“Freedom to Roam” by Swedish artist Henny Linn Kjellberg, installation #6 of the fieldwork project

Members of the fieldwork project collective l-r: Susie Osler, Chris Osler, Erin Robertson and Chris Gosset. Photo courtesy of Suzie Osler

Rural environments are not usually a likely location for public art installations but when Susie Osler first set up her home and shop outside of Maberly years ago, visions of public outdoor art projects began dancing in her head.

In 2008, those dreams became a reality when she along with her brother Chris Osler, Chris Gosset of Almonte and Erin Robertson of Ottawa formed a four-member art collective that resulted in the “fieldwork” project.

Osler, who works from her home studio primarily as a ceramicist producing unique, one of a kind objects and commissions for clients, explained why she branched out into the sphere of public art. “Personally for me this project developed out of the desire to see public art in a rural space and it’s another creative avenue for putting my work out there for the public to see.”

She also underlined a key motivating factor for her in this project. “I’m very interested in the element of surprise and no matter what kind of art that I happen to be making, be it a ceramic piece or an installation it is always an important consideration for me.”

And the fieldwork project is nothing if not surprising. Coming across art work in a farmer’s field in the country is not a common occurrence and is part of what makes the installations so engaging.

As defined on its website the goals of the fieldwork project are “to present site-specific art installations for passers-by to stumble upon, discover, journey to, and explore” and thanks to the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council a total of six installations have been carried out to date at the four acre field on Osler’s property since the project’s inception.

The most recent installation titled “Freedom to Roam” is by Swedish artist Henny Linn Kjellberg and consists of a 300-foot long strip of oversized barb wire fence constructed from wooden poles and fence wire. Hanging from it are over 700 larger than life ceramic barbs that Kjellberg made in Sweden and brought with her to Canada in 3 large suitcases.

Due to its outdoor setting the piece is subtle and easy to miss if one does not take the time for a closer look. When one does one begins to see the fence as an anomaly; it neither holds anything in nor keeps anything out. So what exactly is it all about?

In the artist’s own words the piece is “a comment on land rights and the use of land.” Kjellberg explains in her artist’s statement that in many Nordic countries an individual’s freedom to roam is actually written into the constitution; people are free to roam the land as long as they are respectful of it. Nordic people grow up with the idea that “nature both belongs to everybody and to nobody“.

The work intends to raise questions about the ownership of land: what is public? What is private? And what do these terms actually mean?

The piece also touches on larger issues of war, conflict borders, migration and poses questions like, just exactly who it is that decides who can enter or leave a country, especially those countries experiencing conflict?

Included in the work is a box of “extra” ceramic barbs and on a posted sign at the site the artist invites visitors to take a barb and photograph it at any location they come across currently undergoing some kind of land issue conflict. She also hopes that participants will email her their photos.

Perhaps the most subtle and sober of all of the fieldwork installations to date, Freedom to Roam is most surprising in that simultaneously as one begins to examine the artwork, one also begins to question their own personal beliefs about land issues, land rights and the movements of people and creatures across the land on a variety of scales.

Osler, who produces ceramic art pieces that function mainly as gifts, is thrilled to be a part of the fieldwork project and sees its installations also as a kind of a gift as well.

For myself the project offers everything that a memorable gift can be: thought-provoking, mystifying, engaging, often delightful and most definitively and in this case, always a pleasant visual surprise.

“Freedom to Roam” will be on display until March 21, 2010. From Highway 7 just east of Maberly take the west most entrance to Old Brooke Road and head south for approx. 2km. The field site is on the north side with posted signs marking the installation site. For more information on the fieldwork project please visit www.fieldworkproject.com

Mayor Janet Gutowski conducts a sign war.

People travelling along Road 38 south of Sharbot Lake may have noticed some unusual signs along the road over the past week.

“Mayor – Seniors should not be put in forests” is one of them.

The signs were put up by a citizens’ group that is opposed to a plan to build a five-plex affordable housing complex for seniors on a property located about 1 km down the Clement Road.

The housing unit is slated to be located at the end of a 100 metre curved driveway off Clement Road, behind a stand of trees. Clement Road is located about 3 km south of the hamlet of Sharbot Lake.

The Township of Central Frontenac approved Zoning and Official Plan amendments in order to enable the project, which is to be built by North Frontenac Not-For-Profit Housing using provincial grant money.

