Groups pledge to rebuild ransacked friendship centre

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This article was published 19/02/2019 (1889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Indian and Metis Friendship Centre will rise again, say spokespeople for two groups willing to put in the elbow grease and organizational know-how.

The centre at 45 Robinson Street in the North End was discovered ransacked and looted late last week after lying unused for months.

The Manitoba Association of Friendship Centres is determined there will be a new friendship centre in the city, even if it is not at the current address.

“It’s the oldest incorporated friendship centre in Canada, established in 1957 or 1958 and even before that, it was running back in the 1940s,” said the association’s president, David Gray.

“Winnipeg has the largest Indigenous population in Canada. We’re not going to not have a friendship centre there,” Gray vowed in a call from his law office in Swan River.

The other group that’s stepped forward is the Bear Clan. Its executive director, James Favel, said in a separate phone interview that the volunteer safety patrol is equally determined to restore the centre, even if it’s at a new location.

A routine Bear Clan patrol discovered an open door blown in and blocked with snow. Volunteers entered the building and discovered it had been robbed; its fixtures smashed, files strewn in the administrative offices, and electronics missing. Even copper pipes and wiring in washrooms and the kitchen had been gutted and stripped.

The Bear Clan secured the building as best they could, called police and, on the weekend, showed media through the wreckage.

Gray said word of the sacking of the building came as a shock but after months of it lying unused, there’s now an impetus to start from scratch to rebuild the centre and its services.

“We are looking to see if there is an Indigenous organization there that wants to be a friendship centre and we’d like to hear from them. We have a process for determining who would be a good fit,” Gray said.

There are 119 Indian and Metis friendship centres across Canada and the model for how they work, with federal and provincial accounting and funding mechanisms, are well established and something that could be adopted by a group willing to work with the provincial association, he said.

“if we can’t find someone, then we’re going to establish a new organization. There will be a friendship centre in Winnipeg,” Gray said.

The Winnipeg centre had struggled in recent years, with a succession of administrative officials, none of whom managed to get the centre on a firm footing.

The final decline came when the centre lost its funding from the provincial association in March 2017 and the entire board resigned.

A new board comprised of people affiliated with the American Indian Movement (AIM) took over later in 2017 and the funding was temporarily restored. But the new board couldn’t come to terms with the provincial association, which pulled the funding again in 2018. The centre closed its doors last summer.

At one time it hosted community events such as Halloween parties, Christmas events and an annual pancake breakfast with police and politicians serving flapjacks to hundreds of people. A hub for the north end, it ran a food bank and various services including a seniors’ centre. It was perhaps best known for a huge bingo that regularly drew fans from across the city, until its lottery licence was pulled.

Me-Dian Credit Union holds a mortgage on the property worth about $450,000 and there have been media reports that the centre owes the city about $35,000 in taxes.

Favel said he shares the provincial association’s concerns with how the centre has been managed, the same concerns that community members have been raising for years.

The looting was the final straw, Favel said.

“It’s just such a tragedy and if I can have a part in putting things back on track, it would be an honour to do that,” Favel said. “We’ve demonstrated a capacity for leadership and I’d like to take a role in that way. We have a huge volunteer base and we could help staff a place like that while it’s starting out,” Favel said.

Both groups agree the building on Robinson may be too damaged to restore.

“I’ve been aggressive about the timeline and I want it sooner rather than later but it may not be as soon as I like,” Gray said.

Added Favel: “There’s no chance that that building could be up and running by April. No chance.”

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca