Editors note: The following story originally ran in the Feb. 14 edition on A11 but was not in it’s entirety. The Star and Times apologizes for this error.
There is a definite need for more support and advocates for people with disabilities. Valley resident, Evelyn Yelinek, knows all too well about the needs people with disabilities have and recently, she’s been appointed to the Manitoba Intellectual Disability Advisory Council to share her experience and advocacy on certain topics.
“There was a call for interest on the Manitoba government website and I applied,” said Yelinek. “I first noticed that some people were being treated disrespectfully when I was in Grade 6. I recall telling a teacher that he was being a bully. This resulted in being sent to the office. I told the principal what happened. I was thanked and was asked to report back if I felt things like this happened again, but I should not address the teacher myself because then I was the one being disrespectful. Being the cheeky child that I was, my response was that maybe the teacher should be a better role model.
“I have a cousin who has Down Syndrome. When she came to visit, she was not allowed to play with us; she could only sit on the couch and look at books. I thought that she had a very sad life. When I asked my aunt why I was told it was not safe for her because she was very fragile.
“I also had an uncle who lived with us for a while,” said Yelinek. “He wasn’t able to care for himself and eventually he was placed at MDC because his behaviours made it unsafe for him and us. Then I became a mom to a couple of great guys. You really don’t know what love is until you have a child. My guys were born three and a half months early and I was determined to make their world very much unlike the one I witnessed as a young girl.”
Yelinek’s desire to advocate for fairness for others really developed through her own experiences as a mother.
“When I was a new mom, I was made to feel like I did something wrong that caused the early births,” said Yelinek. “The social worker constantly threatened my rights as a parent. She said that she was an educated woman and didn’t feel that she could care for the boys, so what would make me think I could? I felt she was judging me, and I was also feeling that way by some friends and family too.
“Every birthmark and bruise had to be explained. Little kids do get bumps and bruises. Add being blind to the mix, any educated person should understand that they too would get bumps and bruises.
“Then there were issues getting funding for support workers at daycare; issues getting funding for EAs; very little funding was available for respite because we lived in a rural area; the guys were not allowed to go on many field trips because of lack of support staff; while EAs came and went,” said Yelinek.
“Then comes adulthood and needing to rely on government assistance. This program was designed to help people for a short time until they can get back on their feet. It is not acceptable in any way to subject already vulnerable adults to a life of poverty in which the rent budget is so little that safe housing is very challenging, if not impossible to find. Some families have to have their adult children placed in homes outside their home community because of a lack of proper homes.
“These are just some of my experiences. People wonder why families of people with disabilities have a hard time trusting,” said Yelinek. “I never want any other mom to feel the way I did.”
Along Yelinek’s personal journey, she met some incredible people who helped her along the way. It was through their guidance that she found the inspiration to keep advocating for people with disabilities and to demand fairness for them on many issues.
“I have met some wonderful staff and friends along the way,” said Yelinek. “Dr. Rajani, a pediatrician, and Deb Ramsay, a mom from the Parents of Premature Babies club, were the first two people who provided amazing support. Deb and I are still close friends. Lois Paske, OT/PT from CNIB, told me that I was a great mom; she empowered me to stand up to the social worker. She and Dr. Rajani wrote letters on my behalf to that social worker.
“Then I moved to the Valley and met some wonderful workers here. Iris Jonsson, a Children’s Disability worker, heard my story and took me under her wing. I started working for the Department of Families and continued to be mentored by Lee Greig and Donna-Jean Slack, who were program managers, to become the best worker I could be. I was often matched up to work with families who had special needs kids; some were children and some were adults.
“At the Department of Families, I met a wonderful man named Phil Boguski, who was the Vocational Rehab Worker,” said Yelinek. “He provided so much guidance to me as a worker and a mom. I volunteered on the Association for Community Living board and met many wonderful people who attended the day program. My fellow board members were passionate about making this world our children are part of life, a much better place.