A group including two business owners on Clement Road, Rick Greenstreet and Tim Hagle, as well as Clement Road resident Roy Sepa, launched an appeal of the township’s zoning approvals to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), which is conducting hearings on those appeals this week in Sharbot Lake.

“Property owners in the area wanted to show their opposition to the project and the way it has been forced through by the township,” said Roy Sepa, “and the signs are a good way of allowing that kind of statement to be made.”

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski, who has been a staunch supporter of the project, noticed the signs and decided to pose with a sign of her own, which said “I agree, so I support affordable seniors housing.”

“So do we,” said Roy Sepa when he learned of Gutowski’s sign, “but this is the wrong location for it, and the way this is being done is wrong and should be stopped. That’s what we all believe. There are much better locations for this in Sharbot Lake, and we would volunteer to help bring it about if it was done in a public way.”

Sepa said there are over 10 active members on what he called the Clement-Wagner Road residents’ group and many more supporters.

In order to conduct the OMB hearing, Sepa said the appellants are out about $10,000 in consultants’ fees and other costs.

“This is a good project,” said Mayor Gutowski, “North Frontenac Not-for-Profit Housing is adding much needed housing stock for people who need it and the township has done everything right. I’m happy to stand behind it.”

There are other groups that stand behind the project as well.

“I find those signs condescending to seniors,” said Catherine Tysick, who works with the elderly as the coordinator for Community Support Services with Northern Frontenac Community Services. “Most of the 497 seniors that we serve live in this area because they want to. A lot of them live on roads that are very remote. Clement Road is close to services. Those five units will give a few people some more choice as they grow older.”

Tysick also said that she attended a meeting of the Seniors Community Advisory Committee, which is made up of members of seniors’ groups from throughout North and Central Frontenac.

“They all wanted to know how the project was progressing,” she said, “they see it as a potential benefit to themselves and the community.”

The OMB hearing will not be concerned about public opinion regarding the project. Whether the township followed accepted practices under the Ontario Municipal Act will be the focus of the hearings.

On that score, Roy Sepa said that the consultant who is working for himself and his two co-appellants has found that the township did not “satisfy all the requirements regarding assessments and reviews, and the process they used was insufficient, inadequate, and even questionable.”

Sepa said that even if they are not successful at the OMB, his group would continue to oppose the housing project.

“We are stalwart in our mission on this,” he said.

The OMB hearing is scheduled for three days. A decision will follow in the coming weeks.

North Frontenac Not-for-Profit Housing hopes to begin construction in the spring for occupation by the fall of this year. 

Shabot Obaadjiwan Chief Doreen Davis presenting former Ontario minister of Aboriginal Affairs Brad Duguid with a memento of his attendance at the opening of the Algonquin consultation office in Pembroke on January 11th.

The Algonquin Land Claim process is 20 years old. While there are many who think it will never be resolved, the establishment of the Algonquin Consultation Office in Pembroke as well as the fact that the target date for a Memorandum of Understanding has been set for March of 2011, suggests that there may actually be a deal in the works.

Information about the claim that has been released to the media has been so general as to give little insight into the details of the deal that may be in the works.

We do know, however, that the deal will likely include an amount of land, as well as money for economic development that will be shared among the “communities” or “First Nations” that are at the negotiation table. There will also be provisions for hunting rights and a consultation and/or royalty agreement for resource extraction, such as mining or forestry.

Land Claims in general, and this one in particular, are complicated, unruly enterprises. Two of the major contradictions that are inherent in the process are the fact that 'land' itself is not something that can rightly be claimed. It is jurisdiction over the land that is the issue, and there is a complicated set of economic and legal relationships that have developed between governments and individuals related to land use in Ontario and Canada that are not going to be altered by this, or any land claim.

The governments involved in the Algonquin Land Claim are being pushed by Supreme Court of Canada rulings to accomplish a deal that will solidify their jurisdiction over the 8.9 million acres that are included in this particular claim.

The question of who this deal must be done with is problematic because the land was appropriated over a period of time, starting up to 400 years ago, and there are no written records about who used what piece of land for what purpose over the preceding 1,000 years or more.

This reality is underlined by the fact that a treaty was signed in the 1800s with the Mississauga First Nation for much of the land that is now under negotiation as the Algonquin Land Claim – land which turned out never to have been Mississauga territory. That treaty as it pertains to these lands has since been discarded.

