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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781490784878 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Trafford Publishing |
| Publication date: | 09/28/2017 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 68 |
| File size: | 33 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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CHAPTER 1
Original Roots: Adawe, Kanata
"Netogye:' niyohdoho:k Ogwa'nigqha'"
Iroquois or Haudenosaunee prayer of thanksgiving: "We gather our Spirits and Minds together as one and send greetings and thanks for all our Creator's love, benevolence and creation."
Canada's name comes from the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee word "kanata", which means village or settlement. Ottawa is derived from the Algonquin word "adawe", meaning to trade. It refers to the confluence of the Ottawa, Gatineau and Rideau rivers at what is now Canada's capital where Indigenous Peoples would hunt, fish, trade, camp, harvest and perform ceremonies. Olivier and Joaquin learned about Indigenous art and urban life, and took on nicknames based on mythology.
Joaquin, for example, liked the Algonquin myth that tells of the man-eating giant called Windigo. Joaquin, at 12-1/2, was eating his way through his growth spurt in July 2017 and we all agreed that the ravenous Windigo seemed a fitting moniker.
Athabaskan legend, meanwhile, describes a crafty, intelligent and powerful spirit animal called the Wechuge. This seemed an appropriate description of Olivier, whom Joaquin and I have long called "the great negotiator".
Having grown up in Winnipeg, where one in five residents are Indigenous, it was important to me to ensure Joaquin and Olivier learn about First Nations culture in the different parts of Canada they visited. Canada is a great country with a strong social contract and if Canadians can find a way to make things right in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, we will all be that much better as a people.
CHAPTER 2
Canada 150 Day, 1 July 2017
As I've told Olivier and Joaquin, having lived in three countries and reported out of 15 nations when I was a journalist, I know that Canada is an exceptional place. In the 150 years since the British North American colonies agreed to unite under the vision of Sir George-Étienne Cartier and Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada has been true to its values: equality, diversity, freedom of the individual, and living in two official languages. Many of 35 million of us speak hundreds of other languages too. This is a land of Indigenous Peoples, settlers and newcomers – by choice, or by circumstance (like the tens of thousands of refugees we welcomed from Syria, Haiti, and Turkey – not to mention many other places – in the past couple of years).
Continued efforts at reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples reflect the Canadian spirit, which is that better is always possible. We practice many faiths, we experience life through different cultures and we stand united as one country.
Canada has overcome its vast geographical reach and its historical constraints. Our land is nearly 10 million square kilometres, making it the second-largest country in the world. You could fit all of Europe into Canada – three times over. We have more fresh water than any other country with more than 2 million (and possibly up to 3 million) lakes. And our Arctic Archipelago has 36,563 islands – which is why Canada has the longest coastline in the world.
Defining Canada – Snapshots in Time
Canadians have managed to reconcile two major rival European colonizing cultures through their relations with France and Britain and we have been able to follow our own path from each of those countries and our neighbour to the south.
Canada is a paragon of liberal democracy and probably has the strongest social contract of any country in the world. For many people elsewhere in the world, it is also a beacon of hope. This is a country worth exploring and celebrating – and it gave me great joy to show Joaquin and Olivier our home and native land.
On Canada Day, we walked through the throngs of people gathered in the Parliamentary Precinct, enjoyed the buskers' performances on the Sparks Street pedestrian mall in the government quarter and then walked on to Ottawa's ByWard Market tourist district.
The city is always inundated with tourists on Canada Day, the Parliamentary Precinct alone can accommodate crowds of up 70,000 people, but 2017 was exceptional, both in ambiance and attendance, in spite of intermittent rain. It must be Canadians' stoic approach to weather that was rubbing off on our visitors.
In fact, the New York Times picked Canada as its top travel destination for the year (among 52 places to visit). The year before, a record 1 in 5 tourists came to
After exploring downtown Ottawa, we strolled over the Royal Alexandra Interprovincial Bridge – a steel truss cantilever bridge spanning the Ottawa River between Ottawa (Ontario) and Gatineau (Québec) – and on to the Canadian Museum of History to our left and the breathtaking Mosaïc horticultural display to our right – a free display of 40 massive plant and flower arrangements reflecting Canada's 150 years of history.
Of course, Joaquin and Olivier were hungry after this 6 kilometre stroll, so they were treated to a typically Canadian delicacy: their first ever poutine – a rural Québec invention of the 1950s that has spread across the country and indeed around the world since then – during their late afternoon snack break.
