B.C. aquaculture unique in the World

Indigenous Rights Include Choosing to Grow Atlantic Salmon in Traditional Territory

The unique nature of B.C. aquaculture, I learned, was the Indigenous leadership behind it. This does not preclude arguments from Indigenous chiefs and leaders who oppose the industry in their waters. I never heard an Indigenous chief or leader say publicly another nation is wrong to oppose fish farms.

When Indigenous direct action explodes in Canada

From my personal perspective, as a person who has been on over 200 Indian Reserves for sometimes extended periods, there is a very real fear in communities of lateral violence, which is always shading the picture. This is not a knock on these communities but an observation based on first hand witness.





In fact, you should expect nothing less, since Systemic Racism has enshrined lateral violence as the underpinning social dysfunction in Canada's Indigenous life.

I've seen 90 percent unemployment in every situation and it's tragic and has consequences. Poverty is endemic, hopelessness is rife. Obviously. Suicide rates alone are appalling. Other social dysfunction abounds.

No one can argue with these facts. Indigenous people struggle to maintain the semblance of family and community and love is the glue that binds. Often good spiritual values are present and mitigate against the daily strife in an admirable or even miraculous manner. Being in a church on reserve is about as uplifting as the Christian faith can possibly be.

I say lateral violence is fear of the change prosperity could bring (not the big fat cheques doled out by resource cash settlements either). Individual family members getting up at 6 am and going to the job causes envy down the row of houses in a community, and crab-in-the-bucket syndrome takes over. "You can't have it because I can't have it."

Reserves have boundaries with invisible walls that present real barriers to vision.

If you want to resolve the crisis as a government and a society, a crisis which is manifesting more and more often, get to work on the impossible-looking task of scrapping the egregious, racist, and demeaning Indian Act.

Of course this involves admitting the horrible mistake made by the Canadian government in composing and imposing such a regrettable piece of legislation, and this would result in a demand for huge, costly, and necessary reparation.

I believe the cost of doing this is too daunting. After all, the Canadian government makes piecemeal attempts (MMIW), and recoils at the inevitable backlash from admissions of genocide. It would take a long term plan with the best legal minds available from all quarters. It would be a monumental undertaking.

Meanwhile the question arises, what do Canadians want?





Tell you they don't want to be held blamed for the atrocious stench of the Indian Act. But until they take responsibility for this wretched way of constructing dystopia for a single, vulnerable people who dwell in often extreme isolation, forgotten, starved, water completely adulterated by Canadians' ravenous, thoughtless resource extractions, well, do you expect them to be acquiescent forever?

Indigenous people have played along, got educated, become motivated enough to regenerate their populations. They are seeing Canada's so called social safety net steal their babies, crush their security, rape their women and girls, tie them in knots with systemic racism. You think they're not gonna react?

Have you ever heard the term 'blowback'?





What you are witnessing is BLOWBACK from a century of unbridled persecution. Indeed, Indigenous people are hurting.

I am not an apologist for the Direct Action of Indigenous people in the present context, and certainly not for the eco-narcissist faction wailing for Canada to be shut down. (They are opportunistic and selfish.) But I am not condescending to the Indigenous need for support. It's obvious the Indigenous people have the hearts of the grassroots across the country from the full spectrum of Canadian society.

We're not all wearing blinders or trying desperately to look away. We don't all drive through Indian Reserves blissfully unaware of what is totally obvious. The Indigenous people have been shoved to the extreme margins of a stinking rich society that has fed like a parasite on the land once tended by an honourable people.

Some Canadians, more than a few, want the travesty to end. Some Canadian citizens will step out of their comfort zone and extend a hand to lift people out of desperate living conditions.

With a more honest appraisal of the situation our fellow Indigenous Canadians are suffering, AND SUFFERING THEY ARE, we can all get to work ripping out the Indian Act and giving back hope, dignity, prosperity and security. THIS IS OUR MISSION. THIS IS OUR PURPOSE!