Court rulings and government decisions have established the Ottawa Valley as Algonquin Territory for the purposes of seeking an agreement over jurisdiction. The next problem is:

“Who are the Algonquins?”

The Federal Indian Act assigns “native status” to certain people, based on several criteria, the major one being “blood quantum”, the percentage of native blood that courses through the veins of an individual.

Blood quantum is more than problematic. Over time as First Nations peoples marry people of other genetic backgrounds, the blood quantum will continue to thin and the numbers of people who are eligible for “native status” will inevitably decrease.

To paraphrase what an elder from the Alderville reserve near Peterborough once said to me, “Canada is a nation that takes people in and grants them citizenship. That is how a nation grows. How can First Nations grow and prosper if we as First Nations deny citizenship to our children because of who we marry. What other nation on earth does that?”

As far as the Algonquin Land Claim is concerned, the only native “status” community in the territory is the Pikwàkanagàn reserve, which includes about 400 residents and 1500 off reserve members.

All of the other communities, including the Shabot Obaadjiwan, which is based in Sharbot Lake, and the Snimikobe, which also has a number of members in Frontenac County, are “non status” communities in terms of the Indian Act.

Membership criteria in these First Nations is only restricted to “direct descendants” from an individual who is listed on a schedule of names that was developed in 1987.

The schedule, known as “Schedule B”, includes names that were taken from the Algonquin petitions, speeches and Council proceedings that relate to or refer to Algonquin Territory lying in Ontario prior to that time.

Direct descent is a less onerous requirement than blood quantum, and it creates a larger number of people in the Algonquin Nation.

It also does not provide an end of the line and allows for the possibility of a growth in Algonquin population over time.

It does, however, provide for the possibility that people with some pretty tenuous connections to their Algonquin ancestry, perhaps a single great-great grandfather, 1/64 or 1/128 by blood, becoming a beneficiary of the Algonquin Land Claim.

Ultimately the blood quantum criteria and the direct descent criteria each have difficulties associated with them: one is too restrictive and the other may be too open.

These contradictions are not exclusive to the land claims process. Any public discussion that centres on questions of bloodlines and race issues is destined to lead to difficulties, particularly in light of the fact that people in our society are less and less inclined to stay within their own culture when finding a mate.

Recent projections released by Stats Canada say that “visible minorities” will be in the majority in major Canadian cities within 20 years.

It turns out that visible minorities are defined by Stats Canada as “persons who are identified according to the Employment Equity Act as being non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour. Under the Act, Aboriginal persons are not considered to be members of visible minority groups.”

Visible minorities are defined in the report as South Asians, Chinese, Blacks, Filipinos, Arabs and West Asians. Latin Americans, as well as Aboriginals, among others, are not considered visible minorities.

But just as Algonquin communities have seen their “blood quantum” diminish over time, so will all the other ethnic groups in Canada, and around the world.

As societies develop, skin colour and racial backgrounds will inevitably become diminishing issues (at least that is the hope). As we move forward as a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society that recognizes not only the foreign roots that people have, but the native (Aboriginal) roots as well, racial idiosyncrasies will cease to define anything of importance.

In this context the Land Claim process must be a way of honouring not only the heritage of people who can claim Algonquin roots, but also the cultural legacy of the Algonquins. The genetic connection to the past will inevitably be diluted over time, but the cultural connection need not follow.

Ultimately the success of the Land Claim will be measured not in the amount of money or land or hunting or resource rights that are achieved, nor even in who gets what share of the spoils.

What is at stake in this process, is whether two, three or seven generations down the road there will be any kind of cultural memory of how people lived on this land 500 years ago, what that land meant to them, and how that past can be honoured and what it can teach.

The Algonquin profile in Sharbot Lake, and in the region as a whole, remains fragile even after 20 years of land claims talks and the concerted efforts of numerous people.

If the Shabot Obaadjiwan or the Snimikobe, or the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (which opposes the land claim for a variety of reasons) are not able to establish themselves as active communities that maintain and foster Algonquin traditions and bring this heritage to the forefront of the local scene, then the Land Claim will be nothing but a legal exercise that expunges Aboriginal rights over this territory forever.

Further information about the land claim can be found at Tanakiwin.com and at http://www.aboriginalaffairs.gov.on.ca/english/negotiate/algonquin/algonquin.asp 

Williams Gift author and veterinarian Dr. Helen Douglas

After years of entertaining her friends with stories of her trade as a long time country veterinarian, Dr. Helen Douglas, who runs a vet clinic in Carleton Place, decided that she’d write a book based on those tales.

