IJC study of upper lakes water levels has focus on changes in St. Clair River

by Jim Moodie

LAKE HURON-A five-year binational study of water levels in the upper Great Lakes has been launched, with the outflow of Lake Huron being a high-priority item.

"They've front-loaded a review of the St. Clair River and its impact on Lake Huron," said a pleased Mary Muter, chair of the environment committee for the Georgian Bay Association (GBA), as well as a member of the Ontario advisory panel for the Great Lakes Charter Annex agreements, inked earlier this year.

The study is being carried out by the International Joint Commission (IJC), a quasi-judicial body that oversees the regulation of all five Great Lakes, and which recently completed a similar multi-year review of the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence section of the basin. The upper lakes study, expected to cost $14.6 million US, will examine lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie, as well as their interconnecting channels-the St. Mary's River, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River and the Niagara River.

"Major topics for investigation include determining the factors that affect water levels and flows, developing and testing the performance of potential new regulation plans including under climate change scenarios, and assessing the impacts of these potential plans on the ecosystem and human interests," a press release from the IJC states.

Initially, the study "was only going to look at control mechanisms, like the gates at the St. Mary's River (where Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron)," notes Ms. Muter. "But the ability of that control mechanism to mitigate Lake Huron is limited, and the trend line for the level of Lake Superior over the past 100 years is flat, whereas Michigan-Huron is downward. When they first announced the study five years ago, we (the GBA) suggested they add the outflow for Lake Huron."

When a second round of input was sought on the parameters of the study, Ms. Muter says the IJC agreed to add the St. Clair River-which lacks a control mechanism, but has a profound impact on the level of Lake Huron-to the scope of the study.

Indeed, it is now a priority. As the IJC's press release notes, "physical changes in the St. Clair River will be investigated early in the study as one factor that might be affecting water levels and flows." Should such changes be deemed to be having a significant impact on the level of Lake Huron, "the study may also explore potential remediation options."

That's good news to Ms. Muter and her colleagues within the GBA, who can take much of the credit for putting the St. Clair River high on the agenda. Several years ago, the association commissioned a report by Baird and Associates, a firm of hydrological engineers, which pointed to the river as a major culprit in the draining of Lake Huron. Deepening of the shipping channel due to dredging and scouring, the report concluded, was resulting in a permanent withdrawal of billions of litres of Huron H20.

The report analyzed data up to the year 2000, and since that time, the channel has only deepened more, Ms. Muter says. "We have recent information, raw data that shows increased erosion in the St. Clair River between 2000 and 2005. It's between one and two feet deeper now than in 2002. We're losing water every year due to ongoing erosion."

Ms. Muter points out that, on three previous occasions, control structures have been considered for the St. Clair River in order to regulate the outflow, but none has ever materialized. "I have a design of a structure that was drawn up in the 1970s by the IJC," she says. "Money was even approved for it, but it was never built."

The reason, she suspects, is that around the same time, the city of Chicago was ordered to curtail the amount of water it was diverting, "which drove the water back up, so it didn't seem like it was a problem."

But not only does Chicago continue to take a significant amount of water from the basin, the lakes are now additionally affected by climate change and shoreline erosion, which makes the issue of the St. Clair River as pertinent as ever, if not more so, Ms. Muter believes.

Her association's recommendation, she says, is "to cover the eroding clay (at the bottom of the channel) with a hard rock substrate, which would have to be a foot in diameter in order to not be moved."

The environment committee chair concedes that some analysis would have to be done to ensure "there are no negative impacts downstream." But she believes laying down a pad of rocks would have a minimal effect on the environment. "We're not talking about building locks, and it would actually improve the habitat of spawning fish."

A US Geological Survey team has looked at the St. Clair River and found that the current situation for spawning sturgeon is anything but ideal, Ms. Muter points out. "Returning sturgeon spawn but the eggs get carried downstream and buried in silt. The rocks would improve the spawning habitat. It's a win-win here."

Ms. Muter also says that it's a relatively affordable solution, compared to some of the massive (and more invasive) projects that have been carried out in the Great Lakes by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

But before any remedial action of this nature is endorsed by the IJC, let alone funded by the participating nations, one of the two countries expected to fund the five-year study of the upper lakes-namely, ours-needs to ante up, Ms. Muter says.

