Attorney general announces $41 K for First Nations justice program

$2 million to go to Aboriginal crime victims

by Michael Erskine

M'CHIGEENG-The attorney general of Ontario, Chris Bentley, dropped by the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation last week to announce $41,000 in additional funding for the Justice Program of the United Chiefs and Councils of Manitoulin and the creation of a $2 million Aboriginal Victims Support Grants Program-a program to assist the victims of crime in Anishinaabe communities.

The additional funds bring funding for the UCCM's Gladue report program to $99,000 a year. Gladue Reports provide the officers of the court with an assessment of the unique circumstances of Anishinaabe offenders.

The UCCM justice program provides pre-and post-charge counselling based on the traditional Anishinaabe beliefs of prevention, accountability, making amends and healing. They also offer the three-part Zoongaabwe-od Eshniigjik program for young people aged 12 to 25. The Zoongaabwe-od Eshniigjik program features teaching circles, workshops and culture and community involvement.

The UCCM justice programs serve a population of over 10,000.

"We want to help victims of crime in First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities while providing more effective alternatives for Aboriginal sentencing," said the attorney general. "We are building on our Aboriginal justice partnership with the UCCM to support healthier, safer Anishinaabe communities."

The attorney general was introduced by Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Mike Brown, who noted that the government was pleased to support programs that help the Anishinaabe people reassert responsibility for the administration of justice in their communities.

"Programs such as those run by the UCCM are helping to make our justice system as strong as it can be," said Mr. Brown. "UCCM has had a community justice system in place for a number of years, and the community has benefited greatly."

"We are improving and increasing access to justice for Ontario's First Nations, Metis and Inuit," said Michael Bryant, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs in a release distributed at the OCF announcement. "Our government is ensuring that the unique cultures of Ontario's First Nation, Metis and Inuit communities are recognized and respected by our justice system."

The Aboriginal Community Justice Programs of Ontario are benefiting from an additional $600,000 in provincial funding and a doubling of overall funding in partnership with the federal government. The UCCM program is one of nine providing Aboriginal community justice in the province.

"We appreciate the ministry's support for our community justice program," said Hazel Recollet, chief executive officer of the UCCM. "UCCM justice has received support from Ontario for 14 years. Additional resources will allow us to deliver enhanced services of Gladue sentencing reports for court which will serve Manitoulin well."

"The new Gladue funding will allow a more effective examination of root causes of offences and ways to promote amends and healing through culturally appropriate services," said Lora Mackie, UCCM justice coordinator.

"UCCM justice programs have been in place since 1994 and since that time we have held over 400 justice circles," noted M'Chigeeng Chief Isadora Bebemash, who was filling in as representative of UCCM Tribal Chief Patrick Madahbee. Chief Madahbee, she explained, was attending the funeral of a UOI chief who passed away suddenly. "The additional funds would allow for the hiring of an additional worker for the program." Those additional resources would allow the Anishinaabe to provide advice to the courts on culturally appropriate (and therefore more effective) sentencing options when dealing with Anishinaabe offenders.

Mr. Brown thanked the UCCM and the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation for providing the highly appropriate background for the funding announcements.

He noted that the goal of the community justice program is to increase Anishinaabe involvement in the administration of justice, to help reduce criminal offending and victimization in Anishinaabe communities, and to provide an opportunity for the offenders to understand and make amends for the consequences of their behaviour in ways that are appropriate and meaningful.

Prior to the beginning of the announcements, tobacco was offered to Elder Gordon Waindubence, who offered a greeting and a prayer in the language to the spirits and the four directions to offer guidance to the justice program and the leaders of the people.

Once the announcements and greeting ceremonies were concluded, the attorney general met informally with a large number of community members, as well as those working in the justice system. Constable Ray Beaudin of the UCCM Police Services met the attorney general on behalf of the UCCM Chief of Police Albert Beaudin. Patricia Giroux was on hand as both a probation officer and as chair of the North Shore-Manitoulin Victim Crisis Assistance and Referral Services and Crown Attorney Lorraine Ottley was also in attendance at the announcement.

The Aboriginal Victims Support Grants Program was originally announced on August 14. It is a two-pronged approach designed to improve services to Aboriginal victims of crime by providing a supportive process and timelines to develop that respect the need to build positive relationships and productive proposals and prepare partnerships with Aboriginal peoples by ensuring their involvement in matters that directly affect their communities.

The program hopes to do this through community engagement and by promoting homemade solutions to community building through the funding of information sessions led by Aboriginal organizations and encouraging non-Aboriginal organizations to become project partners.

