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A Northern Ontario School of Medicine press release - for more information visit the NOSM web site at http://normed.ca

Another 56 Medical Students Join NOSM

Tuesday, September 5, 2006 -  The second intake of 56 students to Canada's newest medical school begin their first day of classes today, following a week of exposure to the diversity and vitality of Northern Ontario.

During their unique orientation week, the students travelled, participated in working sessions, met physicians and community leaders, and became acquainted with their new life as a medical student. Following introductory sessions at their home campuses at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and Laurentian University in Sudbury, the students gathered at Laurentian, where they embarked on a week-long bus excursion to Thunder Bay.

Stops along the way included Sault Ste. Marie, where the students participated in outdoor activities and experienced a warm welcome from physicians and dignitaries. In Marathon, they enjoyed beach sports and a hearty barbeque organized by Dr. Sarah Newbery and a group of community physicians. The final stop for the group was Thunder Bay, where they attended a dinner hosted by NOSM’s Founding Dean Dr. Roger Strasser and participated in a Hippocratic oath ceremony, before returning to their respective campuses.

NOSM continues to follow its mandate of social accountability in an endeavour to respond to the cultural diversity of Northern Ontario. Demographic profiles of the class of 2006 show that:

• 89% are from Northern Ontario
• 50% are from rural and remote backgrounds
• 5% are Aboriginal
• 21% are Francophone

More than 2,000 applications were received for the 2006-07 academic year, of which 391 were interviewed.  NOSM’s Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions, Dr. Tom Szabo, noted that this was an exciting time for NOSM.  “Every member of the 2005 charter class moved forward into their second year, and NOSM has now officially welcomed its second group of students, which brings our student complement to 112 aspiring physicians."

Students will now get down to work and immerse themselves in all things NOSM -- state-of-the-art smart classrooms, a progressive distributed learning curriculum, and a community-based learning environment with placements across Northern Ontario.  Each of these elements helps to ensure that NOSM graduates physicians with an appreciation for the unique health-care needs of Northern Ontario, as well as the cultural diversity of the people who call it home.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine is a pioneering faculty of medicine.  The School is a joint initiative of Lakehead and Laurentian Universities with main campuses in Thunder Bay and Sudbury, and multiple teaching and research sites across Northern Ontario.  By educating skilled physicians and undertaking health research suited to community needs, the School will become a cornerstone of community health care in Northern Ontario.  

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For more information, please contact:  Marlene Moore, Communications Officer (705) 662-7243 or Tracie Smith, Communications Officer (807) 766-7314

From http://www.tbsource.com/Localnews/index.asp?cid=86352

Long Lake settles with OPG - Tb News Source - 9/1/2006

A long-standing grievance between Long Lake No. 58 First Nation and Ontario Power Generation has been resolved.

The reported seven figure settlement now paves the way for a potential ongoing relationship between the two parties. A band spokesperson says they will be working with OPG to see a hydro generation plant built on the south end of Long Lake.

The dispute, partly over the loss of some traditional land, dates back to 1938 and the First Nation announced the signing of the monetary settlement Thursday. The amount of the settlement has not been disclosed.

Native leaders hope the agreement will signal to other industries that they would like to plan resource development projects with them.

From http://www.canada.com/cityguides/montreal/story.html?id=0a433a25-d6a6-4dd9-b4ef-3605ff97c658&k=11492&p=1

Politics closer to home -  BRENDAN KELLY, The Gazette - August 31, 2006

After her powerful Kanehsatake epic, Alanis Obomsawin takes on a more personal subject: the story of her own Abenaki people in Quebec    
 
The world premiere of Alanis Obomsawin's Waban-Aki: People From Where the Sun Rises takes place tonight at the Montreal film fest.

Thirty-six years after she first began toiling as a documentary filmmaker, Alanis Obomsawin finally decided to return home with a film crew.

Home in her case is Odanak, the Abenaki village near Sorel, just south of the St. Lawrence River, where Obomsawin spent most of the first nine years of her life.

The result is Waban-Aki: People From Where the Sun Rises, a fascinating look at the history of this small native community which was famous in the early 20th century for its exceptionally talented basket-makers. The National Film Board production has its world premiere today at the Montreal World Film Festival, with simultaneous screenings in English and French at the Quartier Latin cinema.