Freelance Writing by Malcolm 'Mack' McColl in 2019

Carpenter Skills Ingrained from 30 Years Building Experience

BURWASH LANDING -- This part of the Yukon Territory is home to about 120 people, "Not large," says Chief Bob Dickson, "Our Kluane First Nation is about 250 members." Burwash Landing holds a good share of Kluane's people, "Burwash Landing is on land set aside for the Kluane First Nation as part of a Yukon First Nation Final Agreement," with Kluane's agreement established in 2003.

The community lies about 300 km west of the capital, Whitehorse, "We are busy in the summer. The Kluane First Nation is the big employer in Burwash Landing. We have a relationship with a mining company, Nickel Creek Platinum."

The mine is located 25 km from Burwash Landing within traditional territory in Kluane First Nation. "The Nickel Shäw project (named with the local Southern Tuchone word Shäw, meaning Big, by Kluane First Nation Elders) is host to over 2 billion pounds of nickel and other valuable minerals, and aspires towards becoming a world-class nickel sulphide mine." (Kluane Community Development Corporation LP http://kluanekcdc.ca/nickel-shaw/)

"At one point 40 of our people were working up there on the mining project, and we are hoping it comes back to that level of activity." Dickson says Kluane Community Development Corporation LP has agreements in place with Nickel Creek Platinum involving tasks like catering, maintenance, equipment leasing, and, of course, other jobs in mining.

"It's in the developmental stage and the project has not been determined as to which way they're going to go, open pit or underground, but they have been working for the past 10 years on a site which has been around since the 1950s. There was a mill operating in the 1970s and it went dormant, and was torn down."

Nickel Creek Platinum is working with Kluane First Nation, "in coming to some kind of comprehensive agreement before they go ahead." The Kluane are doing hands-on groundwork, "We want training for technical and management and executive positions," and Kluane wants business opportunities, "We are a small First Nation but we want to know what the impact is going to be on the land and we want to bring benefits to the community from the mine."

Kluane people are not going anywhere, "For us it's about building capacity." Which brings us to the matter of the capacity Chief Dickson has built for himself, for he is a Red Seal carpenter, "I started in construction back in the days when I got out of school, but first I went into heavy equipment operator training, then I saw a program called Skookum Jim R-2000 for First Nations to enter the trades."

Dickson says, "Skookum Jim R-2000 was designed for First Nations to participate in building and renovating at a time when funding came through for houses, renovations, and construction of a friendship centre in Whitehorse. There was other infrastructure being built around the Yukon, and we worked in many communities around the Territory. I ultimately zeroed in on carpentry."

Dickson worked with a lot of people he describes as well intentioned, but, "The problem with the apprenticeship of the building trades is that we had so many skilled people working on a crew and nobody getting credit for the hours. In a First Nation community without anybody with a Red Seal qualification, people are missing credit for knowing their trades, and they don't get valuable certification."

Dickson, now in his mid-50s, intended to follow through on Red Seal carpenter certification in the early 1990s. "I signed up to a 6-week course to challenge the Red Seal exam at Yukon Advanced Education in Whitehorse. But I got elected chief of Kluane First Nation in the 1990s and I was occupied with the business of politics."

A few years later, "I saw an ad in the paper called a Red Seal Challenge (provided by Richard Dickenson's Integrated Carpentry Tutorials), so I called Jeff Sloychuk representing the BC Regional Council of Carpenters/United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Yukon, Local 2499, Whitehorse. They were sponsoring the course in Whitehorse. I wanted to sign up, and I was told, 'Whoever comes in with money gets signed up,' and Sloychuk at the carpenters union assured me there would be space."

After driving three hours from Burwash Landing to Whitehorse, he arrived to find there wasn't space in the course. Dickson perservered, "I persisted with Jeff Sloychuk with daily phone calls and finally I got my chance because Jeff made room and I paid for the course, but because of the distance and other challenges, I missed the first couple of classes, still, I went to Whitehorse every weekend and played catch-up with tutorials from Richard Dickenson." Dickson is grateful to the union for making the effort to get him there and for hosting Dickenson's ICT Red Seal Course.

