Orville Aguonie named new chief in election upset at Sheguiandah

by Jim Moodie

SHEGUIANDAH-When Orville Aguonie first ran for council 14 years ago, he received 16 votes. Last week, he garnered four times that many to become the new chief of the Sheguiandah First Nation.

Mr. Aguonie prevailed over three-term chief Georgina Thompson in Thursday's election, picking up 63 votes to the incumbent's 55. "The last time I lost by eight votes," noted Mr. Aguonie. "This time I won by eight."

Two councillors maintained their positions, as both Evelyn Aguonie and Tammy Assinewai were re-elected, with 50 and 45 votes, respectively. Meanwhile, a vacant seat last held by councillor Jason Aguonie, who resigned a year ago, was filled by Richard Shawanda. The former chief, returning to council after a six-year hiatus, earned the most votes of any councillor candidate, with 63.

Being new to the role of chief himself, Mr. Aguonie said he is pleased to have Mr. Shawanda as a resource on council. "I will rely on him for a lot of input," he said.

Virtually all of the eligible voters living on the reserve appear to have cast a ballot, while 40 votes were cast by members living off reserve. Mr. Aguonie said that most of the mail-in ballots favoured the incumbent, so it was the support of those residing in the community that carried the election in his favour.

"I'm happy with the result," he said. "The community spoke up and wanted change, and hopefully I can deliver the change they wanted."

The new chief campaigned on issues of transparency, accountability and prudent investment, and now plans to act on those planks. "The first thing I have to do is find out what's in the bank account," he said, noting that the band's finances, including is share of Casino Rama funds, had been kept largely a mystery of late. "I promised I would put out a financial statement within 30 days of being elected, so that's a priority," he said.

Once he has a handle on the First Nation's books, and has had a chance to talk with staff about the status of various programs and initiatives, "I can see how far along we are and set goals for economic development," he said.

One project he's pledged to remove from the planning table calls for a new landfill site that would accommodate waste from other First Nations, namely M'Chigeeng and Aundeck Omni Kaning (AOK). "When I went around in the community, I learned that a lot of people weren't aware of this and didn't like the fact that it was being done behind closed doors," he said.

Mr. Aguonie also plans to revisit his community's stake in the proposed hotel development in Little Current, presently designed as a three-way partnership between Sheguiandah, the Whitefish River First Nation and AOK. "This was also being done without community input, and I don't think it's feasible, myself," he said. "When I look at how quiet it is here after Labour Day, I worry about spending every last cent on a hotel, because we might not see money back for 10 years, or it could go belly up."

While a hotel plan that presumes the co-operation of Sheguiandah has already been tentatively approved by the Northeast Town, Mr. Aguonie said "there is nothing written in stone" and "things can be reversed." Rather than invest the First Nation's limited pool of money in a potential "white elephant," he said he would rather see the funds spent locally.

"We have our own ventures here to finish off, like the roundhouse and our teepee village," he said. The former is almost complete, but requires interior work as well as several additions, while the latter "exists on paper" but has never been realized. "I'd like to focus on alternate business ideas that benefit the First Nation directly," said the new chief.

Mr. Aguonie's win represents a significant change for the community, as previous chiefs have hailed mostly from within the same familial camp. Norman Aguonie, brother of the outgoing chief, held the position for 20 years. He was followed by one-term chief Max Assinewai and Mr. Shawanda, who served six terms of office. Ms. Thompson, elected in 2003 as the First Nation's first female chief, served three successive two-year terms.

FLU_FILES

Two schools close, others see drop in attendance

as concerns about the H1N1 flu grip Manitoulin

by Lindsay Kelly

MANITOULIN-Just as the first H1N1 flu shot clinics get under way on Manitoulin, the virus has made its appearance known locally, with school closures, high absenteeism rates and increased traffic in Island hospitals.

It's difficult to pin down just how many cases of H1N1 there are on Manitoulin, and this is due largely to the fact that while every confirmed case of influenza is reported to the Sudbury and District Health Unit, not everyone who presents with symptoms of the flu is tested, says Giselle Sbrega, a manager in clinical services at the Sudbury and District Health Unit, who specializes in the vaccine preventable program and control of communicable diseases.

