‘Repair my house, which is falling into ruin’: The legacy of Father Guna at St. Lawrence

Photos by Jeanette Kimball                        

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” it is written in Ecclesiastes. And so it is that on this day, the Feast of the Epiphany, Father Guna Pothula, the pastor who has shepherded St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church here in Thompson, Manitoba since July 2012, making him the longest-serving clergy here, said his last Sunday mass and said goodbye to parishioners before departing home to India this week to be closer to his ageing mother, and begin a new mission. Godspeed, Father Guna.

The presence of the Catholic Church in the Thompson area dates back to 1958 when visiting priests from Thicket Portage, Pikwitonei, Wabowden and The Pas attended Thompson to celebrate mass at least once a month. At first masses were celebrated in a private home on Poplar Crescent. Later masses before a church was built were celebrated at Juniper School, the Inco camp, the Midwest Drilling Camp, the Patrick Harrison Camp, and at the Strand Theatre. The rectory and the present-day parish hall (which served as the first church) were built in 1960, while the new adjacent church on the Cree Road site opened six years later.

Churches have a season where they, too, must be rebuilt and repaired, both physically and spiritually. As Father Guna departs, St. Lawrence ends such a season of renovation and renewal to the church and parish hall, which has taken almost a decade and cost about a million dollars to complete. While his spiritual legacy as pastor and confessor is written privately on the hearts and souls of parishioners, past and present, his public legacy will be the rebuilding of St. Lawrence, a process planning began for in 2013, the year after his arrival, and concluded with the reopening of the church last June and the parish hall today. No small achievement during a global pandemic that has stretched on now for three years.

“I wasn’t going to leave until the renovations were complete,” Father Guna said today, “The roof was leaking when I arrived and it was raining in God’s house.” He noted the generosity of St, Lawrence parishioners, who “never grumbled” about years of monthly “second offertory collections” to make the roof repairs, along with donations in time and money from Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961, a Catholic fraternal benefit organization chartered locally with 59 members on May 6, 1967, the 31st council in Manitoba to receive its charter. Among the other funding sources was grant money from the Thompson Community Foundation, as both the church and hall serve larger public needs beyond Thompson’s Catholic community, and insurance proceeds to renovate the parish hall.

Rebuild. Fix where needed. This is our Catholic way. In 1205, Francis was  praying in front of a crucifix at the abandoned San Damiano chapel near Assisi. There he had a vision in which God said, “Francis, repair my house, which is falling into ruin.” Francis listened, looked around at the crumbling chapel, and then sold some of his possessions in order to help rebuild it. He was canonized as a saint just two years after his death, on July 16, 1228, by Pope Gregory IX. Today, we know him as Saint Francis of Assisi.

More than 800 years later, another St. Francis – St. Francis de Sales – would be integral here on the other side of the world in rebuilding God’s church in a place that stands at the centre of Canada – north to south, east to west – St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church in Thompson, Manitoba.  

Francis de Sales was born in France and lived at the time of the Protestant Reformation, becoming Bishop of Geneva. He had lots of exposure to Calvinism and predestination and was noted for his diplomacy in the volatile, heated religious climate of the day in Switzerland. He’s honoured as one of the doctors of the Catholic Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales was founded by Father Peter Marie Mermier from Vouray in the parish of Chaumont en Genevois and the Diocese of Annecy in the Savoy region of France in October 1838 for parish mission, foreign mission and youth education. They are also known as the Fransalians. Pope Pius XI proclaimed St. Francis de Sales in 1923 as the patron saint of writers and journalists.

