PORT HAWKESBURY – CAPE BRETON

Welcome to Port Hawkesbury

Town of Port Hawkesbury

Port Hawkesbury/Strait Area Profile

Port Hawkesbury, located along the eastern shore of the Strait of Canso, the deepest ice-free port in North America, is the Business and Professional center of the Strait Area. The area provides ‘big town’ services in a ‘small town’ atmosphere. Port Hawkesbury has been proclaimed as one of the best small towns in Canada, a distinction earned because of our positive approach to service delivery.  

With the Causeway in place, Port Hawkesbury now boasted an ice free, deep-water port to attract business. The first to take notice was Nova Scotia Pulp (now New Page Corporation), which opened in 1962. Since then, Georgia-Pacific, NuStar Terminals Canada Partnership, Minacs, Nova Scotia Power, and Sable Offshore Oil Company are among the companies that have located in the area. Port Hawkesbury continues to grow and prosper today.

A community with positive ideas. The new Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre, a multi-functional facility that encompasses an ice venue, fitness and conferencing facilities, and the Town’s administrative offices was completed in 2006. Already recognized with the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Architectural Design, the Centre with its unique use of ‘green technologies is a prime example of what a community can achieve when leaders from industry, business, and government, partner with its citizens to meet the social infrastructure needs of the region

Historically, Port Hawkesbury Area’s economy has been based in heavy industry and the resources sectors, generating a labour force highly skilled in trades and primary industry. Hard working, dependable and productive, the work force has also proven adaptable, acquiring the training and education to meet the needs of a modern, changing economy. The economy has diversified to include businesses operating in information technology, medical, and marine fields, among others. Ingenuity, stability, low turnover and competitive labour rates also characterize the workforce.

Workers in the Strait Region enjoy a reputation of being highly skilled, affordable, available and extremely dependable – not to mention the “can do” attitude that exists amongst residents in the Strait Region. They reflect the area’s cultural diversity, as approximately 25% are fluently bilingual in English and French, Canada’s two official languages.

Major Employers

Port Hawkesbury Mill

The Port Hawkesbury Mill, located in Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada, has been in operation since 1962. Today its capacity is 190,000 tonnes of newsprint on PM1 and 360,000 tonnes of supercalendered (SC-A+ and SC-A) paper on PM2. Since the start-up of PM2 in 1998, the SC paper machine has reached several world daily speed records at 1600, 1700 and 1800 meters a minute. In February 2005, PM2 achieved a milestone when it produced its two-millionth tonne of paper. A new thermomechanical line (TMP3) was commissioned in September 2004 to provide high-quality furnish for the paper mill.

Approximately 85% of the Port Hawkesbury Mill’s paper production goes to the United States and the remainder within Canada.

The Port Hawkesbury Mill location on the Strait of Canso, one of the deepest, ice-free ports in eastern North America, provides easy access, by land or sea, to North American publication paper markets. NewPage’s North American sales and marketing organization has had great success introducing high-quality supercalendered paper, MagniPress and SuperiorPress, to these markets.

Approximate Number of Employees: 550 full time employees

Port Hawkesbury  is a major commercial and recreation centre located on the shores of the Strait of Canso. Year-round services include accommodations, banks, restaurants, shopping malls, liquor store and museums. Swimming, tennis, golfing, hiking, sailing, kayaking-all are within easy access.  The Festival of the Strait is a celebration being held July 9 – July 11, 2010 with many activities that included sailing and canoe races, outdoor concerts, dances.  For more information, please visit Festival of the Strait

The Port Hawkesbury Town Council operates its daily business using the Chief Administrative Officer (C.A.O.) form of management. The Municipal Government Act establishes the Council and Chief Administrative Office relationship. The Chief Administrative Office is responsible to the Council for ‘the proper administration of the affairs of the municipality in accordance with the by-laws of the municipality and the policies adopted by the Council. The Council shall communicate with the employees of the municipality solely through the Chief Administrative Officer, except that the Council may communicate with the employees of the municipality to obtain or provide information.

Currently, there are four service divisions within the Town. They include Community Services (Police, Fire and Public Works); Parks and Recreation; Financial Services; and, Civic Centre operations. Directors, or managers, are appointed for each of the service divisions. The Director of Finance is also the deputy Chief Administrative Officer and acts in the absence of the C.A.O. 

The Strait Area Pool encourages everyone to start thinking about leading a healthy lifestyle and for those who already are, we encourage you to continue. Keeping this in mind we have a wonderful line-up of programs for everyone to enjoy. Take swimming lessons, workout with our therapeutic water exercises, or just drop in to the recreational swims. You can do this alone, with your partner or take the whole family with you. Don’t put it off another year. Get swimming and enjoy the benefits.

Leisure Time at Port Hawkesbury

Enroll in Pre School , Youth & Adult Red Cross Learn To swim classes, Life saving, Advanced Lifesaving, and Advanced Leadership programs. Remember parents you can take advantage of Lane swimming while your children are in taking lessons.

Call 625-2594 or 625-2591 or drop in to the Pool Office at SAERC or at the Civic Center to register

REGISTRATION

Payment can be made with Visa, Mastercard, Debit, cash or cheque. Registrations can be completed over the phone with credit card payments only. It is very important & essential to our service that participants register and pay for programs before the program begins. In the event of a cancellation for any reason, make up classes will be conducted where possible. Refunds will be given with a medical notice.

Adult Leadership Training

Have you enjoyed aquatic programs all your life? But never had a chance to participate in some of those Leadership courses. This Fall we would like to recruit, train and certify eager adults for daytime pool staff.. Please let us know if you are interested by calling the pool Director at 625-7897.

Advanced Leadership Courses offered at the Strait Area Pool are looking for enthusiastic and motivated individuals for the following courses. 

Swim for a fantastic workout! Get your pool pass today for all leisure swims at The Strait Area Pool.

The Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre is a new state of the art facility serving residents, tourists, and the business community of Port Hawkesbury, NS, Canada and the surrounding area. The Centre is a truly ‘green building’ that utilizes design and construction innovations to make it more efficient and easier on the environment and its users.  