"At this point, recommendations around who should be tested have been limited to those who are hospitalized and those people that present at a doctor's office with symptoms," she explained, noting that physicians typically will test for the flu if the patient will have a difficult time recovering if they contract the illness.

"We know that H1N1 is circulating way more than the actual confirmed lab results that we're getting," Ms. Sbrega added. "If you're someone who has symptoms and you're just weathering it out at home, you may not have accessed a health-care provider and just got better at home."

That same testing criteria applies at the two sites of the Manitoulin Health Centre, says CEO Derek Graham, but there has been a definite increase in traffic in the Emergency Department, comprised of people presenting with flu-like symptoms. It's a rapid change from as little as two weeks ago, and the increased traffic has meant longer wait times for patients in Emerg.

"So far we practise our normal processes in the Emergency Room as far as triaging patients and doing risk assessment, and the physicians decide the most appropriate course of treatment of the patient," Mr. Graham said. "We've had a couple of admissions of patients that have some respiratory symptoms," although they haven't necessarily been confirmed to have H1N1.

The wait times experienced on Manitoulin are nowhere near the estimated eight- to 12-hour wait times reported in some larger urban areas; however, Mr. Graham believes it is prudent to follow the health unit's advice to stay home and recover there, unless a person's symptoms worsen.

"I think that's pretty important because we don't want to necessarily clog the Emergency Department and the doctors' offices with normal cold symptoms," he reasoned. "But I do understand that people are concerned, especially with elderly family members or children."

Plenty of secondary school students took the recover-at-home advice to heart last week when Manitoulin Secondary School experienced a high absenteeism rate over the course of a few days.

Principal Laurie Zahnow acknowledged that a flu bug had been making the rounds of the school, but said that confirmation of H1N1 had not been made. But in light of the high numbers of students away from school last week-156 students were absent on Tuesday, with 90 confirmed to have been ill-the school has been promoting prevention measures as the best method of remaining healthy.

"We've been providing a lot of information to students through our communications office at the board level and on the website, and we've just distributed more information from the Sudbury and District Health Unit today, so there has been a lot of information over the last few weeks," Ms. Zahnow said last Thursday. "I just made another announcement this morning to remind students to wash their hands frequently and sneeze or cough into their elbow or a tissue, and don't share anything that you put in your mouth-basic common sense as a means of prevention."

In other areas of the community, organizations were taking their own preventive measures to avoid encounters with the virus. At Manitoulin Centennial Manor last week, little ghosts and goblins were prevented from visiting the residents, in an effort to keep the flu out.

In lieu of the usual Hallowe'en visit-a favourite time of year during which the residents can visit with young ones-treats were kept at the entranceway in between the double doors at the main entrance to the facility, and residents were able to sit near the entrance to view them through the door.

After a reported flu outbreak in Whitefish River First Nation, the community shut down Shawanosowe School last Monday at 1 pm, and all extra-curricular activities at the school were cancelled, including Hallowe'en festivities.

A sign posted on the door informed visitors to the school that the facility would be closed "in order to prevent the spread of illness," and during the closure the school would be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized, with the goal of reopening on Monday to children who were well enough to attend. Children who had a fever and cough would be sent home immediately, parents were informed.

Following several confirmed H1N1 cases in the community, Lakeview School in M'Chigeeng was also closed last week, and was scheduled to reopen today (Wednesday). The closure was both a reaction to the confirmed cases of flu and a precautionary measure to stop the illness from spreading further, said M'Chigeeng Chief Joe Hare.

"The membership was getting concerned about getting a vaccination against this flu virus, and people were getting sick," the chief said. "In hindsight, we now know of several confirmed cases."

In addition to the school closure, the community took the added measure of cancelling activities in the community that may have put other members at risk. Last week the community received an initial shipment of 200 doses of the H1N1 vaccine, which were used to inoculate health-care workers, pregnant women and the children of the community, Chief Hare explained. But with a population of close to 1,000 people in the First Nation, a large number were still at risk of contracting the illness.

"And then the question was what do we do next?" the chief noted. "So we took the added precautionary step-and that's all we could do was take a precautionary step-of closing down all activities in the community where people gather in large numbers."

Everything was closed down between Friday and Tuesday and, following a council meeting last night, during which council was expected to receive advice on its next move from the community's health centre director, the council was to decide whether it was prudent to get activities up and running again.

