The Station Agent Jason Page 11 Plumb Page 13 Beyond Pong Page 12 Volume 58, Issue 10 november 6, 2003 THE UniterUniter T HE O FFICIAL W EEKLY S TUDENT N EWSPAPER OF THE U NIVERSITY OF W INNIPEG Manitoba’s Dying Shoreline - Page 2 page 2 november 6, 2003 the uniter the uniter news Volume 58,Issue 10 November 6, 2003 S T A F F Jonathan Tan Editor In Chief The NDP’s Dying Commitment [email protected] Michelle Kuly Managing Editor to the East Shore Wilderness [email protected] A. P. (Ben) Benton BY VIVIAN BELIK News Editor [email protected] Do you remember how exciting it was when you were younger to discover a new park Cheryl Gudz in your neighbourhood that you had never seen Features Editor before? Perhaps you can relive that feeling of [email protected] excitement in knowing that there is a great big park, completely unspoiled and teeming with Jeff Robson life right in your own provincial back yard. A&E Editor The park that I am referring to is the East Shore [email protected] Wilderness, a portion of land larger than the country of Greece, (an area of more than Leighton Klassen 150,000 square kilometres), nestled between Sports Editor Lake Winnipeg and the Ontario border. It rep- [email protected] resents one of the largest untouched areas of Stu Reid boreal forest in the world. This diverse ecosys- tem of plants, animals, and First Nation Production Manager [email protected] Peoples that presently inhabit the East Shore area are in danger of being disturbed by clear- Julie Horbal cutting, mining and hydro-electric activity. (Ben)Photo by: A. P. Benton Listings Editor Tembec, a multi-national logging corpo- Recycled concrete used by individual townships to [email protected] ration that currently has rights to 62% of the fortify the eroding banks of Lake Winnipeg's West Shore. land in Manitoba’s Nopiming provincial park, is seeking to expand its destructive swath of these people already don’t have an easy way of The Bloodvein, Leyond, and Pigeon Rivers Chandra Mayor activity into the East Side area in order to feed life. Their cost of living is high and the strug- that flow through this region support popula- Copy Editor its recently expanded pulp mill. In response to gle between traditional versus modern ways of tions of black spruce, jack pine, lynx, bears, Tembec’s request, the Doer government creat- living has created a social strain amongst the and other plants and animals that are at risk of Ted Turner ed the East Side Planning Initiative in people. Racial discrimination, under-represen- being disrupted. The woodland caribou, con- Advertising Manager November of 2001 with the hopes of striking a tation, and feelings of inadequacy are common sidered to be at high risk, is one such species [email protected] balance between profit and conservation. The issues that these people must face. By building that would be greatly affected by any changes focus of the Initiative is supposed to be solely roads and introducing intrusive methods of to its habitat. Within the Nopiming Provincial Scott deGroot on research and planning; however, the gov- industrialization to their land, the First Nations Park in Manitoba, numbers of caribou have Beat Reporter ernment has stated that it will begin building will be forced to re-direct their lives in such a decreased from 150-200 in the 1960s to 65-75 hundreds of roads into the area before the way that accommodates the government and in 2000. Already, the caribou have been com- planning stage is even complete. pletely wiped out of the Kent Davies On October 7th, the Manitoba Whiteshell and Duck Mountain Diversions Coordinator Wilderness Committee, a volunteer organiza- regions. According to Ron tion that is dedicated to preserving wildlife Thiessen, Wilderness regions in Manitoba, held a press conference to Committee Campaign Director, M.D.Cohen educate the public on the consequences of the woodland caribou is an Diversions Coordinator clear-cutting in the East Shore area. The com- “indicator species” of how mittee has stated that it outwardly opposes the healthy a forest is. The 50% “bulldoze first and ask questions later” decrease of woodland caribou in THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS approach that the Doer government is using such a short period of time is Ben Goldstein, Niigon Wedom, Mike Pyl, while handling this issue. They feel that the thus indicative of the unhealthy Laura White, Brett Hopper, Jenny Western, land should remain ultimately untouched but condition of the unprotected Jonathan Ball, Heather Thompson, realize that measures should be put in place in land in Manitoba. Thiessen stat- Cary Schwartzman, James Paskaruk, order to curb the effects of industrial activity ed that “the reason for the sag- Jeanne Fronda, Jeremy Strub, Vivian Belik, should it occur. For