PATRICIA GRADUATES

PATRICIA LAMOUREUX – HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE

Patricia Lamoureux, 73, of Sydney is receiving her high school diploma today.

(Steve Wadden – Cape Breton Post)

SYDNEY — Patricia Lamoureux is thrilled to be crossing one very big item off her bucket list.

The 73-year-old Sydney resident will receive her high school diploma today after successfully completing classes at the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board’s adult education centre over the past two years. A grandmother of three, she is the oldest of this year’s class of 42 adult high school graduates.

Lamoureux said completing Grade 12 is the realization of a longtime dream.

“I did this for me,” she said. “I always wanted to go back to school. I always wanted to graduate. It should have been at the top of my list but it was always at the bottom of my list because life got in the way. You had to work, you had to have a salary. I couldn’t quit working to go to school.”

Born and raised in Sydney, Lamoureux left school when she was 15 years old.

“I came from a big family, I was the oldest of seven. I just left school to work because money was short and we had a big family,” she said.

Lamoureux lived in Fredericton and Montreal for a few years, but has called Cape Breton home for most of her life. She has worked in a variety of fields — from waitressing, to hairdressing, to working as a medical clerk — and took several courses throughout her work life.

But a high school diploma eluded her until now.

Lamoureux said she simply more pressing priorities like work and taking care of her family made it difficult to find the time to go back to school. But two years ago, at age 71, she decided she finally had the time to dedicate to furthering her education.

“I’m a great talker but I wanted to know what I was talking about,” she said. “I wanted to learn. I had a passion for learning.”

That passion helped her overcome any challenges she faced over the past two years.

In addition to the high school curriculum, Lamoureux learned how to use a computer and gained a lot from classmates and teachers.

“The kids were great and the teachers were wonderful, absolutely wonderful, very, very helpful,” she said.

Lamoureux’s daughter, one of her three grandchildren, and a number of friends will be on hand to cheer her on today at the graduation ceremony set to take place at Sydney Academy.

And she’s not stopping with high school. Lamoureux said she plans to continue her education, noting she’s interested in studying drama and French. (Congratulations. You are an inspiration to many. GTF)

OBITS – JUN 26, 2010

Obituaries for June 26th, 2010

GILLES BIRON

Published June 26th, 2010

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John ‘Doug’ MacArthur

Published June 26th, 2010

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Michael MacLean

Published June 26th, 2010

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Helene MacKenzie

Published June 26th, 2010

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James ‘Jim’ White

Published June 26th, 2010

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Mary ‘Ca’ MacDonald

Published June 26th, 2010

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Samuel ‘Sam’ Billard

Published June 26th, 2010

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OBITS – JUN 25, 2010

Obituaries

Obituaries for June 25th, 2010

Baby Jaxson Berrette

Published June 25th, 2010

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Thomas ‘Tommy’ MacNeil

Published June 25th, 2010

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Katherine ‘Kaye’ MacQueen

Published June 25th, 2010

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Carolyn McIntyre

Published June 25th, 2010

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Daniel Bruno Halliday

Published June 25th, 2010

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Gordon ‘Mort’ Cooper

Published June 25th, 2010

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Mary Di Sano

Published June 25th, 2010

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Donald Maxwell Ryan

Published June 25th, 2010

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CAPER IN CHARGE

Bay native on top of summit security

RCMP Chief Supt. Alphonse MacNeil, a native of Glace Bay, is head of security for the G8/G20 summits. Submitted by the RCMP

Published on June 24th, 2010

Published on June 24th, 2010

Sharon Montgomery-Dupe

GLACE BAY — You never know when a Cape Bretoner will turn up — or make history.

Topics :

The security surrounding the G8/G20 summits — kicking off in Toronto today — is believed to be the largest security detail ever planned in Canada, and a Glace Bay man is at the helm.

RCMP Chief Supt. Alphonse MacNeil is head of security for the summits, which involves 20,000 officers and security officials.

“I have had fantastic jobs in the RCMP that I am proud of, but this one is the largest, most exciting, complicated tasks I’ve ever had,” he said.

“It is the largest deployment of security personnel for a major event in Canadian history.”

He said today is especially exciting.

“We worked on this a year and a half and todaywe finally see the G8 happen, then on Saturday is the G20, an even bigger event,” he said.

“We are confident we will be successful, the meetings will go ahead without any problems.”                                                                                                      

MacNeil, born in Glace Bay in 1956, graduated from St. Mike’s High School and attended St. FX University before joining the RCMP.

He lives in Ottawa but has been stationed in Barrie, Ont. since August 2008 to plan for the summit.

That included trips to Italy and Germany to look at how security was set up when those countries hosted the G8.

MacNeil said five major agencies were involved in security planning: RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police, the Toronto Police Service, Peel Regional Police and the Canadian Armed Forces.

The planning team began with 300 officers then doubled to 600. As well, a nationwide search had to be conducted to end up with a security team of 20,000 men and women.

“You have to build an integrated security unit and bring all these securities and armed forces together, plus private security companies, to build a team. That takes time, building relationships, making sure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities.”

