223 voters turn out Oct. 13 for Thanksgiving holiday advance municipal and SDML election poll

A total of  223 voters turned out Oct. 13, either before of after their Thanksgiving holiday  turkey, to vote at the 12-hour advance poll from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at City Hall on Mystery Lake Drive, senior election official Dave Turpie reports. Voters could choose one of two candidates for mayor; up to eight of 18 candidates for city council; and up to seven of 11 candidates for trustee spots for the School District of Mystery Lake.

A second and final advance poll is set for Oct. 17 at City Hall, again on the ground floor foyer. Voting time Friday is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For those unable to vote at either the advance poll or the general poll on election day Oct. 22, mail-in ballots are available from Turpie. He can be contacted by cell phone at: (204)  679-1000 or by e-mail at: canturp@mymts.net

Monday’s voting marked the debut of Dominion Voting Systems Inc. vote-counting machines in Thompson, intended to be much faster delivering results on election night than manual hand counting, although the advance poll ballots still won’t be tabulated electronically until the general poll closes at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22. Dominion Voting Systems is a privately owned Denver-based company, founded in Toronto in 2002 by John Poulos and James Hoover.

Dominion’s system  is a paper-based, optical scan voting system, mixing electronics and paper, by combining an analog paper trail of each person’s vote with quick digital tallying. The vote-counting machine rests atop a two-compartment ballot box, with one compartment used to hold ballots that have been tabulated and the other for the temporary storage of completed ballots in the event that the counting machine stops functioning. The machine alerts voters in the event that their votes could not be counted because they were blank or contained too many marks or were marked outside the voting area. Voters who make an error marking their ballots can request a new ballot from a poll clerk and have the original marked spoiled.

Turpie determined the name placement of candidates on the ballot by random lot Sept. 19 with the order being Coun. Dennis Fenske at the top of the mayoral ballot followed by Coun. Luke Robinson and for council the order of precedence as it appears on the ballot is: Kathy Valentino, followed by Coun. Judy Kolada, Julyda Lagimodiere, Blake Ellis, Paullette Simkins, Coun. Penny Byer, Lydia Blais, Malanie Bercier-Cutler, Erika McCarthy, Audrey Dufour, Coun. Brad Evenson, Robert Chuckrey, Colleen Smook, Dennis Foley, Ron Matechuk, David Erickson, Duncan Wong and Christa Herkert. On the school board ballot the order of names in  precedence in which names appear is  Sandra Fitzpatrick at the top of the ballot, followed by Clint Saulteaux, Doug Krokosz, Vince Nowlin, Janet Brady, Caroline Winship, Liz Lychuk, Leslie Tucker, Don MacDonald, Guido Oliveira and Ryan Land.

The City of Thompson and School District of Mystery Lake are splitting 50-50 the projected cost of approximately $62,500 – about 50  per cent more than the cost of the 2010 election – for the ImageCast hardware rental, software licence and service agreement for both this month’s election and the October 2018 municipal and school board elections.

The cost for the last manually hand-tabulated municipal 2010 general election, also split between the city and school district on a 50-50 basis, was just under $42,000, but it took more than fours hours after the polls closed   – until after midnight to determine some of the winners. The number of poll clerks hired for the 2014 election is expected to be around 25 compared to 60 in 2010.

The turnout for that election in 2010 was 41.1 per cent of the names on the eligible voters’ list showing up to vote. That figure equated to 3,638 Thompsonites – 3,536 with valid, accepted ballots, 26 voters who declined their ballots – which they can still do simply by writing “declined” on the back of the ballot and then inserting it into the vote-counting machine– and 76 spoiled ballots. Many voters did not vote for an entire slate of eight council candidates, with the average ballot featuring only 5.8 votes for members of council.

There were 433 votes cast in advance polls in 2010 compared to 250 in 2006.

On election day Oct. 22  there will polling stations set up from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the gymnasiums of  Juniper Elementary School; Ecole Riverside Elementary School; Wapanohk Community School;  Deerwood Elementary School; Burntwood Elementary School;  and Westwood Elementary School.  Additional polling stations have now been established also for Rotary Place (10.am. to 12 noon); Thompson General Hospital (1 p.m.  to 3 p.m.) and Northern Spirit Manor (3:30 p.m. to  5:30 p.m.)

The hauntings of October: Three Thompson unsolved murders: Kerrie Ann Brown, Bernie Carlson and Christopher Ponask

Kerrie Ann Brown, Bernie Carlson and Christopher Ponask as people were as different as could be; different ages, backgrounds and life experiences. But in fate they shared three commonalities: they all lived in Thompson, Manitoba, they were all killed in October and all three of their murders have remained long unsolved.

The most written about case over the years has been the savage Oct. 16, 1986 slaying of 15-year-old Kerrie Ann Brown, Thompson’s oldest unsolved murder case, which many almost 28 years later still believe is surrounded be a conspiracy of silence.

There is every reason to believe someone knows who killed Kerrie Ann Brown. Former R.D. Parker Collegiate educator John Donovan, who retired March 17 from an encore career as Northern regional director of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba here in Thompson, perhaps summed it up best on Sept. 28, 2011 when he wrote: “I remember how Kerrie’s death shook our school and the community … obviously someone or more know what happened … the conspiracy of silence must end.”