“Volunteering on the Community Mental Health board provided another opportunity to meet some pretty great citizens and see life from a different perspective. I’m now on the Innovative Life Options board and again have been blessed to meet so many wonderful men and women.”
Advocating for a loved one who has disabilities is a very challenging and draining task; one that makes you feel like the odds are greatly stacked against you. Yelinek’s faith and support from her immediate family, helped her to continue the good fight.
“Even though I have been so blessed, the struggle was real, the hurdles were huge and many times life was discouraging and heartbreaking,” said Yelinek. “This should never be the case. I am so glad that my parents raised me in a Christian home and taught me not to be afraid to speak out when things are just not right. I’m so glad my husband encouraged me to grow in my faith and continue to speak out. One of my favourite Bible verses that inspires me to keep going is ‘through him, all things are possible’. This is the verse I relied on upon through all those difficult years.
“My guys are 38 now. Christopher receives financial assistance, but no other support. Devon hires his own staff using provincial funds. Devon is part of a wonderful organization called In the Company of Friends (ICOF), whose governing board is Innovative Life Options. ICOF refer to people they serve as employers. These men and women, with the guidance of a group of people of their choosing, hire their own staff, choose where to live, what to eat, and what activities they want to enjoy. In other words, these ladies and gentlemen live with dignity, are respected, and know exactly what it means to have full citizenship. I wish more people with an intellectual disability would have an opportunity to choose ICOF.”
Yelinek feels the new changes being made will better support people who live with disabilities and that this government has given people ample opportunity to engage in the dialogue on these issues.
“I’m so hopeful of all the new changes our government is making to support people who live with disabilities,” said Yelinek. “The development of this advisory council and the fact that Heidi Wurmann, the Assistant Deputy Minister with the Department of Families, will chair it, demonstrates this government’s seriousness about making changes to current policies. The eight-person Advisory Council members were strategically selected to ensure the team is made up of people who bring many years of hands-on real-life experiences from a variety of perspectives.
“It’s so important to speak out whenever there is an opportunity provided and even when there isn’t. This government is providing its citizens with different opportunities to speak out. For example, we have EngageMB surveys and in 2022, there were many consultations about the Employment and Income Assistance program as it relates to people who live with a disability. There have been many good first steps made to the EIA program because of government has been listening to front-line staff and the recipients of this support. The Advisory Council will be another tool our government decision-makers can use to ensure the development of the best policies, procedures and programs to support Manitoban citizens who live with an intellectual disability.”
There are some issues that people with disabilities face that Yelinek would like to see addressed in the near future.
“Some of the areas that need improving for people with disabilities are fair wages for support staff, which would mean less staff turnover and more people interested in being a support worker as a career,” said Yelinek. “Fair means higher pay based on the types of support being provided and employee benefits. The department recently developed a very fair assessment tool that could be used as a guideline to develop such a wage scale.
“There needs to be more affordable housing and higher EIA rental rates. As well as promoting the benefits of hiring a person who has a disability and continuing to provide employers with incentives and supports to do so
“One change that could help would be to make the EIA disability supports a pension,” said Yelinek. “This way the person could marry a person with a higher income without losing a way to support themselves. Eliminate any fees related to Public Trustee services would greatly help too.”
Yelinek will meet with members of the Manitoba Intellectual Disability Advisory Council this month and looks forward to this new opportunity to advocate.
“The whole team will meet minimally three times a year, however, my current understanding is that there will be sub-committees formed who will meet as necessary,” said Yelinek. “My term on this committee is for two years. I would like to see all Manitobans live their best life, live with dignity, be respected and have a voice in every part of their life. I look forward to our first meeting in February.”