The Montreal filmmaker, who is a member of the Abenaki nation, has won awards and acclaim across the globe for often-activist films that have explored everything from a controversial police raid on a Quebec Mi'kmaq reserve (Incident at Restigouche, 1984) to the suicide of a teenager (Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Metis Child, 1986).

She also made four powerful films about different aspects of the 1990 Oka Crisis, including the 1993 epic Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, which won the Citytv Award as best Canadian feature at the Toronto Film Festival that year.

Waban-Aki is one of Obomsawin's most personal films. It's also the first time she's devoted an entire movie to the Abenaki people.

"I always felt I had to do something for my own people," Obomsawin said in a recent interview on the terrace of the apartment where she's lived for the past 38 years, on a quiet street minutes from the heart of downtown.

"I've been wanting to do this for quite a few years."

Obomsawin was born in an Abenaki community in New Hampshire, but moved with her parents at the age of six months to Odanak on the banks of the St. Francis River, northeast of Montreal. She stayed there until the age of nine, when her father moved the family to Trois Rivieres because he had found work near there as a hunting and fishing guide.

"I have very good memories of my childhood (in Odanak)," said Obomsawin.

"We didn't have electricity or running water but I didn't know we were poor."

Waban-Aki features many older Odanak residents talking about the days when the village was a bustling centre for basket-making and it is partly a nostalgic portrait of a bygone era. But Obomsawin is never one to shy away from political arguments and, about midway through the documentary, it veers off into an account of the negative impact of the federal Indian Act on natives across the country.

Obomsawin said that more engage section came naturally because "making this film, I realized some horrifying things."

There are indeed poignant moments in which Abenaki women talk of losing their official native status because they married non-natives, and how the law continues to haunt the lives of their grandchildren.

From the very beginning of her career in the early '60s when she was a folksinger, Obomsawin has always believed in the political power of art, and she hasn't become any less idealistic over the years.

"It's the voice of the people being heard and it can make changes," she said.

When Obomsawin was first making native-themed documentaries at the NFB in the early '70s, there were fewer media outlets for explorations of Canada's native culture. But she's happy to note that things have gotten a lot better, thanks to the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and the NFB's ongoing production of films about native issues.

Like so many of Obomsawin's films, Waban-Aki doesn't gloss over the sorry history of how natives have been treated by successive Canadian governments. Though there is still anger in her voice when she talks of how native culture has been (mis)treated, she refuses to even contemplate becoming bitter.

"Canadians are generous people," said Obomsawin.

"There are all kinds of problems in our country, but I think people are tired of seeing injustice. There's been a lot of progress in the last 30 years in terms of the education system and in terms of realizing the value of the First Nations people. Thirty years ago, you were punished if you spoke your language at school. Now they're teaching (these languages) at university."

Waban-Aki: People From Where the Sun Rises screens today at 7:20 p.m. at Quartier Latin, with two screenings, one in English and the other in French.

bkelly@thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006

From First Perspective http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_template.php?path=20060830teachers

Teaching the teachers about First Nations' culture -August 30, 2006 - by Holli Moncrieff

For years, The Manitoba Museum has been educating students about First Nations culture, so teaching the teachers was a natural progression.

In 2001, First Nations children accounted for one in four of all Manitoba children under 15-years-old. School divisions have been striving to incorporate more First Nations culture and heritage into their curriculum, which is where The Manitoba Museum comes in.

A few years ago, Winnipeg School Division #1 asked the Museum to develop Aboriginal Education Days. These Professional Development Days for teachers explain all the First Nations resources and school programs that the Museum has to offer.

Teachers are then taken on a tour of the archaeology and native ethnology labs, where they have the rare opportunity to view artifacts that aren't currently on public display.

"Our current goal is to raise awareness and respect for Aboriginal culture," explains Lila Knox, Manager of Educational and Interpretive Programs. "When the teachers meet someone like Katherine (Pettipas, Curator of the HBC Collection and Native Ethnology), who's dedicated her life to the preservation of these artifacts, they realize how important this history is."

During the lab tours, the teachers meet Pettipas, her assistant curator, Tanya Cochrane, and Curator of Archaeology Kevin Brownlee. Each curator delivers a short, animated presentation about their area of specialty.

"Several school divisions have made a commitment to Aboriginal education, but all teachers should be incorporating respect for all cultures into their curriculum," says Knox, herself a former teacher. "In order to respect a culture, you have to learn about it."

Brownlee, a Cree from Norway House, is committed to ending stereotypes that have been perpetuated against First Nations people in the educational system.