The only suspect ever charged to date in connection with the case still lives in Thompson. His family moved here in 1968. He was 22 when he was charged in 1986 days after the crime with first-degree murder in connection with Brown’s murder in a case that was largely circumstantial. The three lead investigating local RCMP officers in 1986 were constables Pat Cahill, Maggie Gregory and polygraph and forensic examiner John Tost. The Crown attorney was Dale Perezowski.

The accused was freed four months later after being discharged by provincial court Judge Charles Newcombe without being committed to trial after a three-day preliminary hearing ended Feb. 20, 1987. Newcombe ruled there wasn’t admissible evidence upon which a reasonable jury properly instructed could return a verdict of guilty, which is the legal test in Canadian law for committal to trial. Then NDP Manitoba attorney general Roland Penner did not exercise his discretion to issue a rare preferred indictment, which would have sent the case directly to trial.

Brown was slain sometime after attending a party at a residence on Trout Avenue in Westwood on Thursday night Oct. 16, 1986.  Most of those in attendance at the Trout Avenue party were from ages 14 to 17. The party was held on a Thursday night because there was no school the next day for Kerrie and the others at R.D. Parker Collegiate. She had previously attended Juniper and Eastwood elementary schools. Her mom and dad, Ann and Jim Brown, had moved to Thompson like many so Jim could work in the mine at Inco, while Ann worked at Thompson General Hospital as a medical transcriptionist. Ann Brown died some years ago. Kerrie’s brother, Trevor, lives in Winnipeg, and has been active in keeping up the fight for justice for his sister, as is her aunt, Tammy Fenner, and her husband, Kevin, from Maberly, in eastern Ontario, near Ottawa.

Kerrie was to walk home from the Trout Avenue residence that night with a girlfriend but before leaving the friend went back into the party for a few minutes. Kerrie stepped outside apparently to wait. When the friend returned, Kerrie was gone. Several witnesses reported Kerrie was seen getting into a van between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. Others believe she took a taxi to Brandon Crescent. Or she may have walked somewhere from the party.

Two days after the party, two women from the riding stable discovered her nude body in a wooded area close to the hydro line between the horse stable and the golf course access roads. Her body was found on Saturday, Oct. 18, 1986, around 2 p.m. Brown had been sexually assaulted and severely beaten, bludgeoned repeatedly about the face and head causing massive injuries. A large, bloodstained stick was found at the scene.

A vehicle got stuck in the mud there and a blue and red air mattress and a black rubber floor mat were used to try and gain traction and extricate the vehicle, RCMP said publicly in 1996. Two eyewitnesses had spotted a white van and an older model mid-60s green sedan-type car at the scene just hours after Brown, who had been wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey jacket earlier in the evening, disappeared from the party. Crime scene DNA samples gathered in 1986 came from at least two different men RCMP said in 1996, adding they have always believed more than person was involved in the killing.

In 2012, the RCMP  began conducting a full review of Kerrie Ann Brown’s murder investigation. They rehired a retired homicide investigator, Sgt. Bert Clarke, who retired in 2009 as the commander-in-charge of the RCMP’s homicide unit in Manitoba, to assist in the review of the investigation, along with a second rehired former homicide investigator.

The two retired homicide investigators did not work on the Brown murder originally, although they were aware of it, but were brought into assist the historical case unit, which is the official RCMP name for Manitoba’s cold case squad, by bringing their expertise to the complex case by taking a fresh look at it.  It’s a daunting task given there more than 2,000 subjects recorded and documented in the file.

Active duty investigators also continue to work on the Brown case. All of the forensic evidence is being reviewed for DNA submission or re-submission and people continue to be polygraph examined in the case. New DNA samples searching for matches have been taken, most voluntarily, some pursuant to court orders, from more than 100 people across Canada in the decades since the crime.
Administrative personnel were assigned to the case to “digitize” the investigation for present and future purposes.

The Brown cold case is the largest unsolved homicide investigation (nearly three dozen banker boxes of investigative file material) that the RCMP have in Manitoba.

The most recent October unsolved murder here occurred six years ago yesterday on Oct. 2, 2008, when Thompson RCMP were dispatched to a report of a deceased male, found near the Thompson Shell station, in the Southwood area of Thompson. A city-owned concrete public footpath connects the 200-block of Juniper Drive to the back of Southwood Shopping Plaza on Thompson Drive South.  The victim was 19-year-old Christopher Clyde Ponask, who would have been 20 in three days.  At time of his killing, Ponask, and his girlfriend, Randi Duke, were expecting their first child. Earlier this year, Manitoba Crime Stoppers issued a notice saying that the Thompson RCMP detachment, RCMP major crimes unit, and Crime Stoppers were still looking for help to “solve this crime” and “seeking the public’s assistance” into what they described as an “ongoing investigation.”

Ponask was born in Thompson on Oct. 5, 1988. He attended Juniper Elementary School. In 2003 he relocated to Edmonton to live with his mother, Elaine, attending Kennadale High School, and and later moved back to Thompson. His dad was the late  Clyde Trottier and one of his grandparents is Julyda Lagimodiere, minister of justice and vice-president of the Manitoba Metis Federation here, who is seeking a city council seat in the Oct. 22 municipal election.

Meanwhile, Oct. 26  marks the seventh anniversary of the 2007 still unsolved murder of 61-year-old Bernie Carlson, a retired Inco miner and avid gun collector and amateur gunsmith, in an early morning break-and-enter into his 140 Yale Ave. home in Eastwood. Carlson, also know affectionately as “Boom-boom” and “Bowanna,” was shot just inside his front door while investigating an intruder after being awakened by a dog barking just before 1 a.m.