The program will provide a wide range of small and large projects for up to a 24-month period. The program will also consider small-scale local project grants for amounts up to $100,000.

Some examples of possible local projects include a victims' healing network, including tools for Aboriginal men who are survivors of child sexual abuse, and promotion of healthy parenting of children; a project for Aboriginal elders to address their experiences of hate crime victimization; a project for children and youth victims and those at risk, focussing on Aboriginal children and youth who may be transient, homeless and/or involved in street activities; and healing circles for Aboriginal women leaving institutions to address histories of domestic violence and victimization, prevent repeat offences and help them become re-established in the community.

A second category will provide project grants of up to $250,000. These might include healing spaces that incorporate Aboriginal design to support the delivery of services to victims of crime; community education and healing services across generations, including grandparents, parents, and children; a mobile crisis intervention support service to outreach and deliver resources to remote and isolated victims; a series of leadership cultural exchange camps, involving youth victims and youth at risk, for Aboriginal youths on and off reserve and diverse non-Aboriginal young people; a healing lodge, built as an addition to an existing facility to provide services to survivors of sexual abuse; a network of safety supports, including cars or other vehicles, to increase the safety of women and children who are fleeing violence in remote and isolated areas; and a healing program and crisis intervention for victims of residential schools.

Deadline for application is October 31, 2008.

Election rhetoric means fall trip to polls

by Michael Erskine

OTTAWA-The very second that Liberal leader Stephane Dion suggested that he was considering bringing down the Harper government this fall, a national election was assured. Mr. Harper and his political machine have invested too much time and money into defining Mr. Dion as an ineffectual wimp to allow the Liberal any opportunity to redefine himself as any kind of man of action.

Bad enough that the Liberal leader's Green Shift environmental tax reform managed to set the agenda for a few weeks during the summer, but Mr. Harper and his strategists know that if they can keep the election about leadership and off of the issues of the economy, the growing quagmire that is Afghanistan and the Conservatives widely panned environmental policy, they will be in solid majority territory.

There are good reasons why Mr. Harper would prefer a fall election. The growing economic malaise south of the border will likely grow much worse before it gets better, and there are now signs that the rose of China's unprecedented economic bloom is starting to fade. If those things come to pass, and they are more likely than not according to financial guru Warren Buffet, the Canadian economy which has so far been sheltered by high commodity prices will tank-sending the rest of the country into the kind of employment meltdown being experienced by Ontario's manufacturing sector.

If Mr. Dion is planning to take down the government, it would be better for the Conservatives to pull the plug before the byelections slated for next week give the opposition any kind of boost, as most of those seats are expected to vote Liberal.

Although the recent influx of American troops into southern Afghanistan will likely keep Canadian casualties to a minimum during the election, the same cannot be said for the longer term. There will be many more young Canadians soldiers die before the end of that commitment arrives. Although it was a Liberal government which first sent troops into that country, the Conservatives, by nature of their more hawkish political persona and being the government in power, would wear the bulk of the blame for the unpopular war should casualties spike.

The Conservatives, closely linked in the public mind to the Bush administration, would not want to be caught in an election were the nation's focus is on the Barack Obama saga. Polls repeatedly show that Canadians universally prefer the Democratic contender south of the border, and the last thing Mr. Harper wants is Canadians voting Liberal as a proxy.

Mr. Dion, Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, and NDP leader Jack Layton will hammer Mr. Harper over turning his back on his own legislation fixing election dates, but the issue of fixed election dates has proven to be less than fire-catching for the electorate anyway, ccording to the polls. Apparently, we don't really care.

It has been long enough since the last election for Canadians to resign themselves to another trip to the polls-it's not the trip we mind so much as the incessant nattering of politicians and telephone vote soliciting machines adding to the telemarketing clutter of our lives-and polls show we are ready to pass judgment just to get it over with.

It is not that Mr. Harper does not face some risk with his decision to take the country to the polls. The provincial Liberal government of David Peterson found out, to its demise, how angry the electorate can be if they think they are being taken to the polls merely for political expediency. While Mr. Harper maintains that parliament has become dysfunctional and unproductive, the potential is there that his move will be perceived as self-serving. But to be fair, there are some big differences between the Peterson cynicism and that of Mr. Harper-Mr. Harper can at least make some reasonable argument that his minority government was going to fall anyway. Back to that leadership thing.