Please review our facilities, amenities, and services and contact us to explore how we can help you!

 

Old Times

Premium Seafoods Ltd. (Arichat)

Premium Seafoods Ltd. brokers live lobster, shrimp, crab and ground fish, as well as off-loading vessels.

The purchase and sale of live lobster continues to be an integral part of the operation. Live lobster is purchased during the fishing season from local fishermen throughout Richmond County. The majority of the lobster is then sold to other companies, while the balance is sold out of the retail fish market that Premium operates on its premises.

The company also off-loads many shrimp boats from southern Nova Scotia and New Brunswick that have been fishing in the area for many years. Since 1998 local associations and fishers acquired their own shrimp quota. Premium Seafoods Ltd. purchases these landings and sells to Nova Scotia processors.

Premium Seafoods Ltd. also expanded its operations to include the brokering of live snow crab. Last year fishermen from Cape Breton Island sold 3 million pounds of crab to the company. This allowed the company to provide crab to two processing companies. One of these is the crab processing plant, Petit de Grat Packers Ltd., that is a complimentary company to Premium Seafoods Ltd.

Approximate Number of Employees: 80 full time employees

Ocean Nutrition Canada (Mulgrave)

Ocean Nutrition Canada Ltd. (ONC) is an innovator and supplier of the finest quality marine-based natural ingredients to the global dietary supplements and functional food markets. ONC is in the business of discovery, manufacturing and marketing marine based ingredients, which improve human health.

Ocean Nutrition Canada Ltd. (ONC) of Bedford, Nova Scotia, is the leading researcher, manufacturer and distributor of marine-based natural health products and dietary supplements to the global marketplace. This company has been able to establish cost-efficient manufacturing processes in Nova Scotia, producing products that can be marketed worldwide and ensuring that research and development expertise remains in the province. More than ninety percent of ONC’s revenues come from international markets.

ONC grew its business in Nova Scotia in 2002 and continues to expand in the province. The company built a network of research and development, manufacturing and pilot plant facilities in Nova Scotia. In 2002, ONC established a 70,000 square-foot pilot plant facility in Mulgrave, Nova Scotia. ONC’s presence in Nova Scotia has helped to strengthen existing life science firms and attract new firms to the province.

Approximate Number of Employees: 135 full time employees

Georgia-Pacific Canada (Sugar Camp and Melford)

G-P Gypsum Corporation, a subsidiary of Georgia-Pacific, is a leading manufacturer of gypsum wallboard products in North America. G-P Gypsum and its affiliate Georgia-Pacific Canada have manufacturing operations that include 15 gypsum wallboard plants, 4 joint systems plants, 4 industrial plaster facilities and 3 gypsum wallboard paper plants in the United States; and 3 gypsum wallboard facilities and one joint systems plant serving the needs of the Canadian marketplace.

Georgia-Pacific Canada operates gypsum quarries at Sugar Camp and Melford, Inverness County. The gypsum is drilled, blasted and loaded onto trucks with loaders and hydraulic excavators and crushed prior to shipping. Highway trucks transport crushed gypsum from both operations to ship-loading facilities at Point Tupper, Richmond County. These products are shipped to wallboard and cement plants in the United States. Georgia Pacific Canada began production at its newest mine in Melford in October 2002. The deposit has a combined proven and probable mineable reserve of 35 million tonnes of gypsum.

Approximate Number of Employees: 80 full time employees

Martin Marietta Materials Canada (Auld’s Cove)

Martin Marietta is the second largest construction aggregates producer in the United States, supplying the crushed stone, sand and gravel used to build roads, sidewalks and foundations. Its four divisions are comprised of more than 300 quarries and distribution facilities in 28 states, the Bahamas and Nova Scotia. Martin Marietta Materials Canada operates a mine in Nova Scotia at Auld’s Cove. The Auld’s Cove location includes a deep water ice free marine terminal located at the Strait of Canso. The terminal is capable of handling bulk carrier vessels up to 70,000 ton capacity. The facility ships locally and to PEI, to the Eastern Seaboard, and to the Gulf Coast States and the Caribbean. Product lines include: fine aggregates, coarse aggregates, granular materials, and drainage materials.

Approximate Number of Employees: 100 full time employees

Minacs

Minacs provides customized business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions focused on three core areas of capability: contact centre solutions, integrated marketing services, and back office administration. They combine expertise in these areas to create industry segment practices that improve revenue, customer service, and operating margin for their clients. Minacs is new to the Port Hawkesbury area as of early June 2007 and hiring is still ongoing.

Approximate Number of Employees: 170 full time employees

Other employers in the Strait Area:

• NuStar Terminals Canada Partnership, approximately 70 employees

• Nova Scotia Power, approximately 60 employees

(Courtesy of the Internet and Nova Scotia Tourism)

HURRICANE EARL LEAVES HIS MARK

Cape Breton cleans up after Earl

 

Charles Savoy and his daughter Charley stand next to a trampoline that was blown into the backyard of their Whitney Pier home Saturday by the remnants of hurricane Earl. 

(Erin Pottie-Cape Breton Post)

Published on September 5th, 2010

Published on September 5th, 2010

Staff ~ The Cape Breton Post

Topics :

Nova Scotia Power , RCMP , Cape Breton , SYDNEY , Webster Street

SYDNEY — Charles Savoy expected to clear away some debris after the passing of hurricane Earl, but he never thought he’d see a trampoline on his back deck.

After hearing a loud smash coming from his daughter’s upstairs bedroom Saturday evening, the Whitney Pier man figured the family cat must have knocked a ceramic bowl through the window.

Instead, he found a 30-foot wide trampoline had landed at the back of his Webster Street home, after first travelling a 60-foot distance from another neighbour’s yard.

The trampoline broke two windows in Savoy’s home, leaving glass on the main step and a piece of its metal frame in the pool.

“I hollered to my daughter, I said ‘Charley, the cat must of smashed something,’” said Savoy. “She said, ‘Dad the cat’s right here.’ So we started running through the house looking for something that’s broke.”