"I hate the term 'nomadic', because it implies that First Nations people were just moving around aimlessly, with no purpose, when they were actually tracking the migration patterns of the bison, fish, and caribou they relied on for food," he says. "It's the same with the word 'primitive'. Early native people were not primitive-they were highly sophisticated hunters, farmers, and miners, long before the point of European first contact."

During an Aboriginal Education Day held recently with teachers from Earl Grey School, Brownlee explained the high level of skill that went into making early First Nations cooking vessels, arrowheads, and the atlatl, a remarkable spear thrower than can reach distances of over 100 metres.

"If each teacher takes even a small bit back to classroom with them, it's well worth it," says Brownlee.

The visit to the Native Ethnology lab included a presentation by Jenny Meyer, an Ojibway and long-time volunteer of The Manitoba Museum, on the intricacy of First Nations beadwork.

"We're the right people to hold these training sessions," Knox says. "We have the expertise available, we have the collections, and we have a long history of presenting Aboriginal education to school groups. This way, teachers get the information from the best source."

The incorporation of First Nations culture into the school curriculum is important for all students, Knox adds.

"Non-Aboriginal students need to grow up sensitive of the people around them, respecting other cultures and honouring them," she says. "It's a teacher's job to prepare their students for the world, and it's only natural that they are trying to serve their students in the best possible way."

From The Toronto Star  http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1156974611781
 
Taming the unfrozen North
When global warming melts the Arctic ice, look to the Inuit to adapt and survive, just as their ancestors did
Aug. 31, 2006 - RACHEL A. QITSUALIK

In a much warmer 2020, the white bear's tracks no longer grace Arctic snows. The remnants of Inuit culture stand baffled as the last sea mammals perish, as creeping legions of grass and trees surround them, as southern industries pillage what many call the "New South." Ice is but a memory, while the Northwest Passage serves as the Arctic Panama Canal of this new boom era.

The histrionic paragraph above reflects an all too popular vision of the Arctic's future, one generally held by those who have never lived in it. I, however, grew up in this place: I've lived in igluvigait (igloos) as well as in southern houses, untangled dogsled races as readily as bought bus tickets. And my mind's eye renders me in the Arctic of 14 years hence as easily as five minutes from now.

Can you feel the warm August air? It's 2020, and:

In the hills, my husband and I chuckle at the staccato noise of a raven, shortly before bird and laughter are subsumed beneath the roar of vehicles. We turn to see a trio of military helicopters flying out over Frobisher Bay.

"Is it another CASP?" my husband asks. "Or a rescue?"

I shake my head, unsure, since these days there are as many rescue missions as Canadian Arctic Safety Patrols, or CASPs. The acronym replaced the SOVOP (Sovereignty Operation) around 2012, when the federal government decided it needed a friendlier term.

I can still remember the first one — Operation Narwhal in 2004, where vehicles were hobbled by unexpected frost and the military had to call on the Inuit Rangers for help afterlosing contact with two communications specialists in the hills. Those operations improved significantly by 2010, however, just in time to address our contemporary problem: foreign shipwrecks. It's embarrassing and alarming, the way wrecks are piling up in the so-called Northwest Passage, the Arctic waters where Inuit have hunted for ages.

They still hunt out there, of course. Inuit can hunt just as easily from boats as upon the once-common sea ice. It's tricky, navigating the sludge of icebergs in a small boat, but definitely worth it. Global warming, it seems, has caused planktonic populations to rise, increasing the numbers of fish and sea mammals with easier access to Arctic coasts. I can't recall a time when the hunting culture was this strong, although bears are no longer hunted.

Warmth has made the recently stabilized bear population more dangerous, since the animals are reverting to the coastal/island hunting style of their ancestors. But their numbers are nevertheless small. The end of the bear hunt is no loss, especially in comparison to the gift of food that comes with bountiful sea mammals.

Unfortunately, for many, another variety of prospective boom is starting to resemble bust.

It's amazing to think back on all the sabre-rattling between the United States, Denmark and Canada over rights to the Northwest Passage only to have so many ships ripped apart by unanticipated icebergs. In 2018, there was a much hoopla over Canada's new U.S. friendly licensing system for foreign usage of Canadian Arctic waters, even though America had already been using the waters since 2009. The issue only came to the forefront of public awareness in 2011, when an American oil tanker was split open 300 kilometres from Gjoa Haven, ruining local fish stocks and poisoning coastlines.