He says, "Dickenson knew that a lot of carpentry skill was ingrained from 30 years of building experience, plus I was always reading and playing on my strengths." Dickson having been in construction as a builder and contractor over the years had taken various courses in plumbing, heating, electrical, courses related to building trades.

It has been a long road of experience. "The main thing in the Yukon is we don't build skyscrapers, we build houses, we work with permafrost, and we use materials like Permanent Wood Foundation (PWF) pads, a lot of cribbing and blocking. The construction is practically all carpentry, and here in the Yukon it's expensive to build, more than $220 per sq. ft.."

Having had kept his eye on the ball all those years and put Dickenson's training to practical use, "I think the Red Seal is high value. I was always reading a lot, always trying to find the mechanism to get the Red Seal certification done, but I wasn't ready to go to Yukon College where they want you to start from square one.

"When it first appeared to me in the 90s I missed the opportunity, but I finally got connected and dropped everything and went straight to Whitehorse. Dickenson prepares you for the challenge, which is an exam lasting 4 hours to answer 100 questions. It's about two minutes per question, you have to deal with math questions and not defeat yourself. I was good at math, but you must be prepared. If you're prepared, put it this way, I wrote the test once."

Dickenson, the teacher, notes that Bob Dickson is in the top rung of scorers on the Red Seal exam (and Dickenson has taught the course right across the country).

Dickson says, "In the building trades I worked with a lot of good people." He has had two stints as Chief of Kluane First Nation. The first was a long 14 year stretch, then he was out of politics for a while and recently he re-entered politics. "I am not currently apprenticing anyone since I went back to the chief's office, but I got my daughter started in the carpentry trade." Alanna Dickson is a registered carpenter's apprentice. "In fact she worked for me for a number of years doing jobs in siding, house building, and renovations."

A lot of work in housing in the Yukon is maintenance and renovation. "Alanna is also an Emergency Medical Technician and currently she is working as an EMT for an organization on road projects." There are, however, building opportunities on the horizon because Burwash Landing has obtained badly needed funding for housing. Dickson's goal in apprenticing carpenters is straight forward, "Part of what I do is teach people to do things the right way from the start."

Dickson says, "I spent a lot years working with people who really took the time to do it right. I am passing this on to the next generation. We've had meetings with Yukon College to get skilled people recognized, and get them into apprenticeship with the goal of Red Seal certification. Outside contractors come in and we will have people working, training and having hours recognized and recorded. There are fewer toss aways." A lot of good people work hard and deserve the recognition.

Burwash Landing is a community that stays busy on a year-round basis, but is remote, "We have Kluane National Park next door, there are fishing, guiding, and outfitting companies, we have big game hunting. We sell a hunting permit on a Dall sheep. The proceeds go toward conservation. We plan the hunt, scout it, my cousin guides on it, and we do it in July before the rest of the Territory's hunting season begins in August."

Most of the hunting in the area is for moose and cariboo, "Mostly it's subsistance, and we have a bison and elk specialty draw. We get a bison permit every year for Woodland Buffalo, which is a bigger bison than those of the prairies, 2000 lbs."

The community gets a lot of hunted carcasses donated, "Usually the outfitters bring them to the community and we prepare the meat for lunches and distribution to Elders and others who are non-hunters. Outfitters in the territory bring meat because usually hunters are here for the horns."

The northern winter is dark for long hours, "We have tough winters but a lot can happen in the winter with renovation. It always depends on funding and the funding comes late in the fall. When we get our funding, we start, and we always have houses that need the work done."

Freelance Writing by Mack McColl

Two First Nation historic sites for summer visits, Rocky Mtn House, and Hat Creek

Eight different First Nations as well as Métis are known to have traded at Rocky Mountain House over the 76-year history of the trading posts. This includes the Nehiyawak, Piikani, Siksika, Kainai, Ktunaxa, Tsuu T’ina , Nakoda, and Atsina.
    

