Paul Martin speaks at National Day of Action, Akwesasne

Paul Martin speaks at National Day of Action, Akwesasne Mohawk Territory

Martin was wearing a blazer with anchors on the buttons. (The Martins owned a shipping company). The Protestors threw some herbs, probably tobacco into a fire, and prayed, punctuated by screams in a high voice (Mohawks often do this, to express joy, but it does sound disconcerting when heard for the first time). I learned that the reason purple is often used by Mohawks is that it was the colour of seashells that were used in wampum belts. The MCA on Boots' sign stands for Mohawk Council of Akwesasne.
Akwesasne, June 29, 2007 - Former Prime Minister Paul Martin promised to continue "the fight of my life" for native equality, and praised the non-violent approach the Mohawk nation has taken to advancing their cause, but some protesters threatened to escalate tensions if police raid any reserves.
Martin was speaking at National Day of Action on the Akwesasne Mohawk Reserve that stradles the border south of Cornwall. Martin and local natives and some non-native politicians spoke about improving health care and education, addressing land claims, and the free transit of goods and people across the US-Canadian border.
Martin contrasted the peaceful rally at Akwesasne with the barricades erected by followers of Mohawk activist Shawn Brant this week. "The way the case is being made here, peacefully and with great conviction is the way to do it" Martin said. "Those who put up barricades, as was done by Mr. Brant, essentially allow the whole arguement to be diverted - the headlines will be 'Barricades!' as opposed to 'Improve the quality of life of aboriginals'. Martin insisted that the Kelowna Accord that he sponsored "would become the law of the land" and would make sure that natives had the same quality of education and health as non-natives.

Grand Chief Tim Thompson

Martin and other speakers, like Akwesanse Grand Chief Tim Thompson lambasted the Conservative government for not adopting the accord and for cutting funding to native language education. Chief Thompson called the $ 150 million cuts to education "assaults against the preservation of first nations language and culture."
Chief Nona Benedict noted that natives could easily have blocked the border crossing, the Seaway or even the 401 but instead chose to put on an information session. "We want to open communications with other (non-native) people." Chief Benedict said that both the US and Canadian customs stations and the bridge toll both should be moved off of the reserve because they cause traffic tie ups and even traffic accidents on the reserve, and impede non-natives, such as lacrosse teams, from visiting, and Mohawks, who spend 15 million a year in Cornwall, from leaving the reserve. Akwesasne is a major artery for smuggling between the US and Canada, but Benedict said that Canadian customs often unfairly targets native youth for searches. "I call it profiling" she said. She opposed the plan to build a truck plaza at the Canadian Customs, saying that exhaust from idling trucks waiting in line to cross has already increased asthma among children on the reserve, and that a truck plaza could easily be built in Cornwall.
Other speakers expressed their worries that new passport requirements to cross the US border would be hard on them, as they have to cross the border simply to go from one part of the reserve, which is divided between the two Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and New York State. Many Mohawks do not have a passport.

Protester Stacey Boots, by tent he is living in

A group of about 20 protesters, who were not affiliated with the rally, held a protest about 200 metres away near the toll booth. They greeted Martin with Warrior Society flags and signs that read "Thief Go Home" and with Paul Martin's name next to swastikas. Stacey Boots, spokesperson for the group, who was sporting a T-shirt with a pile of flaming tires and the words "Tax This!" on it, said that they had had a pile of tires but that native police had confiscated them, but still left a pile of wooden pallets behind. Boots said he was protesting because he was homeless and was living in a tent by the road after a fire damaged his previous residence because the Akwesasne Mohawk Council would not find housing for him, even though he has four children of his own and two others from his girlfriend. Boots said that he was in contact with Shawn Brant, and that if something happened like police raids on any native reserve, his group might block the road. "If there's going to be trouble, then we will escalate" he said, as other members of the group prayed around a fire.
Chief Thompson said that Boots' situation was because there was no available housing on the reserve, due to insufficient funding by the federal government, and that several chiefs were working on finding him a place to stay.