Sean Grunewald, then an investigator with Thompson RCMP’s major crime unit, called the taped emergency call from Bernie’s wife, Elva, hiding in the bedroom from the intruder, the most chilling taped emergency call for help he’s ever listened to. He also has described the case as “baffling.”

Baffling and marked by some bad luck, in many ways from the beginning. Take for instance the ground search for the killers in the woods and trails behind the Carlson home. The police had the worst turn of luck imaginable. The first major snowfall of the season started within 12 hours of the murder, wiping out any scent tracking dogs might have picked up.

Grunewald says if the grass had only stayed dry and greener for a few more days – or even if the snow had come a few days earlier – they may well have had more luck tracking then they did with the season’s first fresh snowfall covering up recent scents just as police dogs were ready to work the trails and woods behind the Carlson residence.

The home invasion, the murder of Carlson and the arrival of siren-blaring, lights-flashing RCMP and paramedics from Thompson Fire and Emergency Services would all happen in a matter of minutes. But in those few minutes, the killers had disappeared, either by foot or in a vehicle.

On Feb. 6, 2012, Manitoba Crime Stoppers released a 1:01 YouTube video re-enactment of the Carlson crime. As of Oct. 3, 2014 at the time of writing, that video had received 742 views. You can watch it here at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A1vb5ufNE8

Carlson and his wife, Elva, were asleep in their bedroom at the back of the bungalow when they were awoken by the sound of the dog barking and their front door being forced open. Bernie Carlson got up to check out what was going on. Moments later he’d be laying dead on the floor from a gunshot wound or wounds. Police won’t say how many times he was shot or the type of firearm used, but say they believe the perpetrators were already armed when they broke into the house and they do not believe Carlson was shot by one of his own weapons as they all appear to have been properly locked and stored in the basement and have been accounted for. The intruders took nothing else either during their brief time inside the house.

Carlson’s gun collection was made up exclusively of long guns – rifles and shotguns, no handguns. While police won’t say exactly how many guns Carlson, an avid hunter, had stored in the house, they described the collection as fairly typical for what might be found in many a hunting enthusiast’s home in Thompson. There was nothing in Carlson’s gun collection that made it particularly remarkable in terms of type of weapons or firepower, police said.

While Bernie Carlson confronted the intruders, Elva made an emergency telephone call that was routed through to the RCMP Operational Communication Centre Telecommunications in Winnipeg. Grunewald, who has listened over and over to the tape, much like a 911-type call highlighted sometimes on reality-based crime television shows, described it as the most harrowing emergency call he has heard as a police officer. The operator who took the call had alerted Thompson RCMP within about 40 seconds of the extreme emergency, resulting in officers being dispatched to the Eastwood neighbourhood with lights and sirens in their highest level life-and-death emergency response mode.

The first officer was on the scene at Yale Avenue within 2:30 to three minutes of the call being made.

The suspects had already fled, maybe on foot and possibly along one of the trails through woods behind the house, but that has never been determined with certainty, police say.

It’s even possible the assailants left the scene of the crime in a vehicle. RCMP set up roadblocks south of the city on Highway 6 and north and west of Thompson on Highway 391. Within the next few hours every RCMP officer on duty in Thompson that early morning, along with some called in, would make their way at some point over to the Carlson residence.

Carlson was born June 19, 1946 at Berens River. According to his obituary, “Bernie, as he was known, or to some Boom-boom and Bowanna, spent most of his younger years in Matheson Island. He attended Cranberry Portage residential school until 1965.”

He met Elva Little and they were married in November 1967 in Wabowden. He was murdered 23 days before what would have been their 40th wedding anniversary.

Carlson worked for Inco for 32 years before retiring in 1998 his obituary recalled. “As an avid hunter he would spend all his summers at Setting Lake campground waiting for the upcoming hunting season. A dedicated family man, who loved his wife, children and grandchildren with every ounce of his being, Bernie truly enjoyed teaching them to fish, hunt, sing and have an appreciation for life. Well known and respected in the North, he called Thompson the city where he worked and lived but Setting Lake and Wabowden his home and life.”

Anyone who has information on any of these unsolved murders can contact Thompson RCMP detachment at (204) 677-6909, or, if you wish to remain anonymous, Manitoba Crime Stoppers at Crime Stoppers, which can be reached toll-free at (800) 222-8477 (TIPS) or to submit a secure tip online go to http://www.manitobacrimestoppers.com and text “TIPMAN” plus your message to CRIMES (274637).

You can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22

Not running: The big story of Thompson city council and School District of Mystery Lake elections Oct. 22

Elections are very often referendums on the incumbents seeking re-election. Voters are as likely to be voting against something or someone as for anything. But not always. The real  story of the upcoming Oct. 22 municipal election in Thompson is not so much the newcomers seeking office, but the vast number of city councillors and School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) trustees who are not seeking office and will complete their terms at 11:59 a.m.Thursday, Oct. 23, including Mayor Tim Johnston, a two-term mayor and one-term councillor, first elected in 2002, and SDML chair Rob Pellizzaro, a local lawyer, who was first elected in 1998, and is the longest serving trustee on the board.

Thompson had a strong turnout for the last municpal election in 2010, with 41.1 per cent of the names on the eligible voters’ list showing up to vote. That figure equated to 3,638 Thompsonites – 3,536 with valid, accepted ballots, 26 voters who declined their ballots – led by 12 decliners at the Riverside poll – and 76 spoiled ballots. Many voters did not vote for an entire slate of eight council candidates, with the average ballot featuring only 5.8 votes for members of council.

