President’s Awards

 Posted on June 17, 2013 by Sarah Lue

The President’s Awards are meant to recognize and acknowledge our colleagues and their outstanding work.

Here are some photos from today’s presentation in Ottawa.

 

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“ICI” STANDS FOR “ICI RADIO-CANADA”

 Posted on June 6, 2013 by Louis Lalande

In the wake of the announcement that we would be adding the term ICI to designate all CBC/Radio-Canada French Services platforms in our marketing, I wanted to correct certain misperceptions that it involved a name change for the organization. It doesn’t. The organization is called Radio-Canada.  On my new business card, and those of all my colleagues you will find the words “Ici Radio-Canada.”  We are immensely proud of our name and its heritage.

Our mediascape is rapidly evolving, driven by the proliferation of TV specialty channels and the rise of digital platforms such as the web and mobile apps. Content is everywhere. Radio-Canada already offers four TV networks, two radio networks, and four digital platforms. Others will surely be added down the road. In order to fulfill our mission as Canada’s public broadcaster, we need to keep up the pace of change and ensure that Canadians know about the services we offer and how to find them.

In this context, adopting a simple, consistent brand identity – a common denominator for all Radio-Canada platforms – is necessary to ensure a strong place for the public broadcaster and its distinctive content, as well as reflect the full scope and variety of the vehicles it uses to serve audiences from coast to coast. Radio-Canada is making this change today with an eye to the future.

The French term ICI means “here”, “now” and “in the moment” all in one.  We have been using it in conjunction with Radio-Canada since the 1930’s.  So the choice of the term ICI is inextricably linked to the fact that the Radio-Canada logo – the gem – is one of the country’s most universally recognized symbols.  Research has conclusively found that ICI coupled with the gem is synonymous with “Radio-Canada” – that it’s a fresh, updated version of our familiar signature. So we will continue to use ICI with Radio-Canada but will now also use it with, for instance, our radio network, Espace Musique, which will now be branded ICI Musique; and our specialty tv channel ARTV will now be ICI ARTV.  Radio-Canada doesn’t go away, ICI is added.

Change always generates a reaction. I’m not going to play down the extent of it. However, I’m confident that as the new identity begins to take shape on TV, radio and the web, there will be no doubt in the mind of French-speaking Canadians across the country that ICI stands for “Ici Radio-Canada.”

- Louis Lalande, Executive Vice-President, CBC/Radio-Canada French Services

 

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CBC/Radio-Canada Ombudsmen Websites Get a New Look

 Posted on June 6, 2013 by Sarah Lue

CBC Ombudsman, Esther Enkin.

The CBC and Radio-Canada Ombudsmen websites have been given a fresh new look.  Accessible via the Ombudsman tab on the CBC/Radio-Canada corporate website, the new sites now have a more user-friendly look and feel and have been designed with greater emphasis put on complaint reviews, the Journalistic Standards and Practices as well as the Ombudsman’s role.

The web team took a more uniform approach with the re-design; the two sites now offer the same content and are organized under the same structure.  Reaching out to our Ombudsman is now easier than it’s ever been and the design approach taken speaks to our commitment to being open, transparent and accountable to Canadians.  “CBC is committed to excellence in journalism and it is my job to ensure that quality is achieved.  The new site will make it easier for the public to share their comments and the complaint form has been slightly modified for greater ease of use’’, indicates Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman.

To learn more about the role and responsibilities of the Ombudsman, recent complaint reviews and how decisions are made, come check out the new site and follow Esther on Twitter @CBCOmbudsman !

- Sarah Lue, Blog host

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A single identifier for all Radio-Canada platforms: ici

 Posted on June 5, 2013 by Sarah Lue

Radio-Canada announced a rebranding initiative that has sparked a lot of reactions.   Here’s some background on the initiative.