Finally, the nasty smell coming from the in-and-out adscam controversy will likely abate, or at least be diluted, by an election as well, and Mr. Harper will not have to face the consequences of an unfavourable decision coming out of the courts-as appears likely given the evidence presented in the media.

Mr. Layton's best hope in this election is to find himself with the balance of power and to improve his party's standings. He does not have the potential to seize the government, but in the NDP strategists' minds the opportunity to wrest official opposition status away from the Liberals, should they suffer a complete meltdown a la Brian Mulroney, then they are finally in position to move on the big job. This is the dream and it is not beyond the realm of possibility. The NDP has strength in the west and central Canada-as a historic party of protest, they stand to reap dividends well above their weight class during the Tory-Grit slugfest.

Mr. Duceppe has no such worries. His best scenaerio is an election that shows no clear winner. If the country finds itself in an unstable electoral impasse, the sovereigntist argument will regain a little of its fast fading lustre in Quebec. As it stands, his party may soon find itself the big losers in this election as the PQ poll numbers have been dropping lately.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May is heading into this election hoping her party will prove to be more than a spoiler, having just garnered its first MP in the house by recruiting independent Blair Wilson-or at least would have if the house was recalled from its summer break instead of going straight to the hustings. Mr. Wilson's controversial world may prove to be more of a hindrance than a help however. He resigned from the Liberal caucus when allegations of improper election spending surfaced, and he is currently engaged in a nasty familial business dispute.

Locally, the battle for Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing is heading up to being a one-on-one contest between incumbent Liberal MP Brent St. Denis and the NDP's personable challenger Carol Hughes. Ms. Hughes came within three percent of wresting the riding of Lester Pearson away from the Liberal fold in 2006-and she has been working diligently since deciding to accept the nomination earlier this summer, especially in First Nation communities which traditionally have a low voter participation. Although the Liberals have traditionally been able to count on their Anishinaabe allies, there is strong discontent there about the staus quo.

Mr. St. Denis has also faced the challenge of the inclusion of the NDP enclave of Kapuskasing and a host heavily unionized forestry towns into the riding, which has changed the electoral demographic of the constituency. The NDP has bombarded the riding with over 800,000 pieces of campaign literature this past summer, hoping to influence public opinion in a blizzard of orange and green pamphlets.

The current meltdown of the forestry industry has left many communities fuming, and although the Liberals are not in charge of employment and forestry policy at the moment, Mr. Denis has been the sitting member for long enough to be a handy target for that anger.

In Mr. Denis's favour, the last election saw an unprecedented influx of NDP forces bolstering the NDP machine and the veteran MP still held the day. Mr. Denis' electoral style has always been to eschew the traditional political machine, relying on his political record and a deep network of personal contacts and alliances made during a lifetime of serving the riding. It remains to be seen what impact the creation of a Liberal machine in the traditional sense would actually have. Liberal voters are notoriously less likely to show up at the polls than Tory or NDP supporters.

The Tories' Dianne Musgrove is an interesting wild card in this election. An Anishnaabe-kwe from Birch Island, Ms. Musgrove brings to the federal Conservatives both a female and First Nation candidacy. Her appointment to the candidacy was all but assured Monday, as she was the only person to express an interest in the job and time has run out for the Tory nomination search committee. While her viewpoints may diverge somewhat from those usually heard from the traditional First Nation leadership, it will be interesting to see how her platform resonates within the Anishinaabe community.

Five of the seven Manitoulin First Nations are now headed up by female chiefs.

There are also two other women currently running in the campaign, however, and the Green Party candidate Lorraine Reckmans is the Aboriginal affairs critic for the Green Party of Canada and a member of the Serpent River First Nation.

The election in Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing is shaping up to be an exciting race for political junkies of all persuasions, but the smart money is currently divided between Ms. Hughes and Mr. St. Denis.

Ontario kicks in $1.1 billion

for municipal infrastructure

by Jim Moodie

MANITOULIN-Island municipalities will receive an $800,000 slice of a $1.1 billion pie that came steaming out of the provincial oven last week.

The money, announced at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa, is additional funding that municipalities can put towards infrastructure projects. It originates from a budget surplus of $1.7 billion, of which municipalities across Ontario are getting the lion's share.

"Under the Investing in Ontario Act, the first $600 million of the 2007-2008 provincial operating surplus will be used to pay down provincial debt, and the remaining $1.1 billion is being distributed to municipalities in Ontario on a per-capita basis," a release from the province points out.

Northeast Town CAO Dave Williamson, whose municipality is set to receive $257,947 of that outlay, said that the guidelines for spending of these dollars are "fairly broad, but it has to be used for infrastructure."