The U18 Parkland Rangers dominated the Norman Northstars on Saturday when they hosted them at the Swan River Centennial Arena on Saturday (Feb. 18). The 12-4 Parkland win saw goals from Swan River players Andrew Pidskalny and Tavyn Boychuk with two from AP Trace Langan. Swan Valley Stampeders prospect Cash Clarkson picked up a hat trick in the win. 

The Parkland Rangers ended the 2022-23 season with wins in five of their last seven games.

The week began with an 11-0 loss to the league-leading Brandon Wheat Kings, Wednesday in Brandon.

Luke Lepper recorded five assists for Brandon in their win, while Ethan Stewart had two goals and an assist.

Nine other players recorded two points each, including Kaeson Fisher, Keenan Skrupa and Cole Temple who had two goals each. Brady Turko, Declan Hoad and Skylar Ramsey added singles.

K.C. Couckuyt made 26 saves to post the shutout. Kyler Swanton and Chase Glover combined to stop 31 shots in goal for Parkland.

The Rangers rebounded in a big way in their season finale, Saturday in Swan River.

Cash Clarkson scored three times and added a pair of assists to lead Parkland to a 12-4 win over the Norman North Stars.

Tavyn Boychuk and Dru Mushumanski each had a goal and three assists and AP callup Trace Langan had two goals and an assist, while Connor McKay chipped in with a goal and two helpers.

Andrew Pidskalny, Havryil Simchuk, Hayden Seib and Wesley Gryba-Smith added singles and Swanton made 31 saves in recording the win.

Daylin Monias scored three times for Norman, with Logan Marr adding a single. Paxton Moore made 39 saves in the loss.

Parkland finishes the season with a 12-25-7-0 record for 31 points, 11 points out of a playoff spot

Five players - Gryba-Smith, Bo Eisner, Madden Murray, Skyler Carriere and Swanton - graduate from the Rangers program.

The Dauphin Kings and Steinbach Pistons split a home-and-home weekend with each team winning on home ice.

On Friday in front of 770 fans at Credit Union Place, the Kings scored a 6-4 victory, sparked by a two-goal performance from captain Owen Wareham.

Hunter Degelman opened the scoring 2:36 into the game, giving Steinbach an early lead.

It didn’t last long however, as the Kings scored three straight off the sticks of Wareham, with his fourth of the season on a power play, Myles Yearwood with his ninth and Blake Boudreau with his 12th.

Landon Roberts made it a one-goal game just 13 seconds after Boudreau gave the Kings a 3-1 lead.

Dauphin then increased its lead in the second period with Jakob Brook netting his seventh and Deepkaran Hans finding the back of the net for his 13th of the campaign.

Travis Hensrud and Dawson Milliken scored 40 seconds apart in the first five minutes of the third to make it interesting, but the Kings kept the Pistons at bay the rest of the way with Wareham netting his second of the game and fifth of the season into an empty net with 55 seconds left to seal the Kings victory.

Cole Sheffield made 26 saves for the Kings, which chased Pistons starter Dominik Wasik with their fifth goal of the game in the second period. He was credited with 17 saves, before giving way to Cole Plowman, who stopped all 14 shots he faced.

On Saturday in Steinbach, the Pistons scored four goals in the third period, including three in a span of 1:36 to escape with a 5-4 win.

The teams traded goals in the first period, with Mathew Gough scoring his 21st of the season for Dauphin, while Davin Griffin replied for Steinbach.

Alex Senf’s 15th of the season with 15 seconds left in the second gave the Kings a 2-1 lead entering the third period, where Nolan Wickham’s power play goal, his seventh of the season, increased Dauphin’s lead to 3-1.

The Pistons began their comeback at 6:13 when Ian Amsbaugh scored to make it a one-goal game. Brett Kaiser tied the game at 7:02 and Steinbach took the lead at 7:49 when Warren Clark beat Kings netminder Dmytro Kubrytskyi.

Dauphin’s Marco Bodnarski’s second of the season tied the game at four at the 12:01 mark, but Steinbach scored what proved to be the winner 24 seconds later when Hensrud scored.

Wasik earned the win in goal with 22 saves, while Kubrytskyi stopped 29 shots in taking the loss.

The Kings have another home-and-home weekend ahead of them, this time with division rivals, the Virden Oil Capitals.

The two teams hook up, Friday in Dauphin, with the rematch, Saturday in Virden. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m.

The Kings enter the week tied for fourth place with Virden in the MGEU West Division with 57 points each.

The OCN Blizzard hold down top spot with 61 points, followed by the Waywayseecappo Wolverines with 59 and the Swan Valley Stampeders with 58. The Neepawa Titans are still alive, but fading as they are sixth with 49 points.

The temperatures were cool but the skies were bright as large crowds gathered at Fort Dauphin Museum to celebrate Louis Riel Day, Monday.

Sponsored by the Northwest Metis Council, the day featured all sorts of fun such as dog sled rides, an opportunity to try out fat bikes and snowshoes courtesy of Northgate Trails, roasting bannock over an open fire, tug-of-war, hotdogs and hot chocolate and much more.

All of the museum buildings were also open for everyone to enjoy.

Dauphin will receive the lion’s share of 1,670 new child-care spaces in the two phases of the ready-to-move child-care project, a $94-million total investment from the governments of Canada and Manitoba.

A total of 148 child-care spaces - the only ones announced for the Parkland - will be created in a brand new facility in the city as part of Phase 2 of the program.