After more than 11 months without a parish priest, in July 2012 two priests from India, Father Guna, and Father Subash Joseph – both members of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales, also known as the Fransalians, travelling two by two – arrived, and would be soon tasked, as Francis of Assisi was, with repairing God’s house both physically and spiritually here in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, a vast land, which takes in some 430,000 square kilometres and stretches across the northern parts of three provinces – Saskatchewan, Manitoba and a small portion of Northwestern Ontario, and whose past includes Indian residential schools, while our present and future calls to us to bear witness in acknowledging and speaking often painful truths in the ongoing work of reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples here on the traditional treaty territory and homeland of the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, who have existed here since time immemorial, as well as later becoming home to other Indigenous peoples, including Métis.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, in Thompson in particular, is on the cutting edge of a trend that is likely to dominate the missions field in the Canadian North for perhaps the remainder of the 21st century: The re-evangelization by those once colonized, as priests from countries the church in Canada sent missionaries to in the 19th and early 20th centuries, now send their missionaries here as vocations to the priesthood in the western world have been nowhere near the necessary replacement rate since shortly after the Second Vatican Council ended in 1965.

A very different story in terms of vocations to the priesthood, however, has played out in places like Africa, parts of Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, and other areas of what are sometimes referred to as the “Global South.” There, vocations have boomed over the last 50 some years; hence the arrival of Father Guna and Father Joseph in Thompson in 2012.

Father Guna, from the village of Chennamanayunikota in Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India in the Archdiocese of Kurnool, was ordained on Feb. 10, 2007 by Bishop Paul Maipan of the Diocese of Khammam. He attended ATPM High School in Gunter in Andhra Pradesh until he joined the seminary at the age 16 in 1996. Seminarians remain in seminary for 12 years if they decide to pursue their full studies and call to ordination, Father Guna said, although some decide to leave the seminary along the way, discovering holy orders is not their calling.

After ordination, Father Guna was appointed as the assistant pastor of Nunna, in the Diocese of Vijayawada from June 2007 to May 2008. He was then appointed to the Fransalian Vidya Jyothi, Nidadavole as the procurator and was asked to teach the seminarians from June 2008 to May 2010. He also held appointments at the St. Francis de Sales High School in the town of Pamidi in the Anantapur District of Andhra Pradesh, teaching and serving as the administrator and procurator of the school.

Father Guna’s paternal grandfather was Hindu before converting to Catholicism and he still has many Hindu relatives.

Father Joseph, at his request, in 2015 was transferred to the also repair-challenged Church of St. Gertrude in Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan, located 120 kilometres northwest of Flin Flon; 388 kilometres northeast of Prince Albert and 525 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, and the Church of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows in Sandy Bay, at road’s end for the gravel winding road, 72 kilometres north of Pelican Narrows.

And, as the seasons once again change, Father Joseph now returns here to St. Lawrence, as pastor.

Goodbye, and our eternal thanks, Father Guna. Welcome, home, Father Joseph. Our fishing rods await your return!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gostrArMqM

John Barker has been a member of  the Parish of St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church in Thompson, Manitoba since July 2007 and a member of Knights of Columbus Thompson Council #5961 since April 2013.

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

 

Last remaining fur auction of its type in North America ­– the 35th annual Thompson Fur Table – returns to Northern Manitoba Dec. 19-20

Photo courtesy of Jeanette Kimball

The last remaining fur auction of its type in North America ­– the 35th annual Thompson Fur Table – returns to St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Hall on Juniper Drive Dec. 19-20 and is expected be a $1 million-plus economic generator for trappers and Thompson businesses, but wild fur prices are expected to be down for the second straight year after a record payout in 2012 where 207 Northern Manitoba trappers pocketed $683,559 in payouts from fur buyers for their raw pelts either sold at the table or consigned to auction.

Last year’s Thompson Fur Table payout dropped $64,707 to $618,852 for 219 trappers in total amount of money paid out from the record-setting 2012, but was still one of the best ever in the history of the event, which dates back to 1979.

The event is organized by the Lac du Bonnet-based Manitoba Trappers Association. The Manitoba Trappers Association represents about 10 per cent of the total number of trappers in the province on its membership roll. There are an estimated 6,000 trappers in Manitoba and the industry generates between $10 and $15 million annually. In recent years, the event has cost the Manitoba Trappers Association $9,000 to $12,000 in annual expenses to put on.