Fortunately, Savoy said his 16-year-old daughter was downstairs reading at the time and wasn’t struck by any glass.

Earl arrived to Cape Breton as a tropical storm by noontime Saturday, picking up its highest wind speeds and heaviest rains at about 2 p.m.

Swift and strong, Earl first pummeled southwestern Nova Scotia in the early hours of Saturday morning.

At the height of the storm Saturday afternoon, more than 200,000 customers in the province lost power as 120 kilometre per hour winds uprooted trees and downed power lines.

Rainfall amounts were recorded to be anywhere from about 30 to 70 millimetres.

In Cape Breton at 12:50 a.m. Sunday, Nova Scotia Power estimated 25,363 customers were without service. The number dropped to about 4,396 customers by Sunday afternoon and only 1,376 without power by early Sunday evening.

Winds speeds knocked trees in all areas of Cape Breton, including a large tree which toppled over on Royal Avenue in Sydney, knocking electricity to residents.

More than 500 crew members from NSP were out fixing electrical problems Sunday, including about 77 crew members from New Brunswick.

David Rodenhiser, utility spokesperson, said Saturday evening a lineman was also sent to hospital after becoming tangled in wires while repairing damage in Sydney caused by Earl.

“He received a minor shock,” said Rodenhiser. “He was taken to hospital to get checked but was released. (He) was in fine condition and was actually back to the office that evening.”

The man was apparently working in a bucket in the Whitney Pier area when he got caught up in live wires in high winds just before 6 p.m.

The man’s partner on the ground ran to a nearby pole and threw a switch to kill the power.

The utility will be investigating the incident.

In Big Pond, high winds also caused two telephone poles to hover dangerously over a lane of traffic, while being held together by its own industrial wires.

In Meat Cove, where residents continue to rebuild after a recent storm washed out the only road to the area, resident Derrick MacLellan said there was little rain and flooding  brought by Earl.

Residents lost power due to high winds at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, having it returned about 12 hours later.

Several trees in the area were also brought down by high winds.

“They were hanging really precariously from after the flood here,” said MacLellan. “They were just sort of hanging on the edge of the river banks.”

RCMP say Earl was the cause of an accident that saw semi-truck blow over on its side near the Seal Island Bridge.

The driver of the vehicle, who had just picked up an empty trailer in North Sydney and was headed westbound on Highway 105, escaped injury.

 The accident occurred at 5:50 p.m. Saturday, and closed access to the bridge until the vehicle could be removed at about 11 a.m. Sunday morning.

On Sunday, the Nova Scotia RCMP issued a press release encouraging the public to keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles and refrain from unnecessary travel.

They also warned people to stay away from beaches and shorelines, including the water’s edge and completely off rocks, breakwaters, and piers.

AFGHANISTAN – A FAILED WAR

 

 

History of Senseless Undertakings, from the Trojan Horse to Afghanistan

(This article is a diversion from Cape Breton News but it affects us all and is something that angers me each time I see one of our brave men or women take the drive from here (Trenton) to Toronto in a hearse along the Highway of Heroes – CAPER)

By recording failure in such meticulous detail, the leaked war logs (Wiki Leak papers) bear devastating witness to our incompetence. Despite the fact that many of our military minds including Canadians as well think our presence in Afghanistan will make a difference. They are wrong minded. The situation in Afghanistan today nine years in especially for women and girls is worse than it was under the Taliban. The Afghanistan people are still operating with the mindset of the Middle Ages and as soon as we are gone will revert to what they always were. Backward and primitive and war-like only paying any respect to those in their tribes. The sooner we (NATO) are out of there the better. Not another drop of blood or dollar should be spent in this country – they don’t deserve it. In fact it is well known that they want us foreigners out of their country.

One wonders if it the death of war? In Vietnam the horror of fighting was brought to TV screens in real time. Such was the reaction that American citizens withdrew their approval and consent. In the 1980s computers were said to have restored the aloofness of battle by enabling armies to fight and defeat an enemy by remote control. They could locate the foe, direct fire and drop bombs with pinpoint accuracy.

There is no such thing as a secure computer, let alone an accurate one. Every jot of information is leaky, permeable, corruptible, accessible, and free to anyone who wishes to pick it out of the ether. Computerization and miniaturization have stripped military command of all secrecy and rendered every success or failure vulnerable to Wiki Leak. As a result, computers can change sides and become the enemy. Look for example at the polls and surveys conducted on the Internet. Any fool can go on and log their opinion and record their name or the name of a fictitious character, yet the media will run with it as if Moses just carried it down from the mountain on tablets.

Far from defeating the enemy, technology is portrayed as shielding soldiers from the immediate result of their actions, hence distorting tactics and corrupting strategy. By recording failure in meticulous detail, the logs mock the moral basis for so-called wars among the peoples. Like Vietnam’s TV images, they leave the Iraq and Afghan conflicts as bloodthirsty killing fields, devoid of rational justification.

The war logs are not so much sensational as relentless. Most of the material was known. It is the detail that bears devastating witness. Afghanistan 2001 now enters firmly into the realm of nations and their leaders lacking in foresight, from the Greek’s Trojan Horse to Napoleon in Moscow to the debacle of Vietnam. Indeed it bears the added stupidity of coming two decades after the Russians committed the exact same folly in the same place. One must ask the question, did we learn anything? We, in the West, claim to be of higher moral character then those who we view as the enemy in Afghanistan. We must stop killing other uniformed men and women as well as  old people and women and children who have no direct involvement in these wars save for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In 1971 the Pentagon papers revealed the deception of the Johnson and Nixon governments during the Vietnam War. The papers were credited with collapsing US morale as the war drew to a close. The Afghanistan logs convey a different message. They show George Bush, Tony Blair and their generals to be so dazzled by their massive military (and intellectual) firepower that they thought they were invincible against a rag tag Taliban. Field Marshall Montgomery warned against engaging an enemy on the Asian Continent – it would be futile he stated and repeatedly his prophecy has been correct. All we need look at is; British in Afghanistan, French in Vietnam, U.S. in Vietnam, U.S. in Iraq, U.S. in Afghanistan, Canada in Afghanistan, NATO including Canada, Britain and the U.S in Korea. (Korea was never declared ended and for all intents and purposes is still an active conflict – no one had the balls to declare it a war. All these encounters were defeats of Western Nations in one way or the other with our blood left on those fields of battle and untold trillions from the treasuries.