“I kept a journal of all of the stories and I just wrote them down but I really had no idea of how it would turn out,” she said in describing the way she approached completing her first book.

Her first book, entitled “Williams Gift - One Veterinarian’s Journey”, tells of Douglas' journey of self-discovery as a young country vet learning the ins and outs of her trade as she traveled various country and city roads from clinic to clinic. The stories have titles such as "Snakes on a Bus”, “An Elephant Comes to Visit” and “Noel's Nine Lives”. They tell of her encounters with various species in a number of different situations, all of which helped to form her both as a vet, and as a person.

The stories offer a glimpse into the realities of entering a line of work where the learning curve tends to be a very steep one, especially for a young and inexperienced vet. They are an honest portrayal of the triumphs and tribulations she encountered on the job and are sure to inspire young students considering a career in caring for creatures both great and small.

As a youngster Douglas always knew she wanted to be a vet and her first story “Starting Out” recounts her experience as a student in the summer at a mixed practice clinic in Nova Scotia where she came into contact with rugged country folk. In one of her first emergency cases, she helped to save a young dog suffering from strychnine poisoning. She also recounts certain unfortunate episodes; one memorable one where a family's pet bird suffered a heart attack in her hands while the young family members looked on.

At a recent appearance at the Nature Lover’s Bookstore in Lanark, Douglas said that when writing the book she purposefully set out to give a realistic account of the trials and tribulations of her personal journey as a vet, which sometimes those closest to her had difficulty understanding.

She was quick to point out that her vet friends commended her on showing both the ups said that most who have read the book greatly appreciate her honesty.

She tells of her adventures setting up her own first practice in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, and later working in Lanark County.

Douglas also has the advantage of understanding who her audience is.

“My two main audiences so far have been people that love James Harriet’s books and young people who want to be vets,” she said.

Douglas also stressed that these days it is a lot easier to be a female vet than it used to be. “These days almost every vet is a woman compared to when I was young and people felt that a woman could not do the job as well as a man. There’s no longer that hurdle of confidence that women vets have to get over. And the tools of the trade are so much better these days and make the actual work much easier to do.”

Below is a reprinted selection from the “Starting Out” where the author's witnesses of a terrible accident while attending to William, a racehorse in Kentucky. It propels the reader into Helen Douglas’ past experiences as a veterinarian.

”An unexpected grief came over me, and tears started to pour down my cheeks. I stood experiencing deeply and with no inhibition the depth of William’s sacrifice. As a seasoned veterinarian, I had been witness to many tragedies and much loss in the animal world. I had long ago cultivated the ability to stay calm in emergencies, to act and not feel when I needed to most. I had dealt with many such events in a cool professional manner, serving over and over the owners and their pets with no reflection on my own feelings. Now I wept like a baby, and the cumulative pain took my breath away. A tidal wave of repressed emotion knocked me off my feet. How did I get to this place?”

The ensuing stories give a complete picture of how Douglas had indeed gotten to that place.

William’s Gift-One Veterinarian’s Journey is available at the Nature Lover’s Bookstore in Lanark and is a realistic and honest account of the trials and tribulations of a country vet and an inspiration for those considering a career as a veterinarian.

Editorial by Jeff Green

There are some pretty complicated setups for making maple syrup. Professional producers often talk about vacuums and osmosis and sugar percentages and the like.

But at its root maple syrup is very basic. All a person has to do is gather sap and then boil and boil and boil until it turns into syrup.

You might say, any fool can make maple syrup.

That's where we come in at the Frontenac News. We know all about being fools. You might say it's a preoccupation of ours.

So here is our primer on the ten most common errors in maple syrup production, as tested by our staff.

Do not bother tapping Elm trees, or Oak trees for that matter. I personally tap the same Elm tree every year. I see the hole from the previous year and figure it must be a Maple. It never runs. One day, perhaps, Elm trees will start producing sweet sap. I'll let everyone know when that happens

Make sure that before you drill a hole you have a spile and a bucket to go with it. Just drilling holes and watching the sap drip onto the ground is considered to be arborial cruelty, even if the tree is not in any real danger.

