TORONTO —
Hutterite colonies across Western Canada have become the epicentre of recent COVID-19 outbreaks, a development that has many members of these communities feeling targeted.
The religious group has long considered themselves to be quite private. Now, as case numbers rise, they have become the focus of press conferences.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe highlighted the community as a concern during a press briefing on Tuesday to announce that they would be “limiting the essential travel to a small number of designated individuals.
“This includes travel between Hutterite communities,” he said.
Moe’s comments came after the announcement of 60 new cases of COVID-19 within the province, 43 of which were from a single Hutterite colony. This Saturday alone, 37 new cases were announced in Saskatchewan, 29 of which stemmed from Hutterite colonies in the central and south regions of the province.
More than 20 colonies have reported cases of COVID-19 across Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Authorities have told the public not to discriminate against or stigmatize members of these communities simply because of the new rise in COVID-19 cases.
Still, many in the Hutterite community are running damage control.
Saskatchewan’s Arm River Colony, which operates a large poultry operation, says business is down about 20 per cent, despite the fact that they have zero COVID-19 cases within their community.
“We as Hutterites are not all the same,” George Hofer, poultry manager of the Arm River Farming Company, told CTV News. “We don’t all live in one colony.”
Colony members say they have followed public health rules to stay protected from the virus.
“We shut down our kitchens, we ate at home, family-wise, we didn’t even bend the rules,” Paul Waldner, a minister from the CanAm Hutterite Colony. “You know, I can only speak for myself.”
Waldner sent a letter to Manitoba’s premier and health minister, threatening to file a human rights complaint over officials publicly identifying Hutterites colonies as the location of these outbreaks — an action that has directly led to discrimination against other Hutterite colonies and Hutterites in general, he believes.
“People have become scared of us,” Waldner told CTV News on Thursday.
Of course, Hutterites are not the only group where COVID-19 data is being tracked and then publicly shared. If a COVID-19 case surfaces among groups including First Nations communities, airline passengers or truck drivers, that demographic data has also been shared.
It’s a clash between privacy and public health, one of many to emerge over the course of the pandemic.
Arthur Shafer, an ethicist who teaches philosophy at the University of Manitoba, says that authorities need to be transparent about COVID-19 data.
“Public trust is probably the most precious resource that public health officials have in a time of pandemic,” he told CTV News. “Manitoba public health should have given all the information they did, but they also have to stress that all the public health rules were followed (by the Hutterite community).”
Another point for transparency is that specificity of data can also assist officials and health experts to tailor their response to better serve communities that are experiencing a new surge in COVID-19 cases.
However, after members of Hutterite communities raised their concerns about discrimination, officials announced that a change is coming to Manitoba regarding this public sharing of data.
The province’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, said on Thursday that going forward, the information released to the public will be less specific, only naming the health region is which a new positive case has been identified.
“I think moving forward, for the most part, we are going to refer to clusters as clusters in the most generic way that we can,” said Roussin. He clarified that if the health of Manitobans appears to be at risk, they will release more specific information to combat that.
He added that making assumptions about specific groups out of fear is “not useful … and it actually hinders Public Health’s ability to control this virus.
“Be kind to each other, don’t stigmatize each other, don’t assume things about people, and let Public Health address this.”
HALIFAX – An energy firm based in Ireland says it is planning to produce aviation fuel using about 700,000 tonnes of wood biomass annually.
Simply Blue Group announced today that construction would begin in 2026 with the bio fuel project expected to be operating by 2029 in Goldboro, N.S., about 165 kilometres northeast of Halifax.
The company says it has secured about 305 hectares of land for development, including 108 hectares previously owned by Pieridae — which had planned to build an LNG plant at the site — and 198 hectares owned by the Municipality of the District of Guysborough.
Based in Cork, Ireland, the company says its aviation fuel performs like conventional jet fuel but reduces greenhouse gases by “approximately 90 per cent.”
Simply Blue says that every year the project will source about 700,000 tonnes of biomass from Wagner Forest NS Ltd. to produce 150,000 tonnes of the fuel.
Tory Rushton, the province’s natural resources minister, issued a statement saying the plant could represent a new market for the province’s forestry sector.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
FREDERICTON – New Brunswick RCMP are disputing claims that the recent shooting death of an Indigenous man in mental distress happened during a police wellness check.
Assistant commissioner DeAnna Hill, commander of the New Brunswick RCMP, says that information is inaccurate.
On Monday, the RCMP said two officers responded to a report of an armed man in mental distress at a home in the Elsipogtog First Nation, where one Mountie shot the man after the other failed to subdue him with a stun gun.
Erin Nauss, director of the Serious Incident Response Team, says she understands the initial interaction on Sunday was not what the RCMP would call a wellness check, but she says the police oversight agency will conduct an investigation to “determine all of the facts.”
Meanwhile, a statement from an Indigenous group that works with the RCMP said they weren’t told about the deadly incident until it was too late, and the group described the Mounties’ initial role at the scene as a wellness check.
As well, New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt has described what happened as a wellness check gone wrong.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
HALIFAX – RCMP are expected to provide an update today on their investigation into the suspicious disappearance of a 55-year-old Nova Scotia woman.
Esther Jones was reported missing on Labour Day, and the RCMP’s major crime unit is now involved in the case.
According to police, Jones was last seen on Aug. 31 in Kingston, N.S., and family members reported her missing Sept. 2.
Two days later, officers found Jones’s vehicle, a silver 2009 Volkswagen Passat, abandoned in nearby Greenwood, N.S.
Jones is described as five-feet-four with a slim build, and she has brown, greying, shoulder-length hair and hazel eyes.
She may have been wearing a black T-shirt with ties on the shoulders, a black and floral below-the-knee skirt, and sunglasses with mirrored lenses when she was last seen.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