***

Radio-Canada is proud to officially announce that the term ici will feature more prominently than ever in designating the various platforms through which CBC/Radio-Canada French Services delivers news and entertainment content that enriches the cultural and democratic life of Canadians.

ici is a term closely associated with the history of Radio-Canada, which has been using the tagline “Ici Radio-Canada” since its radio service first went to air back in 1936. This word, which has also figured in the title of several TV and radio programs, faithfully reflects our identity and symbolizes the strong ties that unite the public broadcaster with Canadians. It also stands for a predominantly Canadian content offering on both its television network and across all platforms. It short, it conveys what sets Radio-Canada apart on the mediascape.

ici replaces the expression RADIO TÉLÉVISION INTERNET, which has been used in combination with the Radio-Canada logo since the integration of French Services. ici is not a substitute for the Corporation’s name, CBC/Radio-Canada, but will become a common denominator for our overall (ici Radio-Canada) or platform-specific (ici…) activities.

The rebranding and choice of the term ici are only the most visible components of a broader, more extensive transformation exercise aligned with the Every one, Every way corporate strategy. It aims to ensure that CBC/Radio-Canada’s French-language services are more innovative, more relevant, and more in touch with Canadians than ever. All of our departments and large numbers of our employees are already involved in another aspect of this process, known as “ReCreating Radio-Canada.”

“Radio-Canada’s future is closely tied to our ability to leverage the full range of platforms in a distinctive framework that powerfully conveys our culture and values,” said Louis Lalande, Executive Vice-President of French Services. “That’s the main thrust of the initiative we undertook a few months ago.”

Added Guylaine Bergeron, Executive Director, Communications and Branding: “The media industry is growing at an exponential rate, with digital platforms and specialty channels continuing to proliferate. It was therefore imperative that French Services adopt a strong, clear brand that reflects our mandate and the close connection we have with our audiences.”

Following are some examples of how the term ici will appear in our corporate identification: ici Radio-Canada, ici Télé, ici Première, ici.ca, ici RDI, ici ARTV, ici Explora, ici TOU.TV, ici Musique, ici.mu., ici Alberta, ici Québec.

[Video is only available in French]

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Halifax: Scratching the Surface of Africadia

 Posted on June 4, 2013 by Sonnet L’Abbé

Sonnet L’Abbé is an award-winning poet and culture critic who teaches creative writing in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, She has embarked on a two-month whistle-stop tour aboard ViaRail, talking with Canadians about our country at Year 150, as part of the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conference series. These conferences are presented by CBC/Radio-Canada, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), www.2017startsnow.ca. Twitter #Canada150.

***

As the train pulls into Halifax, I take pictures of the angular, interlocking corridors that hang above the tracks. The port is old and built up. Arriving over land like this, like luxuriously shipped cargo, at this thick tangle of iron tracks and wooden elevators, gives me a deep sense of Halifax’s history as Canada’s gateway to the Atlantic and to Europe.

Halifax strikes me as big city mixed with fishing town. Of these two sensibilities, urban pulse and marine tide, it’s the urban entrepreneurial that dominates the conference. Gregg Curwin’s empassioned plea to get Canadians off the Standard American Diet and onto more green, local and organic raw food was the kind of thing I’d expect to hear in the hippest circles in Vancouver or Portland.  Allison Kouzovnikov’s look at how local communities can harness big data to support fundraising and development efforts was sharp and forward-thinking. Only Soulafa Al-Abbasi’s upbeat, immigrant-claims-Halifax-as-“her Halifax” story, and Tammy Williams’ measured stories of confronting intolerance toward First Nations, suggested that we were in a city where diversity conversations remain small-town.

But Jac Gautreau’s touring production, Kanata, is culturally hip and exactly the kind of project envisioned by the 2017 Starts Now Conference. Incorporating traditional drum rhythms from the “four founding cultures” of Nova Scotia, the Kanata performances will travel across the country, not only to entertain but also to be the catalyst for roundtable workshops that address the values should define Canada over its next fifty years.

Embarrassingly, for a second I asked myself: okay, Aboriginal, French, English – what’s the fourth founding culture? Then I sheepishly remembered that most of my ideas about Halifax, before my visit, came from the writing of George Elliott Clarke, coiner of the term “Africadian.” Clarke’s mission has been in part to ensure that settlers of African heritage, who have called Nova Scotia home as long as European settlers have, are recognized as participating in pre- and early Canadian history.

And when I asked my poet friend Zach Wells, a Halifax resident, what Halifax has to contribute to Canada’s understanding of itself, he immediately named Africville is one of the most important historical sites in the country.