 Go Home Thief and Paul Martin Swastikas protest signs

Mohawk Elder Ernie Benedict talks to former Prime Minister Paul Martin

Elder Ernie Benedict, 88, opened the rally by telling the history of the loyalists that founded Cornwall after the Mohawks helped them flee the American Revolution in New York State. He said that Mohawks guided them through the Adirondacks and found food for them, but that after the loyalists had settled, much of the natives' land was taken from them.
Land claims were also a part of former Grand Chief Mike Mitchell speech, where he asked for lands confiscated from Akwesasne to build railroads and bridges be returned to them.
The mood at the rally was light hearted, with refreshments, flower arrangements, and native crafts. Master of Ceremonies Leonard Lazore said that they wanted to use "Words not violence" and there would be no blocades, tire burning flag burning and "no bra burning - sorry guys!" he said jokingly.
"Chain of Friendship" baskets made of sweetgrass and black ash strips with designs of chain of purple were given to Martin and other visitors. The purple chain represented the wampum belts that were made of seashells that were made to seal treaties between the natives and the Europeans.

Cornwall Mayor Bob Kilger receives friendship basket

Local Conservative MP Guy Lauzon was present but did not speak, although he was scheduled to. Chief Thompson was quoted in a local newspaper that Lauzon declined to speak for unspecified reasons, although Martin, who came before Lauzon on the program, came on later than expected.
(Ultimately the pallets were set on fire and scattered across the road, but only after midnight - also an AK-47 was confiscated after being fired.)

Bumblebees mating

As Cole Porter said, "birds do it, (bumble) bees do it,

Even educated fleas do it

Let's do it, let's fall in love"

Cornwall Inquiry Interview

Interviewed re Cornwall Inquiry on NCPR (National Public Radio station)

Cornwall Inquiry

 A former cotton mill was turned into a hearing room for the Cornwall Inquiry.

Split President

Split President
Here's why you should always check how your webpage looks in all browsers...
This is from GWB's official reelection website, as seen by IE:

And as seen by Opera:

Waste Water Garden

PORTLAND, August, 2004 -"I came to Canada, I saw all these beautiful natural
resources," the 90-year-old man said, leaning on his cane and gesturing
towards the sparkling lake. "I wanted to do something to protect them."
Retired University of Toronto professor Alfred Bernhart, described as a
"philosopher-engineer" by his son Bernie, takes pride in his latest
brainchild, a "waste water garden" that uses human waste to grow green
plants.
Bernhart has been working on the recycling of sewage since he was a
graduate student in his native Austria in the
1940s. He coined the word "evapo­transpiration" for the system. The
theory was refined by David Del Porto, a Boston-area engineer who has
designed hundreds of wastewater gardens in the United States, but this
is the first of its type in Canada.
The garden is at the Centre for Sustainable Watersheds in Portland, Ontario
south of Ottawa.
It stands a few feet from Big Rideau Lake, full of boaters travelling
the Rideau Canal, in the middle of cottage country. Reducing pollution
is the demonstration project's main goal.
It's an experiment aimed at three-season cottagers, said project manager
Michael Minthorn. But as large "monster homes" spread through the area,
it could be upgraded to all-year use, Minthorn explained.
In a conventional septic system, the "black water" - sewage water
carrying solids - goes into a concrete septic tank. The solids settle
and are filtered out. Then the "grey water," the sewage without solids,
leaches out through a field bed, a network of pipes buried in layers of
sand, gravel and rock. From there, the water eventually ends up in the
soil and groundwater, where it can carry e. coli bacteria, drugs and
hormones from human waste as well as pollutants such as heavy metals
into the environment.
In the waste water garden, however, the whole field bed sits in a layer
of plastic that leaves the grey water nowhere to go but up through the
plants, which filter and evaporate it.
Even organic material, which leaches out to groundwater and eventually
causes algae on ponds and lakes in regular septic systems, is used by
the plants to grow.
Del Porto uses vines such as wild grapes and Virginia creepers, because
they're "like long pipes" with roots that grow many feet in the ground
and suck up litres of water each day. The plants should be monitored to
see they are getting he right amount of water, but Del Porto said it
takes no more work than an average garden.
Because of the risk of e. coli and other
contamination, no food plants are used in the bed, but ornamentals such
as cedars and flowers work fine.
The project looks like a hydroponic garden - a field of sand about 18 by
30 feet, with plants poking out of them.
A translucent roof over the growing area sheds rainwater away from the
beds, since the plants are supposed to filter and evaporate the grey
water only.
The system, which has been built as a demonstration model to show
cottagers how it could work for them, now serves two cottage country
office buildings with about 27 users, looking after all the wastewater.
It doesn't need soil to absorb grey water, meaning it can be built on
land not suitable for an ordinary septic system. Although targeted at
cottages, it could be used year-round if an insulated greenhouse was
built for the plants.
Cost of the system could run from $15,000 to $25,000 for an average
household.
Eric Draper, of Portland, who built the system, said that it cost about
10 to 15 per cent more than regular septic systems.
There's no need to dig up and replace the field bed every 30 years
because the bed would not form an impermeable layer around the pipes as
conventional beds eventually do. The diffusion pipes can be flushed out
with a hose without digging them up.
Minthorn said that cottagers could avoid using a septic tank and having
to pump it out every three years by using composting toilets that hold
the solids for composting, producing grey water that would go out to the
garden.
The project was built with local municipal approval and conforms to the
Ontario Building Code, but anyone interested in using this system should
check with their local municipality before building.
For more information, visit www.watershed.ca.