Chief Hare is hopeful that the measures will have done their job and stopped the flu in its tracks, but he's also anxiously awaiting the community's next shipment of flu vaccine, so that the rest of its membership can be inoculated.

"Hopefully we get more doses so we can treat the rest of the people in the community," he mused. "We're supposed to get some more, but the question is when and how much. They say what is coming or what should be coming, but what if it doesn't work out that way? There's a shortage of this vaccine all over the place."

Shortage or not, school closures are not in the near future for schools under the purview of the Rainbow District School Board. The board has a pandemic and influenza emergency plan in place, which was updated just last month and which all schools will follow. It includes education and prevention, but school closures will only be undertaken in an extreme case, Ms. Zahnow said.

"The health unit, in conjunction with our director, makes that decision and it's not recommended by the health unit, because the flu is in the community, it's not just central to the school," the MSS principal said. "It's definitely in the community, in the arena, the grocery store, in the church-it's everywhere. Closing the school would be very disruptive for everybody and would not necessarily stop the spread of the virus, so it's not something that's being contemplated."

Hospital Emergency Rooms can't be shut down, of course, and health-care workers must be in good health themselves in order to treat those who need their help. That's why Mr. Graham was pleased when the hospital received its first doses for its health-care workers last Wednesday.

"We were very concerned about that," he said. "With the potential wave hitting right now we wanted to make sure our staff was vaccinated, because obviously we want to keep our workers as healthy as possible through this so that we can serve people."

As an advocate of the H1N1 vaccine, Mr. Graham said he would be rolling up his sleeves alongside his fellow health-care workers to get his shot, and was eager to see the information getting out to the public about the advantages of the vaccine.

"Unless someone's got some risk factors whereby it wouldn't be prudent for them to get the vaccine, in my personal opinion, I think you're much safer in getting the vaccine than not getting it," he mused. "We all have a responsibility to our families and our community members, not just to ourselves."

Clinic dates for general public still to be determined

by Lindsay Kelly

MANITOULIN-The first round of H1N1 flu shot clinics geared to priority groups rolled out on Manitoulin on Monday of this week, but members of the general public will have to wait a little longer before learning when they can receive the shot.

Islanders lined up at the Gore Bay Community Hall on Monday afternoon for the first of four clinics taking place over the next three weeks, which will focus on inoculating those who are most at risk of contracting the illness. They include people under 65 with chronic conditions, pregnant women, children between six months and five years, people living in very isolated areas, health-care workers, and care providers of those who cannot be immunized.

Additional clinics for this at-risk group will take place in Tehkummah tomorrow, November 5, and on Thursday, November 19, as well as in Gore Bay on Monday, November 16.

Giselle Sbrega, a manager in clinical services at the Sudbury and District Health Unit, who specializes in the vaccine preventable program and control of communicable diseases, says that beyond these preliminary clinics for at-risk individuals, additional dates and times for Island clinics, which will serve the general population, have not yet been established.

But despite talk nationwide of a shortage of vaccines, the health unit remains confident that there will be enough vaccine made to immunized everyone in the Sudbury District, including Manitoulin, who wishes to receive an H1N1 shot.

"At this point the vaccine is coming in batches, so as more was made they were sending it out," Ms. Sbrega explained. "At this point, we haven't received any notice that that is going to be any different-we're still planning our clinics and planning on having them just the way we scheduled them, and planning as well to send the vaccine out to health-care providers, not just our community clinics."

Gore Bay and Tehkummah were chosen for their central locations as being the most easily accessible for Islanders, and when the second round of clinics is announced, a similar scenario will play out, with Islanders being required to go to one of a few central locations for their shot.

Ms. Sbrega said those who fall into the at-risk category can also make an appointment at the health unit's Mindemoya office, or contact their health-care provider to see if the shot is available there.

For those living in First Nations communities, an additional option may be offered through their band office.

"We provide the vaccine to First Nations through our Mindemoya office," Ms. Sbrega explained. "Anyone is welcome to come to our community clinics-we wouldn't turn anyone away-however, the First Nations communities have their own plans to address what they would do with their vaccine."

That means that band administration can set up its own community clinics or administer the shot through their health centres, she added.

