and maybe I can talk with them but they never came back. I then came across a girl from Salluit that I haven't seen in years. She noticed me and I believe she may have remembered me, she was with a tall black guy and didn't end up talking to her, she did not look very happy but shoock her head as a hello. I then went back to the hospital for a bit and walked home afterwards with a sad feeling that we need to do something for these poor girls. I say girls because the homeless and drug problem near Awater is mostly young women from Nunavik and not men.

I have read some of the newspaper articles and of course I have heard about what goes on in that area but to see these things happen with my own two eyes and to witness it made me sick and I started to think about it more and more in the days after.

What can we do?

We need to educate our kids and young people about some of the risks because at some point it's too late and at that point there is a risk that they can fall into that pattern of drug and alcohol abuse. These things do not tend to get better with time but I have seen some success stories and it feels good to hear em' and to see, believe me! If you have young adult in your family going to Montreal, take the extra time to stay in touch with them. Ask them what they're up to, where they're going. We don't need to see any more Nunavimmiut or Nunavummiut fall into this pattern down south far awar from their families and their communities. The lure of the big city is just too much for some people sometimes and there are very serious life threatening consequences that are sometimes associated with that. Do not trust anyone in the south that may go out of their way to be friends with you because you are inuk or first nation. These pimps and drug dealers have years of experience sometimes and know exactly what to say to make their wallet bigger or feed their sickening habit. The friendliness is very often a trap it sometimes difficult to judge the situation but I am suspicious of anyone that goes out of their way to be extra friendly because of not who you are but what you are. At Atwater park and on the nearby streets, there is a very unfriendly reminder of the concequences for someone that falls it that trap.

In conclusion, it is almost impossible for anyone not to care about these kind of issues because it concerns every single one of us. There are no words that can explain the sympathy and sadness I feel for the families of these young people that are in that situation. Imagine raising a child with all the love and responsabilities you were brought up with as a kid and just when you think they are old enough and responsable enough to make the right decicions in life, they meet a piece of shit that changes their life more ways then one. This happens way more then we would like to think, it's time to get tough on drug abuse and the dealers.

LINKS

I have linked an article that was published by Jane George of Nunatsiaq News a few years back, it goes to show how things haven't changed.
http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/archives/nunavut000131/nvt20121_08.html

Interesting Gazette article about the area we discussed
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Residents+hold/2705248/story.html

Chez Doris
1430, Rue Chomedey
Montreal, QC H3H 2A7
514-937-2341
www.chezdoris.ca

NunatsiaqOnline 2010-06-23: NEWS: New centre helps Montreal Inuit nourish their urban dreams

NunatsiaqOnline 2010-06-23: NEWS: New centre helps Montreal Inuit nourish their urban dreams

‘Don’t Taze My Granny!’

Online News Feeds

‘Don’t Taze My Granny!’

Oklamoma City Oklahoma

Lonnie Tinsley of El Reno, Oklahoma made a nearly fatal mistake last December 22 when he went to check on his grandma, Lona Vernon.

Concerned that Lona hadn’t taken her medications, Lonnie called 911 in the expectation that an emergency medical technician would be dispatched to the apartment to evaluate the bedridden 86-year-old woman.

Instead, that call for help was answered by nearly a dozen armed tax-feeders employed by the El Reno Police Department.

Understandably alarmed — and probably more than a little disgusted — by the presence of uninvited armed strangers in her home, Lona ordered them to leave. This directive, issued by a fragile female octogenarian confined to a hospital-style bed and tethered to an oxygen tank, was interpreted as “aggressive” behavior by Officer Thomas Duran, who ordered one of his associates : “Taser her!”

“Don’t taze my granny!” exclaimed Tinsley. According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Tinsley’s “obstructive” behavior prompted the police to threaten him with their tasers. He was then was assaulted, removed from the room, thrown to the floor, handcuffed, and detained in a police car. At this point, the heroes in blue turned their attention to Lona.

The tactical situation was daunting; at this point, the police had only a 10-1 advantage over a subject who — according to Duran’s official report — had taken an “aggressive posture” in her hospital bed. The sacred imperative of “officer safety” dictated that the subject be thoroughly softened up in order to minimize resistance.

Accordingly, one of the officers approached Lona and “stepped on her oxygen hose until she began to suffer oxygen deprivation,” narrates the complaint, based on Lona’s account. One of the officers then shot her with a taser, but the connection wasn’t solid. A second fired his taser, “striking her to the left of the midline of her upper chest, and applied high voltage, causing burns to her chest, extreme pain,” and unconsciousness. Lona was then handcuffed with sufficient ruthlessness to tear the soft flesh of her forearms, causing her to bleed.

After her wounds were treated at a local hospital, Lona was confined for six days in the psychiatric ward at the insistence of her deranged assailants from the El Reno Police Department.

It has long been established that the worst thing to do in an emergency is to call the police. In this case, Lonnie Tinsley didn’t call the police, yet they barged in anyway and quite nearly “helped” his grandma to death.