"It's a very embarrassing situation right now," she says. "The study is under way, but it's being entirely funded by the American side. Canada has not come through with its contribution."

Six cabinet ministers within the previous federal administration had approved the financial commitment, Ms. Muter says, but "for whatever reason, Martin and his advisors did not move any of the money." The change in government may partially explain the current foot-dragging, although Ms. Muter fears it may also have to do with a prime minister who "likes to run the entire country from his desk."

She and her GBA colleagues had hoped that an announcement would be made during a recent meeting of Great Lakes mayors in Parry Sound (at which Northeast Town mayor Joe Chapman was in attendance), but that did not occur. None of the three federal ministers invited to the meeting-Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, Health Minister (and Parry Sound-Muskoka MP) Tony Clement, and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mackay-even showed up.

"We're not talking about a lot of money for this study," says Ms. Muter, noting that Canada's contribution would be "less than $8 million over five years."

In her view, it's high time that Canada coughed up the funds, particularly at a time when the level of Lake Huron is anything but high. "Somebody needs to put a dollar value on the water that is being lost and its impact on the environment," she says.

Wiky officer honoured for bravery in action

Constable Jim Wakegijig disarmed sword-wielding assailant

by Michael Erskine

WIKWEMIKONG-When you look into the eyes of Senior Constable Jim Wakegijig, you see a calm confidence reflecting his 29 years of service in what can sometimes be a very difficult job. In receiving a commendation of bravery from the hands of Wikwemikong Police Chief Gary Reid and Police Services President Anna McGregor, Constable Wakegijig's demeanor did not flinch anymore than it did the night he assisted a more junior officer in subduing a sabre-wielding suspect during a late night call.

Constable Randy Pangowish was the first to recommend Constable Wakegijig for the commendation, and he was the young police officer who had found himself in a position where thought he was going to have to shoot another human being to save his life and to protect the lives of others.

"The next four to five seconds felt like an eternity," said Constable Pangowish, as he relayed how the suspect rose up brandishing a huge sword in a samurai pose. "Like everyone else, I've seen enough martial arts movies to know what comes after that pose."

Although Constable Pangowish's training had prepared him to clear people from the area, and he had assessed the lay of the land in the room in the moments leading up to the dramatic confrontation, he found himself locked in a dangerous moment where lethal force seemed the only option.

"In that four or five seconds my life literally flashed before my eyes," he said. "In that time I convinced myself I was going to have to shoot someone to preserve my life and the lives of others."

In the drama of the moment, said Constable Pangowish, he did not realize he actually had his disabling spray in his hand.

As his mind tried to deal with the two conflicting options before him, the suspect suddenly dropped his weapon to the floor and collapsed. "I knew I hadn't sprayed him," said Constable Pangowish, who said he then turned around to find that while he was concentrating on the suspect, Senior Constable Wakegijig had come up behind Constable Pangowish. At the critical moment, the senior officer had sprayed the suspect square in the eyes with his own OC spray.

The two officers secured the weapon and the suspect, who has since been charged, tried, convicted and sentenced to jail time.

The evening has been indelibly etched into Constable Pangowish's mind, and left him with a deep sense of gratitude toward the senior officer.

"Constable Jim Wakegijig has given me the opportunity to continue to do my job," he said. "But, more importantly, he has given me the opportunity to continue on with my own life. Chi-migwetch."

Following the presentation of the award by Anna McGregor, president of the Wikwemikong Tribal Police Services Corporation, testimonies from fellow officers and community members flowed freely.

Constable Wakegijig's wife Nora was also presented with a bouquet by Sergeant Diane Nadjiwon, in recognition of the many sacrifices a police officer's spouse must make to accommodate her husband's vocation.

"We do not do nearly enough of this kind of thing," noted Police Chief Ried. "We have plenty of opportunities, unfortunately, but in my opinion we really do not stop often enough to give recognition to the outstanding service our police officers give to the community or to acknowledge the hard work of our excellent support staff."

Acknowledgments also came from visiting Manitoulin OPP detachment commander Bruce McCullagh, who after relating some of his own experiences with Constable Wakegijig, extolled the excellent working relationship between the Wiky force and the OPP.