Similar to the H1N1 rollout, the seasonal flu shot is being administered in stages, and the health unit just finished giving the seasonal shot to those aged 65 and over across the Sudbury district last week, as that group has been identified as being most at risk of the seasonal flu. The health unit plans to dispense the seasonal flu shot to people under the age of 65 following the H1N1 flu clinics.

"We plan on offering the seasonal influenza shot based on what is circulating in the community after the H1N1 clinics are over," Ms. Sbrega said. "It's just that right now what's really circulating in the community is H1N1-that's the influenza virus type that's circulating-and people under the age of 65 are most at risk of getting it."

Ms. Sbrega said people attending the Sudbury clinics have been extremely patient and understanding, especially since they've had to wait, in some instances, for several hours before their turn in line. This may be because people are not heeding the request to only attend H1N1 clinics if they fit into the at-risk group.

"There are long waiting times," she conceded. "We're advertising to priority groups, but people other than priority groups are presenting and we're not turning anyone away, so that may be a reason for a longer waiting time."

For more information about H1N1, call the Flu Facts hotline, toll-free, at 1-866-522-9200, or visit the health unit's website at www.sdhu.com.

Smelt population explodes in Lake Huron

Trend bodes well for diet of game fish species

by Jim Moodie

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Nature, it has been remarked, abhors a vacuum, and that certainly seems to be the case with Lake Huron's endlessly repopulated depths.

Alewives, once plentiful in the lake, are now practically gone, while other types of fish-both invasive and native, small and big-seem to be thriving, for better or worse, in their stead.

As always, with a system of this size and complexity, where gains in the indigenous fishery are often undercut by the latest new foreign threat-or new pressures wrought by commercial and recreational activities-the picture is mixed. But generally, things look fairly promising for our Sweetwater Sea, judging by the impressions of a research crew that performed a recent checkup on the lake's finny fettle.

Earlier this fall, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) vessel The Sturgeon made its annual sweep of Lake Huron, in order to gauge densities of various species via acoustic sounding and mid-level trawls. And while the numbers remain to be crunched, there were some intriguing initial finds.

"I can only offer preliminary observations, pending analysis, but one thing we saw was a very large hatch of smelt," said Jeff Schaeffer, a research fishery biologist with the Great Lakes Science Centre in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "They were ubiquitous."

Alewives, by contrast, were next to non-existent. "We caught maybe four or five," he remarked. "At the same trawl site, there would be 750 to 1,000 smelt."

The 105-foot ship, with a crew of six aboard, spent 30 days visiting "all three basins of Huron for a lake-wide survey," said Mr. Schaeffer. This included "23 transects or sampling stations" that spanned the main part of the lake, Georgian Bay, and the North Channel.

While alewives-an invasive type of herring, apparently named for their potbellies-formed a significant part of the diet for salmon, researchers aren't really ruing their decline. Nor are they too concerned about the surge in rainbow smelts, even though this is also a non-indigenous species.

"I'm not completely unhappy about it," said Mr. Schaeffer. "As an invader, smelt are less of a problem than alewives."

The biggest smelt boom was observed in the main basin of Lake Huron, said the biologist, although the North Channel had "a lot there, too."

The more striking development in the North Channel was probably the presence of a different little import. "We noticed a lot of three-spined stickleback," said Mr. Schaeffer. "It's not indigenous to the upper lakes, but it's been around a long time in low numbers."

In the past couple of years, the population of this spiky species-which really does sport a trio of dorsal spines, plus bony plates on its flanks-has grown quite rapidly, he said. (Hardcore fish appreciators might be interested to learn that, according to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, "its caudal peduncle may be keeled or it may not." Or not.)

As unappetizing as they sound, these crunchy critters are apparently being gobbled up quite readily by bigger fish. "Predators are eating them," said the researcher. "Canadian biologists have noticed this in the stomachs of trout and salmon."

A separate analysis of sport fish on the US side of Lake Huron has shown that another invasive species is becoming more commonly ingested. "We did a new study this year where we looked at 2,000 stomachs of salmon, trout and walleye caught by anglers, and found that many of the fish are consuming round gobies," said Mr. Schaeffer. "Walleye and trout, in particular, are feeding heavily on gobies."

While baitfish seemed plentiful in the North Channel last fall, when The Sturgeon conducted its previous swing through these parts, by the spring and summer of this year, numbers were generally low across all three basins of Lake Huron. Predators like trout and walleye "apparently responded by eating gobies," said Mr. Schaeffer.

