The Ipperwash Crisis in 1995 was an armed conflict over a park that had been created on land expropriated from a native reserve on Lake Huron in western Ontario. I got one article in the Star over the dispute between the Ojibwe native people who wanted it returned to them and the government of Ontario before the crisis developed. The Ojibwe had been trying to get public attention about this for years before the crisis, which resulted in the death of Dudley George, who was shot by an OPP sniper. Here are some natives walking to Queen's Park, Ontario's provincial parliament in Toronto, along Highway 6 just north of Guelph in 1993. The staff is an Eagle Staff, which is like a flag for native people. The man carrying it explained that it represented the different First Nations that supported them and the fur, feathers and snakeskin represented the living things that also were concerned and supported them. He used the word 'people' in English to describe both the First Nations and the other living things. I've lost my notes so I don't know the names of anyone.
Mark Bellis
Hi all, journalist photographer, Blogging since 1996. Written for Toronto Star, Cité Libre, Toronto and Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Morgunblaðið (Iceland), Indian Time (Mohawk/Kanien'kehá:ka) . email markbellis@spamcop.net, enjoy! All content copyright Mark Bellis, and other copyright holders unless where noted.
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Peppermint in the gorge
I lived in Elora, Ontario in 1991. There is a gorge made by the Grand River and Irvine Creek that runs through the limestone bedrock in the middle of the town. Peppermint grows in abundance at the edge of the water, and I'd go down the steps at night to the creek bed and smell it.
Electrolier, Old Morris Tobacconists, Victoria, B.C.
This was in a cigar shop opened in 1892 in Victoria, British Columbia. Still looked like it did a century ago, but it's reported to be closing. Mark Twain is said to have shopped there when he was in town. Electrolier, made of a Mexican onyx column on a Nootka marble pedestal, under a globe illuminated from within, with gas jets on either side of the column for people to light their cigars. according to Victoria history writer Danda Humphreys, (Victoria Times-Colonist), Old Morris Tobacconists, 1116 Government St., Victoria, B.C , c. 1997
Clerk showing some cigars
Sunday, August 16, 2026
Saturday, August 15, 2026
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