While the funds won't cover all of the projects that the municipality needs to undertake, Mr. Williamson said it's a welcome contribution. "We certainly have a huge infrastructure deficit, and don't have the resources and tax base to repair everything," he said. "This certainly helps."

While stressing that it will be "a council decision" as to how the funds are applied, Mr. Williamson said that one pressing requirement in the Northeast Town is for "energy-efficiency upgrades at the rec centre," including a "need for compressors and chillers."

Replacement of the rec centre roof has already been funded through a different infrastructure envelope, while the creation of new collector lanes on Highway 6 near the swing bridge is being underwritten by the Ministry of Transportation, noted Mr. Williamson.

Tenders for the former project were issued last Friday, while the collector lanes are also scheduled for a fall construction period, with both projects expected to wrap up before the snow falls.

Meanwhile, though, there are many other jobs that the municipality would like to undertake. And while roads and bridges are always obvious candidates for any new infrastructure dollars, Mr. Williamson suggested that another possibility is that the funds could be put towards tourism and recreational purposes.

"There's a potential to use the money to improve the trails from Low Island to downtown, by paving them, and also to create tennis courts at Low Island," he said.

The latter is something that the Community Services Advisory Committee (CSAC) has recommended as part of its ongoing vision for a true multi-use park at the waterfront locale. Tennis courts do exist at the rec centre, but are relatively hidden and see infrequent use, according to CSAC member Mark Volpini.

Central Manitoulin will also have some choices to make about how to spend its $184,968 share of the infrastructure funds. Reeve Richard Stephens noted that "the last lump sum we got related strictly to roads and bridges," and while the newer infusion leaves more flexibility for spending, chances are that transportation needs will again be the focus.

"We have the largest number of gravel roads of any municipality," said Mr. Stephens. "So we're always looking to do more hard-topping, and I suspect that's where it will go."

Council for Central Manitoulin discussed the infrastructure funds at its meeting last week, but any decision on how the money will be allocated will await deliberations of the Finance Committee, said the reeve.

"Worry not, we will find a place to spend it, very productively," assured Mr. Stephens.

The breakdown for other municipalities on Manitoulin is as follows: Gore Bay will benefit from $87,917, Assiginack will receive $86,966, Billings will get $51,285, Gordon stands to collect $39,201, Burpee-Mills can look forward to a leg up of $31,304, and Barrie Island will pocket $4,472.

Tour de Dog visits Island to highlight animal-welfare issues

by Jim Moodie

BIRCH ISLAND-Long-distance cyclists, easily distinguished by their bulging saddlebags and tanned, toned limbs, are not an uncommon sight on Highway 6. But it's not every day you see one towing a 50-pound mutt in a special little tent-trailer.

Meet David Sylvester and pooch pal Chiva, members of the playfully named, but seriously executed, Tour De Dog expedition. The two left from Seattle on March 13, and have been on the road ever since, the former pumping the pedals of his Surly "Long Haul Trucker" touring bike, the latter putting her paws up in a two-wheeled, nylon-walled cart called a Doggy Ride, occasionally sticking her head out to get some fresh air and scan the roadsides for rabbits.

Not that Chiva is inclined to leap out of her mobile den while Tour De Dog is in motion. "She's really good," says Mr. Sylvester. "She knows once she's in there that it's her home, and looks as it as her job to ride along with me and kind of chill. Sometimes I'll toss back a treat for her. Pig's ears-she loves those."

Occasionally Mr. Sylvester will spring his fuzzy cargo for a bit of a romp along the shoulder, but only when the two are on a quiet back road, he stresses. Otherwise, Chiva gets plenty of chances to stretch her legs during frequent rest stops, occasional hiking side trips, and each evening when the pair pauses to camp.

There have been other stops, too, of a more networking and awareness-raising nature: Tour de Dog has been undertaken to draw attention to animal welfare issues and the challenges faced by shelters, so Mr. Sylvester is trying to visit as many pet havens and hospitals as he can while crossing the continent.

Prior to arriving on Manitoulin, the cyclist had spent three days in the Soo, Michigan, for instance, liaising with animal-welfare workers in that city and doing presentations. He's seen everything from barn-like barracks that lack even running water to a widely applauded shelter in Milwaukee where "they host birthday parties and scout groups and have state-of-the art exhibits," he says, as well as have "hundreds of volunteers who come in to groom the animals."