In April 2009, council invoked Section 78 of the Municipal Act to add an eighth councillor as of the October general election, along with the mayor, for a nine-member council, reverting to the size council was until the early 1990s when they dropped a seat.

City councillors are elected at-large in Thompson.

Dating back to 1867 and the British North America Act,  which sets out our basic post-Confederation governance structures, municipalities are creature of the provinces and the most junior level in our three-tier federal, provincial and municipal governance system. Without the consent of the Province of Manitoba, there is nothing the City of Thompson or any other Manitoba municipality can do.

It  was the second-highest voter turnout in Thompson history – the record still belongs to the 1986 general election, where 42.4 per cent of registered voters showed up to re-elect then-mayor Don MacLean to a fourth term, but 2010 did finish just ahead of the 41 per cent turnout from 2006, which had been in second place.

Born and raised in Thompson, Johnston is the son of Dr. Blain Johnston, a former city councillor who was the first regular, full-time doctor in Thompson. He graduated from R.D. Parker Collegiate in 1980. After graduating from the University of Winnipeg with a degree in administrative studies and working in Winnipeg for several years, Johnston returned to Thompson in the late 1980s, when he purchased J.B. Johnston Ventures Ltd. from his parents. A past president of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce, in 1999 and 2000, Johnston is the manager of North Central Community Futures Development Corporation, and plans to remain there and continue to live in Thompson, he has said.

Also leaving city council is its longest serving-member, Coun. Stella Locker, a registered nurse as well as real estate broker,  who chaired the city planning commission from 1967  to 1972 and chaired the industrial commission from 1982 to 1984. She was first elected to city council in 1989 and served as deputy mayor. In the last election in 2010, Locker finished on top at nearly every polling station, only finishing outside first place once – coming in third at Wapanohk in Eastwood.

Also stepping away is two-term Coun. Charlene Lafreniere, director of institutional advancement at the University College of the North (UCN) since September 2010, and previously executive director of the Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation (TNRC) and director of justice at Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO).  Lafreniere, who topped the polls in the 2006 council race, was re-elected, but with less support, in 2010.

Coun. Erin Hogan, first elected to city council in a city-wide byelection in December 2009 to replace Coun. Cory Young, was re-elected 10 months later in the October 2010 general municipal election. She is pregnant and expecting twins. During her almost five years as a councillor she served as a Manitoba board member on the  Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) national board of directors and was vice-chair of the standing committee on increasing women’s participation in municipal government. She works as a policy analyst in the aboriginal relations division of Manitoba Hydro.

The three incumbents seeking re-election as councillors are Penny Byer, first elected in 2010 also, Coun. Brad Evenson, a one-term councillor first elected four years ago, and owner of Patent Electric and former managing partner with the Wescan Electrical Company, who also served for four months in 2007 as  president of the Thompson Chamber of Commerce, and Coun Judy Kolada, the second-longest serving member of council, first elected in 1994.  She came to Manitoba from the south shore of Nova Scotia in the 1960s, following her graduation from Bridgewater Commercial College. She is a former executive director the YWCA of Thompson and before that retired from the provincial government, where she worked for the Department of Northern Affairs as a local government co-ordinator and the Department of Labour as a labour standards officer.  Byer  retired in April 2013 as Vale’s Manitoba Operations as corporate affairs co-ordinator, who moved to Thompson in 1978 to open up the CBC North Country studio and has a diploma in creative communications and certificates in marketing, public relations and journalism,

Two first-term incumbent councillors, Dennis Fenske and Luke Robinson, are seeking the mayor’s chair, meaning the loser will no longer sit on council.

Fenske, currently serving as deputy mayor, also controls DDAK Developments Inc., a family real estate development and holding company, and is a long time resident of Thompson. His parents, Len and Mary Fenske arrived in 1961 with six children planned to stay a couple of years until farming in Saskatchewan rebounded, he says on his Dennis Fenske for Mayor page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dennis-Fenske-for-Mayor/1558721681016070

A centre, who shoots left, Fenske played three seasons of Junior B hockey in British Columbia for the Victoria Cougars  from 1975 to 1978, and three more seasons between 1983 and 1986 for the University of Saskatchewan of the Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA). He returned to live in Thompson in 1988. Upon his return, he was hired by the City of Thompson as a recreation programmer for the Department of Recreation, Parks and Culture. In 1990, he was promoted to director, and served in that position until 1999. He then transferred to City Hall as the director of community development and human resources. He left the City of Thompson in the fall of 2007 for Vale where he is currently employed as engineering supervisor of support services for central engineering and the project management office.

Fenske is a widower. His wife, Don, died in May 2007 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease after the New York Yankees’ slugger, first baseman and outfielder who died of ALS in June 1941. Both of their daughters are R.D. Parker Collegiate graduates: Allison is a lawyer and Kate a nurse. Fenske, who was out of town Sept. 19 during the ballot draw by senior election official Dave Turpie to determine position randomly on the ballot (which Fenske won over Robinson) was away to get married, Turpie said. Fenske had been engaged to Germaine Leger, of Thompson, formerly of Winnipeg, since Oct. 12, 2013. Both are half marathon long-distance runners who have competed for several years in June in the Manitoba Marathon in Winnipeg.