Anyone who visited Kabul in the past eight years knew that a western war of occupation would end in tears. The Taliban were a concept, not an army. Al-Qaida was an unwelcome guest, but only the Taliban were likely to expel it. Mujahedeen would ooze from the rocks if provoked and never stop fighting until the infidel was expelled. Pakistan, long holder of the key to the Afghan door, had a powerful interest in backing the Taliban, an interest promoted and financed by the U.S.’s CIA in the 1980s. The U.S. at that time saw the wisdom of backing the Taliban but such support fell out of favour.  All this was known – and is now confirmed.

What could not have been predicted is that NATO, the Pentagon and Britain’s defence ministry could so ignore past history and current intelligence as to invade with main force, seek to pacify the Pashtun and then “build a nation” in a medieval land along western democratic lines – all with such incompetence. We could not have predicted, back in 2001-2, that this adventure would become what it is today, a bad war, a non -righteous war. The Western Powers fail (or ignore) the fact that the borders created by the British between Pakistan and Afghanistan are not recognized by the Taliban and they continue to travel across the 2,000 mile border with impunity because they view the land as theirs since time immemorial.

The logs reveal the resulting mess it is today in ghoulish detail: the failure of “hearts and minds”, the waste of aid, the flip-flop on opium production (higher production today then in 2001), the continued support of Karzai’s corrupt regime, the odious belief that money trumps zeal and love of country. The logs are shot through with the arrogance of the hi-tech warrior and the glee taken in murdering leaders from the air. If enough Taliban are killed, thinks the leadership, the enemy must surely run out of men. We have failed and continue to fail to understand how an insurgency war is fought. It is certainly not like WWI where you dug trenches facing the same type enemy trenches and fired away at each other until you either killed more than the enemy killed or you or your enemy surrendered. Nor is it anything akin to WWII.

What is most startling is the continuance of a strategy – the bombing of civilian targets in the hope of killing Taliban – which everyone seems to accept is counterproductive. Bombing and strafing crowds like assassinating leaders and blowing up civic buildings, hopelessly disrupts communities and benefits Taliban recruiters. Each dead Pashtun is not a talisman of success, as NATO press releases claim, nor is each civilian killed merely “regrettable”. It recruits 10 more to the enemy. Every Taliban elder murdered breeds another, younger one, frantic for vengeance and revenge.

Yet no U.S. or British general has succeeded in getting the bombings to cease. The computers are literally on autopilot. Hence the rocket attack a couple of weeks ago killing 45 civilians in Helmand, a massacre that would be a war crime if committed by infantry rather than ‘unattached’ airmen. The consequence of such slaughter is catastrophic in a civilian battlefield. This approach may have worked in WWII but in Helmand Province with media in every NATO vehicle, the piled corpses merely form a second front for the enemy.

With each atrocity another thousand Afghans must cry, “Better alive under the Taliban than dead under NATO.” Yet in the newspapers very rectnly for example, a former British officer protested that the Taliban “deliberately and routinely uses women and children as human shields, and attempts to lure our forces to kill innocent people”. He seems completely ignorant of counter-insurgency tactics.

There is no justice in Canada’s continued presence in Afghanistan, merely ceaseless bloodletting and a desperate hope to extricate the army with minimal loss of face. Soldiers, and the politicians who rely on their advice, have become ever slower learners, like generals on the Somme in WWI. They disregard Afghan history and the “exemplify the ‘lantern on the stern’ mentality”, by blundering blind into the darkness ahead.NATO is already talking down the Afghan war as “not being about winning”. Since the logs reveal the hopelessness of relying on Afghans to fight Taliban, the war can hardly be about anything else. It would be not unlike asking Canadians from Atlantic Canada to fight and kill Canadian Indians from Prairie Reservations today. I cannot avoid the conclusion that, just as the Pashtun are said to be “hardwired to fight”, so now are certain western regimes. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens are without the basic medical coverage yet they spend trillions on an unwinnable War. War is about placating the military-security-industrial complex, a lobby so potent that, long after the cold war ended; it can induce democratic leaders to expend vast quantities of blood and trillions of dollars on not so sound excuses as suppressing dictators in one country and terror in another. More folly.

(My rant was generated courtesy of Simon Jenkins’ article in the Guardian – CAPER)

