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Winnipeg Free Press
19-07-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Creating a compassionate community and city
The Sharing Circle of Wellness of the Hindu Society of Manitoba celebrated its 15th anniversary last week at the Dr. Raj Pandey Hindu Centre. At the core of the wellness program are two main tenets: a holistic approach to wellness and a vision to treat each other with compassion. 'Wellness is not just physical activity… it is about longevity, socializing and coming together,' said Manju Lodha, the group's volunteer co-ordinator. 'In our group, people can talk to each other in their own languages. It is a meeting place. It is a very satisfying program.' Beginning with only a few members, the group was centred around art-related activities. An official formalization of the program took place in 2010. It continued to grow over the years and now has more than 100 members. While there is no membership fee for attendees, donations are welcomed. It is supported by a Winnipeg Foundation endowment fund. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Mayor Scott Gillingham accepts a painting from Manju Lodha, the Sharing Circle of Wellness's volunteer co-ordinator, at the Dr. Raj Pandey Hindu Centre. Even though members are mainly seniors, it is open to all ages. The group has a diverse membership that is multi-faith and multi-cultural as well as a mix of male and female members. Lodha says the group would not be possible without the efforts of its program committee, many volunteers and the support of the Hindu Society. At present, the group gathers three times a week, once in-person at the HSM facility and twice via Zoom. During the pandemic, when maintaining contact was heightened, the group connected via Zoom a couple of times per week. With the purpose of promoting wellness, in every sense, addressing physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and nutritional needs are interwoven into the program's itinerary. Physical activities include yoga sessions, meditation, breathing techniques, stretching and gentle exercises. The spiritual side of yoga is also explored. The program features weekly guest speakers on a wide range of health-related topics and beyond. According to Lodha, the group had talks from a neurologist, psychiatrist, health educator and retired doctors as well as from a First Nations group and visitors from India who offer different viewpoints about Indian culture. Other speakers have discussed important topics for seniors, such as power of attorney, wills and cremations. 'Many of us don't know what are the options we have, what are the government procedures and what are the benefits that we can get. The purpose of the program is to have a person educate us, provides some information and at the same time we learn from each other,' Lodha said. During the summer, children provide cultural performances for the wellness program, creating colourful and joyful moments. Festivities such as Diwali, Christmas and birthdays of members who are 90 years and older are celebrated. With many seniors facing isolation and loneliness, the program facilitates an opportunity to see and meet one another, hold conversations, laugh together and form friendships. At the anniversary celebration on July 10, a regular yoga session took place, followed by a prayer and yoga performance. The event also included a talk on Winnipeg becoming a compassionate city. 'For many years, Winnipeg has been trying to be a compassionate city,' Lodha said. 'A few years ago, there was a Winnipeg delegation to Louisville, Kentucky to listen to the Dalai Lama… to find out more about compassionate cities.' Lodha, who attended that special event, pointed out the Wellness Group has been interested in how seniors can help with this vision. Mayor Scott Gillingham was invited to speak at the anniversary event about Winnipeg's journey towards being a compassionate city. 'In our world right now… to be people of compassion and be a city of compassion is a bright light, a light of hope. It says to others that we see you, we have care, concern for you… no matter who you are, where you come from, what you are going through, you will be received and cared for by our community,' he said. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. The Sharing Circle of Wellness highlights the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the city, he said. 'When people move from all parts of the world, one of the ways that they can settle in and become part of our community is because of the cultural and faith infrastructure that is here. People identify really with a faith community, a cultural community that help them become Winnipeggers,' Gillingham said. To help achieve the goal of becoming a compassionate city, people must embrace what compassion entails. Rather than waiting until a pandemic or a disaster hits — whether natural, physical or personal — to ignite compassion, it needs to be part of our daily dialogues and everyday actions. When welcoming a newcomer in our city, when working collaboratively towards justice and reconciliation, when taking a moment to talk to your neighbour, when extending a helping hand to someone dealing with a circumstance different from your own, when acknowledging someone by saying hello or with a smile, becoming a compassionate city is made possible. Our younger generation plays a vital role in the future of our compassionate communities and city by embracing its value in their lives. In bringing a diverse group of people together, the Wellness Group is striving to make a positive impact upon the lives of its members to be healthy and happy. They are also striving to be a shining example of treating each other with grace, dignity, care, respect and love. 