Yet I chose to go to Lunenberg and Peggy’s Cove instead. Peggy’s Cove is one of those places you hear about in songs and is as beautiful as they say; and in Lunenberg I had one of the best meals of my life: codfish cakes and rhubarb compote, with a side of broccoli and almond salad. In town I went to the Maritime museum, and read about the Halifax explosion and the Canadian Arctic Expedition, instead of heading out to the Africville museum.

So I’m left with an experience of Halifax and its environs through entrepreneurial eyes: via quaint, manicured places (Lunenberg has just been named a UNESCO heritage site) that draw business. I had a fun night at the Lower Deck, singing along to covers of Sweet Child of Mine and Barrett’s Privateers, but leave feeling like I gave myself the official postcard Halifax. “My Halifax” remains as yet undiscovered.

- Sonnet L’Abbé, Award-winning poet and culture critic


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The question of Newfoundland’s celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary is tinged with humour

 Posted on June 3, 2013 by Sonnet L’Abbé

Sonnet L’Abbé is an award-winning poet and culture critic who teaches creative writing in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, She has embarked on a two-month whistle-stop tour aboard ViaRail, talking with Canadians about our country at Year 150, as part of the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conference series. These conferences are presented by CBC/Radio-Canada, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), www.2017startsnow.ca. Twitter #Canada150.

***

The cab driver who takes us into St. John’s speaks with a musical lilt. He pronounces it “St. Jann’s.” When he flips on the radio, the vocal harmonies and fiddle of an East Coast folk tune welcome us heartily to Newfoundland. The weather, as we descend steeply into downtown, is less inviting: it’s early June, six degrees, grey, and rainy. I can see why the houses are painted such bright colours, and why Newfoundlanders develop such warm personalities!

The question of Newfoundland’s celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary is tinged with humour, as several conference participants have been alive since before Newfoundland joined confederation in 1949. People emphasize that sesquicentennial activity need not focus on locals seeing the rest of the country but on how to draw Canadians out to the island, and how to get the many Newfoundlanders who have moved away to come home.

There is also a marked international presence in the room. Thanks to Memorial University’s push to attract students from outside Canada, over a half dozen Nigerian students are here, some working as facilitators and others contributing as inquisitive participants.

Donovan Taplin, a seasoned speaker at the age of eighteen, wows the audience with his poise and is a wonderful example of a young person brimming with civic spirit. Taplin insists we cultivate curiosity and asks us to consider the moments in our lives when we have felt the most Canadian. For him, “setting foot on a glacier” is the ultimate Canadian experience.

Next to Quebec, only Newfoundland has the same sense of cultural distinctiveness, says one participant. You see it in our support of our own artists; we make art for ourselves. Soprano Cheryl Hickman is living proof of that self-sustaining cultural pride: she left an international touring and performing career to establish Opera on the Avalon in St. John’s, the only professional opera company in Eastern Canada. They plan to create an operatic Canadian history from the perspective of the oldest city in North America: a perfect fit for 2017 celebrations. And when Hickman sings, I’m floored by the world-class talent that resides in St. John’s.

The evening before, I met my friend George Murray, a writer I knew in Toronto who has now lived in St. John’s for years, for a pint. He lists off all the local literary events I’m missing. George tells the story of visiting St. John’s and being captivated by a local singer. He asked novelist Michael Crummey who the singer was. That’s my wife, said Crummey. She’s actually a marine biologist. “That’s when I decided to stay,” says George. “Everyone in St. John’s is like that; do one thing during the day and make art at night. I decided I could stay with people like that.”

After the conference, I have about half an hour before we have to leave for the airport. I use the time to take a fast cab up Signal Hill. The clouds have cleared and the sun is out. The view out to the ocean is breathtaking. I only wish I could stay here longer.

- Sonnet L’Abbé, Award-winning poet and culture critic

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Kingston: That Good Old Fighting Spirit

 Posted on May 29, 2013 by Sonnet L’Abbé

 Sonnet L’Abbé is an award-winning poet and culture critic who teaches creative writing in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, She has embarked on a two-month whistle-stop tour aboard ViaRail, talking with Canadians about our country at Year 150, as part of the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conference series. These conferences are presented by CBC/Radio-Canada, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), www.2017startsnow.ca. Twitter #Canada150.