The year 2010 marks the sixth year of partnership between Parks Canada’s Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site and the Métis Nation of Alberta. At Bastions & Bones, August 20 – 22, 2010, Blackfoot culture will feature special guest drummers, dancers and ceremonialists from the Piikani Nation.
    

The event commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Piikani blockade on the North Saskatchewan River.  The blockade prevented David Thompson and his North West Company Brigade from continuing west to trade with First Nations on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. This is part of the International David Thompson Bicentennial initiatives.
    

Historic Hat Creek Ranch is in Bonaparte First Nation territory, and Bonaparte is well-represented on-site.  Sandra Gaspard, Bonaparte member, is Manager of Historic and Cultural Operations, and Curator of the significant First Nation presence at the facilities. “We have five different knowledge streams of Shuswap culture to explain,” says Gaspard.
    

On display are cooking and food preservation, lodging, hide and tannery, a replica kikuli that can house 23 people. The historic site features many outstanding structures like an 1860 Roadhouse to go along with the Shuswap Native Interpretive Site, which itself employs eight people, all with First Nation heritage.
    

On the second weekend of August the First Nations host a traditional Pow-Wow on-site at the Historic Hat Creek Ranch, “It’s no-charge admission and we are often feeding the crowd with breakfast or lunch during the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.,” says Gaspard. 

Meanwhile, until the closing at the end of September, visitors can experience Shuswap ancestry performing drum, flute, and 17 styles of dance. 

Recession hurt but Millbrook remains on track toward self-sufficiency

Millbrook First Nation in Truro, Nova Scotia, is well-positioned to develop their community into a self-sufficient First Nation, says Chief Lawrence Paul, “We have a wide range of developments underway, including a land-based aquaculture development growing Arctic Char,” and, the chief notes, the reason for a land-based growing facility, is, “Apparently the saltwater is too contaminated to grow healthy fish for human consumption so they are growing them in a land-based re-circulation system.”

Alex Cope, Millbrook Band Manager, says fish farms are not that friendly to the environment and can not be controlled as in land based facilities. The chief says the Arctic char are currently growing in the tanks in a Millbrook-owned facility, “There are buildings on our Millbrook First Nation property, leased from us, where they are hatching and beginning to grow out the Arctic char, and some salmon and trout.”

This is but one in a list of economic developments that puts the Millbrook First Nation on the pathway to self-sufficiency.  “We developed the Truro Power Centre in 2001, which now includes a call centre, motel, RV park,  restaurant, and Tim Hortons,” and an anchor tenant in Sobey’s, which was the first tenant at the Truro Power Centre.

On a satellite-reserve in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Millbrook First Nation constructed a new building that General Dynamics leased a couple years ago. General Dynamics is designing, maintaining, and servicing software for the new Canadian Forces Sikorsky helicopters, which will begin arriving in Dartmouth in November 2010.

In fact, this Mi'kmaq First Nation in Nova Scotia governs the reserves of Millbrook IR 27, Cole Harbour 30, Beaver Lake I.R. 17, Sheet Harbour IR 36, Truro 27a, Truro 27b,and Truro 27c. Chief Paul works with a 12-member council that has highly qualified personnel in elected positions. They are elected from a membership over 1,400, “Closer to 1,500,” says the chief, “and that will increase to we expect close to 1,800 with a recent B.C. Supreme Court decision,” McIvor v. Canada (Registrar of Indian and Northern Affairs), [2009] B.C.J. No. 669, the B.C. Court of Appeal, “that affects Band membership across Canada.”

Prior to the current endeavors in economic development, says Lawrence, “our focus had been on the Highway 102 Connector to the TransCanada Highway. Now the focus is on a new hotel in immediate vicinity to Truro, Nova Scotia, in a destination-oriented tourism property that will include an indoor climate-controlled waterpark. “It will be busy year-round,” says the chief.