'As new immigrants when we come here, we need compassion from other people and when we become citizens we need to give compassion to others,' Lodha said. 'Our whole wellness program is based on compassion. We all have to help each other.' Romona Goomansingh, PhD is an educator, freelance writer and author in Winnipeg. The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba. If you appreciate that coverage, help us do more! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow us to deepen our reporting about faith in the province. Thanks! BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER
Winnipeg Free Press
28-06-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Immigrants looking for positive change to policing in Winnipeg
Members of Winnipeg's immigrant community are frustrated with the lack of action in addressing safety concerns — such as police racial profiling — and want more culturally relevant justice systems, researchers said at an event Saturday. Immigration Partnership Winnipeg, a non-profit that helps connect newcomers and refugees with community resources, hosted a panel Saturday with three researchers who spent the last five years interviewing people from multiple newcomer communities in the city — Sudanese, Nepali, Filipino, Afghan, Chinese, Ukrainian, Colombian, Southeast Asian, African, and others — about their experiences. Their report, funded by the Winnipeg Foundation and Immigration Partnership Winnipeg, will be released next week. 'They don't police people because of what you do. Most of the policing is because of how you look.'–David Mabior Atem '(Community) leaders were saying, 'We don't feel comfortable actually saying to the community to trust the police,' because things just keep on escalating and things are getting worse,' said Darrien Morton, a PhD student from the University of Manitoba and one of the lead researchers. 'Safety sometimes moves into the background, even for the young people (who) have experienced police violence and experienced racial profiling. For them, even this just becomes a way of daily life.' David Mabior Atem, another researcher at the event, said over-policing is a major issue affecting immigrant communities. 'They don't police people because of what you do. Most of the policing is because of how you look,' he said. 'Most of the youth from racialized communities have said this across the board that they are being targeted.' Matthew, an attendee at the meeting, told the audience he dresses in expensive-looking business clothing so police won't racially profile him. 'The reason I dress up like this is so then I don't die. It's so then I don't get reduced my skin colour,' he said. 'When I'm dressed up like this, I'm seen more responsible and professional. But when I dress in my track suit, I'm another thug.' Atem said one possible solution would be to include immigrant communities in restorative justice strategies. For example, police could involve community leadership in responses to non-criminal calls to provide cultural context. 'Some of the things that go to court, that can be done by the communities because that's how they used to resolve their problem back home. People sit and talk and address it at a community level,' he said. Attendees discussed the fatal police shooting of 19-year-old Afolabi Stephen Opaso in 2023. Police responding to a mental-health call about Opaso, a Nigerian student studying economics at the University of Manitoba, found him wielding two knives, police said at the time. Officers told him to drop the knife three times before firing three shots, according to an audio recording previously reviewed by the Free Press. Reuben Garang, director of Immigration Partnership Winnipeg, said having people at the scene who were knowledgeable about the Opaso's cultural background might have helped de-escalate the situation. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. 'When people are experiencing a mental health episode, and interacting with the police, there's fear on both sides. But if there are cultural groups that are involved in this, they also come with different understanding,' he said. Garang said he has de-escalated similar situations. In one case, he said a man who had mental health issues was surrounded by police. He approached the police officers and asked if he could talk with the man and managed to defuse the crisis. 'Imagine if I had not intervened in that situation. It could've ended in that person being killed,' he said. Morton said community members feel reports are repeatedly released with recommendations for change, but result in no action and make little difference. But Garang is optimistic the forthcoming report will help generate a conversation with police and other communities so positive change can happen.