***

On my last day in Kingston, I meet Patricia, a lively senior citizen who describes herself as “a proud Yorkshire girl.” I tell her about my project. Patricia won’t let me take her picture, but she says that I can write about how glad she is that her sons and grandchildren are Canadians, not Americans. She asks me if I’ve gone over to old Fort Henry yet. “That’s where we Brits kept out the bloody Yanks!” I tell her I have. “Well alright then,” Patricia nods.

The wind whipped my hair into my eyes as I walked up the hill to Fort Henry. At the top of the hill sits the brand new Discovery Centre, a bunker-like building that expresses an official enthusiasm for a Canadian history that foregrounds the War of 1812. In the Discovery Centre you can “sign up” and get a picture taken of yourself in one of the period uniforms. There’s a hologram of John A. Macdonald,, a video skit where a young man ponders signing up for the regiment, and an interactive exhibit where you can shoot a life-scale cannon at projections of hostile boats.

Then I went down to the limestone fortification itself. There in the dry moat one of the red-coated infantrymen told us that though the fort was built in response to the 1812 conflict, for today’s visitors it was 1867. Perfect for me, I thought. We’re jumping back to the very birthday we’re celebrating in 2017.

The infantryman showed off his Enfield rifle, a brand-new technology, and invited us to call out the command to fire. Then we met another young red-coat, a woman, whose hair was pulled up tightly under her cap. Another officer referred to her as “Private Hunter” and as “him.” She/he gave us a tour.

“Unfortunately Fort Henry never saw a battle,” Private Hunter said. “We never saw any action.” I wasn’t sure if she/he was ad libbing the “unfortunately” or if the word was part of the script. Given the fancy You-Too-Can-Shoot-A-Cannon game back at the Discovery Centre, I guess it’s official sentiment.

When arrived in Kingston the day before, another kind of battle was taking place in the street. One hundred and fifty people were marching through downtown carrying handmade signs. “G-M-O! Right to know!” they shouted. The demonstration was only one of the many protests against corporate seed patenting taking place worldwide that day. The lefty, granola vibe the protesters brought to the square, their championing of organic and local food as people looked on from the Saturday farmers’ market, gave me an entirely different impression of today’s Kingston than the one that built walls and mounted guns to keep out an anticipated threat.

I asked Erinn Williams, one of the organizers, what Canada’s borders do to protect us from genetically modified foods, assuming we don’t want to eat them. “Canada doesn’t grow as many of these crops as they do in the United States. There GMOs are in everything. But so much of our processed food comes from the States, so ….”

So, for 2017, should we imagine the equivalent of Canada’s glorious Fort Henry, armed for the international food fight?

- Sonnet L’Abbé, Award-winning poet and culture critic

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Moncton Invites Canadians Home

 Posted on May 23, 2013 by Sonnet L’Abbé

Sonnet L’Abbé is an award-winning poet and culture critic who teaches creative writing in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, She has embarked on a two-month whistle-stop tour aboard ViaRail, talking with Canadians about our country at Year 150, as part of the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conference series. These conferences are presented by CBC/Radio-Canada, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), www.2017startsnow.ca. Twitter #Canada150.

***

I get to Moncton by catching a ride across the amazing Confederation Bridge. We make a quick stop to drop someone off at the University of Moncton. Everyone in the building is speaking French. This visit is going to school me big time: I had no idea that New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada, and that thirty-eight percent of Moncton residents are francophone.

At the conference, I’m stoked to hear Herménégilde Chiasson, and not just because he’s the former Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. Chiasson is a fellow poet. He tells me he doesn’t think folks will like what he has to say. In his talk he worries aloud about many things, among them the militarized version of history and nationhood that he sees as a trend in recent public discourse. People nod; Chiasson speaks from a liberal sense of Canadian values that many in the room share.