Alex Cope says, “We have three buildings with VLTs (Video Lottery Terminals) in Millbrook, three centres in Cole Harbour, and one in Sheet Harbour with a total of 117 machines VLTs,” and the VLTs are making money. “These VLT’s are good income for Millbrook,” says the chief, “big breadwinners.” The 117 VLT’s supplied much needed income for some of the current development that Millbrook is undergoing, and much-needed cash benefits to the community membership.

“Every man, woman, and child receives $1,000 in the third week of June and $1,500 each November. For those under 19 years of age the money is held in trust until they become of-age.” The Millbrook community is able to thrive and people are working, “We are creating jobs for ourselves and adding community services, like a health centre and a youth centre. Our kids are enrolled in the public school system. We have 19 graduates coming out of high school this year.

“We have accessed programs at university and Nova Scotia Community College trades so our graduates can pursue post-secondary opportunities. Our administrators have university educations. For example, Alex, our Band Manager, got a B.Admin at University of New Brunswick.”

Millbrook’s leadership mentored a handful of their members to become educated and available for administrative duties for a growing group of Millbrook communities. Once the 102 connector highway was established, due to no small amount of lobbying by Millbrook, they obtained access to the mainstream of provincial life and commercial opportunities began to emerge.

“Commercially we are doing well, and the goal is self-sufficiency,” says Lawrence. “We are breaking away from government dependency and economic development is our course.” The excitement around Millbrook these days relates to the new hotel, naturally, “a $27 million facility that will employ skilled workers when it’s built,” and meanwhile, contracts to build will supply jobs for a growing Millbrook First Nation labour pool.

Chief Lawrence Paul is an elder now, and he had a long career in various kinds of endeavors, “I was an auto body man, a furnace repair man, I went to business college, and Nova Scotia Agriculture College. I was in the army in 1951,” where he spent time in Germany during the post-war period of German reconstruction. He says, “In 1984, I decided to run for chief,” and he has served 14 consecutive terms now, 28 years in the office. “I am not ready for retirement. I have another term in me after this one.”

Nine hundred Band members live in Truro area, and 100 non band members and 100 non natives dwell in the Millbrook sub-divisions beside Truro, “We have Band members all over Canada and the U.S.,” and those members can be proud of their ancestral home, “Native people are going to go forward same as the rest of society,” says the chief, “toward self-sufficiency and into the fight for the almighty dollar,” he quips.

“Now that we have leveled the playing field we are promoting education as the way forward for our people.” Self-sufficiency is in the not-too-distant future. “The recession hurt us too, but we recovered and we have opportunities to pursue that will make it happen sooner rather than later,” including management of the building and Band-owned property in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Glenn Squires is CEO of Pacrim Hospitality Services of Halifax that developed and manages the Super 8 Motel located at the power centre, and Glenn says Millbrook's practical business model works well for the firm, one of Canada's largest privately-owned hotel management companies.

"We enjoy working with Millbrook and had a great experience with the partnership model, which works to the advantage of all," says Squires. "The relationship is very collaborative and geared to a win-win over the duration of any given project. We have done several quite successful projects with Millbrook and plan to do more in the future."

Power Centre businesses include a multiplex theatre, sit-down and drive-through restaurants, a 50-room hotel, a recreational vehicle retailer, a service station, a call centre, an aquaculture facility and the Glooscap Heritage Centre. Truro Power Centre is not the only location Millbrook has to offer for partnership opportunities.

The band owns other lands in Nova Scotia, including 19 hectares in Cole Harbour. In the past five years, the area has seen significant activity, and the Band built two apartment buildings in 2003 and 2007 worth more than $11 million. The buildings were designed specifically for empty nesters.

Transportation careers forthcoming for First Nations

Transportation careers are at the centre of the industrial age and these careers involve moving the economy on rails, roads, ships and through the air. TransCDA is, “a conduit between industry and the the government,” says Russ Robertson, CEO of the association that establishes training standards for the transportation sector.
     

“We are promoting transportation careers and putting people into apprenticeship as heavy duty mechanics, aircraft maintenance technicians, machine technicians, deck hands on tugs, and professional truck drivers,” practically any of the 26 trades in the transportation sector.
     