Luke Robinson, who was out of the gate early, announcing his mayoral run in May, won the eighth and final seat on council in the Oct. 27, 2010 election in a nail-biter of a race all night long, with challenger Jasper Robinson and Les Ellsworth staying in the mix right until the final poll. He first ran for a council a year earlier , finishing as runner-up to Hogan in the 2009 byelection. An automotive, truck and coach heavy-duty mechanic, Robinson is a Francophone, originally from Kapuskasing, in Northern Ontario. Bilingual, he was educated in French in elementary school and finished high school in English. He moved to Thompson in 1999 with his son, Randy, and has worked at Vale since 2001, where is a mechanical underground worker at Vale. He also as a daughter, Tammy, and two stepchildren, Angela and Ryan Bonner, with his partner of 12 years, Heather Bonner, who is Métis and a community liaison worker at Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre. Robinson says his grandson, Drayden, will be multilingual, speaking, English, French and Cree.

Robinson also has a private pilot’s licence, owns an ultralight plane, has a cabin at Turnbull Lake in Leaf Rapids, and served 12 years as a volunteer firefighter, as well as serving as a school board trustee in Northern Ontario. Robinson’s City of Thompson biographical webpage http://www.thompson.ca/index.aspx?page=162 lists him as an “active union steward with USW Local 6166,” but the Thompson Labour Committee, when it met last week decided for the first time in years to endorse none of the candidates   –  incumbents or challengers  –  who  had declared their intentions almost a week before nominations closed, and who are running for mayor, city council or School District of Mystery Lake trustee. Robinson brought greetings from the City of Thompson last Nov. 23 to the USW Local 6166 annual gala banquet and dance for their activists and stewards at the Juniper Centre.

Paul Andersen, long-time producer for Shaw TV in Thompson, Flin Flon and The Pas, is talking to Robinson at  9 a.m. today and took to Shaw TV’s Twitter account at https://twitter.com/ShawTVThompson last night to tweet, “If you have any questions to ask him, e-mail at shawcable11@yahoo.ca.”

Over at the School District of Mystery Lake meanwhile, the big news, aside from Pellizzaro not running again after 16 years on the board, is that Ryan Land and Caroline Winship are, as  reported here Sept. 14. If you missed it earlier, you can read the story here at  https://soundingsjohnbarker.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/ryan-land-and-caroline-winship-running-for-sdml-school-board-trustee-seats/

There are 11 candidates running for the seven SDML trustees seats.

Also stepping down after one term are 75-year-old trustee Sya Gregovski  and Alexander Ashton, who had taught at University College of the North (UCN) and is the younger brother of two-term Churchill NDP MP Niki Ashton and the son of Thompson NDP MLA and minister of infrastructure and transportation Steve Ashton and Hari Dimitrakopoulou-Ashton, an economist and university lecturer in economics, management, and women’s studies, who is also a former SDML school board trustee. Alexander Ashton plans to live abroad this coming year.

Running again is veteran trustee Guido Oliveira, who works at Vale and was the top vote-getter in the Oct. 27, 2010 election; one-term trustee Vince Nowlin, who also works at Vale; Leslie Tucker,  manager of Northern Region Training and Employment Services here for Jobs and the Economy Manitoba; and Janet Brady, who was elected in a byelection Nov. 17, 2011 to replace Valerie Wilson, who resigned and moved to Winnipeg, as a School District of Mystery Lake trustee. Brady easily swept by Julyda Lagimodiere in a 458 to 230 vote cakewalk.

Brady, 60, a Montreal native, is a product of Quebec’s Roman Catholic school system in the 1960s and early 1970s, and a senior instructor at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Social Work in the Northern Bachelor of Social Work program here.

A former social worker with Awasis from 1987 to 1990, Brady returned to Thompson in 2002 to teach at the University of Manitoba.

Brady has a master’s degree in social work from Carleton University in Ottawa.

In 1999, she sought the NDP nomination for the riding of Arthur-Virden for the September general election, but lost out to fellow dipper Perry Kalynuk.

She did secure the NDP nomination, however, in the riding of Turtle Mountain where she finished second, losing to Progressive Conservative incumbent Merv Tweed, now president of OmniTRAX Canada, the Bayline railway.

Other newcomers in the SDML trustee race include Don MacDonald, Liz Lychuk, Sandra Fitzpatrick, Doug Krokosz and Clint Saulteaux.  Lychuk is the manager of child and adolescent mental health programs and mental health promotion here at the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA),.

Among the 18 city council hopefuls for eight council seats are two former mayoral candidates, Ron Matechuk, who lost to Johnston by only 208 votes, in 2010, and Colleen Smook, owner of McCreedy Campground, who lagged well behind in early balloting last time out and finished third in the mayor’s race with a total vote count of 681. Also running are Christa Herkert, after school program director at the Boys & Girls Club of Thompson, who is also a member of the Thompson Lion’s Club, Communities in Bloom and Operation Red Nose; Blake Ellis, who began his studies last week at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Social Work, where he is working towards a bachelor’s degree, but is undoubtedly better known for his previous employment roles as housing co-ordinator for the Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Program (TNRC)  Our Home Kikinaw program; spokesperson for the former Burntwood Regional Health Authority (BRHA); and as a long-time reporter and later editor with the Thompson Citizen and Nickel Belt News, primarily when the Wright family owned it, but also for six months in 2007 after GVIC Communications Corp. of Vancouver’s Glacier Media Group bought it as part of their Prairie Newspaper Group. Ellis, who has lived here for 17 years and is from the farm country of southwestern Ontario originally, has two children and has also been involved in  Thompson Youth Bowling Council, Thompson Tumblers, Hope North Flag Football and Thompson Junior Soccer.