A feast of moose, fish, and other dishes preceded the cake and three kinds of cheesecake which topped off the ceremonies while, as the glare of media and community attention began to drift away, a slight, quiet smile was allowed to break across Constable Wakegijig's countenance.

Unusual recent weather includes waterspouts, hail and torrential rain

LAKE MANITOU-There weren't any trees pulled from the ground, roofs peeled from buildings, or trucks launched into space, but make no mistake about it: the funnel that formed on Lake Manitou last Wednesday during an afternoon thunderstorm was definitely a tornado. It was the most dramatic of a series of strange weather incidents that occurred last week.

Eastern Manitoulin residents couldn't believe their eyes when, around 2:30 pm, a slim, dark funnel formed, reaching into the sky. "It was really interesting," says Silver Bay cottager Bill Sears. "It kept changing size and colour. It started out white and then went dark."

The quick-thinking Mr. Sears grabbed his camera and snapped a few shots of the storm. Although the clouds were dark and it was obviously pouring rain in the distance, all around the funnel, the sky remained blue, he says.

Mr. Sears kept his eye on the twister, but the effect didn't last long. "I didn't know which direction it was going in, but fortunately, it seemed to move on with the storm," he says.

He wasn't the only one watching this summertime phenomenon, however. Betty Heis and her husband, Doug, also witnessed the storm that day, and watched as a second funnel appeared.

"Doug was out working in the yard, and he hollered at me to come and see it," she recalls. "We sat outside under the tree on the bench and watched it."

When Ms. Heis first saw the funnel, it was "coming out of the water, with mist all around it." She heard thunder and lightning in the distance, and she said she could see the rain off to one side of the funnel, but the weather immediately surrounding it was clear.

"It was moving very, very slowly, and at one point, it disappeared," she explains. "Then it came back again and the second one showed up."

Like Mr. Sears, Ms. Heis said she thought, at one point during her observations that the storm was headed right for them, but it stayed far away, and "we didn't get a drop of rain."

The tornado that spouted from Lake Manitou is probably more accurately classified as a waterspout, which looks like a slender tornado, and occurs only over water. According to the Environment Canada website, a waterspout forms when "cool, unstable air masses passing over warmer waters allow vigorous updrafts to form, which can tighten into a spinning column when captured by a passing thundershower."

These types of tornadoes can be just as deadly as those that travel across land; however, they often collapse after moving inland away from the warm water.

The website says that about 80 tornadoes occur in Canada every year, resulting in an average of two deaths, 20 injuries, and millions of dollars in property damage. However, these numbers are deceiving, the site concedes, since "the majority of twisters do little more than bend TV antennae, break windows, uproot trees, or damage weak structures such as barns and sheds."

Thankfully, last week's twister had little time to effect even that meagre level of destruction, since, as Ms. Heis says, "as fast as they came, they were gone."

Ms. Heis doesn't remember a tornado touching down on Manitoulin before, and Mr. Sears agrees, saying, "I've never seen a tornado before-except on TV." But thanks to the summer humidity and stormy weather, they got to experience a rare weather phenomenon that's unusual even by Island standards.

Although the waterspout event was isolated to Lake Manitou, extreme weather was the order of the day across Manitoulin. Little Current received a deluge of rain between 6:30 am and 7:30 am, which flooded several buildings, including the Expositor office, while Garden's Gate Restaurant in Tehkummah was also inundated with runoff.

Neighbouring communities like Sheguiandah and Honora Bay, however, were spared the early morning downpour. Sheguiandah resident Mandy Case said she'd "watched the storm over Little Current" that morning. An Honora Bay resident had noticed "a few drops of rain."

North Channel resident Chris Tilson described the furious downpour as the most intense rain he has experienced in over 30 years of living on the Island. Parts of central and southeastern Manitoulin also received a bracing dump of hail, particularly in an area along the Rockville Road near Duck'n'Drake marina, where yards and roadsides were covered in a pebbly white layer of ice pellets. Hail was also seen, in smaller quantities, in Tehkummah village and The Slash. The storm toppled trees in various corners of the Island, but only brief power outages were reported.

Later that day the weather moved southward with much shorter, but equally drenching, cloudbursts noted at Ten Mile Point about 2 pm and at Tehkummah around 5:30 pm.

EDITORIAL

Campbell cairn memorializes the unsung

There is more truth than poetry in Douglas Campbell's memorial cairn that he has built on his Highway 540 property midway between Little Current and the Honora Bay Road turnoff.