TODAY – SEP 5, 2010 – IN CANADIAN HISTORY

September 05

	Today's Canadian Headline....
1945	GOUZENKO DEFECTS WITH SOVIET SPY FILESOttawa Ontario – Cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko 1919-1982 defects from the USSR Embassy with more than 100 secret documents under his coat, detailing the workings of a major Soviet spy ring in Canada, with tentacles reaching into the Department of External Affairs code room, the British High Commissioner’s Office and the Chalk River nuclear facility; result in 20 espionage trials and nine convictions. The RCMP give Gouzenko Canadian asylum and a new identity, and he dies in hiding in 1982.
1755	Also On This Day... Annapolis Nova Scotia – John Winslow 1703-1774, military commander at Annapolis, starts expelling 5,000 Acadians from Grand Pre, Annapolis & Fundy coast for refusing to take an oath of allegiance; their land and farms are forfeited to the Crown; most of the almost 10,000 Acadians forced into exile relocate to Louisiana.
1697	Also On This Day... Churchill Manitoba – Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville 1661-1706, on the Pélican, attacks and defeats 3 Hudson’s Bay Company ships, sinking 2, in pitched naval battle near York Factory in Hudson Bay; Pierre, the third son of Pierre Le Moyne, had been attacking HBC posts for a decade.
1916	And in Today's Canadian Birthdays... Frank Shuster 1916- comedian, was born on this day in Toronto in 1916. Shuster was a lifelong comedy partner of Johnny Wayne (1918-90). In World War II they wrote and performed for the Army Show, and in 1946 had their own CBC radio program. They made the transition to TV, and became 67-time regulars on the Ed Sullivan Show out of New York.Also Françoise Aubut 1922-1984 organist and teacher, was born on this day at St-Jérôme Quebec in 1922; died in Montreal Oct. 8 1984. Aubut studied at the Paris Conservatory with Dupré and Messaien, and is the first North American to win the Grand Premier Prix. Also Helen Creighton 1899-1989 folklorist, was born on this day at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in 1899; died in Halifax Dec 12 1989. Creighton pioneered the collection of folk music in Canada, eventually collecting and transcribing over 2000 songs in Micmac, Gaelic, German, French and English. She collected both for the Library of Congress in Washington and for the National Museum of Canada.
In Other Events….
1995	Ottawa Ontario – Jean-Luc Pépin dies at age 71; federal Liberal politician.
1990	Quebec Quebec – National Assembly sets up the Bélanger-Campeau Commission on Quebec’s political and constitutional future; with representatives from government, the official opposition, unions, associations and other groups.
1990	Montreal Quebec – Mercier Bridge through the Kanawake reserve opens after 55-day Mohawk standoff.
1990	Calgary Alberta – Donald Cormie charged with stock manipulation by Alberta Securities Commission; for driving up shares in Matrix Investments Ltd., controlled by his Principal Group.
1989	St-Jean-Richelieu, Quebec – Sixteen children get lead poisoning in St-Jean.
1988	Hamilton Ontario – Tiger Cat Earl Winfield scores touchdowns on a 101 yard punt return, 100 yard kickoff return and 58 yard pass reception; CFL fullback.
1986	Montreal Quebec – Claude Brochu named President of the Montreal Expos baseball club.
1983	Ottawa Ontario – Donald Macdonald’s Royal Commission on Canada’s economic prospects recommends free trade with the United States.
1983	New York City – Nova Scotian Robert MacNeil and colleague Jim Lehrer see their PBS show expanded to America’s first hour-long network news show – The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour.
1983	Hollywood California – Canadian Alan Thicke hosts new syndicated TV talk show, Thicke Of The Night.
1982	Toronto Ontario – World Bank and International Monetary Fund start 5-day meeting in Toronto to discuss world economy.
1979	Winnipeg Manitoba – Canadian gold Maple Leaf coin goes on sale in Canada, the US and Europe; Canada’s first gold bullion coin a runaway success for the Royal Canadian Mint.
1979	Montreal Quebec – Banque Canadienne Nationale & La Banque Provinciale du Canada merge to form Banque Nationale.
1978	Montreal Quebec – End of Air Canada strike.
1978	Montreal Quebec – Death of Judge Robert Cliche.
1972	Ottawa Ontario – Ottawa starts 2-month program to let aliens apply for landed immigrant status; those who entered Canada as visitors and stayed.
1971	Quebec – TVA opens stations in Montreal, Quebec City and Chicoutimi; Canada’s first French-language private television network.
1968	Montreal Quebec – Gene Mauch appointed first Head Coach of Montreal’s new baseball team, to be called The Expos.
1967	Gander Newfoundland – Czechoslovakian airliner crashes near Gander, killing 35 passengers.
1962	Ottawa Ontario – Canada Council grants $20,000 to Humanities Research Council of Canada for Centennial history; edited by Donald Creighton and W.L. Morton.
1962	Ottawa Ontario – Canada pledges $5 million in cash and commodities to kick off Canada-U.S. sponsored World Food Bank.
1962	Montreal Quebec – Jean-Louis Gagnon editor in chief of new newspaper, Le Nouveau Journal.
1957	Ottawa Ontario – Louis St-Laurent resigns as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
1954	McClure Strait NWT – Icebreaker completes first passage of McClure Strait, the Northwest Passage.
1945	Quebec Quebec – Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis announces that his government is bringing in provincial family allowances.
1945	Chalk River, Ontario – Canada’s first nuclear reactor, ZEEP – the Zero Energy Experimental Pile – goes into operation at Chalk River.
1944	Cornwall Ontario – Earthquake does serious damage to the city of Cornwall.
1929	Churchill Manitoba – Hudson Bay Railway reaches its northern terminus at Churchill; originally operated by Canadian National on behalf of Government, will become part of CNR system Sept. 5, 1951.
1925	Ottawa Ontario – Dissolution of the 14th Parliament of Canada.
1921	Geneva Switzerland – Charles James Doherty 1855-1931 represents Canada at second meeting of League of Nations; until October 5.
1914	Toronto Ontario – Baseball legend Babe Ruth hits his first professional home run at Hanlan’s Point on Toronto Island, knocking in three runs; the budding southpaw pitcher also tosses a one-hitter that day as his Providence club blanks Toronto 9-0.
1914	Ottawa Ontario – Proclamation prohibits the Canadian Royal Mint from issuing gold coins or bars.
1897	Klondike Yukon – Steamer ‘Alice’ reaches Klondike with men from Fortymile; Yukon River craft owned by Alaska Commercial Company.
1883	Toronto Ontario – Methodist Church in Canada was formed; Methodist groups in Canada since 1824; part of today’s United Church.
1881	Sarnia Ontario – Forest fires in Ontario and Michigan kill an estimated 500 people in 20 villages near Lake Huron; the region is cloaked with a yellowish-green fog.
1870	Ottawa Ontario – Canadian national debt amounts to $18,587,520; Quebec’s provincial debt is $9,808,728.
1854	Kingston Ontario – Opening of 1st part of 1st session of 5th Parliament of Canada; meets until Dec. 18.
1849	Kingston Ontario – Governor General Lord Elgin starts a visit to Upper Canada.
1815	Holland Landing, Ontario – Selkirk settlers arrive at Holland Landing en route to Manitoba.
1835	Montreal Quebec – 500 other young Montrealers found a new political Society called the Sons of Liberty (Fils de la Liberté) at a meeting in the Hotel Nelson on Jacques-Cartier Square; the gathering chooses the maple leaf as their emblem, and sing George-Etienne Cartier’s patriotic song, ‘Avant Tout Je Suis Canadien’.
1814	Manitoulin Island, Ontario – Lt. Miller Worsley, fling American colours in the Tigress, captures the Scorpion at anchor; sails both ships west to Fort Michilimackinac.
1774	Philadelphia Pennsylvania – First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia; condemns ‘Intolerable Acts’ passed by British over past decade.
1684	Ontario – Joseph-Antoine Le Febvre de La Barre 1622-1688 meets Iroquois, and gets them to keep peace with Miamis in the Ohio Valley.
1619	Churchill Manitoba – Jens Eriksen Munk 1519-1628 sails into Hudson Bay; forced to winter in estuary of Churchill River; Munk and two others will survive; 61 crewmen will die either of trichinosis from raw polar bear meat, or, more likely, Vitamin A poisoning from eating toxic polar bear liver.
1609	Tadoussac Quebec – Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 sails back to France from Tadoussac; will arrive in Honfleur Oct. 13.
1606	Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts – Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 and Poutrincourt explore south as far as Martha’s Vineyard.
1604	Maine – Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 sets out to explore coast of Norumbega, passes Grand Manan, Mount Desert, and Isle Haulte; stops at George’s Island near Kennebec River.
1602	Ratcliffe England – George Weymouth arrives back in England.
1534	St-Malo France – Jacques Cartier 1491-1557 returns to St. Malo with Iroquois youths Domagaya and Taignoagny; after harrowing 137 day voyage, his first to Canada.