The local weather is one of the major factors that affects when trappers in Northern Manitoba can get out on their trap lines and start harvesting, but the actual price they get for those furs is decided half a world away, with consumer demand in Russia, China and Korea being key determinants driving annual fur prices here, along with the temperature in Asia and Europe also playing a role, as cooler temperatures drive their consumer demand higher usually.

Marten typically makes up than 70 per cent of the total volume of fur traded at the Thompson  event. The top-grade marten pelt is “select,” which means the “best possible quality, fully winter prime pelts. Full bodied, fully covered skins, silky in appearance. Evenly covered with guard hair and heavy underwool. Fur and leather free of imperfections,” according to the North American Fur  Auctions TechManual.  In 2011, more than $345,000 worth of fur pelts changed hands at at the Thompson Fur Table, with the majority of that value coming from marten, which accounted for about $303,000 in fur sales.

Mainly,  although not exclusively aboriginal trappers from small primarily First Nations communities scattered all around Thompson, come into the city that bills itself the Hub of the North for the annual pre-Christmas December two-day event where trappers meet buyers from fur houses such as North American Fur Auctions, the continent’s largest fur auction house in Toronto, Fur Harvester’s Auction from North Bay, Ont. and the North West Company in Winnipeg, along with independent buyers.

The fur buyers count and examine the pelts as each trapper comes through the line, providing a quote for the lot and the trapper selects the best price. In this way the trapper benefits from the on-site competitive demand for their furs with the basic premise being to concentrate buyers in one area to promote the spirit of competition, Manitoba Trappers Association administrator and treasurer Cherry White says.

However, trappers who want to take their chances on a better price at the Wild Fur Market Auction in New York in February can do so by selling on consignment through either North American Fur Auctions or Fur Harvester’s Auction at the Thompson Fur Table,  which gives them 60 per cent of the cash value for their pelts up front, followed by a cheque next March for the remaining 40 per cent, with final price deterimined in February at the auction.

The number of trappers who show up at the Thompson Fur Table fluctuates from year-to-year: there were 219 in 2013; 207 in 2012; 179 in 201; 122 in 2010; 168 in 2009; 219 in 2008; 201 in 2007; 198 in 2006; 176 in 2005; and 232 in 2004.

The Thompson Fur Table was one of several such events initiated in 1979 by the Province of Manitoba, under Progressive Conservative Premier Sterling Lyon, and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, during Prime Minister Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservative government, to help Northern trappers get better prices for their raw pelts. Today, it is the only one of the events to have survived 35 years later.

Lane Boles, a retired Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship officer from here in Thompson, who sits as director-at-large on the board of the Manitoba Trappers Association, said Dec. 5 that he expects fur prices to be down at the Thompson Fur Table this year, primarily because of market conditions in Russia, which along with China and Korea, largely determine the price paid to local trappers.

In an Oct. 16 wild fur market update, Herman Jansen, managing director of North American Fur Auctions, said the “Russian economy has taken a hit, largely due to the problems in the Ukraine.  The Western embargoes of America and Europe have had a negative effect on the consumption of consumer products.  Food prices have increased sharply and the Russian ruble has gone from 32 rubles/$ U.S. a year ago to 41 rubles/$ U.S. today – a decrease in value of 28 per cent,  Politically and economically, Russia is weaker today than it was a year ago,” but added, “price decrease of 40 per cent 50 per cent for most wild fur and ranch raised mink has come at the right time for the Russian fur retailer …  For the economic situation in Russia to improve, we need the political situation vis-à-vis Ukraine, Russia and the West to improve.”

North American Fur Auctions is 100 per cent owned by four producer groups: the  Wild Fur Shippers Council (WFSC); American Mink Council (AMC); Canada Mink Breeders Association (CMBA), and the Canada Fox Breeders Association (CFBA).

Jansen joined Hudson’s Bay and Annings in London in 1966 and completed a two-year training program in fur technology. In 1968, he represented the Hudson’s Bay Company in Holland and was appointed manager of Dutch Operations in 1969.

He transferred to the United States in 1971 as account executive and was appointed manager of North American Operations in 1974.

