Kahnawake’s Mohawk Council has elected its first woman grand chief, Kahsennenhawe Sky‑Deer.
Updates from July, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A popular cricket pitch in Côte-des-Neiges was cut up by vandals recently. It’s not mentioned in the item, but I wonder if there mightn’t have been some racism in the gesture, since most practitioners of the sport locally are from South Asia or the Caribbean.
JP
I appreciate you pointing that out, Kate. It’s a very real possibility. Either way, there are people (or a person) out there who begrudges other people having fun. I actually think someone drunk as it suggests in the article is less likely.
MarcG
I’ll suggest, before Chris does, and not in any way agreeing with his general worldview, that this may have been bored people destroying whatever they can destroy. The things I’ve seen down by the river in Verdun since the beginning of the pandemic, e.g. knocking over rock statues, cutting down trees, burning said trees, garbage fires, etc, etc, presumably done by bored people of all ages, are not racially motivated but plentiful. There’s a cricket field nearby as well, I hope they haven’t had to deal with similar idiocy.
Chris
MarcG, I’m not sure what you think my general worldview is, but one of my general worldviews is that claims need evidence. There appears to be no evidence of any motive here at all. Jumping to *any* conclusion is thus unfounded. These days many seem eager to jump to “racism” as a motivation for everything. This could just as easily be motivated by anything else. Hopefully there were witnesses or cameras and we’ll find out.
Mark Côté
There is one major divide in this kind of conversation, which is repeated near daily on this blog and in many other places. On the one hand, it’s hard to argue against wanting evidence before coming to any conclusions behind some given scenario. On the other, it is unreasonable and wilfully ignorant to ignore the broader evidence of systemic social problems (e.g. racism). It’s sort of like statistics: they can’t dictate anything (aside from probabilities) about a specific future event even when there is a demonstrable trend. It is frustrating to “the woke” that the systemic angle has to be put aside before examining every questionable event. At the same time, the evidence of systemic problems on its own isn’t going to provide a completely satisfactory nor useful conclusion for any given event, which is something “the non-woke” hold onto.
Something needs to be done to synthesize this dialectic… something about using an understanding of systemic racism (or any other systemic problem, of which I personally believe there are many) as a lens to view specific events, or to guide investigation, without coming to premature conclusions. This is a pretty tall order for humans.
I mean, that is, of course, if “the woke” and “the non-woke” actually want any sort of rapprochement, which is another (interesting) issue.
Chris
Mark, well said.
MarcG
Indeed.
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Kate
The Journal’s Sunday history piece describes the history of Ben and Joe Weider and their bodybuilding empire.
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Kate
A young man was found shot dead in a parked car in Sud-Ouest borough Saturday evening.
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Kate
Police involved in some kind of chase (“processus d’interception”) Saturday evening collided with a random car downtown and everybody got injured.
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Kate
Gypsy mothLDD caterpillars are eating the foliage of Mount Royal’s trees.EmilyG
Yikes. I’d heard of them in other places and how they’re becoming more common, but I hadn’t known how bad they were here in Montreal.
JP
I was at a park in Outremont about a week ago, and saw some there. I also developed a really bad rash that evening, and believe it may be linked to those caterpillars. A couple were crawling on the bench I was sitting on.
Kevin
The good news is they are easy to prevent and control. All you need is some burlap around a trunk and the time to inspect a tree twice a day.
Chris
Don’t you mean “LDD caterpillar”? Gypsy moth is derived from a culturally offensive slur.
Kate
JP, according to Wikipedia, “The gypsy moth caterpillar has been reported to produce a poison ivy–like rash when some people come into contact with the hairs of the larvae (caterpillar) stage. The contact can be direct or even if the small hairs are carried by the wind and onto the skin or clothing of a person.”
My apologies, Chris. They use the offensive term.
Chris
lol, I guess I should have added a sarcasm tag. 🙂 PC/woke terms infuriate me.
EmilyG
I already knew you were being sarcastic, Chris.
JP
I already knew you were being sarcastic too, and that’s not a compliment.
CE
I was in Oka park last week and they were everywhere. A lot of trees, especially along the beach, were nearly striped of their leaves. The good news is that I saw lots of trees covered on dead specimens. I assume other bugs like spiders are getting to them. I step on every single one I see. I remember a bad plague of a similar caterpillar eating all the leaves when I was a child in the early 90s.
Tee Owe
First single-handed sailboat circumnavigation of the globe – Francis Chichester in LDD
My favorite Hendrix album – Band of LDDs (OK, I admit, that’s a stretch)
Probably there are other examples these came first to mindTee Owe
To be correct, Francis Chichester in LDD IV
Kate
And Spock did too much LDD in the Sixties.
Chris 13:34 on 2021-07-05 Permalink
CTV article also says “Sky-Deer is an active member of the LGBTQ2S community”, but doesn’t actually say if she is also the first (or not) LGBTQ2S elected. Interestingly, the TVA article doesn’t discuss this at all, but actually says a little something about her policies, politics, and opinions, which is absent from the CTV article.
Kate 20:53 on 2021-07-05 Permalink
Chris, it may not be an answerable question. The chieftaincy has existed for a lot longer than the era where a leader would openly admit to being LGBTQ2S.
Chris 23:53 on 2021-07-05 Permalink
Kate, the chieftaincy indeed has a long history, but was being LGBT even taboo during most of that history? I don’t think you can assume that. It certainly wasn’t with some Polynesian cultures. A quick search finds me no answers wrt Mohawks specifically. Of course, since the Christian missionaries got to them, I imagine things changed.