ARTICLES BY Sonny Orr

Why I like APTN

One of my favourite things to do on a cold stormy night is to watch television shows of any variety. I usually tune into APTN National News, just to see if I can recognize anyone passing by in any of the many protest across the country. Sometimes, I would see ... read more ››

Celebrating the entrepreneurs

A special event was held at Hotel Forestel in Val-d’Or, on November 6, promoted by the regional Community Futures Development Corporation: Eeyou Economic Group. It was a gala event focussing on the theme “The Power of Tomorrow” and based on our Cree culture and values. As the Eeyou Economic Group’s ... read more ››

Makin bacon

One of the many things I enjoy in life, just like other people around the globe, is making a decent buck or two. In the world of today, making money is either getting harder to do or easier, depends on who you talk to. Like everyone can tell, there are ... read more ››

LOL

In many ways, our means of communications have changed dramatically from ancient mumbo jumbo gestures at sighting a rack of bananas and painting on the walls of caves. Today, a goat herder in Zimbabwe can order pizza from New York City with the rare anchovy on top. At the same time, ... read more ››

Mighty moose

One of the annual rituals that nearly everyone in Quebec with a forest in the backyard takes part in is the fall moose hunt. Tales of the legendary moose and the dangers involved with the hunt are often mixed with taller tales of the hunt for the largest land animal ... read more ››

Goose au gaz, anyone?

After many years of fruitless and dry spring and fall goose hunts (unless of course, you were in a prime area), it gets my gall that many of the geese that don’t fly up here to get shot at, will be destroyed and exterminated like pests. What may be one ... read more ››

The BP Platter

On one of my many forays into the deep south of Quebec – Montreal to be exact – I chanced upon a friend who really could understand the gastronomically inclination of eating out. My general rules for munching in strange countries would be to order something that I couldn’t either ... read more ››

Back to school…

Back in the day, when residential schools were everywhere and public schools weren’t around, going back to school evoked mixed feelings for students. Some were sad to leave home to attend (or forced to attend) the institution that other children either loathed or liked. Looking back on those days and ... read more ››

The value of nothing

The distant blast of a side of a rocky hill being blown away and the resulting ground tremor woke me from my deep office think mode. Explosions? Up here? Is Al Qaeda around? Then I remembered that it was our blasting crew, busy at extracting nothing but money out of the ground. ... read more ››

Building the future

The phone starts ringing off the hook and the message machine crams with messages. I had been relaxing in the relative slow season of summer. The calls are all from everyone calling me back after their annual summer leave. On top of all that, construction season starts up again after ... read more ››

Suite smell of success

It seems we have finally woken up and smelt the freshly brewed coffee served in a hotel coming to your region, soon. What may well be the opportunity of a lifetime is finally coming our way. Yes, I’m talking about our own hotel in Val-d’Or. Wow, is there no end to ... read more ››

Suspicious minds part 2

In my last Rez Notes (Vol. 17, No. 16), I mentioned there were some people who were stranded for the last 50 years, surveyors left in the middle of nowhere to map out the great white north. Some of these surveyors did not return to civilization to report what they ... read more ››

Updating life

The clock rings loudly in the darkened room. The sun has been up since five and all the curtains are drawn tightly, lest any sunlight enter the room prematurely, awakening this grumpy old man by mistake. Yes, summer is approaching quickly and so is the longest day of the year. ... read more ››

Of volcanoes and such….

I often said that what ever happens in this world is usually caused by something, which in turn is a consequence of that other thing, which was triggered by a distant event that we aren’t even aware of until it’s too late. Take Iceland, for example. Who would of thought that ... read more ››

Is our future farming

The fax rings and another sheet appears from a Cree office somewhere, announcing the spring goose break and the fact that many Cree will go “missing” for the next few weeks. It is this rite of spring which seems to be pretty early this year. Back in the day, when ... read more ››

Islands in the stream…

I bumped into the chief electoral officer who happily announced the results of the Offshore Islands Agreement referendum held in March which favoured taking our beautiful offshore islands back to our beloved Eeyou Istchee. He showed me with glowing pride the fact that when Eeyouch stand together, they stand more ... read more ››

Spring break to the nth degree

I checked out the shells for my shotgun – all sorted by speed – and loaded my trusty all-steel Browning, the fastest last and slowest first. In another shotgun, an over-and-under Magnum, long-range loads are readily available, just in case. The gun dog, a nice hunting canine that knows all the ... read more ››

The golden ages

There was a time when Canadians athletes were just average, or in some elite games, just plain old mediocre. Last century, you could count only a handful who excelled in sports and competed in the Olympics. Those who won a gold medal were remembered for eternity, just for the simple ... read more ››

Creeepy Cccanaada…

When I was young, it was always a thrill listening to scary stories before going to bed, or around the campfire, or amongst friends over a strong cup of coffee. Certain stories really made my hair stand straight up and sent shivers down my spine, especially the “true” ones. But ... read more ››

Business and politics, a nice mixture

I recently attended a superb conference on the strengths of the northern people’s determination to do business in the harsh, unforgiving north. Appropriately the conference was called “Northern Lights” and centred on the growing momentum of northern development, big and small business and the future of the north in general. ... read more ››

50 million reasons to leave…

The national Internet headlines blared out that one person, apparently hysterically screaming, crying and laughing at a counter in a small store on a northern Manitoba reserve caused a store employee to rush from the back of the store to the front to confront what she thought was a real ... read more ››

Doing double time

Ever get that feeling that you just don’t have enough time to get things done? Whatever happened to Indian time when you had all of the sunlit day to do your work? Today, it’s 9-to-5, Monday to Friday where a whole week has to be compressed into 35 hours. Now ... read more ››

Scary, but true…

Long time ago, disco was king (for a few years at most) and for the elite dressers and high-kicking, split-sticking-to-the-floor-dance moves, fluffy hair-dried plumed shaggy-dog bangs, chest-hair-revealing dance suits, you name it, anything went, except for jeans. Jeans was the absolute no-no for fashion, anything denim was sinful to the ... read more ››

Flu or cold?

My head rocked with lightning bolts and my brain felt like it was loose inside a walnut shell. Every sound I made was amplified and laughing hurt like the cranium crazies. What was wrong, I wondered, and headed home in a daze and passed out after downing several Tylenols. Was this ... read more ››

Reservation revelations

I happened to venture into the heart of la terre québécoise, in the beautiful Lac Saint-Jean area of Innu country, to attend a meeting of other significant people like me, where I noticed something unusual about the reserve of Mashteuiatsh. It was beautiful village with nary a speck of garbage ... read more ››

Back to School Daze

Back in the day and also back in the old neighbourhood, summer time was a time of no school and long days that went on forever. Then, as suddenly as the school year ended in June, it would start over again when the first geese flew south. Some students, who came ... read more ››