this reason, the com- ging state of Manitoba’s boreal Jon Symons, Paula Medeiros, Cathy Hamilton, mittee has proposed that the government forests is clear-cut logging, min- Farnoosh Ali, Mathew Gagne, Lorne Roberts, create a large network of fully protected ing, hydrodams and hydroline parks, cultural heritage sites and wildlife corridors all connected by roads John Thompson, Jenny Henkeleman, reserves with an emphasis on maintain- that were planned and devel- Sara Loftson, Susan Gardiner ing the ecological integrity of the area. oped without much considera- They are also pushing for a set of con- tion for the natural environ- The Uniter is the official student newspaper of the University of Winnipeg and is published by the University of Winnipeg Students' servation guidelines to be used by devel- ment.” Association. The Uniter is editorially autonomous and the opinions opers in the unprotected areas. What the Wilderness expressed within do not necessarily reflect those of the UWSA. When logging represents only 2% Committee is therefore propos- The Uniter is a member of the Canadian University Press and of Canada’s GDP is it worthwhile to ruin ing is certain changes to the East Campus Plus Media Services. Submission of articles, letters, pho- a five billion year old process of evolu- Side Planning Initiative that tos and graphics are welcome. Articles should be submitted in text tion in order to feed a relatively small its economic agenda would place ecology ahead of economic gain. or Microsoft Word format to [email protected]. Deadline for sector of the economy? Currently, only rather than their own tra- Specifically they would like to see: no road submissions is noon Friday (contact the section's editor for more 20% of the world’s forests have been ditional way of life. Instead of displacing these building or resource giving prior to the com- information). Deadline for advertisements is noon Friday, six days untouched by industrial activity; Canada’s people, as previous industrial activity has pletion of the planning process, consent by prior to publication. The Uniter reserves the right to refuse to print boreal forest represents one quarter of this done, Harris proposes that these people “stay First Nation’s Peoples; and that a majority of submitted material. The Uniter will not print submissions that are land. Boreal forests contain the largest supply where they are and watch over the land” to the East Side be protected from industrial homophobic, misogynistic, racist or libelous. We also reserve the of freshwater in the world and are important in ensure that it remains in the pristine condition exploitation. right to edit for length or style. regulating the global climate. Speakers at the that it is in now. In Thiessen’s opinion there are several press conference emphasized that all forms of According to Harris “there is not a lot of economically viable alternatives to clear-cut- Cover Photo: Ben Benton life in the area would be affected by industrial trust between government and people living in ting such as “eco-tourism, wild-rice harvest- Contact Us activity but what would be especially vulnera- northern regions.” What it boils down to is a ing, traditional education programs, and phar- ble are the First Nations People and the endan- lack of understanding and an opposition of val- maceutical development and research.” From General Inquiries: 204.786.9790 gered species of woodland caribou that inhabit ues. The First Nations believe in preservation this, one can see that we do not have to jeop- Advertising: 204.786.9779 the East Side area. and self-sufficiency while North American cul- ardize the wildlife of the region in order to Editors: 204.786.9497 There are currently nineteen different ture favours maximization and expansion. secure a means of living for Canadians. When Fax: 204.783.7080 First Nations settlements in the East Shore When speaking to the elders of the would-be one debates the gains and losses of industrial Email: [email protected] area. These people are self-reliant and subsist affected communities, Harris found that the development there is a fundamental question via nature-based activities that fall within the elders are very afraid of what is to come. that is often overlooked, and that is, as stated The Uniter informal sector of the economy. According to Although the Native Peoples have a different by Dr. Harris, the question of “how [does one] Room ORM14 Dr. Harris, one of the panellists at the media way of doing things Harris claims that they do put numbers on what is valued in the forest?” University of Winnipeg event and a professor of International wish to live in solidarity with the rest of Obviously the forest means a lot of things to 515 Portage Avenue Development Studies at the University of Canada.