Check your sap buckets periodically to see if they have holes in them. They don't work as well when they have a leak. (Hint: If you find that some trees don't seem to be producing even if they are always dripping when you check the buckets, a leaky bucket may be the problem. Just tip the bottom of the bucket skyward over your head to see if any light gets through – it helps to make sure the bucket is completely empty before doing this.

You will need some system of storing sap – a holding tank or bins of some sort -something that isn't too “tippy”.

The next section concerns the most precarious stage in production, the boiling itself.

Drinking sap as a spring tonic is perfectly acceptable, but the practice of bathing in the syrup early in the boiling process is to be discouraged among all members of the family, no matter how old or young they may be. Tends to harm the finished product. Gamey, smoky and sharp are not the kind of adjectives you want people to use when describing the taste of your syrup.

It is recommended that whatever kind of pan you use to boil down the sap, it would be best if the pan does not leak, again for obvious reasons. However, if it leaks at one end, that end can be raised so the sap does not leak out. Be sure the heat does not build up over the dry, leaky, end however. Smoky syrup, anyone?

You can boil down syrup using wood, oil, electricity, or propane, and as everyone knows, 25-50 litres of water needs to be boiled off the sap to produce a single litre of syrup. People have been known to wander off during a boil, or to fall asleep during a boil. This is not recommended, for two reasons 1) burnt syrup, (this is beyond smoky) and 2) burnt house.

Be very careful when the sap has been reduced down to near syrup. There are various ways to tell whether the syrup is done. There is temperature (when the temperature begins to approach the 219 degree Fahrenheit, 104 degree Celsius mark); there is the two-drips-off-the-spoon technique, and there is the sheeting-on-the-spoon technique. Unfortunately none of these techniques work. It has something to do with the sea level. One thing is certain, when the syrup is bottled and huge crystals develop that cling to the glass, the syrup has been overcooked.

Do not - I repeat - do not, leave the finished syrup laying around in a finishing pan in your kitchen or back room for three or four months uncovered before getting around to bottling it. Unlike blue cheese and some dessert wines, introducing different kinds of mould to syrup is not a good idea. Funky is not an adjective you want to be applied to your syrup

When the season is all done and the trees go into bud, do not leave the pails and spiles in the trees. Whatever sap that is left in the buckets will ferment; the spiles will be harder and harder to remove, and the buckets will take on an aroma that may lead next year's syrup to be as bad as this year’s.

Councilors wary of increased hall rental costs

A staff proposal about insurance policies that groups renting township halls may be required to take out led to some debate.

Councilor Frances Smith said, “If people are going to be required to take out insurance before renting our halls, people will not rent our halls. We pay to maintain these halls, to heat these halls and all the rest. If people can no longer use them, why do we bother?”

Township Treasurer Judy Gray handed out the current application form for hall rentals, which includes a requirement for insurance, at a cost of $108, for hall rentals for licensed events.

Councilor John Purdon noted that the staff report about insurance, which was based on recommendations from the township’s insurance broker, “includes some ambiguous language. Insurance is required for licensed events, it says, but for groups holding regular meetings it is ‘advisable’. For events where admission is charged, it is ‘advisable’, and for bridal showers or other one-time events a certificate is ‘not required’. Does this mean we only need insist on insurance for licensed events, as we do now?”

The matter was deferred, as township staff seek clarification from the township’s insurance broker.

Beach looks “fanastic” – toilet seats welcome

Mayor Janet Gutowski said that the Oso beach improvements were well received over the Victoria Day weekend.

“The beach looks fantastic,” she said.

Councilor Gary smith noted that the new seats that have been installed in the public washroom at the beach had survived their first weekend of use.

Bill Young, the contractor who installed them, said, “The people certainly seem to appreciate having them. They are better than cold metal.”

Livestock valuer gets pay raise – From time to time, the township hires one of three people to investigate claims by local farmers that predators have killed one of their animals. If the claim is accepted a set fee is paid to the farmer by the township, which is then fully reimbursed by the province.

The livestock valuers, up to now, have been paid $25 per visit and $0.32 per kilometre for travel costs. This is lower than neighbouring municipalities and staff recommended raising the pay to $60 and the standard township rate of $0.48 per kilometre.

Councilor Bill Snyder thought $60 was too high, and suggested it be lowered to $50. This was accepted by the rest of Council.

There were two valuations conducted in 2006, seven in 2007, three in 2008, and four in 2009. So the impact on the township budget will be minimal.