Some will say it is a self-indulgent act (one of those memorialized is his late partner Christine Baird) but Mr. Campbell has chosen to also include several Canadians who are not as well known as perhaps they should be; Canadians who will never figure largely in Canadian history texts but who have made significant contributions to the world in which we live.

The McKenzie-Papineau Brigade, for example. Mr. Campbell has listed on his cairn the names of over 1,200 Canadian volunteers who left this country to go to Spain in 1936 and 1937 to ally themselves with the royalist cause then opposing Spain's version of Germany's National Socialist Party which had usurped power in Spain.

At home in Canada, they were never recognized as anything other than mercenaries or, at worst, somewhat "pink," as they were aligning themselves in Spain with socialists from all over Europe who had gone to Spain to fight the fascist regime there.

One of their number, the late Fred Hensler, lived in Manitowaning in his later years and, in a Remembrance Day interview, he told this paper that as a young man, looking for work in the Depression, going to Spain at that time to help seemed a viable option.

Some Canadians died in action in Spain. Many of these volunteers went on to become regular members of the Canadian armed forces when Canada declared war on Germany. They had the advantage of having been tested in battle.

The cairn memorializes Dr. Norman Bethune, a native of Owen Sound and Presbyterian minister's son who practised medicine in Montreal and Toronto where he perfected a cure for tuberculosis that involves collapsing a diseased lung in order that it can properly heal without stress.

He was one of the McKenzie-Papineau volunteers, but after that experience, rather than joining the Canadian forces in Europe, he went instead to China and built field hospitals there, assisting the Chinese in their internal struggles.

He died there from an infection he contracted.

The controversial Dr. Henry Morgentaler is also a member of Mr. Campbell's memorial panoply.

The odds are very highly stacked against Dr. Morgantaler ever becoming a significant feature in Canadian school history texts by dint of his association with abortion clinics across Canada, and his willingness to take on one provincial government after another. Like it or not, he did force the issue on abortion in this country.

Mr. Campbell has strung together these individuals (and the group of voluntary soldiers) on the same memorial. In his own words, it's a memorial to controversial people who have made significant contributions, but whom history glosses over.

The cairn is large, made of rock, and sits on Mr. Campbell's front lawn. He has no idea of what will eventually become of it, but it was something he wanted to accomplish.

His idea of reminding us of less popular aspects of our history is a valid one for we should not be so selective of the history we choose to define us.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 

Wiky windmills promise future prosperity

Empty seats at public meeting indicates community agreement

To the Expositor:

RE: the open letter to the chief and council of Wikwemikong from R. Gerry Kaboni, Tom Peltier, James Fox (letters, June 28).

Via bulk mail-out, all on-reserve band membership were informed of the meeting to discuss the windmill project. It was the choice of each individual to attend the meeting so that they could obtain and hear information that would assist them in making an informed decision. In general it has been assumed that if one does not voice their opinion one way or the other, then their silence is taken as being in agreement. So for one; I would like to know where all this dissatisfaction is among the membership of Wikwemikong (Wiky)?

As a young person of Wiky, I wish not to be included in this so called dissatisfaction. I have two young children and one on the way. I am totally for this new windmill project because the future looks brighter for my children and the whole community of Wiky.

By finding new ways of conserving energy in this day and age, this is a very good way of doing it, a renewable energy resource. This also opens the doors to future employment along with support for all the community programs in Wiky. This also opens the doors to cover educational expenses for the ones who wish to go to college or university to learn new technology, and new ways of helping our people.

Our community has many resources to use, as far as new technology is concerned. We have many new graduates with this new technology in mind, these people would like to come home to a job, to make jobs for themselves, and to even create jobs for others. Our community has engineers, lawyers, judges, and strong business minded young people. These windmills are a start to bring these people home with their new ideas.

Have you, your "silent councillors" and your handful of dissatisfied membership of Wiky, studied this project and informed yourselves of all the future benefits it would bring to our community for the future generations of Wiky?

You, your "silent councillors" and your handful of membership are putting a stop to a bright future for the generations to come...and what alternatives, exactly, do you have to offer us? There has been no mention of such offerings! And once again there are only views on the money issue. Money, money, money!

