Stop the Presses, breaking news: Feds finally do something right.

Tweet

Health Canada has decided they should speak to First Nations about H1N1 concerns and is hoping it will stop the F*** ups. What a revolutionary thought. They are so excited about this ingenious new idea, that they will hold a Press Conference all about it tommorrow. Well, it's not much, but it's a start. Hopefully the government will follow up with other super smart and clever ideas - like access to clean water, safe housing, schools, doctors and nurses, economic development.... Now that would be worthy of a news conference. The one bizarre twist in this story is INAC flack Ted Yeomans' insistance that the body bag incident had nothing to do with this announcement. Uh-huh. Christ Ted, just say your sorry and stop being an ass.

Full story below.


Tories reach out to First Nations after body bag blunder
By Sue Bailey (CP) – 1 hour ago

OTTAWA — The Harper government is reaching out to First Nations with a flu communications strategy after this week's body-bag fiasco was blamed on a misunderstanding.

Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, will join Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl for an unusual weekend news conference here Saturday.

Sources say chiefs of some of the most vulnerable communities across Canada will soon have a conduit to raise flu concerns with Ottawa health officials.

The ministers are expected to outline a plan for regular meetings between assembly and government staff. Federal willingness to ease the exchange of such information is seen by some as an olive branch to outraged chiefs.

Ted Yeomans, a spokesman for Strahl, said that's going too far.

"Tomorrow's announcement is not a result of what issues were dealt with this week in regards to H1N1. What will be announced has been worked on for a number of weeks and has been planned for some time."

There is also talk of a virtual summit to allow First Nations with online access to ask questions of flu experts.

Not all communities will be able to take part, said one source close to the planning. But it's a start.

Atleo has expressed frustration with how Ottawa deals with far-flung, often remote First Nations.

He reacted with "disbelief" when Manitoba reserves hard hit by the H1N1 flu received several body bags from Health Canada this week.

A department spokesman said the shipment was part of "routine restocking" - not linked solely to a potential new wave of flu.

Atleo said the badly timed blunder shows why native leaders have been calling since last spring for a new approach.

"This incident demonstrates the urgent need to ensure pandemic planning is developed in partnership with First Nations," he said in a statement.

"I am urging the responsible federal ministers to work with First Nations leadership nationally, regionally and locally to ensure effective communication, clear planning and full engagement and attention on this matter."

Aglukkaq has vowed to get to the bottom of the body bag deliveries as native reserves brace for a second outbreak of H1N1 this fall.

Starting last spring, the flu pandemic disproportionately hit native reserves grappling with lack of running water and overcrowded houses.

Chiefs from some of the most stricken Manitoba reserves accused Ottawa of abandoning them. Some leaders travelled to the nearest cities to buy hand sanitizer and other supplies in bulk after federal shipments were delayed over concerns residents would drink alcohol-based cleanser.

Aglukkaq has repeatedly insisted that the federal government has a pandemic response plan to help all communities should the flu return in force.

At least 76 Canadians across the country have died from H1N1, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Other posts on this topic:

September 16, 2009: Expecting flu assistance, native reserves get body bags from Ottawa
June 10: No Doctors, No Nurses, but emergency hand sanitizer is on its way
June 6: If it isn't racism, what is it?
June 5: Feds slow to respond to First Nation pandemic planning: Manitoba
June 4: Another update H1N1
June 3:More on H1N1 at St. Theresa Point First Nation
June 2: Please follow this story. Please write to your MP

PROGRESSIVE BLOGGERS

Expecting flu assistance, native reserves get body bags from Ottawa

Tweet

This has been a disaster, from Day 1. It's not so much the fact that the government sent body bags. Clearly these are necessary as part of a pandemic plan. However, the fact that it took months to get basic safety supplies up to northern First Nations communities coupled with the fact that it took no time to get a supply of body bags up, well... need I say more? The one good thing I can say is that at least federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq didn't duck and buck this time. In the past the Health Minister refused to address the problems, maintained everything is fine. Finally she stepped up took some responsibility and ordered an investigation. Too bad it took so long. The whole shameful mismanagement of H1N1 in First Nations in Manitoba should have been investigated long ago. Full article below.


Expecting flu assistance, native reserves get body bags from Ottawa

Toronto — From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Wednesday, Sep. 16, 2009 09:57PM EDT


They asked for help and got body bags.

Aboriginal leaders said they were outraged and confused when dozens of body bags were delivered to remote Manitoba reserves after native communities demanded federal resources to fight a second wave of the H1N1 flu outbreak.

Chiefs interpreted the grim shipments as a dire prediction of what Ottawa expects will happen during this flu season to natives, who were hardest hit by swine flu in the spring.

Some communities didn't hold on to them for long. In a symbolic protest Wednesday evening, northern First Nations leaders returned a box of the bags to a Health Canada office in Winnipeg. Tossing more than a dozen of the polyethylene bags on the floor outside the building's lobby, Garden Hill First Nation chief David Harper called the deliveries “an insult.”

The federal government was left scrambling late Wednesday to explain the shipments, which also included hand sanitizer, masks and gloves.

Each bag contained full post-mortem kits that included a chin strap, five tie-straps and three identification tags.

The news of the unexpected supplies rippled through remote communities of less than 1,000 people, shocking residents and adding to native leaders' distrust of the federal government's efforts to help them prepare for a resurgence of the virus.

About 30 body bags were delivered in recent days to the nursing station at Wasagamack First Nation, 20 to God's Lake First Nation, and Red Sucker Lake First Nation was expecting a shipment. The communities are in the lake-studded Island Lake region near the Ontario border, about midway between Winnipeg and the Hudson Bay.

Mr. Harper was joined at the Winnipeg protest last night by Wasagamack Chief Jerry Knott.

“Is Canada giving up on the first nations?” Mr. Harper asked in an interview. “We're very offended. It looks like Canada is giving up on us. Or is this the flu preparedness that Canada talks about?”

In many First Nations cultures, to prepare for death is to invite death, he said.

“We have been waiting for medical supplies and here all we receive is body bags,” he said. “The government has to do better.”

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said she was “disturbed” when she learned about the shipments Wednesday morning.

“I have ordered my deputy minister to conduct a thorough and immediate inquiry into the situation and I will continue to work with first nations, provinces and territories to ensure all Canadians are informed and protected against H1N1,” she said at a news briefing.

She declined to comment on who sent the body bags or who may have requested them.

The shipment is another blow to native leaders, who fear they are among the least prepared for another wave of the flu and that the federal government isn't properly responding to their needs.

The mild flu outbreak in the spring erupted into a full-blown crisis on several of Manitoba's remote reserves. At one point, aboriginals comprised two-thirds of Manitoba flu patients on respirators. Health Canada came under fire for hesitating to send hand sanitizer to native towns because of concerns that people would ingest the alcohol-based gel.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs took it upon itself recently to solicit donations for 15,000 flu kits for northern communities. And even though aboriginal affairs is a federal responsibility, the Manitoba government stepped up to cover the rest of the cost.

Ms. Aglukkaq said nursing stations on reserves are being stocked with medical supplies, and the kits are likely not necessary.

Rod Harper, a spokesman for the band council of the Wasagamack First Nation, 600 kilometres north of Winnipeg, said body bags are not the supplies needed at nursing stations.

“It's not the proper thing to do to all our communities. It's very shocking,” he said.

He said he had seen a box of 10 bags that had been brought to the band council office and was explicitly labelled.

“What we had asked for stockpiling were Advil, Tylenol, vaccine, not body bags. It's the easy way out for the government… It's not right to do that.”

Further north, at the Red Sucker Lake First Nation, the band council heard at a meeting with the staff of the nursing station that body bags would be sent to their community. The council questioned the head nurse after it heard that other native communities had received the bags.

“We asked her about the body bags and she said: ‘They're coming,'” said council member Clifford Harper. “I feel kind of angry. They should send more medications, they should send more personnel … rather than body bags. Why are they doing this?”

By the end of the day, the outrage had rippled to Winnipeg. “First Nations and all Canadians need to know the whole story behind this bizarre shipment and they deserve a full accounting,” Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said in a statement. “The First Nations of northern Manitoba have already been traumatized in the first wave of the H1N1 outbreak; they do not need to be panicked.”

The parliamentary health committee has requested the minister share details of the inquiry at or around its next meeting later this month.


Other posts on this topic:
June 10: No Doctors, No Nurses, but emergency hand sanitizer is on its way
June 6: If it isn't racism, what is it?
June 5: Feds slow to respond to First Nation pandemic planning: Manitoba
June 4: Another update H1N1
June 3:More on H1N1 at St. Theresa Point First Nation
June 2: Please follow this story. Please write to your MP

PROGRESSIVE BLOGGERS