TranCDA is based in British Columbia, and, “We engage other sectors and bring them into the training picture,” and the association works to accommodate national mobility of the labour force.
     

“We maintain the alignment of the regulatory environment in job qualifications, and make job recognition a priority in our policy discussions,” says Robertson. “We believe in the mobility of workers and fully support the Red Seal program that governs the national qualifications of trades people,” and Robertson notes the CCDA recently approved the Heavy Equipment Operator program as a Red Seal career.
     

TransCDA is relatively new as an organization, “We're a year old now, but we hit the ground running,” and they worked to develop a first-rate website to distribute up-to-the-minute career information. “The website is in phase one of the TransCDA communication strategy. Phase 2 will be complete later in 2010 and it will provide high performance management tools to put training and career development on a fast track in a company or industry.”
     

Robertson was hired from the ITA to bring a training culture to the organization, and the culture is growing, “We are reaching out to school students to make transportation careers an opportunity. We have developed program standards that secondary schools can deliver to provide 470 hours of training credit in Level 1 apprenticeship.” Rita Gunkel at TranCDA is developing the youth initiatives that deliver advancement toward transportation careers in the school system.
    

 Robertson has other personnel working on recognition of foreign workers who come to Canada with operational qualifications. The goal is for the website to answer questions about transportation careers and qualifications from around the world, and provide assessment tools to evaluate people in their qualifications.”

Lateral Violence in Indigenous Life in Canada

 

David Segerts is a man who lives for positive change in Canadian society. Sitting one day with Segerts in his tastefully decorated apartment I felt surrounded by an orderly nature given to his lifestyle and was treated to his impeccable manners. I was also given a taste of his lifetime of memories before he talked about the really important issues he works on.

Segerts was born in 1960,  at the time Uranium City, Saskatchewan, was a city of 5,000 souls, and he grew up to see the mining property turn into a ghost town. Uranium City was shutdown in 1982 but by that time he was ready to move on.

"I am a Dene/Cree but I generally say I am Dene because I look almost exactly like my Dene father." He shows a photograph that proves he is the spitting image of his dad. "I dropped out of school when I was in grade 8 and went back for adult upgrading by the age of 25 at Alberta Vocational Centre in Calgary. AVC was a good learning experience although the facility lacked a First Nation student organization so I helped put one together. We held dances, fundraisers, and hosted a room that the school donated, which became a gathering place for all nations and a useful foot in the door for First Nation students."

A short time later Segerts began to study something very important in First Nation life in Canada, the tactics of oppression known as lateral violence that are especially prevalent in systemic racism. It is this lateral violence that explains the extraordinary incarceration rates and recidivism in crime for the First Nation people of Canada. As high as 50 percent of the prisoners in Canada either male or female are First Nation or Aboriginal people. For these kinds of disparities to exist in a segment of society that is less than 5 percent of the total population, the problems have to run very deep indeed.

"Lateral violence goes on in every First Nation organization and starts with arguments like, 'My family is better than theirs,'" he says. "It is important within the system of racism to get us fighting amongst each other. We are actually born into it, however, because the system is designed that way. Public awareness is the only way to address it," says Segerts.

"The methods of lateral violence include, backstabbing, gossip, infighting, shaming, humiliating, damaging comments, belittling, and sometimes violent behaviour." Other terms for what is happening to First Nations in Canada include auto-genocide and horizontal violence, he said. These terms are applied mostly to the members of oppressed groups in society, and he explained, "I didn't really understand lateral violence until I was about 30 years of age. I rarely discussed it until I did the research first. Lateral violence is designed to prevent efforts to heal the effects of oppression."

Lateral violence teaches people to disrespect and deny the rights of an oppressed group, to destroy values and beliefs. Practitioners will engage in infighting, faulting finding, and scapegoating, raising the stakes of competition via jealousy and envy. The attacks are made upon those who already possess low self esteem and further attacks lower a person's self worth.