MacNeil said they can monitor aspect of the summit from the command centre.

“We have the ability through our video feed to see everything that is going on,” he said.

“We can watch any motorcade or a certain plane land. We can see everything going on.”

He said there are even helicopters and planes providing video feed.

“We can see them from the air, we can see them from the ground, if there is anyone trying to interfere, we would see that.”

Anyone wanting to access the innermost security zone during the G20 weekend has a three-metre high fence and five levels of security screening to contend with.

So far MacNeil said everything has gone smoothly and that the few protests held were peaceful.

“We expect to see more volume of protesters over the next few days, which makes for a few more complications, but right now I have no specific concerns.”

MacNeil returns home a couple times a year to visit family, including sister Nancy MacAulay and brother Angus, both in Glace Bay, and brother Malcolm in Sydney.

“My family is what I always miss the most, but I also miss the people, the scenery and environment.”

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell said MacNeil is the operational commander for this event,  which to his knowledge is the biggest security operation ever launched in Canada.

“We are responding with a large integrated unit, Alphonse is responsible for leading that unit and he has done a remarkable job,” McDonell said.

“He is an amazing leader. I can’t do justice to his leadership capabilities, but I can take a tremendous amount of confidence from him.”

Thirteen members of the CBRPS public safety unit are also part of the security detail.

smontgomery@cbpost.com

(Now if only some of those media types on CTV and CBC would tone it down a bit and show some support – GTF)

THE WAY WE WERE

THE WAY WE WERE

Captain Jim Broderick – setting day 2010

                     Bras d’Or Gut

I look today at the 65 or 70 fishing boats fishing out of the Gut and wonder if any of these fishermen give much thought of how it was fifty, sixty or more years ago. Things have changed so drastically that one wonders at the spread of technology over such a relatively short time.

Even as a kid I can remember many of the small single men boats were rowed to and from the fishing grounds. George Forrester comes to mind rowing alone to the fishing grounds and returning in the early afternoon day in and day out. Some were a little more sophisticated and had a small engine usually what was called a “one lunger  make and break.” Others watched the tides and winds and hoisted their small sail(s) and came and went in that fashion.

Certain families were the high liners of fishing in the Gut in those days. Certainly the Bungays have to be counted as leading the way. The Dugas boys were not far behind. These were the men who kept at it through good times and hard times. Today you pretty much purchase your gear from the retailer or the wholesaler ready to put into the water. Not so at the turn of the century and on up to the 1950’s and 1960’s. Fishermen didn’t have the luxury of hiring a tractor and low bed and taking their boats home and placed into a warm comfortable barn where they could be pampered and painted during the winter months. Men and boys in order to prepare for spring fishing had many varied chores to perform prior to getting out on the water. If they were lobstermen, there were traps to be built. This meant going into the woods and cutting bows and steaming them so that they would bend. There were heads to be knitted as well. Every kitchen window usually had a nail driven into the bottom of the window frame so that you could knit heads. Usually laths were purchased from a local mill. Once the drift ice left, you got a dory out and searched the shores for suitable flat rocks for ballast. Hinges for the trap doors were usually someone’s worn out boot tongue. Men and boys had to go into the woods and cut trees to make buoys. Buoys had to be cut and shaped and painted with the owner’s colours an holes drilled in them to fit snoods. (I don’t know if this is the correct spelling but it the correct sound and is a word you never hear now).

If you were ambitious you usually had a few herring nets set before the season opened in order to get some early catches of herring for a feed of spawn and herring but more importantly bait for the lobster traps. Not everyone had the luxury or the money to go out to Nickerson’s to buy bait. In order to be prepared to catch herring there were nets to be repaired and soaked in tanning lotion and hung out to dry. (Anyone remember seeing a net drying on a clothesline?). When we talk about bait for lobster traps one of the dirtiest jobs I ever had was preparing bait for my father. My Uncle Johnny was a cod fisherman so my father would get him to save the guts of the fish and he placed them in a large barrel at the end of the wharf. There they would boil in the spring and early summer sun. My father would dispatch me to the shore with some burlap bags and with instructions to make small bag squares and fill each with the bubbly guts from the barrel and place in his lobster boat for the next morning. Apparently and according to my father the lobsters tired of the fresh herring and were waiting for this delicacy from Uncle Johnny’s cod catch. Fact is I could never get the stink off my hands for days after.

Of course preparing their boats for the season was no easy chore. Engines had to be tested and repaired and  where necessary and sometimes replaced at considerable expense. Boats were hauled up over the winter subject to the elements so had to have running gear checked and repaired and often replaced. Boats had to have a fresh coat of paint. For protection below the water line they had to be copper painted. Men fishing for cod fish had to prepare trawls and kegs and place new hooks on them and add buoys and markers and a whole host of functions related to trawl cod fishing. More bait required.

