Victoria Day May 19 2025 CILU Radio 102.7 FM Thunder Bay
Something Different This way Comes is broadcast in and from the traditional home of the Anishnaagbeg of Animikii - waajiw, signatories to the Robinson Superior treaty of 1850, gathering place of plenty for many peoples, on the shores of Gichi Gami protected by the mighty peninsula Nanabijou
Podcast episodes featured:
-Greening Provincial Policy with Green Party leader Mike Schreiner
-Sparking Community Gardens with John St. Gardener Scott Pound (to be released May 20 2025)
Theme: Rooting in and Connecting, to mark Victoria Day - celebrated since 1845 here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Day
Stuff the British Stole, that's where I learned that that is how the pekinese dogs got their start in the Western world - a great series.
To help restore health of and relationship to the land:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufYaPbfGmBw Treaty 3 Community Based Monitoring
Treaty 3 released in Mar 2025 report Environmental Monitoring - invite us all to help join the fight against invasive phragmites australis. MicaelaNovak@Treaty3.ca to help out this year
Similarly: Invasive Garlic Mustard: https://www.ontario.ca/page/garlic-mustard
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Willow Springs -Therapeutic Gardening celebrate at Simpson St. Community Garden. Tomorrow - Tuesday May 20, from 1-4 pm officially open their new Labyrinth Medicine Garden. Welcome volunteers - https://willowspringscreativecentre.ca/
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https://lakeheadca.com/stewardship/volunteer-opportunities
Lakehead Conservation Authority seeking volunteers now to help restore habitats, make learning and community-building events happen this summer, fundraise to pay for it all...
Thunder Bay Public Library - https://www.tbpl.ca/adults/wet-your-plants-tomatoes-copy/
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song: Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants (Stevie Wonder)
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NEWS: Ontario Foodbelt proposed in Parliament last Tuesday - Private Member's Bill written by Green MPP Mike Schriener and independent Bobby-Ann Brady. To protect our agrigultural land and sector against Tarrif-War related risks:
Clip: M Scheiner Food Self Sufficiency
Grow more food here in Ontario. Not for Export, for us. Greenhouses. Cold storage chain
Create a task force: Proposed Farm Belt Act is supported by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture & National Farmers Union.
First: Stop Bill 5 - Anishnabek Nations called https://www.netnewsledger.com/2025/05/13/anishinabek-nation-calls-on-ontario-to-halt-bill-5-respect-treaty-rights/ last week. Direct violation of both the Constitution, and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People
Hon. Kevin Holland Thunder Bay—Atikokan
Ministry of Natural Resources
Whitney Block
99 Wellesley St. W
Toronto, ON M7A 1W3
Tel: 416-314-2301
Hon. Trevor Jones Chatham-Kent—Leamington
Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness
11th Floor
77 Grenville St.
Toronto, ON M7A 1B3
Tel: 416-326-3074
Hon. Greg Rickford Kenora—Rainy River
Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation
Suite 400
160 Bloor St.
Toronto, ON M7A 2E6
Tel: 416-326-4740
Hon. Lisa M. Thompson Huron—Bruce
Ministry of Rural Affairs
28th Floor
777 Bay St.
Toronto, ON M7A 2J4-
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Clip: Scott Pound John St. Extension Community Garden, Urban Abbey veggies + Native Plant borders
start - introduce himself as a Gardening.
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My story of Grade Five - words like wind waving through trees,
https://www.gofundme.com/f/nymcd-cleos-surgery
Rob Van Wyck - help spread the word: Cleo Young. Moved to TBay 2020 Rare Aggressive Breast Cancer. Fifth surgery - only half of cost covered by OHIP + travel (need to front, apply to be reimbursed). Need $5K more
https://cancer.ca/en/about-us/stories/2024/5-facts-about-the-economic-impact-of-cancer-in--canada
Money & Change:
Laura Fralich shared decision to include charitable giving in her will - heart health scare drew her attention to the good work the TBRHSC does re: heart care, that's where she's giving a bit of what she'll leave when she dies.
https://www.healthsciencesfoundation.ca/oct-9-2021-2
Impact of talking about Climate Change, about needed change, about what you want to see change. Not to hector and harrass, but to confide and plant possibilities. If you haven't seen Katherine Hayho's TedTalk about this, it is well worth your time: https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it
Subscribe to her newsletter: https://www.katharinehayhoe.com/ - substack or via her website
song: Something to Talk About - Bonnie Raitt written by New Brunswick Singer Songwriter Shirley Eikhard
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Drawdown Project: - The Solutions:
Drawdown carbon = restore natural systems. Carbon-based life.
