M'Chigeeng search for missing man enters week two

Jason Maurice's family posts $5,000 reward in return for information

by Alicia McCutcheon

M'CHIGEENG-The search continues 27-year-old Jason Maurice, who was reported missing last week when friends and family failed to hear from him after a night with friends in M'Chigeeng.

The last anyone heard from Mr. Maurice, he had left the home of a friend in the village to walk to the home of yet another friend. According to United Chiefs and Council of Manitoulin police chief Albert Beaudin, the time he left was uncertain due to the power outage but it is certain he left at night, in the midst of the first major snowstorm of the season.

Last week, the Ontario Provincial Police emergency response team, consisting of officers from local detachments as well as officers from southern Ontario and their black and chocolate lab "cadaver dogs," were out in full force, combing the ditches from M'Chigeeng to Mindemoya, but without finding a trace of Mr. Maurice.

The officers expressed their bafflement as to the young father's disappearance as they trudged across thick snow in their snowshoes.

"He sounds like such a good guy," one officer piped in, shaking his head.

The Manitoulin-North Shore Victim Crisis Assistance and Referral Service (VCARS) has been helping in any way they can, providing hot lunches for the volunteers who are out searching the area.

The family, too, has been busy searching for Jason day after day, both with the search teams and on their own. They have even offered up an award of $5,000 to anyone who can help aid in the locating of Mr. Maurice, or who can provide helpful information for their search.

"Right  now our main concern is getting volunteers to help search," said family spokesperson Rob Henderson. "We had four parties out today (Monday), but it was mostly just family."

The family of Mr. Maurice is putting out a plea for volunteers to join them on Saturday as they do a massive search of the M'Chigeeng area. The North Shore Search and Rescue Team, based out of Espanola, has agreed to come and organize the search if there are enough people signed up. Mr. Henderson said they need at least 25-30 people for the Saturday search and asks anyone willing to help to phone 377-4820 or 282-4270 and leave a message.

Wikwemikong councillor questions a proposal

to change administration of Pt. Grondine trust

WIKWEMIKONG-Concerns have been raised regarding a change to the administration of a $15 million trust fund for Wikwemikong that originated with the settlement of the Point Grondine land claim over a decade ago.

Last week, band councillor Raymond Jackson circulated a letter among the community, warning band members that on Friday of this week, "a judge will be presented with a court order that contains a list of names for the judge's acceptance and legal appointment of trustees," with an additional corporate trustee to be added to the board that oversees the funds on behalf of the First Nation.

Mr. Jackson said that the new trustee, a representative of the Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Fund, is a non-Native who will wield significant influence upon decisions regarding use of the fund, which has grown in value from $13 million in 1995 to nearly $15 million now.

"I don't like it one bit," he told the Expositor. "The fund wasn't meant for a non-Aboriginal; it was meant for the people of Wikwemikong."

His understanding is that "a corporate trustee can overrule anyone who is on (the board of trustees), and the decision is final."

Wikwemikong chief Robert Corbiere said that it's not unusual for the makeup of the board to change. "It changes every so often, whenever a two-year term ends," he said. "Three trustees have served their terms and are going to be replaced, while three of the originals are staying on." The only difference is that a corporate trustee will be added to the picture.

For Mr. Jackson, there are too many questions about this move that require explaining to the people of Wikwemikong before an administrative change is etched in law. "Before it goes to court I'd like to see the people get something on paper," he said. "The people didn't ask for this-a lawyer asked. Band members should have a say in the trust fund."

Gladys Wakegijic, a former band councillor, agrees that the people of Wikwemikong need to be consulted. "There are a lot of questions in the air and I'm glad Ray is raising them in the interest of transparency and accountability."

The structure for overseeing the fund was established in 1995, when "a trust agreement was voted on and accepted by the people of Wikwemikong on how to manage the $13 million," according to Mr. Jackson.

In 1996, however, amendments were made and "as a result the 1996 rectification agreement was developed," he related. In this case, "band members did not vote on the changes," which in Mr. Jackson's view means the 1996 agreement is invalid and "the trustees since 1996 have not been legal trustees."