Fire activity report – Deputy Fire Chiefs Bill Young and Art Cowdy reported that there were 30 calls for assistance in April, including one fire call, one alarm call, two complaints to be investigated, 10 medical assists, four vehicle accidents, and 12 other calls (such as water/ice rescue and wildfire calls)

Councilor joins Geeks for Cancer – Councilor Jeff Matson informed Council of an event that is being sponsored by the Arden Pastoral Charge of the United Church. The GEEC youth group and their leaders have been growing their hair with the intention of having a mass hair cut/head shaving to build up a stock of hair to be used for wigs for cancer patients and to raise money for cancer research. The hair-raising event is scheduled for June 19. Councilor Matson said he has been talked into getting his head shaved as well. As part of the festivities there will be a silent auction, and the highest bidder will earn the right to shave off Matson’s moustache. 

Editorial by Jeff Green

Sometimes transparency is misconstrued as manipulation.

As an observer of the Program and Accommodation Review Committee (PARC), which spent eight months deliberating about the future of the schools in Central and North Frontenac, there were times when I thought the process was some kind of a sham.

The parent council and staff members from schools in Parham, Mountain Grove, Sharbot Lake and Plevna were being led step by step through funding and service models that were designed by the Ministry of Education in Toronto.

The school board staff, who were providing information to the PARC, seemed to be trying to get the parents to do their dirty work for them.

The PARC stuck it out and delivered a report that took into account all the information they had received, but they put their own stamp on things.

Although they took the painful decision to agree that Hinchinbrooke Public School needs to close in order to make building a new school viable, when it came to Land O' Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove, which is newer, they balked. They decided it should remain open.

Months later, the school board senior staff submitted their response to the PARC committee report, and it said Land O 'Lakes had to close as well in order for a new school to be built.

“Aha” I thought, “just as I suspected. They heard what the people said and then did exactly what they had planned to do from the beginning.”

Nonetheless, when there was an opportunity for the public to address the senior staff report, they came out in numbers and made some pretty strong arguments in favour of keeping Land O'Lakes Public School open. It was not only people from Mountain Grove making these points. There were people from Arden, Sharbot Lake, and even Parham who came forward to support Land O' Lakes Public School. Central Frontenac Township made presentations as well.

After that meeting, I recall thinking that the presentations probably would not change anything, but at the very least the supporters of LOLPS had made a number of coherent, respectful presentations to the entire Limestone Board of Trustees.

It turned out, much to my surprise, that not only were the trustees listening very carefully to what was being said, but the school board senior staff and the board of trustees then worked pretty hard behind the scenes, and did some negotiating with the Ministry of Education. They came up with a plan that delivers a new $14 million school, and not only keeps both Clarendon Central and Land O' Lakes Public Schools open, but includes another $1 million for upgrades to them.

It turns out that the whole thing was anything but a done deal from the start. It turns out that the school board was listening to the people all along. It turns out that the way information was being shared throughout the process was really about being honest and transparent.

All of this is indeed cold comfort for residents of Parham who are facing the loss of their community school. And it is true that without closing Hinchinbrooke there would be no new build on the horizon.

But with all that has happened, it is simply not true that the school board conspired to close Hinchinbrooke School. The decision to close it was reached by a number of people, including people who have done a lot of work for Hinchinbrooke school over the years.

The bad news is that a community will lose its school. The good news is that only one community will lose its school and $15 million in new infrastructure will be created in townships that sorely need a boost.

Thank you Limestone District School Board.

Editorial by Jeff Green

Just over two years ago, on April 24, 2008, to be exact, the Frontenac News published an article about a cigarette store. The store was selling bags of 200 tax- and duty-free cigarettes for a fraction of the commercial price. The Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation had opened the store on Highway 7, across from Silver Lake Provincial Park.

The article quoted Shabot Obaadjiwan Chief Doreen Davis as saying that she had met with federal and provincial authorities in January of 2008, and they had no problem with the store being open.

In the same article, RCMP spokesperson Walter Veenstra denied that the meeting had ever taken place, and said, “No one can sell cigarettes in contravention of the excise act. The rules are the same for everyone, even on reserves”. However, Veenstra also said the RCMP was not likely to investigate the smoke shop to find out if taxes were being paid. “The rules are the same, as I said; however, it’s not the mandate of the RCMP to do inspections of stores. Most of our activities deal with the transportation of cigarettes.”

