Category: Editorials

Happy Mother’s Day

Mothers, we often take them for granted even though they are the ones who went through pain to bear us. Not only during birth but also during the time they carried a loved one. It makes a link that was never truly severed with the umbilical cord. Some always remember ... read more ››

Time for a true change

This editorial is going to be short. As short as the way Minister Guy Chevrette has treated the Crees. I hear that, after demanding a meeting with the chiefs to clear up forestry and axing the Cree/Quebec Memorandum of Understanding negotiations and funding, Chevrette canceled a scheduled meeting until after ... read more ››

How Crees helped Quebec pay off its deficit

Got a great idea. Let’s all just stop whining about Quebec’s desire or apparent inability to live up to its obligations and duties under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. Instead of taking them to court to get them to live up to those obligations, as for example outlined under ... read more ››

MY DEAR FELLOW CREE!

It is my pleasure to announce in this issue of the Nation that we will be running another candidate in this year’s Grand Chief election. Surprised by the fact that Neil Diamond received 3% of the vote in the last election, I learned one thing: some people out there are ... read more ››

MEANING OF RITUALS

NO RIGHTS FOR CREES? I guess the moose crap hit the fan lately with Quebec Native Affairs Minister Guy Chevrette’s letter to the Crees. Basically the letter is an ultimatum to the Crees saying they were negotiating in bad faith because they were taking Quebec to court over forestry and were ... read more ››

TIME FOR YOUR LOVED ONES

A lot of people complain about not enough quality time with loved ones. I think it’s something that you have to work for like everything else in this world. Not getting more time to do things but doing things with your time. As I started looking into time management and ... read more ››

NO ROOM AT THE INN_ IN THE CAR

It was a cold, cold night, not unlike one that my mother had told me about a long time ago. Another holiday season when it was a chilling minus 41 degrees Celsius or more. That night, long ago, we were in the vehicle somewhere in Northern Ontario, with Dad and ... read more ››

Officials ignored AVALANCHE DANGER FOR THREE YEARS

The funeral for nine Inuit who lost their lives in an avalanche in Kangiqsualujjuaq took place last week, but a storm of questions remains about why the disaster happened and whether it could have been prevented. At 1:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, an avalanche smashed through a wall of the ... read more ››

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO IN 1999

Well, another year has come and gone, so to speak, and with it changes. I would mention that if you turn the 1999 upside down it looks like 6661. I imagine all the crazies, self-proclaimed prophets and doomsayers will be predicting the end of the world or the coming of ... read more ››

What it’s all about

This Christmas I decided to let a story do the talking for me. You do not even have to be a Christian to understand the concepts of giving and sharing. Merry X-mas to everyone out there and have a safe happy holiday. Accept our best wishes for a great New ... read more ››

Welcome to Volume 6, #1

Welcome to Volume 6, #I. This is the beginning of our 6th year of publishing The Nation Magazine. Our first one was Volume I #I. Does it feel like five years has passed? It is hard to believe that it has. It feels like yesterday. I remember vividly our first ... read more ››

Kahnawake calls In Cree beaver busters

Kahnawake’s problem with flooding due to beaver dams is not a new one but seems to be worsening every year. Destroying the dams and lodges of beavers with explosives, the previous choice of elimination, proved to be irritatingly ineffective. The major problem we are faced with is power outages, occurring when ... read more ››

Nothing Changes Without a Fight

I have been talking to some friends within the Cree Nation. They were devastated because of the recent decision favoring the exploiters working to drown the land. I am as usual referring to Hydro-Quebec and their plans for the Rupert and Great Whale, as well as other Aboriginal lands and rivers. The ... read more ››

No Rest For The Wicked

Hydro-Quebec must think I’m the most outspoken, never-say-die opposition they have. I feel the majority of my editorials in some way deals with them and the impacts that they have on the Crees in some way. “Give it a rest,” I can almost hear them saying. Unfortunately this is the real ... read more ››

Thoughts on Hydro-Quebec’s Plans

Several thoughts have been travelling through my head on Hydro-Quebec. At the head of the pack of my mind is the new international image Hydro-Quebec is cultivating. According to everything we’ve heard and know, the Evil Empire is saying that the Crees and Hydro-Quebec are experiencing a new relationship. It’s great ... read more ››

Invasion of the North

This editorial appeared in The Eastern Door of Kahnawake, Sept. 12, 1997. The plan to move some 2,000 Hydro-Quebec employees and their families to Radisson, deep in the heart of Cree territory, can only be seen as another invasion by non-Natives of Native lands. In the past, when settlers migrated to our ... read more ››

To: You Know Who You Are

Your islands will one day, again, be our mountains. You have, once again, humiliated us. You have, once again, slapped us in the face. You have, once again, provoked us. Once again, we have to reply. More and more our options are whittled down. You know that. You know what you are ... read more ››

A Safe Choice

This is a hard editorial for me to write as it concerns something private and personal. It concerns a decision that my girlfriend and myself made a while ago. We decided to enter into a serious monogamous relationship. One that involved a lot of trust on each others’ part. Let’s face ... read more ››

Citizens of the State

Ye gods, the Parti Quebecois must be burning with jealousy! Some Crees have done it once again with another high referendum result. In Whapmagoostui, 92 per cent of Cree voters said they oppose any development projects that would divert the Great Whale River. This referendum was in response to reports that ... read more ››

Selling Our Future Down the River

The mega-corp. Crees love to hate is back. Just when Crees and all their allies thought the Great Whale project was dead it showed up again in a new mutated, virulent form. The utility and Quebec government sang everyone a soft lullaby and hummed that James Bay Phase II is ... read more ››

James Bay Phase 2-They’re Back

It was with shock, outrage and anger that I learnt of the latest chapter to the James Bay II saga. I, and the many others, who fought Great Whale (a.k.a. James Bay Phase II) felt the same. We awakened to yet another Friday the 13th part 8; movie where the ... read more ››

Our Song Will Be Sung

…nothing I say helps, and being silent does not calm my pain. Job 16.6 There was once a Cree shaman who dreamt of a rock island with tall trees appearing in the distance, with thunder booming in the sky. A week following the dream, the Shaman’s people heard the same ominous thunder. It ... read more ››

There Are Too Many Chiefs And Not…

Stop me if you heard this one. There are too many chiefs and not enough Indians. As funny as that may be there is a ring of truth to it. Cultures have historically turned to comedy in times of distress. We are no different. In fact, we are funniest when ... read more ››

Political Fasttracks?

After 17 years of talking you’d expect somebody would get the message. After 17 years of talking you’d expect that somebody would understand the message. After 17 years of patience you’d expect more than a slap in the face. That is in effect what the Liberal government did when they tossed ... read more ››

I’m Tiger Woods

If you haven’t heard that one yet, let me fill you in. He is only the biggest thing to happen to golf since the Oka crisis. He is twenty two years old and just turned pro last year. As an amateur he blew everybody away. As a pro he is ... read more ››

Où Est Le Boeuf?

It is indeed painful at times to bring up old news but sometimes you can even forget that it’s there. And it is there for the asking! One hundred and fifty Crees having jobs working at Hydro-Quebec. Don’t worry folks, it’s in the latest Agreement!!! Did I mention the target date ... read more ››