Elder

8 grandmothers from Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation organize protest against mine project

8 grandmothers from Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation organize protest against mine project

"It concerns us. The water, the land, the medicine on it will be destroyed. The caribou that are roaming in that area and all the mushrooms and wild rice there. All of it would be contaminated," said Elder Eileen Linklater, one of the eight grandmothers who organized the protest. "Mines usually have spills. Yes, they build reservoirs, but they overflow and it would go into water streams. Also, they will release a lot of gasses into the air." Asked to comment on the concerns being expressed by the protesters, Foran said some of the information the concerns are based on is "misleading and untrue."

COLUMN: Advice from an island; neglect the water at your peril

COLUMN: Advice from an island; neglect the water at your peril

The island world that I have experienced and observed has come to share with me its wisdom. It has shown me that our natural environment has changed. Alarmingly so. I had first become fully aware of those changes in the early 1990s. At the time I was getting set to cross the channel between Christian Island (Georgian Bay) and Cedar Point on the mainland. I was aboard a snowmobile and it was during this time of year (mid-March). I was on my way to Ottawa to meet with Indian Affairs officials to advocate on behalf of my people as the Chief. I was making a plea for a safer, reliable means of transportation. The ice was still thick enough to hold a snowmobile, but it was degrading quickly. The ferry had stopped running three weeks before and was now at ease in her winter harbour.

A century of water: As Winnipeg aqueduct turns 100, Shoal Lake finds freedom

A century of water: As Winnipeg aqueduct turns 100, Shoal Lake finds freedom

The taps to Winnipeg's drinking water were first turned on in April 1919, but as the city celebrated its engineering feat and raised glasses of that clear liquid, another community's fortunes suddenly turned dark. Construction of a new aqueduct plunged Shoal Lake 40 into a forced isolation that it is only now emerging from, 100 years after Winnipeg's politicians locked their sights on the water that cradles the First Nation at the Manitoba–Ontario border. "The price that our community has paid for one community to benefit from that resource, it's just mind-boggling," said Shoal Lake 40 Chief Erwin Redsky.