Two years later the cigarette shop at Silver Lake is still open, and a second one, just west of Arden, has also been opened. The Shabot Obaadjiwan also have their offices at that second location.

At the corner of Highway 7 and Road 38 there are two service centers. Both are owned by people who do not claim any Aboriginal heritage and both sell brand name cigarettes at the market price.

If bags of tax-free cigarettes were being sold at either of those stores, the owners would face legal consequences. Of that there can be no doubt.

Everyone knows that there is a double standard at play here. Everyone knows that the law is not being applied in the same way. The general attitude is to ignore it and carry on as if it isn’t happening, even though we all know it contravenes one of the basic tenets of our society, equality before the law.

I do not want to linger on the cigarette issue here, but I should point out that the Algonquins make an argument in support of their decision to sell cut-rate cigarettes. They say that federal and provincial governments are happy to make a profit by taxing cigarette sales throughout the country, so why shouldn’t Algonquins make a profit within Algonquin territory?

Doreen Davis is also a key player in the Algonquin Land Claim process, and the opening of the cigarette stores, in addition to generating revenue, amounted to an assertion of her own community’s rights within the context of that land claim.

It is by no means far-fetched to surmise that the federal and provincial governments are turning a blind eye to the cigarette stores because they do not want to jeopardize the land claim.

In this context, in addition to persistent concerns about hunting and fishing rules, under which Algonquin and non-Algonquins are subject to different sets of rules, the public has every reason to be concerned about what is or is not being negotiated at the land claim table.

There are lots of issues to be explored when discussing any land claim, and this one has some particular issues of its own, particularly because of the sheer amount of land that is encompassed by the claim and because of the inclusion of off-reserve communities that exist outside of the Canadian Indian Act.

These communities are not physical communities, like villages or towns; they are more akin to ethnic communities.

But the exploration of these complex issues is being carried out only by a select few, and the general public can only guess about what is being discussed.

Everyone who is at the negotiation table must adhere to a confidentiality agreement, which is similar to the kind of agreements for media blackouts that occur during labour contract negotiations. But labour contracts negotiations take hours or days to resolve, while land claims take years and years.

Even though information about the negotiations is scarce, there are more and more indications that after 20 years the land claim process is finally on track to produce an agreement in principle within the next year.

Negotiators for the federal and provincial governments have now been holding more frequent meetings with municipal officials and with stakeholder groups such as tourist association and hunting group representatives to apprise them of the progress that has been made during negotiations.

But the public is not invited to these meetings, and people who attend these meetings are asked not to share information with the public by talking to the press.

A meeting will be occurring next Monday that is particularly troubling.

Councilors from all four Frontenac County townships have been invited to receive an update from federal and provincial negotiators. This meeting is being called a private information session, and it was organized by county staff on behalf of the land claim negotiators.

According to Frontenac County Chief Administrative Officer Liz Savill there will be no action taken by the County or any of the townships at the meeting. According the Ontario Municipal Act, however, elected municipal officials are not supposed to meet in private except to discuss specific legal or property matters. There has been no announcement, not even a notice on a township or county website, about this information session.

It might be a quibble, but in my view this meeting places an unfair burden on municipal councilors. How can they represent voters if they cannot share information with those same voters?

Just because next Monday’s meeting will be private, it would be wrong to assume that municipal politicians will be brought up to speed about the meat of the negotiations. They may receive some information that is not available to the public, but not likely any details. I have talked, off the record, to people who have attended some of the other meetings, and they said that not much of substance was revealed.

I believe these meetings have only been closed to the public because of the collective obsession with controlling information that has characterized the current federal and provincial governments, but that might just be my own paranoid view.

To be clear, I support the Algonquin Land Claim in principle. I see the resolution as perhaps the best last hope that Algonquin culture and knowledge can be salvaged for future generations in eastern Ontario, and I think it will bring economic benefits to the region. Opportunity to make a land claim work should be seriously explored by everyone involved.

But there is a serious concern that people at the table could come up with deals that confer benefits, in terms of hunting rights, commercial advantages and other areas, in ways that would be objectionable and perhaps unfair to the general public. There are concerns that it will create different rights for different people, as is the case with the cigarette stores.

Instead of fostering reconciliation the land claim could create divisions in our communities, and the secrecy that has surrounded the process thus far will not make it any easier to sell the eventual deal to the general public.