BLUEBERRY PICKING IN POINT ACONI

 Julie Collins – Cape Breton Post

Blueberry season is in full swing at Kevin Marsh’s u-pick off Prince Mine Road in Point Aconi. Sheila Corbett shows off a fistful of berries.

Staff ~ The Cape Breton Post

 BRAS D’OR — Besides being loaded with antioxidants, wild blueberries taste delicious by the handful, as a topping on cereal or yogurt or in pancakes and muffins.

Topics :

Department of Agriculture , Prince Mine , Nova Scotia , Canada

According to the provincial Department of Agriculture, the wild blueberry is grown in five regions in Canada, with Nova Scotia being the largest producer in the country.

Wild blueberries won official distinction as the provincial berry in 1995. Both low bush (wild) and high bush (cultivated) grow in Nova Scotia and are available at u-pick locations.

Kevin Marsh, who operates a low bush wild blueberry u-pick off the Prince Mine Road, said the first day of picking was Wednesday and it was busy.

“I put a new parking lot put in and it was pretty much filled,” he said. “With the high temperatures we are experiencing, I get calls from people wanting to pick in the evening when things cool down, so I will be open until it gets dark.”

Marsh has developed an area for kids to play and has allocated areas close to the road where he directs the elderly, so they don’t have to walk far into the field to pick.

“I have about three acres of berries this year, the field is coated in blue, pickers can rake them in bunches with their hands if they like,” he said. “People can come and pick their blueberries for $5 or $6 or fill a large container for about $15, something that would cost you $50 or $60 in the stores.

He expects that the u-pick to be open until at least Sept. 11.

“There are some concerns about the rain that is forecast, but precipitation makes the blueberries that much bigger,” he said. “A lot of folks love picking berries, it’s convenient for them to be able to get what they need in the one location.”

Marsh is working on two more fields, one he said will be ready for next year’s season.

“In previous years I used to sell my berries to a producer, but now it is totally u-pick. People may think this is late for blueberries, but this is the usual time for us to be picking. The expression on people’s faces when they are see the amount and the size of the berries in the fields says it all.”

(jcollins@cbpost.com)

REAL BEAUTIES

 

(Was the word Bulimia even coined yet? – CAPER)

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

There is an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.
This year’s term was 

“Political Correctness.”

The winner wrote: 

“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end. ” 

 

(Contributed by Ed and Judy McCready)

