I honour these women every year: Genevi�ve Bergeron H�l�ne Colgan Nathalie Croteau Barbara Daigneault Anne-Marie Edward Maud Haviernick Barbara Klucznik Widajewicz Maryse Lagani�re Maryse Leclair Anne-Marie Lemay Sonia Pelletier Mich�le Richard Annie St-Arneault Annie Turcotte I remember that night like it was yesterday. I was in Peterborough, Ontario. It was snowing and Loreena McKennit was playing a concert. The news trickled in all afternoon and evening, and what we were hearing was sickening. When Loreena McKennit took the stage, she played solo surrounded by candles, and we kept vigil with her for a while and then later at the war …
I ran into my old friend Simon Brascoupe today at a meeting I was facilitating here in Vancouver. Simon is a man of many hats: he has taught at Trent University, University of Manitoba and Carleton in contemporay Aboriginal economic development; he has worked in Chiapas and on international indigenous rights; he is a sometime federal government public servant, currently with the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada; and he is a well known artist in Canada, working with print and paint and anything else he can get his hands on. Over Thai food at lunch today …
This is great. Central casting could not have picked more perfectly. I’ll stop crying now. Ow. My ribs hurt.
The Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network Library
Last night, on the eve of George Bush’s visit to Canada, 1.2 million canadians voted in a contest to select the greatest Canadian of all time. The winner was Tommy Douglas, the father of medicare and one of the furthest left politicians ever elected in Canada. He was certainly the most dyed-in-the-wool socialist who ever led a party (the Commonwealth Cooperative Federation). He formed the first socialist government in North America in 1944 when he became premier of Saskatchewan. He quoted as saying “My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea.” I am thinking to myself today …