Also running are Julyda Lagimodiere, minister of justice and vice-president of the Manitoba Metis Federation here, who ran against Brady in the school board byelection in 2011, and also worked previously as the learners assistance centre co-ordinator at University College of the North’s Thompson campus from 1987 to 2012; Paullette Simkins, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Thompson and the Thompson Homeless Shelter; Erika McCarthy, owner of McCarthy Mobile Technology, who recently returned to Thompson after a 10-year hiatus living elsewhere and for a time contemplated running for mayor right out of the gate; Malanie Bercier Cutler; Dave Erickson, a plumber who owns Thompson Plumbing & Heating on Centennial Drive East; Rob Chuckrey; Audrey Dufour, originally from Dolbeau-Mistassini  in the Lac-Saint-Jean region of northern Quebec, who has worked as a substitute teacher for the SDML since 2012; Dennis Foley, a service writer at McKay GM but  best known these days as a mud bog impessario with the  Northern Manitoba Off Road Association , Kathy Valentino; Lydia Blais co-ordinator for Boys & Girls Club of Thompson’s inter-agency Youth At Risk North (YARN), and Duncan Wong, of Baffin Crescent, owner of Wong’s Asian Bistro in Southwood Plaza.

Ryan Land and Caroline Winship running for SDML school board trustee seats

More than 3½ years after the Ryan Land saga began, an afterword of sorts, even if unspoken or acknowledged publicly, is nonetheless being written in bold letters as the former probationary principal of R.D. Parker Collegiate, who now works as manager of corporate affairs and organizational development for Vale’s Manitoba Operations, announced Sept. 13, three days before nominations close, that he is running for a four-year term as a trustee in the Oct. 22 School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) board of trustees election.

The board is composed of seven elected trustees and this is the first election to be held since Land’s controversial firing as principal of R.D Parker Collegiate in 2011. Nominations close at Thompson City Hall Sept. 16 at 4:30 p.m.

On a new Facebook group page, “BLB – Bring Land Back for SDML Trustee!,” Land wrote Friday:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1460946134194226/permalink/1461270204161819/

“I, Ryan Land, just turned in my nomination and registration papers to run for school trustee in the School District of Mystery Lake. I did it because I love learning and I believe in students. I believe in their infinite capacity to learn, create, surprise, excel and inspire. I believe education should be democratic, differentiated, and inclusive, and should consider individual context, culture, and collective impact, and that trustees must be passionate promoters of student achievement and accountability. Like Barbara Coloroso, I believe education should be neither a ‘jellyfish” nor a ‘brick wall’ parent to the children and youth within its care, but rather it must be a reasonable and prudent parent with a ‘backbone’.

“I believe in teachers. That teachers are so often the difference, especially for at risk, high-achieving and exceptional children and youth. I believe in the power of belief and that children and youth learn best when they feel safe, confident, competent and loved. I believe that everyone that comes into contact with students–parent, caregiver, coach, custodian, educational assistant, mentor, trustee, etc.–is a teacher and that we are all career educators. Like Parker Palmer, I believe the loudest lesson we all teach is ‘who we are.’

“I believe in Thompson and in the School District of Mystery Lake. I know we have the capacity to be a flagship school division in the province and that every student can be successful in Thompson. I am proud of everything that we accomplished during my time as principal of RDPC. Being a part of that team was an honour that remains one of most amazing and inspiring professional experiences I’ve ever had, and I miss working with students, families and educators every day. This community showed me that it is capable of great care, and even greater courage. Ubuntu!

“I believe we are better together, when we lead from and listen with our hearts and our heads, especially where children and youth are concerned. I believe we accomplish more when we focus on our shared values and interests, rather than on positions. I am absolutely encouraged by the fact that Doug Krokosz, Caroline Winship, Janet Brady, Leslie Tucker, Liz Lychuk, and Don MacDonald are also looking to run!

Brady was elected in a byelection Nov. 17, 2011 to replace Valerie Wilson, who resigned and moved to Winnipeg, as a School District of Mystery Lake trustee. Brady easily swept by Julyda Lagimodiere in a 458 to 230 vote cakewalk.

Brady, 60, a Montreal native, is a product of Quebec’s Roman Catholic school system in the 1960s and early 1970s, and a senior instructor at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Social Work in the Northern Bachelor of Social Work program here.

A former social worker with Awasis from 1987 to 1990, Brady returned to Thompson in 2002 to teach at the University of Manitoba.

Brady has a master’s degree in social work from Carleton University in Ottawa.

In 1999, she sought the NDP nomination for the riding of Arthur-Virden for the September general election, but lost out to fellow dipper Perry Kalynuk.

She did secure the NDP nomination, however, in the riding of Turtle Mountain where she finished second, losing to Progressive Conservative incumbent Merv Tweed.

Tucker is manager of Northern Region Training and Employment Services here for Jobs and the Economy Manitoba. She was first elected to the school board as a trustee last election in October 2010. Liz Lychuk is the manager of child and adolescent mental health programs and mental health promotion here at the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA).

Caroline Winship came to wide public notice several months ago when she tried unsuccessfully to have her son, Colin, who is home schooled, enrolled on a part-time basis in the Grade 6 band program this academic year. The seven incumbent trustees of the School District of Mystery Lake, including Brady and Tucker, decided unanimously May 27 to turn down the request, as the board says it no longer allows partial enrollment of home schooled students. Five years ago, Colin had been permitted into music and physical education classes through partial enrollment at École Riverside School back in 2009 when he was in Grade 1.