Ultimately the goal is to make the victim take blame for the continuous putdowns, "This is the nature of oppression," says Segerts. "It is a denial of their self and humanity. They think they have become objects unworthy of respect. They fail from the inability to recognize themselves as human beings. They become convinced that the oppressor owns them, and often the oppressor does own them through financial dependencies upon welfare and personal dependencies upon drugs or alcohol."

He says, “When my son was 11 years old I brought him to Calgary to live with me, and after a few short weeks he told me, ‘Dad, I didn’t realize that Indians didn’t drink. I didn’t realize the Indian men work.’” It was another stunning learning experience about lateral violence for Segerts the father who has never spent time stuck in welfare programs but knows on reserves and in some urban communities it can become a long-running generational trap.

“People who feel dependent suffer a lack of personal power. When they lose power they will see their cultural identity eliminated and be unable to stop it,” he says. Many times the First Nations in Canada have been known to hide their own beliefs or adopt the beliefs of an oppressing society. “They were dislocated from the land and suffered breakdown of family structure during the Residential School years. Indigenous people were removed from families at age four in some cases, only to be afflicted with physical, mental, sexual, and social abuses.”

His own mother had a safety pin jammed through her tongue by nuns at one such school, then was made to sit facing a corner in a classroom for speaking her Cree language. “There were many children killed by torture,” he asserts, “and other families were disrupted by one child being raised in a Catholic school and another being raised in a United Church run school. In fact the Residential School system was a highly specialized form of lateral violence.”

The lateral violence design for First Nations people results in a distrust of First Nation leaders by their own people. “It results in a distrust of those who might emerge to help," he says. "Rising stars are severely restricted or punished. Leaders who make any difference are fired and persecuted. Incompetent leaders are recruited and promoted by the oppressors. Dividing and conquering is the main process used by the oppressors.”

Segerts needs to write a book with a biographical story line if he hasn't already. He was trained as a technical engineer at BCIT and NAIT, then, while living in Vancouver, he entered the film industry, first as an actor, then as a producer and director. When we last spoke he was running a youth-at-risk employment initiative that operates across Canada for First Nations. Remember the name David Segerts because the book would be an important read. If you know David Segerts personally, put the suggestion to him again. 

Culture Camp on Yukusem

 

Numas Warrior a powerful ship-berthing tugboat for the Orca Quarry Marine Terminal

The Orca Quarry located on the east coast of northern Vancouver Island, 3.8 km west of Port McNeill, B.C., is permitted to produce 6.6 million tons of sand and gravel per year. Production began in Feb. 2007 including a dedicated ship-loading facility in Port McNeill for handling vessels up to 80,000 tons.

This harbour activity is now enhanced by the delivery of the Numas Warrior to Port McNeill, “a powerful and modern ship-berthing tugboat now in service assisting 80,000 ton capacity Panamax class freighters in and out of the Orca Quarry marine terminal,” said Mike Westerlund, Communications Manager, Polaris Minerals Corporation.

Polaris owns 88% of Orca Quarry, with the remaining 12% interest held by Namgis First Nation, said Westerlund, “The tugboat ownership group, consisting of Polaris Minerals Corporation of Vancouver, the Sea Legend Group of Port Hardy and Island Tug and Barge of Vancouver, were pleased to press the Numas Warrior into service in December.”

Since then the Warrior has been on hand to move each freighter loaded at the quarry and assists with the loading of barges dispatched for Vancouver. The tugboat operates powerful engines with rotating drives, “on a beamy, flat-bottomed hull design. The boat is about 60 feet long, 30 feet wide and has a relatively flat bottom,” said  Westerlund, “When combined with its twin 1,200 hp diesel engines and 360 degree rotating Z drives, this boat can move sideways almost as fast as it can move forwards.”

He said these attributes make it ideal for controlling the movements of large vessels, and “the new boat has won the admiration of all who have worked with her, including the BC Coast Pilots.” The twin MTU diesels meet Tier II emission standards, an advanced standard for clean burning diesel engines.