I had thought of bringing them to my favourite meditation spot in Ottawa to watch the Canada Day fireworks but they were too jetlagged. The spot, in case you are wondering, is the small crescent-moon shaped park perched above the cliff overlooking the Ottawa River behind the Supreme Court of Canada where the Court's Justices often go to enjoy their lunch during the warmer months. Maybe I'll share this experience with Olivier and Joaquin another year.
When Olivier lived in Ottawa with his mother and me, from October 2002 to October 2004, he loved to go across the Ottawa River to the Children's Museum. Ottawa might only be a city of a million people, but as the capital of one of the seven most advanced, industrialized countries in the world, it has disproportionately high-quality arts and cultural venues – including an array of wellcurated museums.
Back in Ottawa as a teenager, Olivier, and his brother Joaquin gravitated to the Canadian Museum of Nature which has an impressive permanent collection and even hosts the occasional DJ-ed parties!
Joaquin, who is keen on studying natural sciences, was drawn to many of the exhibits, especially the Earth Gallery where visitors can build their own volcano or cool magma to make granite, create an earthquake or watch a mineral grow to name only a few of the many interactive experiences available.
Olivier, who is interested in the social sciences, was drawn to the Arctic Gallery. He was curious to explore something as exotic to a big city/warm climate boy as what life must be like in a sparsely populated and harsh environment like the Arctic. After hearing about his grandfather Andre building landing strips along the Defence Early Warning line in 1952 and 1953, he's always been eager to learn more about this unique part of the world.
The boys also have a print of the picture I took of polar bears (also Nanuk or Pihoqahiak as they are known in Inuit) when I went to Churchill, Manitoba, in 1997 to write about ecotourism, so they were impressed to see the actual size of the largest bear on earth who can weigh from 800 kilograms up to 998 kilograms.
I must admit that having spent their childhood in Buenos Aires, a city of 15.5 million people, I wasn't entirely certain whether Joaquin and Olivier would share my enthusiasm for the great outdoors. So, I took them for a hike around Gatineau Park's most outstanding lake: Lac Pink. The lake is actually green in colour but named after the Pink Family who settled on its shores in 1826. In 2002 and 2003 I used to carry Olivier on my back when his mother and I hiked the trails around this unusual and breathtaking lake – its green tint is caused by microscopic algae and the lake literally does take your breathe away because there is no oxygen at its bottom. Only a prehistoric anaerobic organism (a pink photosynthetic bacterium) is able to thrive because it uses sulphur instead of oxygen to transform sunlight into energy.
Lac Pink is meromictic, meaning that its upper and lower layers of water never mix. Scientists reckon there are about one of these for every 1,000 "normal" or holomictic lakes where the surface and deep water mix at least once a year, distributing oxygen evenly throughout the lake. Lac Pink's waters don't mix because it has a small surface and bowl-like shape and it's surrounded by steep cliffs that protect it from the wind. There is no oxygen in the deepest seven metres of the lake.
Where there is oxygen in the water, you can find three-spined stickleback fish – a saltwater fish left behind from the Champlain Sea (which was created by the retreating glaciers during the close of the last ice age). This small (3 to 8 centimetres long) fish adapted to Lac Pink's gradual desalination and lives in the lake's fresh water now.
The boys also noticed the number of bicycle pathways in Gatineau Park and Canada's capital region – there are more than 600 kilometres available to cyclists, walkers, runners and in-line skaters – and Joaquin was itching for his skateboard. Many of these routes are part of the TransCanada Trail which, by 2017, extended 24,000-kilometres across Canada. So, we asked our friend Will Hrynewich for a longboarding lesson, and Joaquin proved himself to be a natural at it!
While I tried to coax the boys to come to Parliament Hill at 10 p.m. to enjoy the "Northern Lights" sound and light show, we were all pretty tired after each day!
CHAPTER 3
Giving Thanks, 1 to 3 July 2017
I'd ask readers to indulge me (briefly) as I thank my parish priest, child psychologists and my oldest and most loyal friends for everything they've done over the past dozen years to support me until the boys came to Canada.