Why not look at all the good that would come out of this project and open your minds to this new technology.

A.H. Wemigwans

South Bay

Disdain of Native traditions creates poor base for conversion

Christians must accept they do not hold monopoly on the word of God

To the Expositor:

RE: "Modern-day missionaries follow rez school footsteps" (June 15); "Evangelical Christians invite, they don't coerce," (June 21).

Thanks to Ray Fox and Bert Hill for frankly raising issues of utmost importance to each of them, and presumably many of us readers. I, for what I take to be Christian reasons, want to side more with Mr. Fox than with Mr. Hill. My critical remarks are not aimed at Mr. Hill's own beliefs, which I do not know, but rather at a straw man construed out of Mr. Hill's remarks. There are two basic points: 1) Christians may not be indifferent to how their "witnessing" is framed by those to whom they bear witness. The correlation of this is: 2) Christians may not mindlessly interpret the mandate to "preach the Gospel."

Ray Fox's complaint was heard, in so many words, recently from Iraq, when exemplary Christian witnesses were kidnapped and one was executed. These members of the Christian Peacemakers, a mix of Quakers and Catholics, if I recall correctly, were exemplary "witnesses" because they were there to do the works of love for the Iraqi people and thereby love the Iraqis in the midst of the nightmare the US and Britain are inflicting on them. They were not there to convert the Iraqis, or "save their souls," and certainly not to add to the terror of occupation a form of spiritual imperialism. Of course, the forces resisting the occupation saw them as part of the occupation and thus kidnapped them. This shows, if it needed showing, that even the most authentic form of missionary work can be misperceived. Yet it is important to see that theirs was exemplary and proper missionary work because it is the Gospel in action. Love in action is the profoundest witness, the deepest truth.

The Christian mandate to preach the Gospel should not suppress the more fundamental mandate to be respectful of one's neighbor. If someone neither needs nor wants one's help, it would seem that respect for the person (an absolutely necessary condition and presupposition of love) requires the appropriate distance and reserve. Furthermore, Christianity, since the time of Constantine, bears the burden of being inevitably interpreted by the frame of the colonizing brutality of empire. In most instances, perhaps, the Gospel was borne witness to under the aegis of the sword. Even today in North America, the witness must appear to First Nation persons within the framework of colonization, genocide, and ethnic cleansing, to which can be added a good pinch of racism, superciliousness, and arrogance. As the Iraqis had very little reason to perceive the genuine witness of the Christian Peacemakers in Iraq for what it was, so First Nation peoples, for endless similar reasons, have reason not to give the time of day to anyone who disdains their sacred ancient traditions, and who comes to them under the guise of spiritual terrorism. We may indeed believe that the New Testament stories point to something like a divine judgment; but we also have good reason to believe that such is solely God's jurisdiction and prerogative.

The authentic witness to the First Nation people, assuming that they need it and would not be insulted by the witness of the works of love, should first be suffused with a love toward the particular persons at hand, and not for the sake of anything else or with any other agenda in mind. A first step in this act of love would be to inform oneself of this people's tradition with the hope of learning from it, because Christianity must be open to God's graces of renewal from every quarter and Christians must believe that the Word of God is not a commodity of which they are the sole and absolute possessors.

James G. Hart

Providence Bay

"Teen dance" for preteens ill-concieved

We don't appreciate the fun of childhood until it is lost

To the Expositor:

I am an 18-year-old, going to college in September. I am writing you because I feel that it is not necessary at all to be holding a "teen dance" for ages 6-10. Now let's just think about this. These are children in Grades 1-4. When I was in Grade 1, having a sleepover was the "coolest thing," and rare.

The media already portray children to think that it is normal or beautiful to dress themselves up in clothing that hardly covers their body, and to dance suggestively. This is not how you find love, or self-respect. Children have such innocent minds-why would anyone think this is a good idea? How does this teach your children to respect themselves? Lets get some sports activities together, dance classes (not hip hop), music lessons, anything to create a healthy mind and body.

We don't realize how important life is until a loved one dies.

We don't realize how fun being a child is, until we are considered an adult.

Jennifer Bock

Little Current

Letters can also be dropped through the slot on the front door of the Expositor office.Send your Dear Dave letters to Box 369, Little Current, Ontario, P0P 1K0,