The Swan Valley U11 Stampeders gathered on ice to celebrate their gold medal win during the Hockey Manitoba U11 Rural A Provincial Championships on Sunday (March 5). The team dominated their weekend of play with the final battle coming against the Dauphin Kings gold team...

By the 1970’s parts of the rest of Canada were beginning to wake up to the true facts about our Canadian history and the involvement of many of our descendants in the killing of Metis involved in the North-West Resistance.

Meanwhile, in 1974 in Russell, we were still erecting plaques in honor of Major Charles Boulton. Historian Tyla Betke who is a PHD candidate and an instructor in History at the Carleton University in Ottawa was more than a little shocked when she found that the long held stories of the heroics of Major Charles Boulton that she’d grown up with here in Russell, were not entirely true.

Despite the fact that this particular issue is not the subject of her doctorate, the more she learned about the untruths in the story our monuments and our verbal history have told, the more Tyla Betke was drawn to bring the real history of the founder of our town to a public forum.

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

Kyle Forsyth topped the field at the Dauphin Men’s Bonspiel, presented by Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy, over the weekend.

Forsyth and his team of Jarvis Whyte, Trent Hill and Cody Hill won the championship event, sponsored by Embroidery by Design, beating Dave Marohn in the final. Rob Rempel was third and Logan Devos was fourth.

In the second event, sponsored by McMunn and Yates Building Supplies, Seth Gares and his team of Darcy Gares, Jeff Campbell and Blaine Johnson beat Dwight Bottrell in the final, with Jared Nimegeers in third and Nolan Hadway in fourth.

Darcy Todoruk and his team of Mark Graham, Dustin Mayuk and Chris Todoruk won the third event, sponsored by Parkland Source for Sports, beating Rob Fisher in the final.

Third place went to Steven Michaleski and in fourth place was Craig McLean.

The fourth event, sponsored by Baker Computers, was won by Greg Todoruk and his team of Barrett Procyshyn, Jeff Abrahams and Jeremy Mills. They beat Mike VanAlstyne in the final. Third place went to Peter Prokopowich and in fourth place was Luke Michaleski.

The Dauphin Kings moved back into a playoff position following a split of a home-and-home with the first-year Niverville Nighthawks.

Niverville scored a controversial 3-2 shootout win, Friday in Dauphin.

In the five-minute overtime, the Kings thought they had scored the winning goal, but the referee had blown the play dead before the puck crossed the line.

In the shootout, Josh Paulhus, Niverville’s second shooter, skated in and made a shooting motion, missing the puck. He made another shooting motion and scored on the second try, which the on-ice officials counted, giving the Nighthawks the victory.

According to Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley, the referees stated Paulhus faked a shot, before he scored.

“He shot twice. There’s no doubt about it,” he said. “We asked if we could appeal a shootout decision, but we can’t. The league has no process in line to appeal a referee’s decision on a shootout goal. There’s nothing else, it’s just a judgement call.”

Dauphin got a measure of revenge two days later with a 7-4 win in Niverville.

“I’ve been really proud of the guys and the way they’ve been playing, because since we beat Steinbach on the Friday at home, we’ve had that urgency, that compete level. Sure we’ve gotten some tough breaks, but we played well enough,” he said. “We stuck to the process in Niverville and we bent a little bit, but found a way to get it done. So that’s the biggest thing, is finding that resolve, that rebound ability and that push back that makes a team tough to beat in playoffs.”

Sunday’s win was the 349th of Doug Hedley career as Kings head coach, moving him one ahead of his former assistant, Marlin Murray.

For Hedley, it is just a number. What is more important to him is the people and players he has worked with over the years.

“Obviously, it’s been an honour and priviledge to coach them. But it’s just a number to me. What it does make you do, is reflect on the players and coaches I’ve worked with in Dauphin,” he said. “It’s more about who I’ve worked with and what they’ve gone on to do later.”

One of the things Hedley has focused on over the years is developing players to get to the next level.

“Hockey is such a great sport. There’s so many life skills to learn in a team sport like hockey, whether it’s being a teammate, whether it’s getting a long with guys, whether it’s learning how to commit to getting better every day,” he said. “All those things are life lessons and a lot of players that I coached have gone on to have successful careers. That means the most to me.”

While he is grateful for the opportunities to coach the Kings on three different occasions, winning, Hedley said, is about more than the success of players and coaches on the ice, noting the board of directors and scouts put in a lot of work, as well, making it a true team effort in building a winning culture.

With three points over the weekend, the Kings improved to 28-21-2-2 for 60 points, moving into the fourth and final playoff spot, one point ahead of the Waywayseecappo Wolverines.

The Kings can widen the spread from the Wolverines tonight when the two teams meet in Waywayseecappo at 7:30 p.m.

On the weekend, Dauphin faces the Centennial Cup host Portage Terriers, Friday in Portage and Saturday in Dauphin. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m.

Hedley feels the younger players will benefit from playing such tightly contested games this late in the season, adding the Kings have beaten Portage in both games they’ve played this season.