I found strength in my faith, family and friends and they deserve to be recognized and savour in this wonderful journey. I would especially like to thank child psychologist Diana Thomas of Buenos Aires for her advice since 2005, from flying to Argentina as frequently as possible as opposed to going once a year for a one-month visit and family psychologist Florence Rosenthal of Ottawa who helped me understand the periods when the boys would not talk to me as them testing my commitment to them rather than as a rejection of me. These insights and guidance cemented our father-son relationships. On Sunday, 2 July 2017, we celebrated Mass at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, which is steeped in Ottawa history: built in 1932, complete with cork in the vaulted ceiling which makes for its great acoustics, its clear windows were replaced with magnificent stained glass windows made in the German state of Bavaria in the 1950s. We were honoured that day with being chosen as the family to bring the gifts up to the Altar. Thank you to my fellow parishioners for choosing us.
Olivier and Joaquin also met my dear friends Russell, Claudia, Nicky and Max on Canada Day for champagne and soft drinks to introduce everyone and thank them for their support over the years. I've known Russell since he moved from North Vancouver to study at Montreal's McGill University – a true friend.
They also met my friends Michel. He generously leant us his car for the month so we could explore Eastern Ontario, West Québec and Québec's Eastern Townships at our leisure and welcomed us at his beautiful cottage on Lac Simoneau, near Orford, Québec. Un gros merci Michel!
And last, but not least, the boys also met James (whom like Russell, I've known since the age of 18) and his spouse Linda who shared a poutine with us and had us over for a barbecue dinner. Great friends!
I have known Michel since we were both five years old. As I've often told the boys, our most precious resources in life are (in this order): our faith, our time, our health, our family, and our friends. For me, Michel combines time, friendship and, after more than four and a half decades, he is a brother to me.
Russell and James, after three and a half decades, are giving Michel serious competition (but I think he has a head start on the years we've known each other)!
To all of you, and many others who have supported me through 12 challenging years, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
CHAPTER 4
Ontario, Yours to Discover
What can a non-Torontonian say of Canada's most populous city without attracting critics from "La ville reine," as we call it in French? I'll do my best ...
First of all, the city's name, for example, has a bit of a meandering history that is sprinkled with urban myth. While a number of Canadians might tell visitors that Toronto is derived from the Huron word "toronton" which an English-born Victorianera Anglican minister mistook to mean "abundance" or "plenty", it's more likely to draw its roots from the Mohawk language – and refers to a location 130 kilometres north of the present city.
The Mohawk word "Tkaranto" means "where there are trees standing in the water," which refers to the Narrows at Orillia. This city of 30,000 is perched on the shores (or the "orilla" in Spanish) of Lake Simcoe which empties into Lake Couchiching. Historians say that Indigenous People used to plant saplings in the water in this region to trap fish.
The Mohawk are the most easterly tribe among the Six Nations of the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee Confederacy and our VIA Rail trip to Toronto from Ottawa took us past the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, affording Joaquin and Olivier a fleeting glimpse of modern native land.
We also passed through nearby Prince Edward County, a picturesque part of rural Ontario complete with vineyards, orchards and beautiful beaches along Lake Ontario. Shortly after the 17651783 American Revolution, the Crown granted landed to United Empire Loyalists to compensate them for property lost in the Thirteen Colonies to the south. Tens of thousands of Loyalists (sometimes also called by their adversaries Tories, Royalists or King's Men) resettled in what is now Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as other parts of what was then the British Empire, leaving an indelible mark on our country's history.
This stretch of the St. Lawrence River Valley is rich with history. For example, at the height of the War of 1812, United States forces held off invading this region of British North America even though it had the potential to dramatically change the outcome of the war. Some historians argue that American and Canadian exporters and farmers in Ogdensburg, N.Y., and Prescott, Ont., had long been engaged in a significant amount of cross-border trade. Traders on the U.S. side of the border were influential in Washington, D.C., and argued that armed conflict in the St. Lawrence River Valley – a major artery for waterborne transport of goods comparable to the Mississippi River in strategic importance – would be bad for business. I suppose that this supports the argument that economists often make that the greater the commercial integration between two societies, the less likely the governments of those societies are to launch wars against each other (sometimes called the Bastiat Principle, mistakenly attributing "when goods do not cross frontiers, armies will," to 19th Century French economist Frederic Bastiat.). We won that war, our friends to the south had to paint their president's house white after we sailed there and burned it and we still trade, visit and protect the North American homeland together.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Exploring Our Roots"
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Copyright © 2017 Gilbert LeGras.
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