One of the creators of a six-year-old documentary about troubled La Loche, Sask., says he hopes the film can shed light on the social problems faced by the town's residents.
A New York Times story that appeared the day after last week's mass shooting included quotes from the 23-minute documentary "Denendeh," produced as a class project by University of Regina students in 2010.
Kent Morrison says he was surprised the film got international attention, but hopes interest in the town spurs meaningful change for its residents.
The 28-year-old is now a weekend morning TV news anchor at Global Edmonton and found himself reporting on the deadly shooting at the school he previously visited.
"It was pretty heartbreaking," Morrison says of learning about the tragedy, which left four dead.
"I was just talking about it, the documentary, the Friday before, here in the newsroom.... And someone said, 'Isn't this the place you were talking about last week?'"
The documentary, which aired on CBC in August 2010, is also featured on INK Online, published by journalism students at the University of Regina.
Morrison says he doesn't know how the New York Times heard about the film, but suspects it came up in an online search of La Loche.
He says the experience of making "Denendeh" has stuck with him, especially a meeting with one impoverished resident who questioned what Morrison and his classmates were doing at the time.
"He said, 'You show up here with your camera and you think you're doing good things. But what are you really doing? ... You're going to do your thing and you're going to leave. And we're still going to be here,'" he recalls.
"He was totally right.... I came and I left."
ON THE WEB: WATCH "DENENDEH" AT INK ONLINE HTTP://BIT.LY/1JFZIGB
SCHOOL IN NORTHERN SASKATCHEWAN MAY REOPEN WITH SECURITY AFTER MASS SHOOTING
LA LOCHE, Sask. — The northern Saskatchewan school where a mass shooting occurred won't open for at least another week and, when it does, it may have security.
Donna Johnson of the Education Ministry says the Northern Light School Division has told parents that classes at the La Loche Community School won't resume for seven to 10 days.
She says the division is prepared to add security to the school, but first wants to discuss details with the community and the RCMP.
Johnson says security could include a school resource officer or Mountie who works to build relationships with students and staff.
RCMP say a suspect shot dead two teens at a home before killing two staff and wounding seven others at the school.
A 17-year-old boy has been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder.
SISTER SAYS WOMAN WOUNDED IN LA LOCHE, SASK., SHOOTING WILL BE HOME SOON
LA LOCHE, Sask. — A woman whose sister was wounded in last week's shooting at a school in La Loche, Sask., says her sibling is doing well and should be able to come home soon.
The woman — who can't be named because of a court order prohibiting the publication of any information that might identify those who were wounded — just happened to be at the La Loche hospital for an appointment on Friday afternoon.
She watched as the first emergency vehicles carrying the seven injured arrived, not knowing her sister was in one of those ambulances.
Another woman in the waiting area told her about the shooting at a home and the school — which left four people dead — and she asked if the woman knew who had been hurt.
"I was given a name, and I just thought, 'well, my sister does hang out with this girl,' " she told radio station CKOM on Tuesday.
She went to the emergency area and quickly learned her sister had been shot. At first, all sorts of thoughts raced through her mind, but she decided the best thing to do was to stay calm.
"That was the only way to be. And once I finally saw her and she was not as seriously injured, I was glad to see that."
She said the next step will be making sure her sister gets the help she needs to try and move past the tragedy. A big part of that will be reassuring her sister that she'll be protected.
"We are all going to be there for her in any way possible, and make sure she gets back to being 'normal,' whatever that may be," she said.
Since the shooting, the woman has poured much of her time into helping with nightly prayer gatherings held at local community halls. She said the work has helped keep her steady, and for the most part, her concerns lie with helping all the people whose lives have been upended by the shooting.
She said that support extends to the family of the 17-year-old boy accused of the shooting. While she said she didn't know the boy well, her relationship with the family goes back decades.
"They're a great family. The grandparents are wonderful people and they're a hard-working family," she said. "I feel terrible for them, they are going through a lot right now ... I just want them to know that we are all thinking of them."
PEOPLE PONDER THE PATHWAY FORWARD FOR LA LOCHE AFTER SCHOOL SHOOTING
LA LOCHE, Sask. — Despite the pain and grief following a mass shooting that has torn at the fabric of a northern Saskatchewan town, there is hope among its leaders that what happened will be a catalyst for change.
The violent deaths of four people at a school and in a home have exposed La Loche and its social problems to national scrutiny.
Leonard Montgard, executive director of the La Loche Friendship Centre, suggests locals should look at it as a call to action.
"The stigma that comes with all the things that happen in our community, the negative things, it discourages people from coming to our community to set up," he said a few days after the shooting.
"And now it's dependent upon our community members to go forth and set up their own businesses. We have to take that direction."
La Loche is a town, not a reserve. But more than 90 per cent of the region's population self-identify as aboriginal, the Keewatin Yatthe Regional Health Authority said in its 2014-15 annual report.
A lack of opportunity in the community of about 3,000 has been cited as a reason behind crime rates that are much higher than the provincial average.
Curtis Woloschuk, senior policy adviser for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice, said La Loche had 83,021 reported crimes per 100,000 people in 2014. The provincial average was 10,505. La Loche RCMP dealt with 3,012 incidents in 2014, down from 3,662 a decade earlier.
Woloschuk said violent crime has dropped 50 per cent in La Loche in the last decade. Rates have been dropping nationally as well.
But there have been high-profile encounters.
In 2011, RCMP members had to barricade themselves in the hospital away from a mob of angry party-goers when a man on an all-terrain vehicle ran off the road while being chased by police.
In 2009, a 13-year-old girl was hit in a drive-by shooting.
A suicide rate triple the provincial average has also received a lot of attention since Friday's shooting.
Kathy Willerth with the Saskatchewan Health Ministry said the suicide rate for the health authority that includes La Loche was 44.6 per 100,000 people from 2008 to 2012. The average provincial rate was 12.2.
But Willerth said the actual number of suicides in the region of about 11,000 people is much lower. There were two in 2010, three a year later and two again in 2012.
It's unclear when children will return to school in La Loche.
"What is key is creating a sense of normalcy for the students," Donna Johnson of the Education Ministry said Tuesday. "What's also important is ensuring the community have the appropriate time to grieve their losses, to have their memorials and receive counselling."
Resident Perry Herman said the community doesn't want the outside world to focus on the negative.
"It takes a lot of time for them to realize and then all of a sudden to step up and say, 'OK, I need to do something to move on," he said. "In those times, they need people like counsellors and whatnot. They need people who are going to get up and to be motivated to move on in life again."
For Montgard the problem is economic opportunity.
"La Loche is not a bad community. This is an isolated incident," he said. "This could happen to any community anywhere in Canada.
"But we have economic conditions and social conditions that are, bar none ... really, really hurtful to our community and ... they'll take time to change."