CBC
26-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
$500K estate of woman under care of public guardian will go to Winnipeg Foundation, judge rules
Social Sharing A note written by a Winnipeg woman who was under the care of the public guardian and wished to leave the bulk of her estate to charity — and only $1 to any family or friends — has been accepted by a judge as her final will. In a Manitoba Court of King's Bench ruling delivered May 2, Justice Shawn Greenberg found there was "good reason" Minnie Blustein wanted her assets to go to charity, and ruled her estate, valued at about $500,000, will be used to create an endowment at the Winnipeg Foundation to fund scholarships in her family's name. Such rulings are "very rare," a lawyer for the Winnipeg Foundation said. It has been about 20 years since the last time the endowment-based charity inherited the estate of a person who was under the care of the public guardian and trustee through the court system, said Jennifer Litchfield. She's aware of only one similar case. More commonly, such gifts come from a living family member, and "they look to have that estate go out into the community as some way to do good with what is left behind," said Litchfield. In 2007, Blustein's personal and financial decisions fell under the control of the public trustee, after she was deemed mentally incompetent by a doctor and had no one else to look after her. The Public Guardian and Trustee of Manitoba is an arm's-length government agency that makes the personal and financial decisions for people deemed medically incompetent by a doctor. Blustein, who died in October 2017 at age 88, spent the last decade of her life at a personal care home. "There is no evidence that anyone ever visited her there," Greenberg wrote. "This is not a case where suspicions are raised because a family member has been inexplicably excluded from the will." Greenberg's decision centred on a handwritten November 1994 note, where Blustein indicated she wanted her estate to go to Manitoba's public trustee so it could be invested in Canada Savings Bonds, with 50 per cent of its interest going toward "scholarships for the needy." The note also said, "to any relations or friends who feel that they are entitled to my estate, I leave the sum of $1, which is more than they ever gave me," according to Greenberg's 18-page decision. 'Lived a solitary life' The public trustee found the document while cleaning up Blustein's home, after she became a ward of the trustee in 2007. The trustee also found another handwritten note among Blustein's belongings, dated February 1972, which said in the event of her death, she wanted to leave everything she owned to an orphanage in Israel. After Blustein's death, the public trustee made an application with Manitoba's Court of King's Bench to determine whether either note could be probated as the will for her estate, or if she died intestate, meaning without a valid will. In such cases, the estate goes to "intestacy beneficiaries" — the closest relatives. Greenberg ruled both notes complied with the requirements of a valid holographic will — one that is handwritten by a person, and is signed and dated — and accepted the 1994 note as Blustein's will, given it was written last. "The object of the bequest in the 1994 will is clear," Greenberg wrote in her decision. "As Ms. Blustein had no close family and lived a solitary life, it is not surprising she left her estate to charity." She had no spouse, children or siblings, the court decision said. Her mother and father died decades before her, and the public trustee was not aware of any friends or close relatives Blustein had, other than a distant maternal cousin in Ontario. An heir-tracing company found Blustein had seven paternal cousins, none of whom lived in Canada. If it was determined she died intestate, the estate would have gone to those cousins, Greenberg's decision says. However, "none of the cousins provided any evidence" to the court, and "there is no indication that the paternal cousins knew Ms. Blustein or that they wish to make a claim to her estate," Greenberg wrote. "I also note that no one has come forward in the eight years since Ms. Blustein died to claim any interest in the estate," which "might explain why Ms. Blustein did not make any provision for a family in either of the two notes," wrote Greenberg. The court also found Blustein had the capacity to make her will. While she suffered from mental health issues when the public trustee committed to her care in 2007, that was long after the notes were written, Greenberg said. The lawyer appointed to represent any intestacy beneficiaries had argued the 1994 note "seems emotional," suggesting it was "the result of an impulsive act and not a considered plan," Greenberg wrote. The judge disagreed. Blustein "had good reason for not including relatives or friends" in her will, the decision said. "The document shows a deliberate and final intent that people who never had anything to do with her should not benefit from her estate" because of intestacy laws, it said. 'A huge impact' The judge said Blustein's intention to use her estate for scholarships through an endowment fund was clear. But since the public trustee is not capable of doing so, the lawyer appointed to represent her charitable interests gave the court a list of four Winnipeg charities that could manage such an endowment. Greenberg chose the Winnipeg Foundation, writing Blustein's "intent would be best implemented by setting up the trust with an institution that would reach the broadest part of the community." When contacted by CBC last Thursday, the Winnipeg Foundation had not officially been made aware of the court decision yet, but its legal counsel wasn't entirely surprised. "There are a number of steps that have to happen before any payments are made out of an estate," Litchfield said. A spokesperson for the province, which oversees the public trustee, said the court has yet to issue a written order to carry out the decision. Then, the trustee has to wait for an appeal period to expire. But an endowment fund from an estate as large as Blustein's "can have a huge impact," said Litchfield.