“They’re rolling right now, so it’s going to be a great test for us, a good challenge. That’s the kind of team you want to be playing down the stretch because you don’t want to be taking anything for granted,” he said.

Kings court:

Defenceman Aidan Brook was a finalist for the Brian Kozak Memorial Award as Top Defenceman, which went to Winkler’s Trent Sambrook.

Selkirk’s Lucas Brennan won the Steve “Boomer” Hawrysh Memorial Award as Most Valuable Player.

The Ed Belfour Top Goaltender Award went to Swan Valley’s Kobe Grant, while Carter Cormier of Selkirk won the Kim Davis Rookie of the Year Award.

Ryan Botterill of Portage won the Frank McKinnon Award for hockey ability and sportsmanship and Virden’s Tyson Ramsey won the Muzz McPherson Memorial Award as Coach of the Year.

False alarms continued to haunt the Dauphin Fire Department in 2022.

Fire Chief Cam Abrey singled out the call category in his first report to Dauphin city council since the municipal election last fall.

Throughout the year the department responded to 236 calls, an increase of 17.5 per cent over the previous year, and false alarms accounted for 38 per cent of those calls.

“Our initiative this year was to educate property owners and managers as to how to reduce the number of false alarms that are happening in their facilities,” Abrey said, adding many of the false alarm calls are to repeat addresses. “They just keep having these calls regardless of the education.”

looking at the remainder of the calls, motor vehicle collisions were the next largest category by volume at 20 per cent, followed by kitchen fires and structures and structure fires at eight per cent each. Remaining call categories include outdoor fires at seven per cent, vehicle fires at six per cent, carbon monoxide alarms, mutual aid assists and a catchall “other” category, which includes calls not falling into another column.

In 2022, 4,993 hours were dedicated to those 236 incidents, Abrey said.

“Thirteen per cent of the time was spent in the RM, 86 per cent within the city of Dauphin and one per cent was mutual aid,” he added.

A considerable number of hours were also dedicated to training in 2022, with firefighters accumulating just under 2,500 hours through weekly training sessions every Wednesday, as well as the weekend courses offered by the Emergency Services College and hosted locally.

Currently, the department has once again started a level one and level two training class, which it has opened up for the 11 departments which make up the Riding Mountain Mutual Aid District - Inglis, Roblin, Grandview, Gilbert Plains, Ochre River, Ste. Rose, Laurier, Sifton, Ethelbert and Pine River.

“We have several members of Dauphin taking part in this training along with members from Gilbert Plains, Ochre and Ste. Rose taking advantage of the training opportunity,” Abrey said.

The department also recently hosted an incident command system training session offered by an instructor from the Manitoba Emergency Services College in Brandon, which defines the unique qualities of incident command, Abrey said, and focuses on the management of single resources.

“It’s a great training opportunity for anybody that’s likely to assume a supervisory position with incident command,” Abrey said. “So we had a number of our officers, as well as some firefighters that attended that training.”

In the near future, the department will be hosting a vehicle extrication seminar for the mutual aid district and neighbouring districts.

“We open up training opportunities like this to the Lake Winnipegosis Mutual Aid District, as well as the Swan Valley Mutual Aid District, where the smaller departments may not have the numbers in order to host a program themselves,” Abrey said, adding the seminar will cover internal combustion engine powered vehicles, hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles.

“This prepares personnel to respond to motor vehicle collisions that may require extrication, promotes the importance of working with trained and authorized EMS professionals or paramedic partners and the seminar covers topics such as vehicle safety systems, the anatomy of the vehicle, extrication tools and the use of hand tools.”

The following weekend the department will host a unique training opportunity. Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Services will offer information on an advanced fire dynamics program and an occupational hygiene program, Abrey said, adding he was able to arrange for the opportunity through some contacts he has in the city department.

“They sent several of their members to Ottawa to take this training,” he said. “Ottawa has since cut their funding for the program, so it doesn’t exist there any longer. Winnipeg is continuing to carry it on and they are quickly becoming a center of excellence for this level of training in Canada and beyond.”

The fire dynamics program offers a scientific, evidentiary based firefighting curriculum addressing both theory and practical approaches to modern firefighting, Abrey said.

“It’s currently delivered to all levels of personnel within Winnipeg Fire, from brand new recruits right up the ladder to the district chiefs, providing them with the knowledge and practical skills required for sound decision making regarding strategies and tactics on the ever-evolving and dynamic fire ground within which we operate,” he said.

The occupational hygiene section is a cornerstone of that program, considering the ever-increasing incidence of firefighting-related cancers.

“We have to learn the skills to provide protection to ourselves to minimize exposure to carcinogens in post-fire time frame,” Abrey said. “So it’s not only on the fire ground, it’s that time following, as well.”

Abrey said the department will host 80 firefighters from several mutual aid districts, as well as West Region Tribal Council departments over the two days of training.

“So we’re extremely excited about this unique opportunity,” he said.

Other training opportunities planned for the coming months include a pumper truck basics course and an emergency vehicle driving seminar.

The department is also offering some lifestyles training for members which does not involve the fire ground.

Recently, the DFD brought in a yoga instructor to help members work out some kinks.

“I really thought that there would be some opposition from some of our members to sit and do some chair yoga, but it went over so well that they’re asking if we can get that instructor back again for another night,” Abrey said, joking he heard a lot of snap, crackle and pop happening in the room. “You could hear some really weird noises besides the groaning with the stretches that were happening.”

Recently, the department also hosted members of Project Resilience 911, who shared information on various mental health initiatives and resiliency training opportunities.

Plans are to expand the opportunities with a dietician, information about therapy dogs and training on personal fitness.

“We’re focusing on a health and wellness initiative to better educate our members on how to protect themselves off the fire ground.” Abrey said.

The Northwest Métis Region hosted a consultation meeting with its citizens regarding the Red River Métis Self-government Recognition and Implementation Treaty, Saturday in Dauphin.

The meeting gave Métis citizens as chance to add their input to the coming changes as a result of the Treaty, which was agreed to in July, 2021.

Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) vice-president and Health and Early Learning Child Care Minister Frances Chartrand said commitment made by the government of Canada will give the Red River Métis their inherent rights back.

“We’ll have access to our harvesting rights. We’ll have access to housing, education, economic development,” she said. “The commitment that was made with the federal government when they first fought. And we then we went to the Supreme Court with our land claims. In 2013, we won our land claims.”

Minister Chartrand said the treaty is for the next generation, adding it is history in the making.

“This will be the first time that the Métis are recognized and we have the new land treaty entitlement. So with the Red River Métis government, our citizens tell us what they want. They pave the path,” she said. “It’s our jobs as politicians to go out there and make it happen.”

About 200 people attended the meeting, which included a team of lawyers, one of whom is a Red River Métis citizen.

MMF president David Chartrand spoke about what the treaty means and the change for the next generation.

“And the impact it will have for the future and where we should have been 153 years ago,” he added.

The treaty, president Chartrand said, will truly change the essence for the next generation.

“It will set the foundation of assuring that there is not a doubt of the Red River Métis, of all the northwest. The agreement we signed in 2021, of July 6, removed the boundary lines. There are no provincial boundary lines that apply to us anymore. The northwest is ours,” he said. “So our citizens can join us no matter where they live in the world. And we have an obligation to protect our people’s rights as a government.”

It also sets the foundation for the future, Chartrand said, of where Métis fit in when it comes to a relationship with Canada.

“And Canada has the legal obligation that they’ve been avoiding for over 100 years. And it’s time that they come to the table and this will lead them to the table, force them to the table,” he said.

Chartrand hopes the treaty will help change the way people look at the Red River Métis.

“It’s to change the ideology of the people in the way they look at you. If they look at you as a corporation, as an organization, then they will treat you like that. But if they look at you, as you would hope they would look at, for example, the respect they have for municipalities, the respect they have for the premier, the respect they have for the prime minister,” he said. “So we’re a government. And we’re expecting that people will start to see that, within that respect, within that whole phraseology of reconciliation, comes a pattern or a modern change in this country where they will look at us as a government representing our people.”

That change, Chartrand hopes, will change the very fabric of the relationship between the Métis and Canada.

“It will really change the essence of clarity, without question. And that should have been done many, many, many moons ago,” he said.

Parts of the treaty are still being negotiated, such as child welfare, health legislation and land claims.

“So all these things that are happening are really a transition,” Chartrand said. “It’s not something that has come up overnight. This is decades and decades of struggles. A century of struggles. And it’s really setting us on a pathway to where we should have been. I look forward to a change where our people can really now know that they matter and that no one can step on them ever again.”

As part of recognizing the upcoming International Women’s Day, it’s only fittng to recognize some of Roblin’s outstanding female leadership in business, trades, and other areas.

This week we recognize pharmacist Whitney Mitchell and Highways employee Krysta Taylor.

Read all about them in this week’s Review.

Roblin Elementary School held its annual Science Fair Feb. 22 with some 40 projects on display.

Judging the entries were teachers Kelsy Black, Haley Lefebre and Shawna Packo; principal Mark Rathgeber; and Mountain View School Division trustee Leifa Misko.

Find out who won the hardware in this week’s Review

Council of the Municipality of Roblin passed three by-laws at its Feb. 28 regular meeting dealing with contracts to operate and manage the Roblin Waste Disposal Ground; for managing and caretaking the Community Centre; and providing for the remuneration of members of council and citizen appointees and volunteers.

All three by-laws were passed unanimously with Counc. Chad Jones absent from the meeting.

Want to know more? Check out this week’s council briefs.

Whenever one mentions the community of Roblin to someone you just meet, chances are they would ask you if you knew Dale Yeo. He was a man who greatly influenced many students that he taught over the years and inspired many great positive changes to take place in Roblin, which have improved the quality of life for all.

It shocked everyone in Roblin to learn of his passing on December 10, 2022, and many just can’t picture the world without his presence in it.

Read the rest of the story in this week’s Review.