Winter ice roads could be fading away and airships might be taking over. A report by the Conference Board of Canada is suggesting that airships like the ones that dominated the skies in the 1920s and 1930s could serve remote First Nation communities.
Travelling in the north has always been a hazard for all kinds of reasons. The remoteness makes it difficult to have all the latest technologies in place. It is not like life in the south where many safety precautions are in place for the every day traveller no matter what their means of transport. The weather is a risk factor in the north most of the year but in the winter time things can actually be deadly.
It is as cold as a ‘you know what’. That’s right: we are into a cold spell right now in Northern Ontario and even in the south. However, this winter is very warm compared to past years. The winter ice road to Attawapiskat just recently opened and it looks like it won’t last all that long.
Still, minus 20 and 30 below zero days and nights are still being experienced in the far north of Ontario although that is getting more and more rare. I recall many days at minus 40 below zero when I was a boy back home up the James Bay coast. That was normal back then.
I sure am a lucky guy. Most of the time I take my life and all that I enjoy for granted but every once in a while I pause to think of so much I have to be grateful for. Stopping to remember to feel gratitude has helped keep me grounded and positive.
In June 2000, I wrote a column on the J.R. Nakogee Elementary school and the fact that it had been closed down due to contamination from an estimated 70,000 litres of diesel fuel over many years of leakage. I pointed out that it was distressing to know that the leakage had been going on for years and parents as well as educators were lobbying for something to be done. Well, guess what? The federal government announced March 6 that it was moving ahead with plans to finally build a new school for the children of Attawapiskat.
Recently in the news there has been concern for the people of Fort Albany and Kashechewan First Nations due to the flooding. This type of danger is an annual worry that has to do with the damming of rivers by large floating chunks of ice.
Spring is here and it is time to get in shape.
Let’s face it, most Canadians are not in the best physical shape. As a First Nation person, I can say that the Native peoples of Canada are generally in really bad shape.
For the past 10 years, I have been struggling to keep my weight down. I eat too much and I don’t exercise enough. This past winter, I scared the heck out of myself when I hit 200 pounds for the first time and I am five feet eleven inches. People say I wear my weight well but I don’t feel great and as I am becoming middle aged, it is becoming a problem.
I am proud to be a First Nation person. I am about as pure bred as an Aboriginal person can be in Canada as both my mother and father were born on the land in their traditional territories. Visibly, I look like a Native Canadian. I even have long hair and I keep it in a pony tail. I feel comfortable with my long hair as I have been growing it for the past 20 years.
This winter was the strangest one that I have ever seen when it comes to being sick. I was actually ill with some kind of lung infection for three months. Many of my family members and friends were also sick with this type of infection. It was terrible as I had a sore throat for awhile, then lost my voice and then coughed for a couple of months.
These days there are all kinds of ways for people to communicate. When I was a teenager there was the telephone, regular mail, fax and the trusty old bush radio. People found out about news concerning friends and family through these technologies. Then everything changed.
Suddenly in the 90s computers began to appear and then came the Internet. As with most people I was dazzled by these new media and technologies. At the time I was finishing high school and these new communication tools were opening up a whole new world for me and so many of my friends.
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Later start of winter
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