Jansen transferred to Hudson’s Bay Company Fur Sales Canada Limited as vice-president of marketing in 1984.

In 1987, Jansen  was appointed senior vice-president; in 1989 president and CEO; and in 1997 chairman and CEO of the North American Fur Auctions Group.

In his update in mid-October, Jansen also noted that in China – their currency, the renminbi (RMB), also known as the yuan, “has been more or less steady against the U.S. dollar for the last 12 months.  In November of last year it was 6.10 RMB/$ U.S. and presently it is at 6.12 RMB/$ U.S.  The Chinese economy in general is in reasonably good shape.  Inflation appears to be down and the fur trade is optimistic about the upcoming season.  The newly established prices for wild fur and ranched mink in 2014 have created optimism for most manufacturers and retailers, who all believe that with the new price levels more garments will be sold.  The retail season in China does not begin in earnest until middle to late November.”

In Korea, he said,  “the Korean won is exactly at the same level as last November.  This means that in Korea, just like in China, the prices in shops will be a lot more attractive for wild fur garments.”

In 2012, Margo Pfeiff, a contributing editor at UpHere magazine in Yellowknife, came to Thompson for the year of the record-setting fur table. Her feature story,”Fur & Fortune” appeared in the October 2013 issue of the magazine. Pfeiff is a veteran travel writer and one of the most distinguished Arctic travel writers in Canada. She lives in Montreal but travels to the Canadian North regularly. Her work has appeared in numerous major magazine and newspapers, including also the Walrus, the Globe and Mail, the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times, Popular Mechanics, Reader’s Digest, Explore and Canadian Geographic magazines.

Boles said he suggested to Pfeiff that she sit north of the Miles Hart Bridge late on the Sunday morning after the fur tables had ended on the Saturday to observe the economic spinoffs.

Pfeiff closes her article by writing, “Over at the malls, where goods are being snapped up so fast that managers are helping restock the shelves, crowds of shoppers are pushing heaped carts across the packed parking lots. In the darkness, truck beds are piled high with furniture, appliances, toys and construction material. Snowmobiles are roped down on trailers. Then, one by one, the laden trucks join a line of traffic disappearing in a shroud of steam down the road, headed for far flung trapping outposts with names like York Landing, Cross Lake and Thicket Portage.”

Winnipeg’s Dr. Omond McKillop Solandt, chairman of the Defence Research Board, and Project Second Story

The very first documented sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) in this area came from the journals of 18th century explorers David Thompson and Andrew Davies.

Thompson’s journal states that in the autumn of 1792 they were camped at Landing Lake, near Thicket Portage, when they saw a brilliant “meteor of globular form larger than the moon.” The object seemed to come directly towards them, lowering as it travelled, and “when within 300 yards of us, it struck the river ice, with a sound like a mass of jelly, was dashed in innumerable luminous pieces and instantly expired.”

The next morning when they went to see the hole it should have made in the ice, they were surprised to find no markings whatsoever.

David Thompson goes on in his journals to describe a second such meteor, and this one again “passed close by me striking the trees with the sound of a mass of jelly.” He thought the height was no more than eight feet above the ground, although dimensions can be quite deceiving at night, and this estimate could be incorrect. Nevertheless, we are left with an interesting historical account of a strange event in the woods just 30 to 50 kilometres from what is now Thompson.

A more disturbing UFO account comes from 1967. A woman (the family name has been deleted from the case files) was walking through her house around 6 p.m. in Thompson, when she heard an odd beeping sound. It was repeated at regular intervals of about one second, and she wondered what was causing it. She looked out her kitchen window, and saw dirt and loose pieces of paper flying in a large circle around her house. Outside, she found her husband, who had just come home, and five children staring up into the sky. A young boy was holding her eight-year old daughter down on the ground. Up in the sky a rectangular object hung in the air, slowly rotating counter-clockwise and showing alternating silver and black sides. It was black on its lower surface, and made no noise.