The bounteous hatch of smelt this year theoretically bodes well as a future food source for these bigger swimmers-not to mention an enticing catch for net-wielding sports types-"but they're still very small fish, the question we still have is whether they will survive," noted Mr. Schaeffer.

At six months old, the baby smelts "are about as long as a little finger and weigh about a gram," said the fishery biologist. "Presumably, if these fish survive, there will be more food for salmon and trout, but I have some reservations. We saw a similar phenomenon in 2005, where there was a strong hatch but few adults materialized, because the mortality was high."

The smelt upswing might go some way towards replenishing numbers of baitfish in Huron, but "this is not going to get us out of the woods" on its own, suggested Mr. Schaeffer. Nor should nocturnal scoopers get too excited just yet. "You're not going to see huge smelt dipping as a result of this," he cautioned.

There is some encouraging news, though, for anyone who values a resurgence in native species. "We've had good chub hatches in recent years," noted Mr. Schaeffer. "They have survived and are growing, with the average size in catches being up."

And in the southern main basin, at least, "we also saw emerald shiners, which is a very positive sign," he added. This fish might be tiny (six-10 centimetres) but it's a naturally occurring species and an indication of ecological equilibrium.

The resurgence of this green-tinged shiner, as with that of the much bigger lake trout, is linked closely to the crash in alewife numbers, according to Mr. Schaeffer. "As soon as the alewife disappeared, we saw the return of emerald shiners and the first evidence in decades of wild lake trout reproducing," he said.

The transition was quite dramatic for those studying the lake's fish population. "In 28 years of trawling, we had seen about five baby lake trout," noted Mr. Schaeffer. "In 2004, we caught 22, which doesn't sound like a big number, but if you think about the size of the lake, and multiply that across the whole area, it was a very strong hatch."

Those newborn lakers observed five years ago "are now adults showing up in our survey," he said. "The lake trout fishery is not recovered yet, but the signs are all positive. Lake trout appear to be very stable, and may even be increasing."

The alewife exit in the earlier part of this decade also cued "the onset of walleye reproduction," Mr. Schaeffer noted. "They are definitely increasing, at least on the US side, where record-high catches in Saginaw Bay began immediately after the loss of alewives."

The imports had provided food for some species, including salmon and a certain variety of black bird, but had a detrimental impact on others, as "adult alewives can be quite a voracious predator, and we think they consumed the eggs of walleye," said Mr. Schaeffer.

While The Sturgeon has wrapped up its investigative tour for this year, a sister vessel called The Grayling is still combing the lower depths of the lake through bottom trawling, and data collected by each craft will be compiled over the winter months, said Mr. Schaeffer. Between the two types of sampling, "we get a more complete picture," he said, adding that a report on the research will be delivered in March.

Meanwhile, The Sturgeon will be parked in Cheboygan, where "a relatively ice-free port" means it can stay in the water year-round. "You do get ice, but it's not thick enough to pose a problem," said Mr. Schaeffer. "It has a massive steel hull."

While both ships sail out of Michigan, and receive funding from the US government, the work is undertaken jointly with Ontario, which also contributes financially to the research and often has biologists on board.

Mr. Schaeffer said he and his American colleagues "always look forward to the Canadian portion of the trip," as these parts of the lake are particularly beautiful and "we like meeting people up there."

The vessel docks each night at various ports, and Mr. Schaeffer's habit is to "go out on the back deck in the morning with coffee," at which point he almost invariably encounters a curious passerby, or five, on the dock. "We have lots of interesting discussions," he said.

Canadians tend to be "really friendly," he said, while admitting that he was "yelled at" one time by an Islander who had strong feelings about cormorants. He didn't take it personally, though, and just tried to gently remind this individual that birds are really outside the mandate of the USGS crew. "We try to keep the talk focussed on fish," he said.

During the most recent jaunt through the North Channel, "I had a wonderful talk with a First Nation person," he said, concerning the traditional Ojibwe belief in an underwater creature, generally referred to as Mishepeshu. The individual "wanted to know if we ever saw them."

The answer was 'no,' but Mr. Schaeffer can't entirely rule out the possibility of such a leviathan existing. "I think it's very likely a spirit animal that isn't detectable by science, but the absence of evidence isn't conclusive evidence of absence," he said.