Inuit made little headway when they complained that the bacterial strain used to clean up the oil was giving their children skin ulcerations. But the Canadian public at least roused itself once they saw pictures of afflicted seal pups.

The result was the licensing system introduced two years ago, along with heavy costs in CASP operations to make sure no illegal dumping, immigration, speculation or fishing occurs. Add to that the cost of rescue efforts to foreign ships. .

The Land (as Inuit call the Arctic), you see, has always liked to play tricks. In this case, all the profiteers were so busy expecting Arctic waters to dutifully refrain from solidifying that they forgot one thing: The pole is still far from ice-free and global warming goes on.

As ice farther north warms and breaks off, the resultant "slush" — ice chunks from the size of a baseball to that of a high-rise — floats south. Instead of the expected ice-free Northwest Passage, the Danish tankers shipping fresh water from Greenland and the U.S. tankers shipping oil have, instead, found themselves negotiating a treacherous, boreal labyrinth.

So many lives have already been ruined as a result of greed and lack of foresight. But that, too, is an old story in the Arctic.

The illusion of boom, of less permafrost and more shipping, lured hordes of southerners North over a decade ago, believing that the Arctic was destined to become prime real estate amid rushes for gold, sapphires and diamonds.

They found, instead, an Arctic that was warmer but nevertheless treeless and incapable of becoming any nation's new breadbasket; in which shipping costs left a bitter taste in the mouths of the most rapacious companies. They built homes and complexes they were already fleeing by the time 2015 rolled around — homes now occupied mostly by Inuit families.

And as they retreated to the South again, pockets empty and with bittersweet memories of a beautiful but strangely unprofitable land, they were haunted by a single, frustrating mystery: the knowledge that they could never say exactly why the Arctic hadn't been what they'd expected.

But Inuit elders could have told them. If anyone had bothered to ask, Inuit might have explained the Land to them. And you can bet the word nalunaktuq would have been uttered. Come back to the present for a bit, even the past, and we'll talk.

The root word of nalunaktuq is nalu, or "not knowing." In Inuktitut (the Inuit language), nalunaktuq loosely means "difficult to comprehend" or "unpredictable." But why should the Inuit perspective on such a thing matter? Well, besides the fact that their ever-burgeoning population makes up 86 per cent of Nunavut, Inuit have learned the harshest lessons from the Land. The best such lesson has been that of nalunaktuq, the fact that general trends serve as poor indicators of what the Arctic will actually do.

Many people believe Inuit survivability and Land-knowledge are one, but few suspect that both hinge upon an acceptance of the Land's protean nature.

Much of the popular shock over signs of warming in the Arctic stems from the assumption that, of all environments, the Arctic is traditionally the least inclined to change. This variety of pop sophism, however, is easily unmasked through even cursory examination of that era that birthed Inuit culture itself. For the truth is that Inuit are a young people, and they were shaped by previous global warming.

The planet Earth, between 800 A.D. and 1200 A.D., was a hot place. There are tales of rich apple orchards in England, and sunburns being common.

As occurs at any time, in any place, when things begin to heat up, people move around. History shows this to be one of the greatest eras of tribal migration and rise of empire.

Inuit first emerged out of Alaska, around the time of the warm period's onset. The warmth had given sea mammals ready access to Canada's Arctic Archipelago, and Inuit culture had adapted to specialize in hunting — basically eating their way eastward via innovations such as improved boats.

They did so well that, by 1,000 A.D. (the time of Leif Ericsson's discovery of "Vinland"), they were across Canada. By 1200 A.D., they were settled into Greenland, just in time for the planet to fall into its chilly phase once again.

Nevertheless, folklore — that subconscious history of a culture — never forgets. To this day, Inuit ajaraaq (string games) retain the string figure called Kigiaq. This is "The Beaver," an animal that once ranged as far as the Arctic, during the Earth's last warming period.

As heretical as it sounds within the context of pop dogma, the last time the planet grew hotter, it was actually good for Inuit. This is because Inuit are the embodiment of adaptability itself, and other peoples who direct eyes toward the Arctic would do well to emulate such elasticity.

Lately, we've become inundated with sweeping, nigh-hysterical publications along the lines of "Global warming will render 95 per cent of Arctic species extinct within 10 years," or "Climate change will destroy Inuit culture within a decade." We humans instinctively love a crusade; but a crusade is past-oriented, while adaptation is future-oriented.