Improve Society
Lessen Carbon Emmissions
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Wildfires - NWO. First Nation fire-managed Boreal Forest skills: https://ostrnrcan-dostrncan.canada.ca/entities/publication/3e843b6a-fdc0-433e-acfc-16645291b9cf
building phone-trees / neighbourhood relationship networks for crisis mitigation:
https://www.sfu.ca/renewable-cities/news-resources/2024-news-resources/heat-domes-and-housing.html
Bog & water-walls around communities:
https://www.intact.ca/en/protection-infographics/community-wildfire-protection
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What on Earth this week on CBC: managing property to protect against wild fire risks
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Pelican Lake Residential School Hockey Team - conversation these pictures from 1951 sparked in light of Truth & Reconciliation. "Beyond the Rink: Behind the Images of Residential School Hockey" by Janice Forsyth. Thoughtful - broader than bleak. So respectful and thought provoking
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6760696
CBC - story profiling some of the graduates from Dennis Franklin Cromarty HS in TBay
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6763259 - too many to fit into space used in previous years, growing number of graduates from all over the region. Some the first in their family to graduate. So much pride - well earned
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song: We Shall Overcome - Pete Seeger 1967 Berlin
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Basic Income - new Federal Gov't
One of their policy resolutions for a federal pilot in at least one town or city: https://liberal.ca/policy-resolutions/97-basic-income-supplement-testing-dignified-approach-income-security-workingage-canadians/
Something Carney spoke of often last fall before committing to run to be Prime Minister
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIDWmuWv8SY
Canadian CEOS for Basic Income https://ceosforbasicincome.ca/ Lobbying to hold Carney to this notion
UBI works too: https://ubiworks.medium.com/how-mark-carney-laid-out-the-case-for-basic-income-e9bf2138cc87
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New program in Thunder Bay to help kids gain healthy living habits, skill and supports:
Two year program through Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewan employment and training services w yoga, neuro-decolonization...
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CycleToronto managed to secure an injunction preventing Doug Ford from tearing out some of that City's main corridor bike lanes while a judge considers the case.
Ontario law requiring Cities to get Provincial approval before okaying bike lanes that cut into car traffic - another obstacle to making TBay an affordable, accessible city to modern standards, achieve our Active Transit plan. Ontario's internal documents show that bike lanes are in the public interest.
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Reclamation mining:
Avalon Advanced Materials - a Toronto based company might build a lithium processing plant on Strathcona Ave in Thunder Bay - including rare metal extraction from the remains of former mines across the region.
I've also recently been reading on CBC about Clean Tech, a company based in Alberta, is building up this kind of rare metal mining from the Tailing ponds in the Oil Sands.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/rare-earth-elements-alberta-oilsands-1.7269223
More references to Restorative Mining in Canada:
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So since Mining is a part of the North, about to be a bigger boom again in it I know. Let's do it right. Clean. Respectful. Best yet, Eagle Lake first Nation is currently bringing to the Federal court - that consultations and negotiations for the site for the Nuclear Waste dump near them did not include them as they should have
https://globalnews.ca/news/10932606/ontario-first-nation-challenge-nuclear-ignace/
Joining the baker's dozen of First Nations of this province opposing the Nuclear Waste disposal site proposed to be built near Igace https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/avalon-dives-into-the-details-of-proposed-thunder-bay-lithium-refinery-8630545 - with a big demonstration outside the Canadian Nuclear Association's annual conference in Ottawa in March, among other actions.
Meanwhile, closer to Ottawa, another First Nation has won two important victories in their battle to be properly consulted and included in plans to build a nuclear waste dump in their area: Kebaowek in March won in Federal Court based on the protection of the endangered Blandings Turtle, and two rare bat species.
But more significantly, a few weeks earlier they won a separate Federal court case because the decision to put the Nuclear Waste dump did not properly consult them as a the First Nation of that land
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/kebaowek-judicial-review-win-1.7464036
Cost of refurbishing current Nuclear Power Facilities:
https://thedeepdive.ca/ontario-to-refurbish-four-reactors-at-pickering-plant/
And again - the Provincial proposed Bill 5 would take away our right to appeal, to challenge in court, to protect endangered species and uphold our treaties.
There are petitions -
Add your voice here (Nature's Defence article and petition) and tell the government to STOP BILL 5.
&/or here: https://secure.gpo.ca/stop-bill-5 (Green Party's petition)
I don't yet know of a protest here in Northwestern Ontario - if you know of one, let me help you spread the words: email me!
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song: In Between Spaces by Shy-Anne Hvorka
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A new podcast tomorrow - the John St. Extension garden feeds the Abbey's kitchen with Scott Pound
Here's a taste:
clip: kitchen vision
Heather McLeod
Host & Producer
Former CBC journalist and host, recording artist and songwriter, published author and CFP (certified financial planner). I live on the edge of Thunder Bay on the homestead that my husband grew up on. We keep honey bees, laying hens, a market garden and (soon) goats. I moved here from Montreal in 2002 and never plan on leaving. I am tenth generation settler heritage.
June 2 5, 6, 17: Push Back - and Bike!
