Rotary Club OF Saskatoon Meeting October 30, 2023
Meeting a the Saskatoon Club with a Zoom alternative.
President Wendy chaired the meeting.
Members sang ‘O’ Canada. Avis Hardy gave the blessing.
Mark Gryba handled technology. Cashier was Wayne Palmer.
Jack Brodsky was greeter and introduced our guests who were presenter, Clive Weighill, and Rotarians Jeff Parker and Brenda Banbury.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Donna Gauthier – encouraged members to let her know if they were purchasing grocery cards for gifts as window to order more before Christmas is narrowing.
Paul Gauthier - Paul placed a sheet on our tables where we can select which food items we are committed to bring for the Foundation Potluck on November 27.
ROTARY MOMENT
Jeff Parker from the North Club and 24-Hour Signs spoke about Rotary shirts and other merch that we can order through him. There is a wide variety of styles.
HAPPY AND SAD DOLLARS
- $200 from Jack allotted as follows: $99 for Clive Weighill being with us $1 for being here and $100 to acknowledge the passing of Gord Menuz
- $50 from Mark Gryba for the Hilltops being winners 43 - 0 over a Quebec team and reaching the national semi-finals.
- $75 From Elaine Zakreski; $ 25.00 sad for the state of the world, and $50 for being booked to fly out.
- $50 from Gary Rusu. He is sad to have covid (We were happy to see you on Zoom, Gary - and impressed) He is sad about Gord Menuz but happy the Huskies beat the Rams and happy to see Haley Wickenheiser.
- $200 from Graham Pearson, $ 100 sad for Gord and $100 happy for a fun visit with family in Vancouver.
- $50.00 for Kent Smith-Windsor for the Rock for Rap fundraiser.
- $50 from Linda for the birth of her daughter’s second child. First name Macie (Macey?). Also, the craft fair is sold out - all tables for crafters are purchased.
- $100 from Wayne Storozuk; $ 50.00 sad that his daughter has moved back to Calgary and $ 50 happy that his daughter has passed her Nurse Practitioner classes.
Presentation
Paul Gauthier introduced our speaker, Clive Weighill. Paul has a history with Clive (all good!) and in his remarks credited Clive for turning around the police force as Police Chief and advancing a Community Trust, which helped our indigenous citizens have more faith in the police force.
Clive has been with the Coroner’s Office since 2018. He is based in Regina but comes to Saskatoon twice a month, and always looks forward to his visit here.
Clive is the chief of the Coroner’s Office. There is a deputy, six full time and province wide there is 70 community coroners. Back in 2000 there was 150 community coroners, which was an inferior system to today's system.
There are several types of deaths:
- Natural - does not involve the coroner and the family physician signs the death certificate.
- Non-Homicide - not clear what the cause is so the coroner is involved. These might include a young person, a suicide, an infant, and drugs. The cause of death must be determined.
- Homicide - a warrant is issued for a post-mortem and the coroner always works with the police.
- Inquest - if someone dies in custody, in a high-speed chase, or is a public shooting. A jury is summoned, and it is possible for a jury to be all indigenous. There is a family liaison position when there is an inquest. There are five lawyers within the province, and they rotate through that group.
There were 461 deaths from drug toxicity last year. Surprisingly the largest group within that total is from the 35 - 45 male age group.
Next Meeting - November 14 - ON A TUESDAY. Prem will provide an update on work in Nepal and we will have a student or students to share their RYLA experience(s).
- reported by Steve Wilson