As tourists flock to Montreal for F1 race, Cree dialysis patients who fled fires are on the move again
CBC
When wildfires threatened Jack Otter's community of Waswanipi, Que., and heavy smoke filled the air, the Cree Nation evacuated overnight. He is one of dozens of patients who came to downtown Montreal to continue his dialysis treatment.
But after spending a week at the Hotel Espresso, 800 kilometres from home, he was told he had to pack his bags once more — this time to make way for tourists renting rooms for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Otter said he refused to be moved and the hotel should have been prepared to accommodate the evacuees, but 20 other Cree dialysis patients like him were transferred to a floor in the Hôtel Dieu, a space that operated as a homeless shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other patients were sent to a facility in Terrebonne, 50 kilometres north of Montreal.
In a statement, the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay called the patient transfer an "an extraordinary situation of emergency." Faced with a lack of accommodation in which to provide necessary care, the board turned to the Red Cross to find alternative facilities for the Cree patients.
"We bring our clients on a daily basis, and unfortunately the fires up north increased the number of clients," said Helen Bélanger, director of Wiichihituwin, an organization that helps Indigenous patients outside Montreal get health services in the city.
Wiichihituwin sets up around 45,000 health appointments per year in Montreal and has had an agreement with the hotel for several years, with 120 rooms there.
But Bélanger says she has never seen so many patients flown to Montreal for treatment.
"We had 85 hemodialysis patients, which is really a high number. We are used to having around 35 patients hemodialysis in Montreal," she said.
"This increase of course wasn't calculated because usually we prepare for the F1 and we are aware that there's a lot of clients, tourists here in Montreal. Unfortunately, we needed to have the support of the Red Cross," she said.
And being repeatedly displaced is beginning to take its toll.
"There's been a lot of changes and a lot of drama," said Otter, adding that it has been especially exhausting for the elders.
"Some of them were pretty sad, especially the elders that are being placed at the Hôtel Dieu," said Otter. "They were kinda tired. They had to wait in the lobby for the whole day to be placed."
Billy Neeposh also came to get dialysis in Montreal and was staying at the hotel. He said the patients were first told they were going to change rooms and then had to wait in the lobby for a long time before being moved out.
A national Jewish advocacy organization is taking legal action against Manitoba's medical regulator over a complaint it made last year alleging a prominent doctor made antisemitic comments on social media.
A cat that went missing in a remote area of northeastern B.C. is finally back home with its family in Oklahoma, five months later.
It wasn’t clear trolleys would be a hit in Medicine Hat, but the Sunshine Trolley has wound its way into Hatters’ hearts.
More than 200 volunteers and politicians gathered in Etobicoke Saturday for the Daily Bread Food Bank’s holiday sort.
The rising cost-of-living has already made supporting a family difficult this year. But, the holidays can make staying on budget that much harder.
Strong winds across the Maritimes left thousands of N.B. Power customers without electricity on Saturday afternoon — and it could be days before all customers have their power restored.
Toronto police say they located a body inside a downtown Toronto home Saturday.
Quebec Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge is responding to public outcry against his government’s policy changes for non-permanent residents by making a plea to the federal government.
A man in Saskatoon is in hospital after being shot by police as officers executed a warrant late Friday night.
RCMP say a man who was reported missing near Key First Nation has been found deceased.
Christy Morin says life was never the same in Alberta Avenue after the fires began.
It's small things, like a cigarette or a pair of clean socks, Rachel Montour says, that can go a long way to make you feel more human when you’re out on the street.
Several dozen members of Windsor's Chaldean community and its supporters celebrated in the cold at the corner of Marentette Avenue and Wyandotte Street East Friday, as city officials gave a secondary name to the section of Marentette between Wyandotte and Tuscarora Street: Chaldean Way.