But the board’s position now in 2014 is that home schooled students cannot partially enrol for some classes or activities with SDML, due to the board’s space and funding concerns, because in fairness saying yes to one such request would make it necessary to say yes to them all. There were eight families last academic year who home school their children in Thompson and some of their children, in addition to Colin, had taken part in school district programs in the past, though none have for the past two years.

Winship said last June she has spoken to superintendents at 38 other school districts or divisions, and that only one had a policy against allowing home schooled students to partially enrol and that was because that district didn’t have enough room for all of its own students in its programs.

Winship, and her husband, Jason, asked the board to reconsider their decision, which they did June 24. She presented a 15-page petition, including 324 names of people supporting Colin’s participation in the band program. While many of their petition supporters were from Thompson, many of the other petition signers were from places like Oxnard, California, Las Vegas, Richmond, Virginia, Indianapolis, Phenix City, Alabama, Summerville, South Carolina, Cleveland, Tennessee, Paramus, New Jersey, Panama City, Florida, Vienna, Austria, Cacém-sintra, Portugal, Gauteng, South Africa, Vyshneve, Ukraine and Ranelagh, Australia.

Neither the petition nor the second Winship delegation June 24, however, proved persuasive. “The decision we made at the May 27 meeting remains unchanged,” Brady wrote to the Winships in a one-paragraph letter of response June 26.

The Winships then took their case to provincial NDP Minister of Education and Advanced Learning James Allum, who asked Gerald Farthing, his deputy minister, to review their concerns directly. In his reply to the Winships, Farthing said “the decision to admit the student rests with locally elected school board trustees,” but added he contacted SDML officials and they “have agreed to review their policy regarding the admittance of home schooled children into public school courses and extra-curricular activities.”

In her new Facebook group page, created Sept. 19, “Caroline Winship For School Board Trustee” at https://www.facebook.com/groups/winshipfortrustee/, Winship notes she aside from the recent homeschooling issue, she has also been long well known as a local advocate on autism issues.

“As a local autism advocate and tutor,” Winship writes, “who has accompanied many families into meetings regarding their child’s education, I have seen, first hand, the trials that teachers and parents go through as they navigate the needs of each particular child.

“I have helped educate many EA’s here in town on the latest research and strategies for children on the spectrum and it has become a passion of mine to see every child succeed.

“Being on the school board would just be an extension of that passion.

“I am known, most recently, as the mom who attempted to bring the homeschooling world together with the public school district by having my son admitted into the band program. This is one issue that I could not vote on as a school board trustee due to conflict of interest.”

“I do feel however, that this situation proved to the community that I am a fighter for the underdog.

It showed my ability to work diligently, be well researched in policies and be professional and polite while working with others.

“This recent situation ignited a fire under my feet to make a difference.

“Whether my children are in public school or not.

“Whether they are in band or not.

“Education in our community is a top priority and I want to do whatever it takes to help all students succeed by supporting the staff of Mystery Lake so they can do the absolute best job possible.”

Writes Winship: “I am excited to ‘Be A Part Of The Change’ along with other new candidates that want to form a fully functional and accountable school board for the District of Mystery Lake.

“For those who might not know me,” Land writes on his Facebook group page,BLB – Bring Land Back for SDML Trustee!, “I have a B.Ed. degree with specializations in English and Physical Education, and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership. I was a long-time teacher and administrator, which included two of the very best years of my educational career as principal of R.D. Parker Collegiate. I am a proud parent of four children who currently attend three different schools in SDML, and my amazing partner Carmilla and I are in our twenty-second year of marriage. Our dog is Kofi.”

Land sets the tone in his new Facebook group page in a comment Saturday, where in response to a thinly-veiled sarcastic comment about another trustee, replies in his comment at 12:59 p.m., “We’ll keep it healthy, clean, positive and constructive.”

Land has already gained some high-profile endorsements for his election bid as a trustee next month.

Wally Itson, who served as a vice-principal under Land and eventually replaced him, wrote Saturday on the Facebook group page BLB – Bring Land Back for SDML Trustee!, “As a educator, I had the pleasure of working with some very good people. As a vice principal, I was fortunate to be part of Principal Ryan Land’s leadership team and I must tell you, it was an awesome experience and I learned a great deal. He is the finest administrator I ever worked with. His knowledge about educating our youth is exemplary. His passion for the success of students is second to none. His work ethic is amazing! I proudly endorse Ryan Land as a candidate for the School District of Mystery Lake.”

Itson, 63, who retired in June, was named as principal of R.D. Parker Collegiate in 2012. He took over the job of acting principal, which he had previously held briefly during the 2010-11 school year, from January 2012 until August 2012, taking over from interim principal Eric Overall, who came out of retirement for a second time to take on the job after the school district was unable to find a permanent replacement for Land. The “acting” was dropped from Itson’s job title effective September 2012. Itson landed the job after Legacy Bowes Group of Winnipeg conducted a national job search for SDML to fill the job, but in the end board trustees opted to stick with Itson’s local experience, as the district sought to solve the problem of transiency among senior administrators both at the high school and in the district office.