TODAY – SEP 4, 2010 – IN CANADIAN HISTORY

September 04

	Today's Canadian Headline....
1880	MACDONALD SIGNS CPR CONTRACTOttawa Ontario – John A. Macdonald 1815-1891 signs provisional agreement with CPR syndicate for building of Canadian Pacific Railway; group consists of Bank of Montreal President George Stephen, US rail financier Duncan Mclntyre, and Ontario-born Minnesota entrepreneur James Jerome Hill; Stephen’s cousin Donald Smith of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who withdrew support for Macdonald during the Pacific Scandal, lurks in the background.
1984	Also On This Day... Canada – Brian Mulroney 1939- wins the federal election in a landslide against opponents Liberal John Turner and New Democrat Ed Broadbent. His PC Party takes a record 212 of 282 seats, to 40 Liberal; 30 NDP; 1 other, in the biggest majority (seat total) ever won by a federal party in Canadian history; also takes 58 of 75 seats in his home province after promising to reintegrate Quebec into the Canadian family ‘with honour and enthusiasm’; Turner suffers crushing defeat nationally, but wins own seat in Vancouver Quadra.
1899	Also On This Day... Montreal Quebec – Donald Alexander Smith, Lord Strathcona 1820-1914 funds the Royal Victoria College for Women at McGill University, which opens on this day. Smith, a controlling shareholder of the Bank of Montreal, the Hudson’s Bay Company and the CPR, is a strong believer in education for women.
1932	And in Today's Canadian Birthdays... Armand Vaillancourt 1932- sculptor, was born on this day at Black Lake Quebec in 1932. Vaillancourt monumental work consists of welded metal figures expressing his outrage at social injustice.Also Donald McKay 1810-1880 shipbuilder, naval architect, was born on this day at Jordan Falls, Nova Scotia in 1908; died in Hamilton, Massachusetts, Sept 20, 1880. McKay learned his trade in the family shipyards, then moved to the US where his East Boston yard built the largest and fastest of the clipper ships – Flying Cloud, Great Republic and Sovereign of the Seas. Also Isabella Preston 1881-1965 horticulturist, was born on this day in Lancaster, England in 1881; died in Georgetown, Ontario, Jan. 31, 1965. Preston worked as a plant hybridist at the Ontario Agricultural College up to 1920, then joined W. T. Macoun at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa. She originated nearly 200 varieties of rose, lilac, Siberian iris and lily. Also Edward Dmytryk 1908- film director, producer, was born on this day at Grand Forks, British Columbia in 1908. Dmytryk studied at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, worked as an editor at Paramount, then directed his first film, The Hawk, in 1935. During the war he made several politically oriented films, such as Hitler’s Children (1943). When director Sam Wood gave his name to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) as a supposed communist sympathizer, he was called before the McCarthy hearings, and became one of the Hollywood Ten cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify. He later recanted, named names, and was removed from the blacklist. He went on to direct several films, including Crossfire (1947), The Sniper (1952), The Caine Mutiny (1954) and The Young Lions (1958). He and his wife also published a series of books: On film editing, On screen acting, On screen directing, On screen writing and On film making.
In Other Events….
1997	Detroit Michigan – Gordie Howe, 69, agrees to suit up for the IHL’s Detroit Vipers in the team’s season opener against the Kansas City Blades on Oct. 3; will become the only professional hockey player to play in six consecutive decades.
1997	Sudbury Ontario – Huron Central Railway, owned by Genessee Rail-One, takes over operation of the former CP line between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.
1997	Montreal Quebec – Annie Perreault, speedskating champion, has an operation on both her legs.
1986	Montreal Quebec – Claude Brochu appointed CEO of the Expos baseball club.
1985	Ottawa Ontario – Mila Mulroney gives birth to son Daniel Nicholas Dimitri on the first anniversary of her husband’s sweep to power.
1972	Toronto Ontario – Team Canada beats the USSR 4-1 in Game 2 of the Super Series/September to Remember, to even out the series against the Soviets; known as Brother Night, because of the goal scoring of Frank and Pete Mahovlich and the goaltending and marksmanship of Tony and Phil Esposito.
1972	Montreal Quebec – Art thieves rob Montreal Museum of Fine Arts of $3 million of paintings and art objects; including $1 million Rembrandt.
1966	Hollywood California – Vancouver-born actor Raymond Burr stars in last episode of CBS-TV legal drama, Perry Mason, broadcast on this day.
1950	St Ann Bay, Nova Scotia – D. McI. Hodgson of St Ann Bay catches a tuna weighing 997 lbs.
1948	Netherlands – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates the Dutch throne in favour of her daughter, Juliana, who spent the war in Ottawa.
1946	Ottawa Ontario – Louis St-Laurent appointed Minister of External Affairs.
1917	Montreal Quebec – Official opening of the Montreal municipal library.
1916	Courcelette France – Canadian Corps take over section of the Somme line; facing village of Courcelette.
1915	Montreal Quebec – Mobilization of the 73rd Infantry Battalion at Montreal.
1909	England – Robert Baden-Powell presides over first Boy Scout rally in England; movement funded in part by Canadian High Commissioner Donald A. Smith, Lord Strathcona 1820-1914.
1905	Montreal Quebec – Henri Bourassa marries Joséphine Papineau.
1876	Toronto Ontario – Frederic Stupart of the Dominion Meteorological Observatory issues Canada’s first prepared storm warning.
1873	Ottawa Ontario – Start of special parliamentary inquiry into the awarding of CPR contracts – the Pacific Scandal.
1858	Newfoundland – Atlantic cable breaks.
1821	Moscow Russia – Czar Alexander I forbids non-Russian ships to approach Pacific coast of North America south of 51 degrees north.
1793	Quebec Quebec – Kent Edward, Duke funds first Sunday School at Quebec, a free school.
1760	Montreal Quebec – English troops occupy Ile Perrot; closing in on Montreal.

<!– “My lifelong ambition has been to spend my money as soon as I can get it.”
Edward Dmytryk
Canadian-born film director –>

Today in Canadian History is written, compiled, edited and produced by Ottawa Researchers © 1984-2002.

OBITS – SEP 4, 2010

Obituaries for September 4th, 2010

• Kenneth MacKenzie Published September 4th, 2010

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• Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Harris Published September 4th, 2010

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• Charlene MacIntyre Published September 4th, 2010

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• Dorothy (Bernard) Brown Published September 4th, 2010

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• Martin Carroll Published September 4th, 2010

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• Clara (Delaney) Lloyd Published September 4th, 2010

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• David Yates Published September 4th, 2010

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TODAY – SEP 3, 2010 – IN CANADIAN HISTORY