In the breakout sessions we don’t need designated French-language tables; we need more French speaking facilitators, and I get recruited. As we brainstorm what New Brunswick can do as a region to contribute to the national celebrations, I hear for the second and third times a comment that struck me when I first heard it in Charlottetown: let’s bring people home. To celebrate Canada, one man suggests, let’s invite all Canadians to travel back to the province of their birth.

When Michael Haan said that the migration of Canadians from one province to another might not be only about economic opportunity, he was addressing this tristesse in the Maritime provinces over the exodus of so many locals to other provinces. Margaret-Ann Blaney hit a similar note when she spoke of pride in one’s province as the kind of emotion we might cultivate for Canada when promoting ourselves globally.

I’m not from New Brunswick, but Marc, the director of the Centre Culturel Aberdeen, and Émilie, director of the Moncton Alliance Française, welcome me as if I am. They invite me to a book launch for two-time Governor General’s Award winner Serge Patrice Thibodeau. That evening, Thibodeau reads his Acadian poetry in a gallery showing sculptures by Colin Lyons: delicate reproductions of machinic parts, that have been unintentionally damaged – some reduced to a pile of dust – in the long trip from Kamloops to Moncton.

Later, Marc, Émilie and I walk to grab a drink at Moncton’s artists’ hangout, the Laundromat Espresso Bar. On the way, we talk about how the Maritime kitchen party culture affects the success of community events. “Moncton is a city of houses,” Émilie says. “There’s all kinds of stuff going on, but it happens in people’s homes and you don’t hear about it.” She points to a house. “There, for example. There could be a concert going on in there and you’d never know.”

“That’s a funeral home,” says Marc. “If there’s a concert going on in there, that would be some pretty sad music.”

- Sonnet L’Abbé, Award-winning poet and culture critic

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Charlottetown Looks Ahead to Its Own Sesquicentennial

 Posted on May 21, 2013 by Sonnet L’Abbé

Sonnet L’Abbé is an award-winning poet and culture critic who teaches creative writing in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, She has embarked on a two-month whistle-stop tour aboard ViaRail, talking with Canadians about our country at Year 150, as part of the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conference series. These conferences are presented by CBC/Radio-Canada, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), www.2017startsnow.ca. Twitter #Canada150.

***

The Air Canada plane from Halifax to Charlottetown is so small that the attendant who tells me to “sit anywhere you want” turns out to be one of the pilots. We fly over coasts and lighthouses, touching down forty minutes later. We are met by the quietness of PEI. The car rental counters sit unmanned. A client, clearly from away, is stammering mad but there is no one to hear him. It’s two in the afternoon and there are no taxis waiting outside. When a taxi finally does come, it has no meter. There are no meters in any of the cabs, says the driver. It’s the island way.

Downtown is similarly quiet. One can stroll through the quaint streets, peering in the windows of the few pubs and shops, including the Anne of Green Gables store, and see it all in under an hour. What few cars there are will stop for you to let you cross the street, even at a light, even if they have the right of way. Dominating Charlottetown’s downtown core is the Confederation Centre for the Arts. Built in commemoration of the 1864 meeting of the Fathers of Confederation to discuss the creation of Canada, the building is a fitting place for the next 2017 Starts Now conference. Forty local leaders are expected to attend.

Sixty people show up. This too, apparently, is the island way.

It’s neat to hear Deborah Apps speak about the same Trans Canada Trail project that I heard about thousands of kilometres away, from Harold Westdal, in Winnipeg. Really, what could be a more fitting symbol of a connected Canada than a walkable route that links all the provinces? John Rowe’s view of PEI as the “perfect entrepreneurial island” challenges my first impressions of the island as sleepy and quaint. But communications expert Dave Cormier and educator Bonnie Stewart really challenge those impressions with their savvy takes on the potentials of online networks. They leave me feeling energized to look to my life online as a tool I can use to become a more active and strategic citizen.

The crowd listens attentively. Participation in the breakout sessions is vigorous because everyone here is gearing up for their own sesquicentennial. PEI, as the site of that historic 1864 meeting, considers itself the birthplace of Canada and will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown conference next year.

