Image Credit: Facebook / Kamloops Race Central

By Jill Sperling

Kamloops Race Central

Organizer of Easter barrel racing event feels provincial health orders are unfair

Apr 5, 2021 | 5:02 PM

TK’EMLUPS — A barrel racing event was cut short this past weekend after concerns were raised about the event.

Jim Cornelson, CEO of Kamloops Race Central, said he received a call from the office of Dr. Bonnie Henry the night before the Easter weekend event was set to begin.

“I thought it was a prank call because the government was calling me at 10:41 p.m. on an Easter holiday,” Cornelson said.

Cornelson said the event had been in the works since February.

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“I need to stress that these barrel races are my income, a big part of my revenue stream,” Cornelson said. “I don’t feel it’s fair that – I’m not picking on golf courses, but they have tee times, and they have 400-500 golfers through a day.”

Cornelson said he had consulted with the First Nations Health Authority prior to the event. On Friday (April 2), races went ahead with more than 300 participants from B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Chief/Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir of Tk’emlups te Secwepemc (TteS) said she only found out about the event Thursday night when she received a phone call from Interior Health.

“What I found out about the event from that point, was the fact that it was taking place for the weekend and that Interior Health had some serious concerns. With the fact that people were going to be travelling and with the new provincial health orders that were put into place, especially for travelling,” Casimir said.

In an emailed statement, Interior Health said “under the current orders, gatherings over ten people are not permitted, nor is travel for sport.” IH said there were concerns for the community as well as potential transmission among attendees.

“Through some extensive discussions between Interior Health, First Nations Health Authority, TteS leadership, we decided collaboratively that we were going to make sure that the organizer knew that we do follow those provincial health orders and that he’s going to have to himself… tell all the patrons that the event was canceled because of the health pandemic and it really shouldn’t have taken place to begin with,” Casimir said.

Cornelson did cancel the event following Friday’s races, but he says he doesn’t feel the rules are fair across the board.

“I look on the COVID bylaws and the COVID rules. I see baseball, soccer, all these sports, sports I don’t even hardly know, and not one equine sport on that list.”