Whether the facility is makeshift or cutting edge, though, Mr. Sylvester's experience has been that the people who work at animal shelters "are some of the most compassionate people I've ever met." And, he adds, "they aren't doing it for the glamour or money, that's for sure."

The cyclist says "it's heart-wrenching to see what they have to do," particularly since the euthanization of animals is often required, and yet these shelter workers, many of them volunteers, receive scant funding and even less recognition.

The 26-year-old pilgrim is a vaccine scientist by schooling, although his most recent job, through the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation, was focussed on improving the global health of humans, as opposed to animals. "The project I worked on was trying to make vaccines more accessible worldwide," he explains.

Still, he sees his current campaign to improve the lot of dogs and cats as a connected goal. "I kind of view this as a human health project, too, because animals make humans happy and you live longer if have a relationship with a pet," he says. "It's all related to creating a better health environment."

The cyclist has been an animal lover since childhood, but dates his current obsession with pet welfare issues to the day he acquired Chiva from an animal shelter in Delaware. "I got her as a pup and she turns three in September," he says, adding, "we'll be in Toronto for her birthday."

So does that mean Chiva will get a trip up the CN Tower or a four-hour romp at one of the city's many dog parks? Probably not. "I have presentations and shelter visits set up for that day," says her master.

Chiva probably won't mind. A lean, mild-tempered beast with black-and-tan fur, a two-toned tongue, and a jaw that juts out in a cute kind of, well, dogged expression, Chiva is likely a mixture of at least four species, says Mr. Sylvester. "She's got the underbite of a boxer, a tongue like a chow, the ears of a husky, and she's protective like a shepherd."

Most important for the pair's present undertaking, she's relatively small, endlessly agreeable, and doesn't seem to have any issues with motion sickness. "She's the ideal companion for a trip like this," says her pa.

Before setting out on the cross-continental cycling odyssey, Mr. Sylvester had biked with Chiva in Seattle, as well as taken her on a six-week trip by car to hike and camp in the Pacific Northwest. But the two had never attempted anything of this scope. Indeed, "it's our first overnight bike trip," laughs Mr. Sylvester.

The two have now crossed 12 states and a sizeable chunk of one province, travelling an average of 100 kilometres per day, and have spent most of their nights-165 and counting-in a tent, although for their visit to Little Current they plan to live it up in a room at the Anchor Inn.

After hitting Toronto in time for Chiva's birthday, the duo aims to reach Delaware, Mr. Sylvester's hometown, by mid-September, at which point they will "mark six months of the trip and take a little break," the cyclist says.

But the journey won't be over then, Mr. Sylvester hinted. "We're going to a fundraiser in New York City a week after that, and I might continue on to the shelters of the US southeast."

He's also had overtures from the producers of Ellen to appear on that daytime talk show, so he and Chiva could also make their network TV debut before long.

Meanwhile, though, Mr. Sylvester says he's simply happy to be on a lengthy adventure with his best friend, and hopeful that their somewhat novel undertaking might catch people's attention and generate support for animal agencies and shelters the continent over.

The cyclist had been on the verge of enrolling in a PhD program in pharmaceutical science before he got the travelling bug, and could still revisit that plan, but chances are he'll continue the adventure he's on in some form or another, even after he parks his bike and doggy trailer.

"I've learned so much about the problems facing shelters, and feel very passionate and connected now on this," he says. "I'd like to start my own non-profit for animal studies, and maybe even do some kind of 'shelter makeover' show for Animal Planet or a documentary to highlight these issues. I'm also thinking about going into veterinary school."

How does Chiva feel about all this? Who's to say? As her master speaks, the road-seasoned pooch is sprawled in the grass, soaking up a few rays, submitting happily to a belly rub or three, but not saying a whole lot one way or the other.

We'll say this though: she wants one of those pig's ears for her birthday.

Anyone who wishes to learn more about Tour De Dog or is willing to make a donation that will go directly towards animal shelters is encouraged to visit www.tourdedog.org.

EDITORIAL

Listeriosis scare bolsters argument for local meat production

While it is difficult not to sympathize with the management and staff of food giant Maple Leaf Foods-not to mention the families of nine people who have died from the listeria virus that infected various Maple Leaf products in the company's huge Toronto processing plant-there is clearly a significant upside for those considering a Manitoulin kill-and-chill abattoir.

As fewer and fewer mega-plants process and package more and more of the nation's meats (especially sandwich meats) for distribution by way of national chain stores and distribution networks, there is a far greater opportunity of a listeria-like infection to spread rapidly across the country.