The object began moving off on an angle, stopped and hovered, then continued towards the southwest. Until this time the circle of dirt and dust and papers had persisted, but it now died down. The whirlwind was confined to the area immediately around their house and did not affect any other house on the street. When the object moved away, the dirt feel to the ground. Going to the children, the woman found they were calming down except her daughter, who seemed dazed. The boy explained that the five of them had been playing in the yard when the object first appeared overhead.

As they watched, her daughter had been levitated into the air, apparently caused by the UFO in the sky. By the time the other children came to her aid she was about one metre off the ground and her clothes had edged up her body. Her daughter said she did not remember anything from the time she felt the wind until the time she recovered after being dragged back to the ground.

The most famous UFO sighting in Manitoba history also took place in 1967. Known as the Falcon Lake Incident, it occurred on May 20, 1967, when Stefan Michalak claimed that he encountered a unidentified flying object (UFO) near Falcon Lake, while taking a short vacation in Whiteshell Provincial Park, not far west of the Ontario provincial boundary.

Michalak claimed to have been burned by the craft’s exhaust vent, which was covered by an ovular grid, he said.

Michalak, an industrial mechanic born in Poland was a resident of Winnipeg, but had taken a short vacation in the Falcon Lake area, where he had prospected as an amateur geologist before, to search for veins of quartz he had been told could be near the lake.

Shortly after noon, Michalak said he was disturbed by a noise similar to geese grunts. When he looked up, he spotted two cigar-shaped objects, which were red and brilliant as fire. They were descending at 45 degrees, he said, adding the more they approached the more oval they became.

One of the objects stopped in the air, he said, while the other landed on a big rock 160 feet away from him.

After some moments, the object floating above Michalak changed its color to grey, and then flew directly west, disappearing through the clouds. The landed object also changed to grey, and then to a color similar to incandescent stainless steel.

From the interior opening of the object, some violet light rays were emitted, he said, but as Michalak was already using special glasses to examine the quartz, the rays didn’t affect him, he claimed. The object was said to have a sulfurous smell and made a humming noise.

Half an hour passed, and Michalak still was observing the spaceship. Suddenly, a door opened, he said, and he could see that the interior of the UFO was very illuminated. He approached closer and heard some voices coming from inside the ship.

Believing that the object was an experimental American flying object, he tried to make a contact in English. As no answers were given, he tried other languages in vain. Nervous, he walked to the open door, and saw a panel and some lights inside the ship.

He did not see anybody, he said, so he waited. Suddenly, the door closed. Despite the surprise, he discovered a colourful glass around the UFO. It was very well conserved, with no cracks. He attempted to touch it, but his glove simply melted, the heat hurting his hand through the glove’s protection.

A metallic box full of holes came off the UFO in what seemed to be a grid-like exhaust vent. A steamy explosion occurred, he said, and some kind of gas was expelled in his direction. Immediately, his clothes started to burn, Michalak said. As the object flew after the other one, Michalak was left behind desperately trying to extinguish the fire.

Once the fire was extinguished, Michalak said he felt pain and sickness and noticed a metallic odour from the inside of his body, like the smell of something electric that is burning. He initially claimed the burns were caused by airplane exhaust. The RCMP later confirmed that Michalak had been drinking beer the night before the sighting he reported.

The Department of National Defence still identifies the Falcon Lake case as unsolved. Michalak died in 1999 at the age of 83.

A Feb. 23, 1971 UFO sighting at 232 Deerwood Dr. by Gisella and Louis Kovacs is on file in the National Archives of Canada and National Research Council of Canada. From about 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. the Kovacs reported to Thompson RCMP that they saw a “plate shaped object about the size of a full moon. This object was flashing from red to green to yellow to blue also a red flash from the north side of the object was sighted.”

Four federal government departments – the Department of Transport, Department of National Defence, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)and the National Research Council – all dealt with reports, sightings and investigations of UFOs across Canada between 1947 and 1970 and were involved with collecting data and conducting investigations on unidentified flying objects (UFOs).  The Defence Research Board, chaired by Winnipeg-born Dr. Omond McKillop Solandt, through an inter-departmental committee, beginning in April 1952 co-ordinated “Project Second Story,” which had as its main purpose collecting,  cataloging and correlating data from UFO sighting reports. The committee created a questionnaire and interrogator’s instruction guide. The reporting method used a system intended to minimize the “personal equation.”  In other words, a weighting factor was created to measure the probability of truth in each report. The committee’s minutes were declassified on July 3, 1968.