Don Cherry plays John Simcoe

Don Cherry playing John Simcoe at Trinity Church, Wolfe Island

Wolfe Island, Aug 20 2004 - Don Cherry made his stage debut in a costume that made his regular sports jacket look conservative.




"How do I say this? Arkigological??", Cherry asked a reporter before he went on stage in a humble church hall on Wolfe Island. Cherry descended from his pickup truck wearing a white wig, three-corner hat, full length riding boots and a flaming red 18th Century British soldier's jacket.




A few days before, Cherry had been driving past the Anglican church that he attends when he's at his home on Wolfe Island, a large island near Kingston, Ontario, Cherry's birthplace.




Cherry saw three women rehearsing the opera and stopped to talk to him.




They were Augusta Cecconi-Bates, the Opera's author and keyboard player, flutist Carrie Wyatt and singer Rhona Gale, who are the only musicians the show had. They immediately told him "It's an opera - and we need you to be MC" Wyatt said. "He said 'What am I doing Friday?' and 'What do I have to do?'".




Everyone on the island knows Cherry, who often walks his fullblood Staffordshire terrier, one of the breeds that are called "pit bulls", along the narrow roads and shoreline.




Cherry, who's been appearing on national TV for years, said he was nervous before he walked out in front of the stage to an audience of about 150 people, many retired cottagers with their grandchildren mixed in. The tiny stage had a backdrop of brown wrapping paper, and was decorated with hand-knitted afghans.




Cherry was dressed as a "Royal Yorkers", an American regiment that stayed loyal to the British during the revolutionary war in 1776, and settled in Canada after they lost the war.

Cherry introduced the opera "Molly Brant", about a Mohawk clan mother who married an English official and brought the Yorkers and other loyalists to Canada after they lost the war.




Cherry introduced the author and players, and told Brant's story, reading in his familiar gravelly voice from a hand lettered script that did not save him from constantly mispronouncing archeology.




Cherry said he took the role to promote knowledge of Canada's history.




"99 out of 100 kids in school in Canada don't know who Molly Brant is, in the States they know George Washington, Benedict Arnold - We got the best country in the world, and we don't teach our history!"




Cherry knows a good deal about local history, and remembered that Stan Jonathan, one of his players with the Bruins, was a Tuscarora Indian, one of the other members of the Six Nations Confederacy the Mohawks are a part of. "I asked him if he was a hunter - he said 'No, I'm a warrior'!" Cherry said.




Cherry said that he doubted next season would be cancelled because of a strike. "I don't think the owners are dumb enough - I don't think the players are dumb enough" because a strike would kill a few of the weaker franchises, but thought the season might be delayed til January.






Asked whether he'd want to pursue a career as a actor, he said "Not if I gotta say "Archeological" again!"