Grey Owl expected to pique the interest of conservationists

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On Oct. 1, Remstar Distribution of Canada will present the film Grey Owl. The movie that cost $30 million to make will be released in theatres across Canada.

"I think that the movie has a wonderful environmental message," said Remstar Distribution's executive director, Andrew Austin. "It is a great movie with great actors, a great cast and a director that delivers a fantastic message," he said.

Filmed in Canada and England, the movie features hundreds of Aboriginal actors, actresses and extras. Ann Galipeau, an Algonquin, plays Anahareo, Grey Owl's wife. Graham Greene plays Anahareo's father. Edmonton's Nathaniel Arcand is Ned White Bear. Jimmy Herman, from the series North of 60, is Ned White Bear's father. English actor Pierce Brosnan from 007 fame plays Grey Owl. The movie, expected to be a hit with audiences all across the country, is based on the life of Englishman Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, who was adopted by an Ojibway family and lived among the Aboriginal people in Canada.

During that time Belaney suppressed his English accent, dressed as an Indian and proclaimed Aboriginal ancestry. He learned how to trap, canoe and survive in the wilderness. He later became a voice for the environment, speaking on behalf of the animals that were trapped.

Well-known director and actor Richard Attenborough, who directed the Oscar-winning film Ghandi, and the movie Cry Freedom was behind the camera for this picture. He was quoted in the Ottawa Citizen as saying "I was attracted to this story because of the tremendous work Grey Owl had done over the years, and I think that the audiences would also find his life story interesting. We are short of heroes who fundamentally affect our lives in some way and Grey Owl was a hero in his time," he said.

Belaney, who was born in Hastings, England in 1888, first came to Canada in 1906. He became an environmentalist after he met and lived with Anahareo, a Mohawk woman. She was able to make him see the damage that people were doing to the environment. He soon began to write on environmental and conservation issues. Among his many achievements, as well as writing three best-selling novels, Grey Owl was largely credited with saving the Canadian beaver from extinction. His writings and his passion for writing to preserve the wilderness caught the attention of the world. He became the first naturalist for Canada's parks. Today, the Grey Owl Nature Trust works towards funding environmental and conservation projects in Canada.

"Grey Owl was a great conservationist. Good for him for sounding the alarm, for people to start looking at the preservation of this land," said Grey Owl Nature Trust's president, Steven Gates. "As the Grey Owl Nature Trust we collect donations for an endowment towards grants that we give away for programs in conservation all across Canada."

Belaney died from pneumonia in 1938 at the age of 50 in a Prince Albert, Sask. hospital. North of the village of Waskesiu, Sask. sits Grey Owl's cabin. The cabin was the last place where Grey Owl and his family lived. He is buried there by the cabin, along with Anahareo and their daughter Shirley Dawn. It is now visited by hundreds of tourists every summer.

His tombstone reads: Say a silent thank you for the preservation of wilderness areas, for the lives of the creatures who live there and for the people with the foresight to realize this heritage no matter what.