After six years biking the globe

Rob Cassibo returning to Island

by Jim Moodie

MANITOULIN-If you see a strange man pedalling his way onto Manitoulin this week, his clothes flecked with the spray of semis and a maniacal grin flashing through the hole of a balaclava, you may want to look a bit closer before you phone the police.

It's almost certain to be Rob Cassibo, a guy last seen in these parts, oh, six years, 81 countries, and some 100,000-plus kilometres ago.

Mr. Cassibo, a popular Manitoulin Secondary teacher who earned acclaim in the late 1990s for his ability to galvanize students' interest in science (and lead them to impressive showings in international Science Olympiads), is wrapping up an incredible, globe-spanning odyssey that began when he rolled off the Island in 2001, chasing a dream to cycle the world.

Since that time, the teacher-on-indefinite-leave has propelled himself through South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltics, Russia, China, India, Southeast Asia and New Zealand. And this is just a partial list of the places he's been.

During this epic journey, he's been threatened by robbers, chased by elephants, hit by a truck, lunged at by a leopard, and shaken up pretty badly by an earthquake. If he blows a tire on the bumpy deck of the swing bridge, let's just assume it will be something he could probably shake off.

Particularly given that this transition will represent the culmination of his gruelling multi-year adventure. The finish line. The moment to dismount. Home.

"I began with one wheel on the Island and the other on the swing bridge," he related to the Expositor in an email earlier this year. "And I've always planned to finish it back on Island soil."

Last week, the cyclist was spotted in Sault Ste. Marie, during the tail end of a transnational home stretch that departed from the Yukon in late summer. And a few days ago, he provided us with a heads-up-again, via email, since he doesn't carry a cell phone, and rarely stops at phone booths-that he's likely to be crossing the swing bridge any day now (if he hasn't already, by the time this issue hits the stands).

We tried to make arrangements to meet him as he made the penultimate turn onto Highway 6 at Espanola (the final turn, we're assuming, will be off Highway 6 and onto the main drag of Little Current, for a well-deserved meal or three at a local eatery) and trail him during his final leg to the Island, but Mr. Cassibo, while flattered by the attention, wasn't exactly sure of his schedule, and wasn't exactly going out of his way to invite a storm of media attention or a balloon-bearing welcoming committee.

"I started this trip alone, and always imagined that I would finish it alone," he communicated.

That said, he's no doubt eager to renew connections with Island friends and former students and get caught up on all the news he's missed since being incognito in various far-flung locales, so if you see him, flag him down and offer him a hot chocolate, or a tub of A535, or a job.

And stay tuned for a more in-depth description of his adventures. The cyclist has promised us he'll sit down and share some tales with the Expositor as soon as he's untangled himself from his near-permanent pedalling posture, and we're holding him to it.

Meanwhile: if you're reading this, Rob, wherever you are, welcome back.

Norval Morrisseau's legacy

His influence on Island artists is profound

by Lindsay Kelly

TORONTO-With the death of Norval Morrisseau last week, Canada is mourning the loss of one of its most renowned and influential artists. That loss is especially being felt on Manitoulin where Morrisseau inspired many who considered him a friend, a mentor and a cultural icon.

Morrisseau, an Anishinaabe from the Sand Point Reserve near Thunder Bay, grew up learning the Anishinaabe legends from his grandfather, a shaman, and the Christian tenets from his devoutly Catholic grandmother. This melding of two belief systems would later prove highly influential in his artwork.

He first became known in the early 1960s, when his work gained critical acclaim for its unique style and the depiction of Anishinaabe legends. He initially was lambasted by the Anishinaabe community for doing this-until then the lore had only been handed down through the oral tradition-but as more people began to realize his talent and saw his artwork, they came to accept and praise his work.

That he had this ability to "show our view of our people" is one of his most significant contributions, says Alan Corbiere, executive director of the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF).

Though Morrisseau's popularity peaked before Mr. Corbiere became involved in the art world, he was aware of his influence on the art world through the second-generation Woodland artists who inspired him from a young age.

Growing up, Mr. Debassige, Leland Bell and James Simon Mishibinijima were all artistic icons for Mr. Corbiere, and as he got older and realized the significance of Morrisseau's work, he could see the traces of Morrisseau in Mr. Debassige's work especially.

