BeyondTheMargins

A polar bear crossing sign in Churchill, Manitoba.

We’ve all seen a deer crossing sign on the roads, or a moose crossing sign on the road, and sometimes, often in India, even an elephant crossing sign on the road. But have you ever seen a polar bear crossing sign on the road? The only place in the world where you would have the privilege of seeing one is in Churchill, Manitoba – the polar bear capital of the world.

For the majority of the unversed, a Polar bear is the epitome of cuteness, a full-blown bear beauty that can indefinitely “do no harm.” Some people, particularly tourists who visit Churchill, even have strange fantasies of “petting the polar bear” or cuddling with it. Most people’s conception of a Polar bear is something like this below.

.or something like this below (courtesy google)

Which is precisely the problem….

What a polar bear actually, really, really and truly is, is something like this.

Every year during the summer, the small town of Churchill is flooded by tourists who fly in via an expensive charter plane through Winnipeg or arrive via the train to witness the town’s main two attractions: the Beluga Whales and the Polar Bears.

For the unversed, Polar Bears are so common in this town that you might just find one walking in and lounging around on the beach, trying to pet your dog (if it’s not hungry enough).

In particular, the Bear Hierarchy – and for those who are unversed with the north American zoological Landscape. The ferociousness of bears is ranked primarily in order of the North American Black bear being the most modest, docile, approachable and harmless of the Lot. The next in Line is the Grizzley Bear, a well known North American predator which mostly has a home in the Alaskan wilderness and in the American Andes. Although one’s chances of surviving a black bear are pretty high, as we climb the hierarchy of bears, the chances of survival in confrontation dwindle dramatically. The chances of survival if chased by a Grizzley bear are considered very slim. A Grizzley bear does not like to wait around to “kill” its prey but actively takes chunks out of the living prey regardless of its death. The chances of survival now go down even more to a minimal or a zero when we approach the Apex predator of the lot – that is the Polar Bear. Polar Bears due to their nativity of living in the north around minimal food resources are known to be unrelenting and unquestioning . The Polar bears hibernate in the ruthless northern cold and once out of hibernation – they are worse off than Grizzley bears, who are provided with much more ample food supplies around them in the forests. A Polar bear, once out of hibernation has just one instinct and that is to eat. That can be anything – Polar bears will eat dead whale carcasses, dead deer’s, dead animals, a dog, a human being, a cat, a deer – as long as it is a meal, it is a target for a hunt. Needless to say, inundated tourists who try to “pet the bear”, “hug the bear”, or “kiss the bear” or remotely “cuddle with the bear” are the Polar bear’s one sure shot fast food supply when it comes to a really good meal. What can be better than if Mac Donald’s’ comes right to you if you are living in the Tundra?

The attitude towards the bears can be summed up by a quote used by the Canadians .

“If it’s black, fight back. If it’s brown, lie down. If it’s white, good night”

The town of Churchill has its own, what is called a “Polar Bear Patrol” or “Polar Bear Police,” for driving out polar bears that wander inside the town premises. A large vehicle blaring with sirens and polar bear “cops” laced and armed with massive dosages of tranquilizers are equipped for the job. Every time a rogue polar bear “wanders” into town, sirens go off, and the wandering polar bear is driven out via a vehicle, tranquilized, and lifted via a helicopter and dropped off far away from the town premises. This is one of the full-time jobs of the Polar Bear Patrol in Churchill, and the Polar Bear Alert program is one of the heightened feats of Manitoba Conservation, one of the only in the world. Their job is also to educate tourists about the impossibility of ever being able to “pet” the polar bear.

Apart from the polar bear population haunting Churchill, there is another government department that works overtime and relentlessly for the benefit of the local population. It is called the Provincial Department of Families—the ones who employ me.

I visited Churchill on 3 different occasions since my tenure in Rural North Department of Families and it was in Churchill when my first experience occurred where i instructed a student to write a harm and danger statement for court purposes to “child is left alone to wander outside – maybe eaten by a polar bear”. Regardless to say, this was quiet unforgettable.

When the Department of Families came to Churchill, Manitoba, they thought that this project would be one big piece of cake. After all, Churchill was just a one-lane town with a few houses built around it, a population of just about 800, and all the department had to do was provide resources to this location, albeit via a charter plane. How easy could this be? …And oh, the simple, small-minded, innocent folks of Churchill, Manitoba…

It is ironic how even a juggernaut like the government can be deceived by the beauty of a small town like Churchill. What the department did not anticipate was that life in Churchill meant not having enough employment for the local population. Low employment, combined with isolation from the mainland and the harsh climate that kept people indoors, was a pathway to a couple of things: drugs, alcoholism, domestic violence, and crime, which intertwined from one household to the next, all challenged by an incredible dearth of resources to handle everything on behalf of the government. Providing resources now seemed an uphill task, with the majority of the resources residing outside on the mainland. De-addiction centers, health foundations, foster care homes, psychological assessment foundations, drug testing facilities, and the provincial courts all resided on the mainland, with the only way to get there being through a very expensive charter plane or by train.

My one week trip to Churchill cost the government $3000 for a 2 hr. flight along with the arrangement of a driver and living arrangements. It was in Churchill when I questioned for the first time the motivation of drug addicts to sneak in drugs through expensive private charter planes and through train rides. With a population of only about 800, mostly people related to each other, this led to a massive accumulation of open files every 15 meters.

It was like Churchill was now smiling and taunting the government – “not so EASY now IS IT? just 800? what did you really THINK????”.

Fortunately for me, I was to take trips to Churchill as a covering manager. The permanent manager sometimes being away on vacation, I shuddered to think how this role and position was even remotely manageable while sitting in an office in Beausejour. How does one file a case for sexual abuse on behalf of the government while sitting in Beausejour in an office? My respect for the expertise and coolness of the manager grew tenfold. I had my hands full with Pine Falls, and being in Churchill for a week in January of 2023 was like a visit to the South Pole where one resided continuously indoors and could barely go outside in -50 degrees.

8 days doing desk work on behalf of the government in the polar bear capital of the world, looking at file after file of harassment, drug usage, court papers, pending indictments, court dates, and conversing with very supportive colleagues about the best course of action to take with minimal resources around. Should we spend money to send a ward to Winnipeg? And how is that construction phase of the local foster care system coming along? We don’t want to be spending enormous money on charter planes transporting people back and forth from the mainland for subpar business, so how’s that negotiation deal with the province going for something more “on site”? If we do get “something more on site,” then we have to watch out for “conflict of interest,” and the hires cannot be individuals related to the inmates or wards (this is highly likely in a small town with a population of just 800). Worse, the employees need to be drug-free to be employed by the government—was this even a possibility in Churchill? Well, what are the alternatives? We need to pay people more for them to be employed in Churchill from the mainland, and how’s that going?

…oh gosh! Everything is so slow! Well then, let’s get a drink, shall we? ….Well, off to the local liquor store, here we go…. inundated by half the population in the client open file list roaming around in the liquor store…. and alcohol is almost 30% more expensive. They blame the charter planes, they said, and the cost of the transportation, and those godawful polar bears that kept them indoors.