We cannot trust crisis, since someone always profits from fear. Nor can we trust prediction, until the day science can provide us with an accurate five-day forecast. But we can trust in our heritage as an ancient species, and an adaptive one. We can trust in our own ability to change, if the Land will not.

The truth is that the Arctic is warming — but I fear more for how the South will react to it than I do for Inuit.

The common southern perception seems to be that global warming will reshape the North into the South, as though the Arctic were defined, up to this point, by cold alone. Many businesses view the Arctic as a new fruit ripe for the picking, counting on global warming as the friend who will give them a boost in reaching out for it.

But ask anyone who has lived in the Arctic for a time and they will tell you that its islands and shores are strewn with the bleached remnants of such ambition: shipping costs that mounted beyond control, inconstant yield, disastrous turns of weather. Who can count the number of disappointed ventures?

Inevitably, the next couple of decades promise the illusion of boom for the Arctic, perhaps, in some greed-maddened brains, the mistaken belief that a warmer North is about to sprout trees and spawn its own little Toronto. It simply won't happen, because even with the eventual melting of permafrost, the Arctic is poor in topsoil and gravel, twin requirements for the agriculture and construction necessary to sustain large populations.

Some might resort to the argument that population is a non-factor, and that fleets of international ships will directly connect North to South. But the attempt to do this very thing is what, I believe, will lay the groundwork for tragedy. My greatest fear is that shipping interests, driven by blind speculation, will brave the stew of icebergs resulting from inconstant freezing only to spill their ice-gutted bellies into Arctic waters as they fail.

How long, I wonder, will Arctic communities have to suffer such disasters before those companies finally pull out?

Inuit, until that day, will have to be patient and adapt. Inevitably, they'll watch it all, endure it as usual and feed the latest sea mammals, which will also use the Northwest Passage, to their children. Just like their ancestors did the last time the planet warmed.

And they will adapt, even as they whisper a prayer over the skeletons of those who refused to do the same. For Inuit have never owned the Land, having learned of old that it is no man's resource.

From CBC online at http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2006/08/31/suicide-study.html

Aboriginal study to examine youth suicide on reserves
August 31, 2006

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs launched a new study this week aimed at solving one of the biggest crises in the province's First Nations, youth suicide.

The assembly is working with the University of Manitoba's Centre for Aboriginal Health Research on the three-year project. It has also secured the expertise of Chris Lalonde, a psychology professor and a top international expert on aboriginal youth suicide from the University of Victoria.

Organizers announced details of the study on Tuesday at the Traditional Youth Gathering, the AMC's annual youth conference, near the Peguis First Nation on Fisher Bay.

Amanda Meawasige, the AMC's youth suicide prevention co-ordinator, said the study will be unique in that aboriginal people will be talking to aboriginal people.

"Suicide is such a very taboo issue, it's something we didn't want to be phoning around about," Meawasige said.

"We wanted to go in person, offer tobacco, do ceremonies if it's necessary, to actually begin asking these questions. We wanted to take a … culturally rooted attempt at it."

According to the AMC, young people on reserves kill themselves at rates five to seven times higher than other young people, but not all reserves suffer from high suicide rates, Meawasige said.

So the study will find out what those places are doing right.

"We can respond to our own crisis situation in ways that we know have worked for us," she said.

Meawasige said cultural activities, such as drumming and traditional craftwork, have also been known to help address youth suicide.

But Tanita Spence, 16, from Sandy Bay, said parents must set a good example for their children.

"The alcohol and drugs with their parents, and they're the ones [who] say, 'Oh, you guys are the future,' " she said. "And they don't even take care of us."

Tanita first tried to hang herself from a tree when she was 12 years old. "I just felt so empty, I guess. I felt unloved," she said.

AFN Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement Conference for Frontline Workers

REGISTRATION REQUESTED BY SEPTEMBER 6!

WHEN: Sept. 11-13, 2006

WHERE: Sheraton Wall Centre, 1088 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC

Click on the links below for more information.

• Poster/General Information
• Registration Form
• Draft Agenda 

Message from the AFN Residential School program coordinator:

The Assembly of First Nations – Indian Residential Schools Unit is requesting the assistance of your Tribal Council to distribute the enclosed information to your respective contacts. We also request confirmation of those community representatives in your area who will attend and participate in this conference.