Since 1970, the task of investigating UFO reports has fallen largely to the Mounties.

RCMP officers G.H. Donovan and E.C. Wesley who investigated the 1971 Kovacs sighting report at  232 Deerwood Dr. in Thompson noted in their official report “the Kovacs were sober and did not appear to have been drinking when the statements were obtained.”

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Thompson, Manitoba: Home of local honey and potatoes

Potatoes come from Prince Edward Island or Idaho, right? True enough, they do. But they also come from the Thompson area in Northern Manitoba. Same for honey.

Little Farm potatoes, Yukon gold and reds, are available from Barry Little for $13 for a 35-pound box. You can call him at (204) 778-7723 or (204) 679-5349 to ask about them, while Eugene Larocque, on Manasan Drive, and his son, Steven, have their locally-produced Northern Gold Honey, with a one-kilogram jar costing $15 or a 500-gram jar for $8. They can be reached at (204) 307-6217 or by e-mail at: ngoldhoney@hotmail.com

Little, known for his agricultural projects at the old Thompson Zoo, is also an inventor and innovator, who along with Shawna Henderson, Bill Beardy and Donna Lundie, and residents of Fox Lake Cree Nation, built a hoop-style greenhouse in 2011, used to grow tomatoes and cucumbers for local residents on the reserve out of recycled trampoline frames. Little developed the innovative idea for the greenhouse based upon using the available resources in the community. In this case, he searched in different dumps for materials to build growing structures.  The total cost including hardware and lumber needed for the greenhouse was between $250 and $300.

Steven Larocque, who works for Manitoba Jobs and the Economy’s Apprenticeship Manitoba in North Centre Mall on Station Road, has been the Northern apprenticeship training co-ordinator for the last five years.

Food Matters Manitoba, a registered charity, which works to support local, affordable, nutritious food for Northern Manitobans in partnership with the province’s Northern Healthy Foods Initiative,  has long been working to get the word out when it comes to promoting locally-grown produce from North of the 53rd parallel.  The typical food item on a Manitoba table travels an estimated 2,200 kilometres before landing on the plate, the organizaton says. For a 100-day period from Sept. 1 until Dec. 9, 2007, 100 Mile Manitoba ran an “experiment in local eating … 100 people, 100 days, 100 hundred miles,” which attempted to get 100 Manitobans to eat food produced and processed within 100 miles of their kitchen table for the 100-day period.

During the Grow North Conference in Wabowden earlier this year, a kindergarten class from Cross Lake’s Mikisew School had the opportunity to see some baby chicks and learn the importance of where your food comes from and how to take care of it. Children from Cross Lake were able to participate in observing the chickens that were being raised for the Cross Lake Chicken project.
Mel Johnson School teamed up with the Bayline Regional Roundtable and co-hosted this year’s conference in Wabowden on May 22-23, with help from Frontier School Division, Food Matters Manitoba and Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. There were 263 participants from Wabowden, Ilford, Cross Lake, Cormorant, Pikwitonei, Thicket Portage, Cranberry Portage, Thompson, South Indian Lake, Winnipeg, Ponton, Setting Lake, Manigotogan, Moose Lake, Nelson House, Sherridon, Fox Lake, York Landing, Norway House, and Creighton, Sask.

Northern Manitobans were winners in two of seven categories at Food Matters’ 2013 Golden Carrot Awards, presented at the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg on World Food Day last Oct. 16. This year’s  awards in a couple of weeks are on the same Oct. 16 date (a Thursday this year) and location at 9:30 a.m. in the Rotunda Hall of the Manitoba Legislative Building at 450 Broadway in Winnipeg. The Golden Carrot Awards were started in 2006 to recognize work being done across Manitoba to ensure access to healthy food for residents across the province.

