Opposition to the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador continues with Innu workers shutting down the construction site alleging racism, two weeks after the arrest of eight Inuit leaders at another protest against the dam.

The latest setback for Crown Corporation Nalcor came at the end of the workday on April 18 when Innu employees blocked other staff from leaving the project claiming they had faced racial slurs from a project manager.

Hunger striking Indigenous people have gained international headline-grabbing prominence since the birth of the Idle No More movement, thanks to a six-week fast by Attawapaskat’s Chief Theresa Spence and Cross Lake Elder Raymond Robinson that coincided with the movement’s explosion this winter.

The age-old starvation tactic has since been employed by a Downtown Eastside Vancouver activist, a jailed Inuit elder protesting a Labrador dam, and a Cree woman in Quebec.

Wold Songs and Fire Chats

We said goodbye to my sister last week. She’d gone to hospital for a routine eye surgery, had a heart attack, went into a coma and passed away days later when the family decided to remove life support according to her prior wishes.

It was hard and sudden and devastating. There are things in life that leave you with gaps in your being and you spend years, maybe, figuring out how to fill them.

The Urbane Indian

Last month in Vancouver there was a revival of a famous opera named “The Magic Flute,” written by this guy named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. You may have heard of him. This is interesting because while opera is normally considered an elite form of musical and theatrical expression, this production was influenced by one of Canada’s most marginalized populations.

Father struggles with terrible grief

Alo White of Naotkamegwanning First Nation in Northwestern Ontario enjoyed hearing his son Nathan sing traditional Anishinaabe songs after he was initiated into his community’s Midewin lodge.

“Tatibanhanaqwet, Edward Nathan White, was 23 years old, a non-drinker and he never did drugs,” said Alo. “Right away he wanted to learn the Midewin songs.”

A request by the O’Chiese First Nation of its gas bar’s financial records has resulted in two employees being charged with stealing more than $72,000. Kevin Thomas, 51, and Deborah Thomas, 50, both of Sylvan Lake, are each charged with theft over $5,000, forgery and uttering a forged document. The audit, conducted by an independent accounting firm, led to the suspicion that between March 2010 and June 2011 numerous unauthorized charges were made on a credit card associated to the business. The O’Chiese First Nation requested that the results of the audit be forwarded to the RCMP.

Wolf Songs and Fire Chats

Our tenants want a rose bush. My wife runs a rooming house. It caters to the marginalized, impoverished, mentally challenged, disabled and the just plain lost. There are 13 of them. Their stories present a face of poverty few have seen, known or been touched by. But we have. In the last seven years we have been privileged to know a couple hundred of them.

The Urbane Indian

I have been writing for a very long time.  I have been writing this column for a very long time. And over the years I have received some very interesting responses. Some positive, some negative, and a few puzzling.

Frequently there is humour in what I write about because I find the world to be a very funny and humorous place.  Because of this I am commonly thought of as a comedian, which I often go to pains to deny. That is a special talent all in itself.