It is worth noting that several Algonquin communities are opposed to the land claim process, on a variety of grounds, and one of those is the closed nature of the process.

For the record, all public information about the state of the negotiations is posted at aboriginalaffairs.gov.on.ca/english/negotiate/algonquin/algonquin.asp. It’s probably easier to find by using Google. Just put Algonquin Land Claim in the search bar. It’s the first site that comes up. 

Five-year-old Dylan Walker, of Plevna and Northbrook, has been fighting cancer since being diagnosed with neuroblastoma on Remembrance Day of last year. His treatments have taken him and his parents to Kingston for months, and now to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.

Dylan has been weakened by the chemotherapy, and now his treatments are getting even more painful as he undergoes stem cell therapy. He is also facing radiation therapy after that.

“He is very weak,” said his grandmother Debbie MacLeod, who has been taking care of Dylan's three-year-old sister, Emily, at her home Northbrook. “He's been so upbeat throughout all of this nightmare, but now he is feeling weak, but they say that is necessary for this treatment.”

Debbie is asking people to keep Dylan and his family in their thoughts and prayers.

There are also financial considerations, because Dylan's mom and dad have not been able to work since his ordeal began 5 months ago. Donations to help the family cover their costs can be made at any Bank of Montreal branch to a trust account that has been set up by Debbie MacLeod. Anyone wishing to donate at the Northbrook Branch of the Bank of Montreal should ask for the account of “Dylan Walker, in trust”; if donating at another branch, people should ask for the same account, but specify that it is at the Northbrook Branch.

Cheques should also be made out to “Dylan Walker, in trust” and can be mailed to the Frontenac News, Box 229, Sharbot Lake, ON, K0H 2P0. We will also be accepting donations through VISA or Mastercard. Phone us at 613-279-3150 to donate.

by Susan Ramsay, Early Literacy Specialist

“Let go! It’s mine!” Four year-old Sam snatches the ball from his sister’s grasp. Cleo, only two, knows what to do. Stomach-first, she throws herself on the floor, beats her small fists on the ground and erupts with a bloodthirsty cry. Sam and Cleo’s parents, in another room when the dispute broke out, wonder how to intervene. Who had the ball first? Who owns it? Who needs it most? Should the children take turns, or should the ball be taken away?

Derek Evans, former Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International, believes that compromise is not the ideal strategy to resolve conflict. His negotiating experiences demonstrate that the best results are achieved, not when opponents feel they must give up something, but rather when they are able to create a new vision or opportunity together…. when Sam and Cleo choose to play ball together.

But creating a new vision is not always easy. In 1990, two million Canadians joined 200 million people in 141 nations to celebrate the first International Earth Day. Twenty years later, the issues of municipal waste and renewable sources of energy are still hotly debated within communities, and clear direction about climate change and worldwide loss of species is elusive to politicians on the world stage. But Canadians have not lost their vision. On April 22, 2010 more than six million Canadians joined one billion people in over 170 countries to address environmental issues.

While effective environmental policies are disputed and hammered out in the adult world, respectful environmental choices can be birthed in the world of a child. Nurturing children’s love of nature is easy. They are already in the spring mud, digging their way to earthworm heaven. We simply need to find a plastic shovel too and, as we dig, talk about the creatures and rocks and plants we find together. We need to model composting and recycling. We need to affirm children’s sense of wonder about nature.

Books with an environmental theme have been written for children from birth onwards. Schim Schimmel has written exquisitely illustrated board and picture books for children from birth to twelve years of age. Children of the Earth Remember and Family of the Earth are both in toddler-friendly board books. Dear Children of the Earth is perfect for reading and talking about with preschoolers and school-age children.

Shrinking die cut holes in The Water Hole by Graeme Base show how important clean water is to jungle animals. This book is published in picture, board and colouring book formats.

Mercer Mayer fans will be happy to discover that Little Critter has recently joined the environmental movement too in Little Critter: It’s Earth Day!

Earth Day: An Alphabet Book by Gary Kowalski shows the incredible diversity of earth’s plants, animals and insects.

Creating a better world for our children can involve our children. Exploring, talking and reading about nature can help children create the vision that will show them how to play with that big ball we call home – Earth.

Susan Ramsay is the Early Literacy Specialist for Hastings, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington. You can contact her at 613-354-6318 (ext 32)