Wednesday February 15, 2017
RCMP officer takes man for medical care after 21-hour trek
A man from Somalia who risked the freezing temperatures of Manitoba as he crossed into Canada was discovered out in the cold by a CBC journalist.
The chance encounter took place around 4:30 a.m. Saturday as Nick Purdon was driving along the U.S.-Canada border, on assignment to watch for possible asylum seekers, while the temperature dipped to –17 C.
He spotted the man crouched near a snowbank along the side of the road near Emerson, Man., in an area where several other Somali asylum-seekers have made the trek out of the U.S. since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in late January.
"I have a problem. America is [the] problem now," said the man, adding that he had been walking for 21 hours and was "not feeling well.”
Shortly after getting into the journalist's car to get warm, an RCMP officer arrived and told the man he would be given medical care.