The new daycare will be constructed on a piece of city-owned land which lies along Whitmore Avenue East between Lorray Manor and the Manitoba Hydro office.

When we submitted an expression of interest with the province we had to commit to two things. We had to commit to offering a piece of land and we had to commit to maintaining the building for 15 years,” Economic Development manager Martijn van Luijn said, adding a daycare operator will also have to be selected.

“I’ve since learned that we’re also responsible for the process, what we call the RFP process where we select the organization that is going to be running the facility.” van Luijn said the City is still waiting for clarification on a few points before it goes looking for a provider.

“Most likely our first invitation to apply would go out in existing daycares. We have four major daycares right now and they could all be very good candidates, but we haven’t talked to them about it,” van Luijn said. “We’re hoping to be able to appoint the organization very early in the process, because they need to be involved in the design. Because as you know, every daycare has their own way of doing things.”

Based on the success of the first phase of the project, the second phase was expanded to increase to an additional 1,004 spaces in 14 facilities for a project total of 1,670 new spaces, and total of 23 new centres as a whole.

The 148 spaces planned for Dauphin are much needed as the city, while preparing its application for the program, estimated the local day care shortage at approximately 240 spaces.

“That’s the number I submitted when they asked us what is your shortage. I don’t think that we were looking for that, but as a result of that we did get the highest allocated spaces from all the selected sites,” he said. “I think that’s going solve a big issue.”

New facilities approved in the second phase of the project will be built as ready-to-move structures by a builder selected by the province and are expected to be operational before the end of this year. van Luijn believes those timelines might be a little tight.

“I don’t know how quickly they’re going to be able to build all these units. We’re not in that much of a hurry. I understand this is a very urgent problem that we would like to solve right away, but we want to do it in the right way,” van Luijn said. “So if that means that we’re later on the list we’re okay with that. We just would rather do this right.”

The ready-to-move child-care project is a partnership between the governments of Canada and Manitoba, municipal governments and First Nation communities to develop new child-care facilities in less than a year in areas with a demonstrated need for child-care spaces.

The child-care spaces being developed with this investment are part of the Manitoba government’s commitment to develop 23,000 new, regulated not-for-profit child-care spaces for children under age seven across the province by 2026.

For more information about the Canada-Manitoba Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child-Care Agreement, early learning and child-care development supports, and child-care services in Manitoba, visit gov.mb.ca/education/childcare/.

Roblin’s Senior Curling Club and the Municipality of Roblin’s Rec Department hosted the community’s first ever Two Person Stick Bonspiel Wednesday at the curling rink, attracting 16 rinks to town. The game features two curlers per rink who stay at one end of the sheet and throw three rocks each per end. Sweeping is only allowed after a rock reaches the hog line and the games go for six ends.

Points are awarded at the end of each end of play and at the end of a game and the rink with the most wins wins the bonspiel.

Find out who won in this week’s Rec Report

The Municipality of Roblin is proceeding with a borrowing by-law to cover the costs of four new graders and the construction of a new cell at the Roblin WDG (Waste Disposal Ground).

Council gave first reading to the bylaw at its regular Jan. 24 meeting after holding a public hearing.

Find out what council’s been up to in this week’s Council Briefs.

Manitoba has historically had higher levels of radon than the national averages. Health Canada has estimated about seven per cent of Canadians are living in homes above the radon guidelines, while about 19 per cent of Manitobans are facing that same challenge.

Radon is a colourless, odourless radioactive gas found naturally in the environment and comes from uranium, as it breaks down in soil and rocks. Radon can enter homes through cracks in basements or foundations and poses a health risk when people are exposed to it long-term, especially when the levels are greater than 200 bq/m3.

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

Every year at the Grammy Awards there are always highlights that are featured, usually of mega-famed super star artists, but this year some of the attendees in the crowd were highlighted as well. Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) singer, Rhonda Head, attended the 2023 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 5.
“This is my third time attending the Grammy Awards,” said Head. “It’s a great event to network and meet musicians from all over the work. It’s fun, and awesome to watch the show, with one amazing performance after another. Also, it’s very inspirational.
“I go to represent Indigenous musicians. It’s important that we are recognized and that they make space for Indigenous musicians.”
Whether one is watching the Grammy Awards from home or in the audience, each viewer walks away with a highlight from each awards show. For Head, this year’s awards had many different highlights for her.