Category: Rez Notes
Wow, summer is finally here. I dusted off my second-hand air conditioner and cleaned off the dead mosquitoes and flies off the grill and readied the window for the first official indication that summer is really here. To make it ecologically official, belugas arrive just in time, migrating near the ...
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One of the biggest factors of living in Eeyou Istchee is the incredible long distances we have to travel just to meet each other. Sometimes, when we arrive to new southern destinations, local people gasp with amazement when we tell them that we travelled 2000 kilometres just to eat at ...
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One of my favourite things to read are the silly old news stories you often find in grocery stores, declaring that Elvis Presley is still around. It’s hard not believe that Elvis may still be alive when you know that he still lives on in the digital or analog version ...
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Right before the federal elections, Quebec’s Liberal provincial government decided on doing more business in the north and cash in on the resources. This quickly led to a grand effort to design the north into an economic and protected area – sounds like an oxymoron? This also created the largest ...
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One of the many virtues of living in the north is the endless expanse of land and waters that make up most of northern Quebec. It is a land of beauty and bounty, but something is making life a lot harder to enjoy and to stomach. It’s called the price ...
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As I summon up all the memories that I have about elections, one thing is certain – Canadians either love to vote, hate to vote, or just don’t care about the vote for an upcoming election, it all depends on who you talk to. The people I know don’t seem ...
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The flock of geese flew by, quietly checking out the James Bay sun-cured cedar driftwood and black-spruce decoys spread out over the shallow pond, the reflections of the clouds clearly outlined in the mirror-like waters. The head goose turned back after a single call from the hunter crouched and well-hidden ...
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One of the many things that I think of, just for the sake of thinking of it, is – Is it normal to have so many catastrophes year after year? Is it just because we hear about it instantly, or is the world really going to hell in a bread ...
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One of the things in life that many people don’t understand, or want to cope with, is cleaning up. I remember in my earlier acne years discovering socks from bygone years all cuddled up with one of those numerous monster dust balls under my bed, begging to be thrown out ...
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Last month, watching the 25th anniversary of the first shuttle disaster, I thought that time had just run away from me then come back and slapped me in the face. How could that be? It seemed like just a decade ago when the entire world was shocked by images of ...
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I was listening to JBCCS early-morning radio and there was an interesting homegrown song about love, which in many ways, reflects the mood at this time of year. Holiday wise, it’s just a few days past Groundhog Day, who, incidentally, emerged on a stormy cloudy day, and the thankful forecast ...
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Years ago, I used to be intolerant of certain types of people. I always thought that whatever was strange or different should be frowned upon because it upset the delicate balance of tradition. For most times, it was just gut feelings, or so I thought. But actually it was tradition ...
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One of the most important things about our lives is the environment around us and knowing that you can’t do anything about it. Take Mother Nature for example. Recently, news of earthquakes starting up again in Chile make me wonder just how predictable Mother Nature is, from a human standpoint, ...
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The first pipes froze today, and it’s not yet Christmas. It wasn’t a fun sight, water and ice everywhere, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. Murphy’s Law works double time up here, in the far north. In many ways, winter is a fun time. Most of my ...
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“O holy night…” the songstress crooned for all to hear at the local Christmas show. Ahhh, the Christmas show… it brings back memories. This time, I’ll bring back some memories that belong to others and that should be shared.
She sang until no one could criticize, everyone knowing that it was ...
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One of my favourite things to do on a cold stormy night is to watch television shows of any variety. I usually tune into APTN National News, just to see if I can recognize anyone passing by in any of the many protest across the country. Sometimes, I would see ...
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One of the many things I enjoy in life, just like other people around the globe, is making a decent buck or two. In the world of today, making money is either getting harder to do or easier, depends on who you talk to. Like everyone can tell, there are ...
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In many ways, our means of communications have changed dramatically from ancient mumbo jumbo gestures at sighting a rack of bananas and painting on the walls of caves. Today, a goat herder in Zimbabwe can order pizza from New York City with the rare anchovy on top.
At the same time, ...
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One of the annual rituals that nearly everyone in Quebec with a forest in the backyard takes part in is the fall moose hunt. Tales of the legendary moose and the dangers involved with the hunt are often mixed with taller tales of the hunt for the largest land animal ...
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After many years of fruitless and dry spring and fall goose hunts (unless of course, you were in a prime area), it gets my gall that many of the geese that don’t fly up here to get shot at, will be destroyed and exterminated like pests. What may be one ...
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On one of my many forays into the deep south of Quebec – Montreal to be exact – I chanced upon a friend who really could understand the gastronomically inclination of eating out. My general rules for munching in strange countries would be to order something that I couldn’t either ...
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Back in the day, when residential schools were everywhere and public schools weren’t around, going back to school evoked mixed feelings for students. Some were sad to leave home to attend (or forced to attend) the institution that other children either loathed or liked. Looking back on those days and ...
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The distant blast of a side of a rocky hill being blown away and the resulting ground tremor woke me from my deep office think mode.
Explosions? Up here? Is Al Qaeda around?
Then I remembered that it was our blasting crew, busy at extracting nothing but money out of the ground. ...
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The phone starts ringing off the hook and the message machine crams with messages. I had been relaxing in the relative slow season of summer. The calls are all from everyone calling me back after their annual summer leave. On top of all that, construction season starts up again after ...
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It seems we have finally woken up and smelt the freshly brewed coffee served in a hotel coming to your region, soon. What may well be the opportunity of a lifetime is finally coming our way. Yes, I’m talking about our own hotel in Val-d’Or.
Wow, is there no end to ...
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In my last Rez Notes (Vol. 17, No. 16), I mentioned there were some people who were stranded for the last 50 years, surveyors left in the middle of nowhere to map out the great white north. Some of these surveyors did not return to civilization to report what they ...
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