"Blake's earlier stuff was clearly inspired by Morrisseau," he says. "It's interesting to see who was doing what then."

Morrisseau's early pieces are characterized by animal and human figures with their insides exposed and outlined by sinewy black lines-a genre inspired by rock petroglyphs that became known as the 'X-ray style' of art. Later, Morrisseau was said to have "discovered" colour and from then on, his works took on a vibrant quality, as he soaked his canvases in vivid rainbow hues.

Wikwemikong resident Tom Peltier got to know Morrisseau in the 1960s through his job with the Department of Indian Affairs. Morrisseau's work was just starting to earn critical acclaim, and Mr. Peltier travelled from Ottawa to Toronto to view Morrisseau's first exhibit in 1962.

"It was downtown in a gallery in a little house," he recalls. "I went down and saw his work, and I was quite impressed. They were so large and colourful."

Later, when Mr. Peltier would return to Wiky for a show featuring Francis Kagige's work, and then later view an exhibit by Wikwemikong artist Daphne Odjig, he would notice the similarities between the styles of the three artists. It was striking, because, "they didn't know each other, but they all painted the same way," he said.

Their style became known as the now-famous Woodland School of Native art, and their work influenced generations of artists, inspiring a second, and then a third wave of artists working in the Woodland style.

Mr. Peltier chuckles when he thinks back to a request by the Department of Indian Affairs to "help develop" the artists' talent.

"Indian Affairs wanted them to continue studying art and wanted to send them to school," he recalls, incredulous. "I said, 'You don't touch them. They're self-taught artists.'"

From that second generation of Woodland artists came renowned M'Chigeeng artist Blake Debassige, who saw Morrisseau as a cultural icon.

"We've lost a legend and an icon, and I can't overstate, in terms of his art, how much he inspired myself and other artists," Mr. Debassige said.

"He was a big influence because he was probably the biggest Native artist, although certainly Daphne Odjig, Francis Kagige and Carl Ray were, too," the artist added. "But probably the one who influenced me originally was certainly Norval, because his work was front and centre all these years."

As Morrisseau's work became more well-known, he was recognized for his originality and genius with a paintbrush. He was the only Canadian painter to be invited to exhibit work at the Georges Pompidou Centre in 1989 on the occasion of the bicentennial of the French Revolution . In 1978, he was inducted into the Order of Canada, and just last month, Morrisseau was named the 2008 recipient of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award.

It's an honour that Mr. Debassige believes is long overdue.

With a career that spanned six decades, influencing Native and non-Native artists alike, Morrisseau should have been acknowledged earlier, in addition to having an earlier exhibition at the National Gallery, he argued.

"It's unfortunate that they didn't have an exhibition of his work sooner at the National Gallery," he said. "And it's sad that he won't be able to appreciate the (National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation) award fully."

However, Morrisseau's genius was recognized in 1967 when the Department of Indian Affairs commissioned a piece for the Canadian pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal.

As an employee of the government's cultural affairs department, Mr. Peltier was involved in coordinating the artists' contributions to the pavilion, and eight artists were chosen to be included in the exhibit-Morrisseau being one of them.

Mr. Peltier recalls that, when Morrisseau arrived at the pavilion to paint with his friend and fellow artist Carl Ray, people on site, including Mr. Peltier, offered to first chalk out the painting to make the job easier for the artist. But he declined, climbed right to the top of the scaffolding and set to work. He painted swiftly, carefully, and completed the painting quickly. It was beautiful when finished, Mr. Peltier said.

"I would have to stand back to see it," said an awed Mr. Peltier. "But he painted the whole thing just like that."

Though his work was respected by authors, art critics and fellow artists, Morrisseau's personal life did not come without some struggle. He was well-known for his battle with alcohol, and in his most difficult times, was known to trade paintings for a bottle.

He also suffered an illness at the age of 19, which sent him into a feverish state. It is said that, in Anishinaabe tradition, he was given the spiritual name 'Copper Thunderbird' by a medicine woman and recovered a short time later. He was so moved by this event, that from that point on, he always signed his paintings with his spiritual name, in the form of Cree syllabics.

He eventually won the battle with alcohol, only to be diagnosed later with Parkinson's, a degenerative disease, characterized by shaking hands and a progressive loss of control of the body's muscles.