September 03

	Today's Canadian Headline....
1979	MULTICULTURAL TV GOES ON THE AIRToronto Ontario – CFMT-TV goes on the air, broadcasting in 26 languages to an audience of 4.5 million. It is the world’s first full time private multilingual TV station; MT= Multicultural Television.
1864	Also On This Day... Charlottetown PEI – John A Macdonald (seated) and George-Etienne Cartier (standing with hat) outline the arguments in favour of Confederation to the maritime delegates; Alexander Galt discusses the financial aspects; Charlottetown Conference.
1807	And in Today's Canadian Birthdays... Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester 1724-1808 soldier and statesman, was born on this day in Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland in 1724; died in Stubbings, Berkshire, England Nov 10, 1808. Carleton served under Wolfe as a Colonel at Quebec, was Governor of Quebec 1768-78 and 1785-95, before and during the American Revolutionary War. He advised and administered the Quebec Act, protecting the Catholic Church and Quebec Civil Law, and so succeeded in keeping French loyalty to the Crown and in holding back the invasion of the American forces. In 1782-83, as Governor of New York, he greatly aided the exodus of the American Loyalists north to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada.Also Jean-Baptiste Gaultier La Vérendrye 1713-1736 fur trader, was born on this day at Ile Dupas, Quebec; killed by the Sioux at Lake of the Woods June 6, 1736. La Vérendrye was the eldest son of Pierre La Vérendrye, and under his father’s direction he built posts at Rainy Lake, Winnipeg River and Maurepas (Selkirk). Also Paul Kane 1810-1871 painter, was born on this day at Mallow, Ireland; died in Toronto Feb. 20, 1871. In 1846, sponsored by Sir George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Kane accompanied the canoe brigades as far west as Victoria, sketching over 700 portraits and activities of western native people. He wrote an account of his travels in 1859 Also Armand Vaillancourt 1929- sculptor, was born on this day in 1929.
In Other Events….
1992	Ottawa Ontario – Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announces a referendum will be held October 26th on the Charlottetown accord; he will later define a referendum victory as a Yes vote of 50 per cent plus one in each province; Bill 150 will be amended to reflect the Charlottetown resolutions, giving Quebec control over manpower, regional development, immigration, but diminishing Quebec’s weight in the Senate.
1990	Toronto Ontario – Blue Jay pitcher Dave Steib beats the Cleveland Indians 3-0 in the ninth no-hitter of 1990.
1989	Toronto Ontario – One pilot killed as two Snowbirds jets collide during Canadian National Exhibition airshow; other pilot ejects safely over Lake Ontario.
1987	Los Angeles, California – Montreal’s Cirque du Soleil performs to rave reviews in Los Angeles.
1985	Montreal Quebec – Failure of the Commercial Bank of Canada.
1984	Montreal Quebec – Thomas Brigham 1919- arrested after a bomb explodes in a locker area of Montreal’s Central Station, killing 3 and injuring 47; mentally handicapped man from of Rochester, New York.
1980	Toronto Ontario – Toronto Stock Exchange starts Financial Futures Market; 91-Day T-Bill and Long Term Canada Bond contracts.
1978	Montreal Quebec – Opening of 8 new stations on the Montreal Metro.
1975	Quebec Quebec – Quebec Association of Protestant School Boards starts legal action against Official Language Act.
1968	Ottawa Ontario – Eric William Kierans 1914- Postmaster-General raises cost of first class letter to 12¢, as of November 1, 1969.
1965	Ottawa Ontario – Government grants $1 million for cultural exchanges with French-speaking European countries.
1962	Rogers Pass Alberta – John Diefenbaker officially opens the Trans-Canada Highway at Rogers Pass; stretching over 4800 miles from coast to coast.
1943	Messina Italy – British and Canadian troops cross Straits of Messina; land at foot of Italian mainland; immediately strike north.
1940	Newfoundland – US sells 50 overage destroyers to Britain; of which 7 go to Canada; in return for lease of neutral US bases in Newfoundland and Bermuda.
1939	Atlantic – German U-boat torpedoes liner Athenia en route to Montreal.
1939	London England – Britain declare war on Germany two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland; France follows 6 hours later, and then Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. On Sept 5, the United States will proclaim neutrality.
1939	Ottawa Ontario – Hector B. McKinnon chairs Wartime Prices and Trade Board; selective powers to control prices, supply and distribution; former Commissioner of Tariffs; only full-time member.
1923	New York City – Canadian silent film star Mary Pickford stars in Ernst Lubitsch’s first American film Rosita, premiering at the Lyric Theater.
1920	Quebec Quebec – Pierre-Georges Roy named the Archivist of Quebec.
1918	Quebec Quebec – Unveiling of a statue of Louis Hébert at Quebec.
1916	Verdun France – Allies turn back the Germans in the World War I Battle of Verdun.
1914	Valcartier Quebec – Mobilization of the 13th and 14th Battalions of Infantry, and the General Hospital Battalion No. 1 at Valcartier.
1894	Canada – Labour Day officially celebrated in Canada for the first time.
1888	Montreal Quebec – First Labour Day (Fête du Travail) parade in Montreal.
1876	St-Hyacinthe Quebec – Fire destroys over 500 houses in St. Hyacinthe.
1843	Quebec – Quebec has 1,298 schools, of which 665 are elementary schools.
1841	Montreal Quebec – Robert Baldwin introduces September Resolutions in favour of responsible government; passed by Assembly of the Canadas.
1825	Halifax Nova Scotia – Enos Collins 1774-1871 founds Halifax Banking Company with Samuel Cunard and five others; called the Collins Bank.
1833	Montreal Quebec – Rioting between soldiers and civilians in Montreal.
1814	Manitoulin Island, Ontario – Lt. Miller Worsley leads 77 men by canoe north from Wasaga, captures ‘Tigress’ at anchor in False Detour Channel; about 88 km northeast of Mackinac Island; then goes after ‘Scorpion’.
1811	Quebec Quebec – George Prevost 1767-1816 arrives at Quebec from Nova Scotia, where he was Lt-Governor, to be Administrator of Lower Canada; will serve as Governor in Chief of Canada to 1815, and commander in chief of British forces in the War of 1812.
1784	Cape Breton Nova Scotia – Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres 1722-1824 first Lieutenant-Governor of Cape Breton Island; serves until Oct. 10, 1787.
1783	Versailles France – Americans John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay sign the Treaty of Paris (Versailles); ends American Revolutionary War, fixes Canadian boundary; deals with fishing rights.
1763	Detroit Michigan – Major Henry Gladwin and his starving garrison at Detroit relieved as 350 Pontiac rebellion Indians in canoes fail to capture the schooner Huron ,carrying provisions from Niagara, in the Detroit River.
1697	Ryswick Netherlands – Signing of Treaty of Ryswick ends King William’s War (1689-1697) in America; France and England get back all lands they lost to each other.
1657	Montreal Quebec – Abbé de Queylus becomes Montreal’s first priest.
1607	Canso, Nova Scotia – Charles de Poutrincourt and his group leave from Canseau for France; arrives back in St-Malo Oct. 1
1607	St-Malo, France – Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 leaves for Quebec with Louis Hébert.
1535	Tadoussac Quebec – Jacques Cartier 1491-1557 and his crew sight white beluga whales in the St. Lawrence.