Michelle Faith and Shelby Sinclair gathered children's shoes to carefully place at the Oodena Circle at the Forks with the goal of having one pair of shoes represent one child.
Jacqueline Rieu wants her son back. He’s eight years old, is on the autism spectrum and has been living in foster care since being apprehended by Manitoba Child and Family Services five years ago.
Jacqueline Rieu wants her son back. He’s eight years old, is on the autism spectrum and has been living in foster care since being apprehended by Manitoba Child and Family Services five years ago. Other than my son having a disability, no one understands why my son is not home with me, Rieu says, adding that she has since been diagnosed with autism herself. What they’ve said in the past… is, ‘We don’t think you can handle his disability,’ even though I have the same disability and more understanding.
WINNIPEG The extreme cold weather is posing a serious safety concern for Winnipeg’s homeless population, homelessness advocates and community services workers said. With -40C winds blowing through the city, finding a warm place to shelter can mean life or death, says Marion Willis, founder and executive director of St. Boniface Street Links, an organization that opened a pop-up warming space on Sunday night. “This is really a life-saving undertaking,” said Willis. “It s very important for this next week or so until this cold snap ends.” The temporary shelter, created in collaboration with Holy Cross Church, will provide a hot meal and a safe space to keep warm until the end of this winter, should there be any other extreme cold snaps.
WINNIPEG A group of advocates have come together to create a service to ensure all Winnipeggers have equal access to health care. The service, called Health Buddies, will match advocates to people who don’t feel comfortable accessing the health-care system. The advocates will be accessible all day every day and will attend appointments, point people towards resources and explain people their rights. The service will also take an anti-racist, culturally safe and harm reduction-oriented approach. “What those health buddies will then do is to provide that witness to make sure people are getting fair and adequate treatment,” said Michael Redhead Champagne, organizer of Health Buddies.