Though the signs of Parkinson's were already visible when Morrisseau visited the Island several years ago, his shaking hands were easily calmed once a paintbrush was in his fingers.

"I was amazed," Mr. Corbiere said. "His hands would be shaking, but once he had a paintbrush in his hands, he would just paint, and his paintings were still really good."

Debilitated by the disease, Morrisseau spent the latter part of his life in a wheelchair, a sombre illustration of the state of his health for those who knew and cared for him.

"It was really sad to see him being paraded around in a wheelchair," Mr. Debassige said. "It will be better now that he doesn't have to suffer from this illness anymore. It was sad to see that such a great man was reduced to that."

Mr. Debassige describes Morrisseau as a quiet man, who spoke plainly and truthfully and was "just a nice man." It is perhaps because of his gentle, considerate nature that the fake Morrisseau paintings proliferating in  the market in recent years are such an insult to his memory.

But Mr. Debassige is hopeful that one day the cataloguing of his works will stop the profiteering that results from the forgeries, and believes that Morrisseau will be remembered more for his trailblazing influence on the art world, inspiring more Aboriginal people in generations to come.

"I hope that he will be received and revered as the great artist he was, especially for Aboriginals," Mr. Debassige said. "He was a legend and an icon for Aboriginal artists, and we don't have a lot of people to look up to, whereas the white culture has so many."

Mr. Peltier has his own way to remember Morrisseau. Although he saw many of the artist's paintings come and go during his time with the Canadian government, Mr. Peltier kept only one for himself.

As he was coordinating the Canadian pavilion for Expo '67, Morrisseau attempted to give him a painting as a gift. It was a large piece-measuring 6 feet by 9 feet-and depicted the story of the Bearwalker. But fearing that his acceptance of the gift could be seen as inappropriate for a government employee, Mr. Peltier declined.

"I told him, 'I can't take it, but I'll purchase it,'" he recalls. "I opened my wallet and I only had $75. So I gave him the $75, and that's the painting that's on the cover of my book I published in 1977."

And, despite watching him experience times of struggle and times of success, Mr. Peltier, too, will revere him as a great artist and a good man.

"He was a really fine man," Mr. Peltier says. "I really liked him."

EDITORIAL

Picton trial added poignancy to vigil for victims

It was a particular irony this year that the day of the annual vigil held each December 6 (chosen to memorialize all female victims of violence because that is the anniversary date of the 1989 Montreal Massacre of 15 female engineering students at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique) was almost exactly the mid-point of the nine-day jury deliberation following Robert Willie Picton's trial for the murder of six Vancouver sex-trade workers.

The nation now knows that Mr. Picton was convicted on six counts (that refers to six murdered women) of second-degree murder.

He is the chief suspect in 20 additional murders as well and there is no determination yet if the Crown will further prosecute him in connection with these deaths.

At the vigil on Manitoulin last week, the speakers concentrated on the work of local agencies in preventative measures designed, ideally, to eliminate violence against women.

But the murder trial in the Vancouver suburb of New Westminister, where the images of all of those missing women-as many as 60-stood as a sharp reminder that the poorer and less educated a woman is, perhaps bearing the additional burdens of mental illness or an addiction, the more vulnerable she is to becoming a victim of someone with sociopathic tendencies, another Robert Willie Picton.

On the Thursday of the December 6 Vigil, when the Robert Willie Picton murder trial had already been deliberating for six days, the nation was coming to think that after such a long period of debates, and in spite of all of the evidence, the man could be facing acquittal.

This was no show trial. The police and the Crown had made a good case to link the pig farmer to the dead women whose body parts and tissue samples were found at his family's farm by use of old-fashioned search techniques, and then identified by means of ultra-modern DNA technology.

Thank goodness the Crown made its case successfully because an acquittal in the face of the evidence would have made not a mockery, exactly, but would have cast doubt on what gains we may have made as a society since the Montreal Massacre woke us up to what can happen to a group of privileged young women, let alone what clearly did happen to this Vancouver group of less-than-privileged women.

And, quite frankly, the potential outbreak of national cynicism with the judicial process was on this writer's mind on the December 6 vigil day, should the jury have decided other than it did.