Last year, Andrea McIvor’s Grade 7-9 class at D.R. Hamilton School in Cross Lake were presented the Golden Carrot in the youth category after working together to raise 50 chickens for eating and 25 layer hens, watering, feeding and cleaning their litter before participating in the final slaughter and eating of the birds.

For several years, there was a Northern Harvest Forum, co-ordinated by Food Matters Manitoba, which took place in Thompson. The Oct. 22 and 23, 2009  “Northern Food from Northern Hands” forum included the Golden Carrot Awards.

The two-day annual event, which had taken place in Thompson since 2007, featured workshops that focused on hunting and gathering traditional foods; food preservation; gardening; grocery store and healthy cooking demonstrations.

Also, a World Food Day dinner took place at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 244’s Centennial Hall. Before moving to the Legion in 2008, the inaugural event in 2007 was held at St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Hall on Juniper Drive.

A  two-day Northern Harvest Forum and World Food Day banquet, attended by Stan Struthers, then Manitoba’s NDP minister of agriculture, food and rural initiatives, was held Oct. 19-20, 2011 in The Pas.

In October 2007, the City of Thompson became the first municipality in the province to sign the Manitoba Food Charter during the two-day Northern Harvest Forum here.

Among the steps the city committed to seven  years ago by signing the charter was to play “a more active role as the regional hub in promoting lower food prices in outlying communities” and Nunavut; and becoming a “staging centre for food distribution” through Canada Post’s Food Mail Program; and “lobby for the regulation of milk prices throughout Manitoba.”

The seeds for the Manitoba Food Charter were planted in 1992 with a document known as “An Action Plan For Food Security For Manitobans” created by the Nutrition and Food Security Network of Manitoba.

A decade later, in 2001 and 2002, a coalition known as FoodSecure Manitoba brought Rod MacRae, food policy analyst and former co-ordinator of the Toronto Food Policy Council, to Winnipeg in April 2002 for a “strategic visioning session.” Areas for concrete action were developed and the group made its first priority to be a “food security” two-day conference in 2003.

The Manitoba Food Charter project built on energy created a year later with the National Food Security Assembly in Winnipeg. During March and February 2006 a steering committee of volunteers crisscrossed the province listening to more than 70 groups of people and food security participants involved in various aspects of the Manitoba food system.

Seventeen per cent of the input came from Northern Manitoba and on May 10, 2006, more than 80 individuals from across Manitoba gathered in Winnipeg to engage in a provincial conversation on food. Community gardeners, academics, farmers, politicians, local food retailers, government folks, food activists, community health workers, neighbourhood residents, university students, and educators gathered to set priorities for future action for the Manitoba Food Charter project.

Funding for the Manitoba Food Charter project also comes from the Public Health Agency of Canada; the Rural Secretariat of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; and Heifer International of Little Rock, Ark., a non-profit organization whose goal is to help end world hunger and poverty through self-reliance and sustainability. An American Midwestern farmer named Dan West, who was a Church of the Brethren relief worker during the Spanish Civil War, started Heifer in 1944.

In its own words, the “Manitoba Food Charter emerged from Manitobans’ common vision for a just and sustainable food system.

The charter provides a vision and a set of principles that will guide and inform strategic planning, policy and program development and practice in mutual effort toward food security and community development.”

The charter analyzes the current food situation in the province this way in part: “Manitoba’s food system has both strengths and weaknesses. We have a significant and diverse agricultural sector and many Manitobans can access the food that they want. However, agricultural communities are challenged by an increasingly urban and globalized economy. Many Northern, inner city, and low-income citizens have difficulty accessing quality food and realizing their fundamental human right to adequate food. Rural, urban and Northern communities are disconnected. Not all of our food is necessarily nutritious, not all information about our food is complete or accurate; and much of our food comes long distances.”

The “vision” the charter notes for “a just and sustainable food system in Manitoba is rooted in healthy communities, ensures no one is hungry and that everyone has access to quality food.”

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