A blog written back in 2015 lists eight key issues for Indigenous Peoples in Canada. I would argue that there are many more. To begin: Indigenous children and youth have higher death rates, live in inadequate housing, have higher rates of suicide, poorer health, lower levels of education, higher rates of incarceration, higher rates of unemployment and lower income levels.
The International Court of Justice recently ruled that Israel’s military operations in Gaza, particularly concerning the blockade and military incursions, constitute violations of international humanitarian law and the human rights of the Palestinian population. The ICJ’s ruling comes too late, one could say, for the hundreds of thousands of Israel’s victims in Gaza.
The sweat is starting to glisten on my skin and the heat is starting to annoy my usual good humour, enough to start swearing at Mother Nature and her whims. What was just recently a delightful pattern of falling snowflakes is now a swarm of hungry mosquitoes.
There are times when you look at what is around you and wonder why it is this way. Look at the 1992 Rodney King trials and the riots as the white policemen were exonerated of beating him unnecessarily.
When I first looked at the studies of mining contamination of the waters around Ouje-Bougoumou I was more than a little angry. Many of you, once you read the story will feel equally shocked and outraged over what has been withheld from the Ouje-Bougoumou people. This information is the smoking gun: the Quebec government’s own data show that the lake and river sediments are poisoned.
Recently I was involved in a discussion with my partner and some of his friends who came of age in the 1960s. Our discussion was about how upside down the world is these days with wars in Ukraine and Gaza killing many thousands of people and destroying towns and cities. It is interesting to hear from people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s because they bring an historical background to what is happening now. Many people I know were part of the hippie and counterculture movement of the time.
Spring without the annual ice break-up is now just a rapid melt with sluggish ice slushing around. I can’t remember the last time I witnessed a real ice break-up – maybe a half century ago.
Two weeks ago, I landed in Cusco, Peru, which is 11,000 feet above sea level. From the airplane, I could see tiny communities nestled in the most unlikely places at the peaks of mountains, sometimes connected only by small dirt roads. Kind of like a rez way up in the sky.
The chirping birds are a signal that spring has finally arrived in the North. The burbling sounds of the rapids have a calming effect as they soften my memories of the latest blizzard, hopefully the last until sometime in July. The rocks of old are showing themselves under the rushing waters of a small river. I wonder how long those rocks have been there... since time immemorial?
It looks like the swallows are back and that is a sure sign of warmer weather to come. A couple of weeks ago I heard the honking of Niska (Canada geese) as they paused to take a break on the field behind our house in Kirkland Lake. They seemed to have moved on now and have arrived at their summer destinations on the shore of James Bay.