Doubtless the notion of a national food-borne illness isn't part of the business plan of those proposing an abattoir facility on Manitoulin Island. Nor, hopefully, would it ever be, as Canadians should be able to trust the inspection processes that are in place to ensure our public safety as we make our food shopping choices in our favourite stores.

But the system did fail on this recent occasion, doubtless in spite of Maple Leaf Foods' very best efforts to market safe and sanitary products.

It's somewhat of an "apples and oranges" comparison to consider the proposed Manitoulin Island-North Shore abattoir and Maple Leaf Foods' factory-style processing plant in Toronto. In all likelihood, the actual killing and initial butchering of the animals whose products will end up as controversial Maple Leaf Foods products is done far away from the plant, where the value is added to the raw product and where the packaging is applied.

But the link is there.

A small, local/regional abattoir, where Manitoulin and North Shore cattle, calves, sheep, lambs and hogs are humanely killed, hung and butchered in a closely-inspected process, could easily lead to a secondary local industry of adding value to the raw meat products and, again in carefully inspected situations, marketing these new products to the public.

Max Burt and his family, proprietors of the Burt Farm at Ice Lake, are far ahead of the curve on this. It's exactly what they've been doing for years: raising their own livestock, killing it in their own licensed and inspected abattoir, and then manufacturing a variety of their own value-added products, which they sell exclusively from their own farm when they are open as a retail operation on specific days of the week.

The Burt Farm is unique in this region, but the operation provides a perfect model of what others can consider doing when Manitoulin and area has access to a local abattoir.

There are already some local examples in place: Al Frank, an industrious farmer from the Manitowaning area, has been making and selling sausages since he and his family purchased a farm in the Hilly Grove area and immigrated from their native Germany over 25 years ago. (Sadly, Anita Frank passed away only last month.)

Bob Watson of Watson's Store in Sandfield makes and sells a variety of Italian-style sausages and does so from the meat department of his own country store.

So do Island butchers Jim McCormick of Papa's Meats and Deli at Prov, Vic Noble of Vic's Meats in Evansville and Ken Hayden of Hayden's Meats and Confectionary in Little Current.

Right now, all of these local operators produce sausages of one kind or another. But it is the start of a secondary industry where, given the access to fresh meat from a local abattoir, virtually any of the packaged products we see in our grocery stores carrying national brands could be produced by Manitoulin entrepreneurs and marketed locally-and beyond.

Over the foreseeable future, Canadians will be careful in their choices of meat, in particular processed meats.

To make a virtue of necessity, the proposed new abattoir's business plan should now include the possibility of supplying a potentially new group of value-added producers with a local product in order to give us "Made on Manitoulin" pastrami, cooked roast beef luncheon meats, salamis of all kinds-the sky could be the limit.

People will be in the mood during the next while to know where their food is coming from.

With a value-added food processing industry (as small as one producer and one product) buyers stand a good chance of knowing not only where the meat they're buying came from, but have at least a nodding acquaintance with the family that actually made the product they'll be putting on the barbecue or placing between a couple of slices of bread for the kids' school lunches.

Letters to the Editor

Appreciation for Help Centre helpers expressed

Donors and volunteers are making new facility possible

To the Expositor:

The Manitoulin Community Help Centre would like to thank Dan Xilon and the Sudbury Food Bank for their very generous donation of non-perishable foodstuffs. Our thanks also to Manitoulin Transport and employees Ben Lentir and Mike Aelick who made the delivery and unloaded many cases of food.

A big thank you as well to James Moggy, Rick and Wendy Niven and Bruce Roberts for their ongoing support of the building fund drive. Also, those generous folks who are putting their spare change in our donation boxes are to be saluted. Many thanks from the volunteers at the Help Centre.

Betty Bardswich

Fundraising Chair

M'Chigeeng

Harper should be sent packing over meat-packaging deregulation

Political penalties should be proportional to misconduct

To the Expositor:

What should the election be about?

Some say the Liberals should still be accountable for a sponsorship scandal that happened over a decade ago when attempting to fight separatism in Quebec. We rightly sent them to the political penalty box for the foul and some want to keep them there forever.

In contrast to today, people are dying now of listeriosis because Mr. Harper deregulated Canada's principal meat-packaging plant as a "test" project for further deregulation. I'd say Mr. Harper's team deserves a game misconduct penalty and he deserves a lifetime suspension from ever playing again.

Political penalties should be proportional to the misconduct. The ultimate political referee, you and me voters, should send Mr. Harper out of the political arena for good.

Eugene Parks

Victoria, BC