Getting ready for sword fishing was a whole new experience and was normally a bit of a vacation for the lobster fishermen certainly if they had a successful season. There were masts to be stepped, rigging to be repaired and fitted. New rope, darts, and kegs to be purchased and prepared. I can still see Russell Fraser coming back from North Sydney with a full supply of these items purchased for Uncle Willy. Russell always would buy four or five long billed sword fishing caps for the crew and he himself would start wearing his immediately even if the season was weeks away. Ah yes, the way we were. Things are different today but the men and women still must work long hard hours and oftentimes not for good prices for their catch. No matter how modern our equipment there is always the safety issue when you have to go to sea to make a living. God keep them safe.

OBITS – JUN 24, 2010

Obituaries for June 24th, 2010

John E. MacLeod

Published June 24th, 2010

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Louise (Rowe) McNair

Published June 24th, 2010

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Joseph Apestiguy

Published June 24th, 2010

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Robert Rose

Published June 24th, 2010

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Mary (Doolan) Di Sano

Published June 24th, 2010

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Roderick ‘Nikie’ MacDonanld

Published June 24th, 2010

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Willena Marion Stagg

Published June 24th, 2010

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OBITS – JUN 23, 2010

Obituaries

Obituaries for June 23rd, 2010

Fraser MacKenzie

Published June 23rd, 2010

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Frances (Tanner) Meagher

Published June 23rd, 2010

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Cam Heathcote

Published June 23rd, 2010

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Sgt. James Patrick ‘Little Jimmy’ MacNeil

Published June 23rd, 2010

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CAPE BRETON ISLAND

 

 

 

 

ABOUT CAPE BRETON

Discovery – Cape Breton Island is reportedly the first land sighted by John Cabot in 1497. He is said to have landed in Aspy Bay, on the northern tip of the island, and claimed the land for England. In the early 1500’s, Basque fishing crews from the Basque region of Europe began traveling to the island for its bountiful fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Thousands of years before either the European fishermen or John Cabot ever set foot on Cape Breton, the native Mi’kmaq Indians inhabited the island. The Scottish Sir James Stewart, Lord Ochiltree and 60 others formed the first official settlement near Louisbourg on the eastern coast.

Conflict –  Cape Breton Island switched hands between the British and French several times before finally reuniting with Nova Scotia in 1820. A provision of the Treaty of Utrecht gave the island to France in 1713, but the British captured the French fortress at Louisbourg some years later. The fortress eventually fell to the British during the 7 Years’ War. Around 1758, the first Scottish immigrants began settling on Cape Breton. People of Scottish descent form nearly half of the population of Cape Breton Island. In the 1790’s and the 1830’s, the island experienced two huge waves of Scottish immigrants. After landlords drove Scottish tenants off their land in the 1820’s, the landless emigrated to Cape Breton to continue living as they had in their homeland. The French soon returned and settled nearby, along with the Irish. The blend of the cultures has created a culture unique to Cape Breton Island. Gaelic and Acadian French are still spoken in many communities, especially along the western coastline.

Industries – In the early 1900’s, coal and steel became huge industries on the island. Sydney, the largest city on Cape Breton Island, became a booming industrial town after the building of a steel plant. Coal mining has contributed significantly to the culture of Cape Breton. Great numbers of immigrants moved to the island to work in the mines, increasing the population rapidly. The coal miners gained a sense of community through sharing the hardships of the mining life and forming unions to protest their rights. “Ethnic pockets” were formed in mining towns with each town having a predominant ethnicity. Religion helped bind people together. When each group arrived, they built their own church. After World War II, the coal industry deteriorated significantly. Today, pulp and paper manufacturing, fishing, tourism and agriculture are the main industries on the island.

(Credit to: Amy Clendenin 2002 for contents of this article)

OBITS – JUN 22, 2010

Obituaries

Obituaries for June 22nd, 2010

Rebecca ‘Betty’ Sutherland

Published June 22nd, 2010

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Clayton Greene

Published June 22nd, 2010

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Alice (Griffin) MacInnes

Published June 22nd, 2010

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Rita Lillian Robertson

Published June 22nd, 2010

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Lester MacKenzie

Published June 22nd, 2010

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Franklyn ‘Frankie’ MacDonald

Published June 22nd, 2010

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George Louis ‘Lou’ Martell

Published June 22nd, 2010

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John Patrick (Jack) Ginnish

Published June 22nd, 2010

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Anthony ‘Tony’ Blaise Hawrylak

Published June 22nd, 2010

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SGT J. MacNEIL – KIA

Glace Bay soldier, Sgt. James MacNeil, 28, killed in Afghanistan

Sgt. James MacNeil, 28, of Glace Bay was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. Photo credit – Department of National Defence

Published on June 21st, 2010

Published on June 21st, 2010

Canadian Press

Topics :

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A Canadian soldier from Glace Bay has been killed in Afghanistan.

Sgt. James “Jimmy” MacNeil, 28, was killed by an improvised explosive device this morning near the village of Nakhonay after he had dismounted from his armoured vehicle.

It’s the second straight Canadian death in Nakhonay, 15 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city.

On June 6, Sgt. Martin Goudreault, 35, was on a foot patrol investigating a suspected weapons cache near the village when he was killed by the blast from an IED.

MacNeil is the 148th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since Canada’s mission began in the country in 2002. (Cape Breton Post)