But Sunday afternoon, we were able to stop holding our breath and know that the process worked.

Perhaps the message of the December 6 vigil was, at some level, on the minds of the West Coast jurors too.

Letters to the Editor

Seniors' housing group should be cautious in planning home

Why should the developer get amenities free?

To the Expositor:

I read the editorial in The Expositor regarding the seniors' home ("Central council would be wise to consider land offer," December 5), and I agree-it was a well-written article. Why should the private developer get free service to the lot line? No-one else did. It's the seniors who live alone who will suffer if this goes through.

The committee and reeve and councillors need to think this through. The seniors who live alone now are near the poverty line and can't afford these rooms.

Why not take the free land where the water and amenities are close by? We don't need our taxes raised.

The developer thinks the land across from the hospital is fine when he is getting things free.

Don James

Nolan Sisson Park project results in disappointment

Where are the additions that were promised?

To The Expositor:

(This letter was originally sent to Greg Wright in response to the recreation survey sent out recently.)

Dear Mr. Wright, et al:

I find myself having to readdress the Nolan Sisson Park again. Almost two years ago, we were sold a bill of goods, which enabled you and your committee to get access to the Nolan Sisson Fund. Part of that pitch was that this, unlike many other NEMI projects, was going to be seen through to the end and in record time. Well most of us, who didn't have our heads in the clouds, realized that your plans were a little too ambitious, but we were going to cut you some slack, in spite of our reluctance to see all this money go to one project.

Well, here we are two years later. Yes the cement pad has been poured, the skate bowl is in place; however, where are all the other things promised? There was to be a large sign, noting where the funding had come from, trees planted to help break the wind and some sort of enclosure to define the area.

Last summer, I noted on Country Fest weekend that the cement pad was being used for a practice area, where young guns were doing "donuts" with their trucks. When I approached you, Greg, about this, you seemed to be aware of it and said that large rocks would be put in place to prevent this. So far this has not happened. I do acknowledge that I should have taken licence numbers, which I thought of later.

I think that you owe all of us at least the courtesy of some public report of monies spent and whether or not this project will be completed as promised.

I am disappointed, although not surprised, that you and your committee have not aggressively seen this through as advertised. I also think that you should complete this project before you start taking on new ones, which could be generated from this survey.

Gail Gjos

Sheguiandah

Kerry Bowerman

Manitoulin Chrysler

Mindemoya

I'm your neighbour

"I've never had a problem driving to work," says Kerry Bowerman, adding playfully, "I usually even make it on time."

This isn't to say he's never encountered a deer during 20-plus years of commuting from his home in the Slash to his Mindemoya workplace. "I've hit a few of those," he says. "But I've never had an accident."

As body shop manager at Manitoulin Chrysler, Mr. Bowerman knows a few things about vehicle mishaps. He says 70 percent of the work performed at the shop stems from deer collisions, with the rest owing to non-deer-related accidents, although there are "also a few people restoring old vehicles."

The likeable 40-something started work at the garage-then called Tilson's Auto Body-in 1985, fresh out of high school. A couple of years later the business became Manitoulin Chrysler, a combined auto sales and service operation.

"I started out cleaning cars, then moved to the body shop and started prepping vehicles," Mr. Bowerman recounts. In 1987 he went to trade school in Toronto, earning his journeyman's licence in 1990. After "working the floor" for a few years, he was named a manager in 1998.

The body shop, which can handle all makes and models (not just Chrysler products), is a busy place, so Mr. Bowerman rarely feels bored. "There's always lots to do," he says, whether that entails pricing parts, dealing with customers, or overseeing the work in the back.

Overall, the business employs 17 full-time workers. "It's a good group," Mr. Bowerman says. "Everybody works well together."

In his spare time, he enjoys hunting and fishing, spending time with his wife and two teenaged boys, and working on "a couple of project cars" he has at home. One is a '57 Chevy that he's fixing up for his dad; the other is a '69 New Yorker. He's also planning to fix up a car for his 16-year-old son this winter.

Regarding his 22-year career with the auto business, Mr. Bowerman says it's been an interesting journey. "I started at the bottom and went to the top, so I guess my next step is to buy the place or go out the door," he quips.