Land also has the support of John Donovan, a well-known R.D. Parker Collegiate figure, who retired March 17 from his encore career as Northern regional director of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM) as Eaglewood Addictions Centre here, and Elaine Thompson, who retired as principal of Westwood Elementary School here in June 2013 and now lives in Gimli. Wrote Thompson on BLB – Bring Land Back for SDML Trustee!, Sept. 13:

“Like Wally Itson, I too worked with Ryan Land while I was an administrator at Westwood School. He was an exceptional leader and role model. I was lucky enough to attend principal conferences with him and watched while other administrators in the province networked with him and even nominated him to sit on the provincial board. Unfortunately he was not around long enough to take up the challenge of leading administrators at a provincial level. He was also involved in basketball at RDPC and chaperoned the boys team while I was asked by my coaching daughter, Jennifer Bryan to chaperone the girls on a trip to Flin Flon. At the tournament Ryan was approached by the organizers to ref some games, which he agreed to do. He then had to head to the local Walmart to buy new shorts and runners for the task. When he wasn’t with the boys team he came to watch the girls play, he asked them about their injuries and how they were feeling and he knew them all by name, something my daughter pointed out as being pretty special since her high school principal never knew her name. An awesome man, an awesome educator; an awesome parent (his daughter went to WW) and he’ll be an awesome trustee if given the opportunity. Bring Land Back!”

Trustees twice in identical 5-2 splits on Feb. 22, 2011, and again on April 5, 2011, where a five-member “Concerned Aboriginal Women’s Coalition” – consisting of Jackie Fitzpatrick, Hilda Fitzner, Freda Lepine and Sharon McLeod and Lagimodiere – appeared as a delegation to challenge several of the claims from an anonymous letter distributed earlier supporting Land, and also questioned his commitment to aboriginal students, saying no new aboriginal programs or courses had been introduced during his tenure as principal, voted to remove Land as probationary principal of R.D. Parker Collegiate – with then-chair Rob Pellizzaro, then vice-chair Guido Oliveira, as well as trustees Vince Nowlin, Alexander Ashton, and former trustee Wilson voting in favour both times – and trustees Sya Gregovski and Tucker opposed.

In mid-June 2011 Land was then subsequently fired for cause by the school board – four months after they had removed him as probationary principal. At a trustees meeting the day before graduation, then superintendent Bev Hammond provided details of an investigation she said she had conducted, which she said found that students had had marks changed without doing remedial work, responsibility for which she later laid at the feet of Land. Hammond’s marks-changing investigation focused only on the years that Land was principal.

The bureaucratic soap opera began April 27, 2010 – before Hammond was hired and when Hugh Fraser was still superintendent. Then-chair Pellizzaro, delivered what was described as a “public rebuke” to Land during a board meeting and announced that his probationary status, normally one year in duration, was being extended another year after a unanimous vote by the board of trustees, who had considered the option of terminating Land’s employment, but ultimately decided not to.

Pellizzaro then denounced employees who try to “manipulate the board by influence.” Pellizzaro, elected in 1998, is the longest-serving trustee on the board.

Five months later, just a few months into Hammond’s superintendent stint, the board apologized to Land – without his being present – for discussing his contract status publicly.

Before becoming principal of R.D. Parker Collegiate in August 2009, Land had spent the previous academic year in West Africa as principal of the Canadian Independent College of Ghana in Accra, a Canadian university preparatory co-ed college day and boarding school. Land completed one year of a five-year contract in Ghana, but, as was allowed in his contract, resigned from the position for family-related reasons.

The Canadian Independent College of Ghana is a licensed sister campus to the Canadian Independent College (CIC), a co-ed university preparatory college, formerly known as the North Wilmot School, which opened in 1964 and is located in Baden, Ontario. It is a member of the Council of Advanced Placement Schools in Ontario.

Hammond herself resigned on Jan. 18, 2012 as superintendent of the School District of Mystery Lake, She had been on medical leave from Dec. 13, 2011 through Dec. 22, 2011 and on holidays from then through Jan. 9, 2012 when classes resumed. In an e-mail sent about 5:25 p.m. Jan. 18, 2012 to all School District of Mystery Lake trustees and staff, Hammond wrote:

“It is with both regret and anticipation that I must advise you of my resignation as your Superintendent/CEO of Schools effective immediately. Life has a way of throwing us a few curve balls from time to time and my decision, while not an easy one, is the right one for me at this time both personally and professionally.”

Three months later in April 2012, in an unrelated matter that pre-dated her employment with SDML in Thompson, Hammond reached an out-of-court settlement in her $5.29-million lawsuit against one of her former employers, the Wild Rose Public School Board in Rocky Mountain House, Alta.

Land, who as principal was a member of Thompson Teachers’ Association No. 45-3 of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, filed a number of grievances through his union against the SDML, his former employer. A five-day arbitration hearing was set to begin June 18, 2012 at the Burntwood Hotel between Land and the School District of Mystery Lake over his dismissal as principal of R.D. Parker Collegiate. However, two days later, on June 20, 2012, the parties issued a joint press release saying Land had offered his resignation to the SDML on June 14, 2012, effective Nov. 18, 2011. The board, Ashton said, as a result accepted Land’s resignation and rescinded his termination. Both Land and the SDML withdrew all claims against each other and ended all litigation between the parties.

The School District of Mystery Lake, citing his “litigation” against them, had banned Land in 2011 from setting foot on any school property or attending any school event, including in his capacity as corporate affairs manager for Vale’s Manitoba Operations, as the job was then called. The only exception was for matters as a parent involving his children.