The situation is still being investigated.

Melting permafrost threatens Arctic housing projects

CP Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T

MONTREAL — An Arctic community that has seen its fire hall sink and roads buckle in the melting permafrost is now shifting future building projects away from town.

The effect of vanishing permafrost -- soil normally frozen year round -- is now being felt across Canada's North, and the Quebec village of Salluit is just one of many Arctic towns trying to adapt to an increasingly warmer climate.

Rising temperatures are being blamed for natural disturbances in the North, such as the rapidly eroding coastline of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., and unprecedented floods that knocked out two bridges in Pangnirtung, Nunavut.

Salluit even considered relocating the whole town. One of Quebec's northernmost communities, Salluit saw its local fire station sink into the softening ground a year after it opened.

Across town, paved roads have crumpled, foundations of buildings have cracked and now even summertime grave-digging isn't what it used to be.

A few years ago, it took considerable effort just to dig a foot into what was once ice-solid earth, says one resident of the Nunavik village.

"We used to need hammers and all that because it was frozen solid all the way through," said Noah Tayara, a local representative for Makivik Corp., northern Quebec's governing body.

"(Today), we don't need those. We can shovel to six feet without having to go through the permafrost."

For years, the people of Salluit, shielded by a bunker-like valley on Sugluk Inlet off the Hudson Strait, faced the prospect of uprooting their town to move away from the defrosting turf.

Following two years of scientific studies, experts have concluded the village can stay put. But the community's much-needed expansion will have to go elsewhere and follow specific construction guidelines.

"We can safely say that there's no relocation of houses that are sitting permanently right now," said Michael Cameron, a Salluit municipal councillor.

Instead, he said the village hopes to secure government funding to build up to 500 two-bedroom homes at several chosen sites within a few kilometres of the community. Cameron noted the shift to outlying areas is partly due to a lack of space in the town of 1,100.

The new housing developments, which aim to ease overcrowding that often sees three generations living under one roof, will be constructed in sturdier areas that feature a mix of bedrock, clay, sand, gravel and permafrost.

The plans were presented at a public meeting two weeks ago, helping calm fears the town was under the threat of mudslides.

"There is permafrost beneath us and it's changing, but they said it's not so big a problem that we would . . . suffer a landslide into the sea," said Paul Okituk, general manager of Qaqqalik Landholding Corp. in Salluit.

Most homes sit on stilts that keep them about a metre off the permafrost, so many of the posts will have to be adjusted annually to reduce warping, Okituk said.

Locals started questioning the stability of the area when a small landslide struck a 17-unit housing development in 1998, he said.

"A unit that was close to the river almost got taken away by the slide," Okituk said.

He says the region has seen extreme weather patterns in the last decade -- including warmer summers and shorter winters that barely see temperatures dip below -30 C when they've been known in the past to hit -60 C with the windchill.

The brief winter last year shortened the window of opportunity for local hunters to reach caribou herds, impacting the local way of life.

"Salluit has had to order out for food from other communities that have (meat) because of the early thaw and late freeze-up," Okituk said of game shipments that arrived through a hunter-support program between northern communities.

"We enjoyed the good weather. (But) it was too long, because bad weather also brings in good stuff, too."

NunatsiaqOnline 2010-06-17: NEWS: Neighbour opposition could delay or kill Nunavik Inuit patient home

NunatsiaqOnline 2010-06-17: NEWS: Neighbour opposition could delay or kill Nunavik Inuit patient home

CBC News - Montreal - Montreal officials defend Inuit health centre

The Villeray affair continues CBC NEWS FULL REPORT

CBC News - Montreal - Montreal officials defend Inuit health centre

Montreal region - 18 arrested in major drug bust

Major drug Bust involving Asian criminal gangs in Montreal

-Eighteen arrested in Montreal area
-Thousands of pot plants seized
-Accused face a range of charges related to producing cannabis, and possession with intent to traffic.

Police were conducting a wide-ranging operation Wednesday morning on Montreal Island but were being very tight-lipped about what it involves.

“We don’t want to give any details,” Montreal police Constable Daniel Lacoursière said. “The safety of our officers is most important.”

Meanwhile, an unrelated operation by Longueuil police Wednesday morning netted thousands of marijuana plants that may have a street value of hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, Longueuil police Constable Martin Simard said.

Eighteen people were arrested, including men and women, and raids were conducted in 15 locations, including 10 homes in Brossard, three warehouses in Montreal, one residence in Old Longueuil and one in home in Candiac, he added.

An unspecified amount of cash was also seized as well as hydroponic equipment for growing the plants. The plants range in maturity, Simard said.

The network got its hydroponic equipment from the same supplier in Longueuil, he added. The group is not considered part of any other known organized crime organization.

As many as 125 police officers were involved in what is known as Operation Container.

Those arrested are mainly Asian in origin and do not speak English or French, so police will need interpreters to obtain more information about them, Simard said.

As the situation continues to unfold, we will publish additional information.