In the end it is Jowi Taylor’s guitar, and Bruce Rainnie’s sweet rendition of Ron Hynes’ song “Sonny’s Dream,” that steals the show. Taylor’s story of his eleven-year journey to create Voyageur, a guitar made of sixty-four pieces, each of which is linked to a piece of Canadian history, has everyone lining up to get their picture taken with the guitar. The Six String Nation project shows us all, viscerally, what kind of work inspires passion and national pride. I feel lucky to be in Charlottetown for this first-hand experience of the joy and sense of occasion that we might create with one other on Canada’s birthday.

- Sonnet L’Abbé, Award-winning poet and culture critic

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Quebec City and Wendake: Living Off Memory Part 3 (3 of 3)

 Posted on May 20, 2013 by Sonnet L’Abbé

Sonnet L’Abbé is an award-winning poet and culture critic who teaches creative writing in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, She has embarked on a two-month whistle-stop tour aboard ViaRail, talking with Canadians about our country at Year 150, as part of the CANADA 150/2017 STARTS NOW conference series. These conferences are presented by CBC/Radio-Canada, in partnership with VIA Rail Canada and Community Foundations of Canada (CFC), www.2017startsnow.ca. Twitter #Canada150.

***

“The French Canadians have no guilt,” says Chief Sioui of the Huron-Wendat Nation. “They don’t admit doing anything. That makes it harder for Quebec First Nations to negotiate, because they say, it wasn’t us. That’s why in the referendum our nation didn’t want to leave Canada. Federally, there is more acknowledgment that yes, these things happened.”

When it comes to what to do for Canada’s 150th, the Quebeckers I talk to, who have any suggestion at all, suggest a big party on the Plains of Abraham, Jean-Baptiste-style. Chief Sioui didn’t show much interest in the idea. His focus, he says, is on implementing the treaties he worked so hard to have recognized. Much of what he has to say seems to be about disabusing me of my idealism: maybe he thinks I’m younger than I am, or maybe being a poet screams idealist. “Not all chiefs are good chiefs,” he says, more than once, when I try to nail him down on his vision of successful implementation. “Not all shamans are good shamans. Many of us are touched by corruption. We’re not all pure.”

“So,” I say, “it sounds like in the end you just want to be the ones to make decisions about natural resources. If you succeed, will red man big oil be just as messy as white man big oil?”

“Good question,” says Sioui. “Depends which chiefs. We’re not all pure.”

“What about thinking ahead seven generations?”

“Hey,” he says. “You really got to be careful with that. I care about what is happening in my nation right now.”

We wrap things up and head out of his office. “Just a minute,” says Sioui, and while I stand by the elevator I look at a framed map of the reserve produced by Natural Resources Canada. Sioui comes back and hands me two books: La reaffirmation de l’identité wendate/Wyandotte à l’heure de la mondialisation (The Reaffirmation of Wendat/Wyandot identity in an era of globalization) by Linda Sioui, and De la paix en jachère (Fallow Peace), a book of poems by Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui.  Then he gives me a ride to the bus stop. If Sioui is one of the unpure, it doesn’t show in the modest old car he drives. There is a braid of sweetgrass hanging on the rearview mirror and when I ask about it, he asks if I have a car. I say yes. He takes the sweetgrass off the mirror and gives that to me, too.

 

nos vérités sont tissées dans les méandres

enracinées au cœur de profondes vallées

chéries par les saisons en voyage dans les feuilles

 

notre âme est ancrée

dans les champs sans fin

dans le bruit du vent

qui siffle un hymne à notre grandeur*

 

 

I wait for the bus back to the old city, where, because the food reminds me of my own grandmother, I will go the Restaurant of Ancient Canadians and splurge on an overpriced meal of pea-soup and tourtière made of elk and wapiti. It occurs to me that didn’t get much from Sioui on plans for Canada’s 150th.

“Canada!” Sioui had laughed. “That’s a Northern Iroquoian word. We gave them that word! Tell them that.”

 

* Our truths are woven in water’s meanderings / rooted in the heart of deep valleys / cherished by the seasons travelling through leaves // our spirit is anchored / in endless fields / in the sound of the wind / that whistles a hymn to our greatness – Louis-Karl Picard Sioui, 2012.

- Sonnet L’Abbé, Award-winning poet and culture critic


 

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