Biggar RCMP report

by Sgt. Dereck Crozier, Biggar Detachment

This past week we had 59 calls for service.

The majority were traffic related calls, including the arrest of a 34-yearold female from Wilkie found driving her grey Chev Uplander with her two young children on board while she was three times the legal limit. Serious tragedy was adverted thanks to a few concern road users that managed to keep the vehicle contained until police arrived.

There was a two-vehicle collision in Biggar on Ontario and Sixth, resulting in charges to one driver for failing to yield to oncoming traffic at a yield sign. A 43-yearold male was charged for driving his F-350 while suspended.

In total 21 traffic charges and seven warnings were issued through out the area. This including a number of stop sign tickets issued in town after the collision, and two for speeds over 35 km/h greater then the speed limit on the highway.

CN reported escaped sheep nearing their tracks in the RM of Perdue. Complaint of loud music being played in the Village of Perdue, as well as one house fire that resulted in damage to the deck and home. A second fire reported in the RM of Perdue in a garage, resulted from a battery charger malfunction - the home owner was able to contain the damage.

We are still experiencing thefts from vehicles in town, as well as a report of a stolen plate from a vehicle that was replace with another. This was discovered when the driver was stopped by traffic services. Good reminder to check your plate once and awhile or more frequently then your next hotel stay.

Two calls for suspicious activity, three alarm calls, one warning for misuse of the 911 service, two calls of fraud for the old publishers clearing house scam - glad they did not say Ed McMahon would be bringing by the big cheque. A brick was thrown through a window at a business in the Town of Biggar - charges pend-

Bingo Numbers for JULY

ing on this matter along with warrants issued for all our prolific offenders that missed showing up for court. Three calls on our homeless resident, sleeping in the post office and disrupting other areas in town. However, he has been compliant when asked to move along. He has informed us that the city shelters don’t take dogs and he has no interest in going anywhere else as the Biggar streets are safer then the city. In fairness, I would have to agree with that logic.

Take care out there!

“We’re thrilled to welcome the first group of nurses recruited from the Philippines to start on their pathway to a successful career here in Saskatchewan,” Minister of Health Paul Merriman said. “As home to a thriving, vibrant and growing Filipino community, our province has experienced great success in welcoming and integrating Filipino health care professionals. I look forward to these RNs completing their training and joining our health care workforce.”

Following the two recruitment missions to the Philippines in winter 2022 and spring 2023, the province has recruited more than 400 Filipino RNs. The internationally educated nurses are moving through the RN Pathway, which includes language assessment and training, online and in- person education leading to licensing.

In late August, Saskatchewan will implement an accelerated, streamlined pathway for internationally educated nurses that shortens licensure timeframes from months to 14 weeks, once all documentation is received, and will support applicants through the process, from recruitment through to their work placements and settlement in a new community.

A majority of the RNs recruited from the Philippines will be enrolled in the new 14-week program.

Additional progress is being made on multiple initiatives of Saskatchewan’s Health Human Resources (HHR) Action Plan to recruit, train, incentivize and retain more health care workers.

HHR Progress Update

Highlights:

• Since December 2022, the SHA has hired 485 grad nurses from the province and across Canada.

• Progress continues toward the target of recruiting 250 new and enhanced permanent full-time positions to stabilize staffing in rural and remote areas, with 157 positions now filled and ongoing work to fill the remainder.

• The Rural and Remote Recruitment Incentive of up to $50,000 is available to new employees in nine high priority classifications in 53 rural and remote areas. The incentive, provided in exchange for a three-year return-of-service, continues to be offered, with 140 incentives conditionally approved to date.

• The College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan is expanding the undergraduate program by adding four seats to the upcoming fall 2023 intake of medical students. This will increase the total number of seats from 100 to 104.

• The Final Clinical Placement Bursary program is currently available to students in eligible health disciplines with their final health clinical placement between April 1 and September 30, 2023. The program is already seeing a high uptake, with 60 bursaries conditionally approved.

• Job shadowing opportunities are available for high school students (Grade 12) or adults considering a career in health care. The SHA has hosted 84 job shadow opportunities since September 2022.

The Test of Time: Battling to Keep Canadian History Alive by Emma Haynes, Executive Assistant for Northumberland-Peterborough South MP Philip Lawrence

(Editor’s Note: This column first appeared in C2C Journal)

This is my “David and Goliath” story, except that it’s not about a Biblicalera youth staring down a nine-foot-tall man. No, it’s about the pebble that was used to bring the giant to the ground.

My Goliath was a decade of genuinely useless social studies in elementary and secondary school. The pebble was Mr. Rajala, my Grade 10 history teacher at Fort Frances High School in northwestern Ontario. Mr. Rajala was an amazing storyteller who was passionate about his subject and opened my eyes to the vastness and wonder of history. I had entered his class with a vague and fragmented understanding of my country’s past.

I left it the way a reader feels after finishing a great book: thrilled by a gripping plot, filled with new insight and actively searching for more to devour.

In today’s environment, it’s safe to say that stu- dents are unlikely to leave their history classes loving Canada. Whether they are a 10th-Grade student in Ontario leaving the only high school history class they will ever have, or are taking a university course that teaches them Canada’s past is an embarrassment, we are failing as a nation at teaching students how to even talk about our country’s history.

Unlike David, we face more than one Goliath: there is the growing hatred for certain histories because they do not align with the current cultural conversation, and there is the lack of prioritization of the subject in our schools. This is occurring from coast to coast. Alberta, to take just one example, has been fighting on both fronts since the UCP government two years ago introduced a revamp to the elementary school curriculum that includes more on the basics of Western history and more instruction on facts in general. It was immediately criticized by school boards, academics, teachers and even some parents, who claimed the curriculum was too Eurocentric and was “the stuff of nightmares.” An NDP MLA called it irrelevant to

Provincial Viewpoint

Murray Mandryk

The good news is that Saskatchewan is growinggrowing faster than we’ve seen in a century.

The latest news from Statistics Canada reveals that in the first three months of 2023, Saskatchewan’s population grew by 6,821 to a record 1,221,439 people.

This also means 33,101 more people living here compared with one year students, claiming there was no point in teaching about historical figures like Genghis Khan.

These disputes around Canadian history are not attempting to speak to our story, but instead are responding to a moment in time when disagreement is taken by one side to mean rejection. Calls to cancel Canada Day and the tearing down of statues are just two manifestations of this unfortunate trend. Last year, as Blacklock’s Reporter discovered, “Management at the national archives has deleted a website feature honouring John A. Macdonald as ‘redundant’ and ‘offensive.’ The content including historical facts and photos for schoolchildren was deemed out of step with ‘our diverse and multicultural country’,” archivists were quoted as saying. This outrageous move elicited a few squeaks of protest, but no eruption of outrage from Canada’s senior historians or educators.

Destruction seems the only answer for those who don’t know how to work through the more dubious aspects of our past without destroying everything in the process. Two years ago the BC Museums Association encouraged museums, galleries and heritage organizations to reinforce the calls to cancel Canada Day by cancelling all of their planned events as well, and by advocating that people participate in “service disruptions” against those who chose to celebrate. This was a protest of Canadian history and national pride from a group meant to preserve it.

On the activist website rabble.ca, a blogpost entitled ‘A settler’s guide to cancelling Canada Day: July 1st and beyond’ suggested that, “If you’ve been invited to a private [Canada Day] BBQ, respectfully note that you won’t be celebrating and use the opportunity to talk about why.” It went on to encourage instead spending the day tearing down statues, and celebrated the actions of those who toppled Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue in Montreal, gleefully pointing out that