He pointed out that, for years, there had been talk among tribespeople in Africa of a strange creature that was a sort of giraffe-zebra hybrid. Scientists scoffed. "No-one believed it existed; it was legendary," he said. "Finally someone did see one-the okapi."

While he's not really expecting a half-lynx, half-snake monster to suddenly become snared in a USGS net, he and his colleagues are always braced for a surprise of some sort, and hope it won't be of the Asian carp variety, a documented oversized nasty that has been making its way up the Mississippi and is now banging at the (electrified) gate of the Great Lakes.

"Very often it is our group that is typically the first to find invaders," he said. "And that's one of the reasons we're out there-to assess the fish community, and detect change."

So far, though, the so-called flying carp has been blessedly absent in USGS catches. "We've heard recently that it was sighted in the Great Lakes, but who knows," he said. "We've had reports in the past, and it turned out to be the common carp. And even if someone sees one, it doesn't mean it's established."

Right now, "there is no evidence of the Asian carp being established," he reassured. "We haven't seen one in our surveys, and we wouldn't be secretive about it if we did."

EDITORIAL

H1N1 flu vaccine is a protective measure for us all

By next week, we are told, immunization against the H1N1 ("swine") flu should be available to the general population in our area, as this week the emphasis is on offering vaccination against this particular strain of flu to children under five years of age, those 65 or older and others who may suffer from a chronic illness.

There is still a debate in some quarters, however, as to the merits of being vaccinated at all against any strain of influenza, the swine variety included, and it appears that long-held prejudices will prevail: by and large, those people who have resisted vaccination against seasonal flu in years past say they will not be rolling up their sleeves to receive the H1N1 shot.

That is fine, because any such vaccination is most certainly a matter of choice. In fact, to cite extreme cases, some individuals and groups refuse, on religious grounds, to accept vaccinations against anything at all including diphtheria, polio, red measles and whooping cough.

They may quote scripture for their purpose but, in fact, they are relying on the the other 99.9 percent of us who do receive these childhood inoculations, and the parents and public health authorities who go to great pains to ensure that we do. It is precisely because of these precautions that cases of diphtheria and polio are virtually eliminated on our continent and that red measles and whooping cough do not pose nearly the threat to the general population that they once did.

Although the flu, in whatever seasonal form it presents itself, is far more benign-by an enormous magnitude of difference-than any of these other terrible diseases that medical science has made nearly unheard of, the same principle applies to those (just like the fringe religious groups and their refusal to be immunized to diphtheria, polio, and other very serious illnesses) who choose not to be vaccinated against the current flu strain: they are to a large extent being protected against infection thanks to the large numbers of people who do choose vaccination and so offer far fewer potential hosts for these opportunistic viruses.

It would not be fair to characterize these decisions as selfish because there is usually a fear factor involved in this reluctance and that response, with many people, supersedes any reasonable explanation of how vaccination against influenza actually works in our bodies.

The fact is, however, the more people who volunteer themselves for immunization against swine flu as well as seasonal flu, the fewer cases of these infections will appear among us.

In the meantime, whether or not you choose vaccination this year, please observe all of the precautions that the Sudbury and District Health Unit, Noojmowin-Teg Health Centre, the Wikwemikong Health Centre, the M'Chigeeng Health Centre, as well as a multitude of other health authorities are urging: wash your hands frequently, sneeze or cough into a tissue (or into your sleeve), dispose of those tissues in a public-health-conscious and responsible way, avoid body contact with others if you are ill, and make arrangements to stay away from work and your co-workers if you are ill.

Letters to the Editor

M'Chigeeng praised for turtle signs

Preserving reptiles helps ecological balance

To the Expositor:

Recently, when driving through M'Chigeeng, I have noticed two "turtle crossing" signs placed beside Highways 540 and 551, adjacent to marshes. I sincerely hope that drivers will heed these warnings and slow down so that turtles may migrate successfully across these busy roadways.

In the past there has been a tendency to regard reptiles and amphibians as nuisances. This can lead to ecological imbalances. I congratulate and thank the people of M'Chigeeng for their forward thinking and their understanding that we share this earth with many and diverse species.

Mike Wilton

Dominion Bay