We realize this is short notice and want to insure that your tribal area has the opportunity to participate. Please ensure participants who plan to attend are registered as soon as possible. Thanking you in advance for your assistance.

Charlene Belleau
Manager, AFN - Indian Residential Schools Unit

For more information, please visit our website at: www.afn.ca/residentialschools

Anishnabe and Metis women are working cooperatively to honour murdered and missing Aboriginal women by hosting an empowerment workshop and a march in September...

Co-organiser Agnes Esquega says the purpose of the workshop is to raise awareness about missing and murdered Aboriginal women and to provide young women especially those moving to Thunder Bay from the northern reserves with the information that they need to protect themselves... The workshop takes place on September 6th at Action for Neighbourhood Changes at 500 Simpson Street in Thunder Bay... The workshop is open to ages 14 and older... A march will follow... For more information call Agnes Esquega at (807) 475-0847 or Sharon Johnson at (807) 622-8429

Guitarists have been exchanging tips on how to play songs on a number of online guitar tablature sites. These are sites where amateur musicians trade “tabs” — music notation especially for guitar — for songs they have figured out or have copied from music books. The sites include Olga.net, GuitarTabs.com and MyGuitarTabs.com as well as discussion boards on the Google Groups service like alt.guitar.tab and rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature. Music publishers like Sony/ATV and EMI lose money if people obtain the music from such sites rather than purchasing commercially produced sheet music or books of guitar tablature, as do the artists who hold copyrights to their music. "Music Publishers’ Association and the National Music Publishers’ Association have shut down several Web sites, or have pressured them to remove all of their tabs, but users have quickly migrated to other sites. According to comScore Media Metrix, an Internet statistics service, Ultimate-Guitar.com had 1.4 million visitors in July, twice the number from a year earlier." BOB TEDESCHI, The New York Times, August 21, 2006, (free registration required). The article illustrates the potential of the World Wide Web and Internet to promote cultural exchages, and the power of the medium and some implications for its impact on commerce in cultural materials.  

From New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/technology/21ecom.html?ex=1156392000&en=619d14efa02e7c66&ei=5087%0A

Now the Music Industry Wants Guitarists to Stop Sharing

By BOB TEDESCHI, August 21, 2006

The Internet put the music industry and many of its listeners at odds thanks to the popularity of services like Napster and Grokster. Now the industry is squaring off against a surprising new opponent: musicians.

Lauren Keiser, president of the Music Publishers' Association, says guitar tablature Web sites reduce the earnings of songwriters.

In the last few months, trade groups representing music publishers have used the threat of copyright lawsuits to shut down guitar tablature sites, where users exchange tips on how to play songs like "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "Highway to Hell" and thousands of others.

The battle shares many similarities with the war between Napster and the music recording industry, but this time it involves free sites like Olga.net, GuitarTabs.com and MyGuitarTabs.com and even discussion boards on the Google Groups service like alt.guitar.tab and rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature, where amateur musicians trade "tabs" music notation especially for guitar for songs they have figured out or have copied from music books.

On the other side are music publishers like Sony/ATV, which holds the rights to the songs of John Mayer, and EMI, which publishes Christina Aguilera's music.

"People can get it for free on the Internet, and it's hurting the songwriters," said Lauren Keiser, who is president of the Music Publishers' Association and chief executive of Carl Fischer, a music publisher in New York.

So far, the Music Publishers' Association and the National Music Publishers' Association have shut down several Web sites, or have pressured them to remove all of their tabs, but users have quickly migrated to other sites. According to comScore Media Metrix, an Internet statistics service, Ultimate-Guitar.com had 1.4 million visitors in July, twice the number from a year earlier.

The publishers, who share royalties with composers each time customers buy sheet music or books of guitar tablature, maintain that tablature postings, even inaccurate ones, are protected by copyright laws because the postings represent "derivative works" related to the original compositions, to use the industry jargon.

The publishers told the sites that if they did not remove the tablatures, they could face legal action or their Internet service providers would be pressured to shut down their sites. All of the sites have taken down their tabs voluntarily, but grudgingly.

The tablature sites argue that they are merely conduits for an online discussion about guitar techniques, and that their services help the industry.

"The publishers can't dispute the fact that the popularity of playing guitar has exploded because of sites like mine," said Robert Balch, the publisher of Guitar Tab Universe (guitartabs.cc), in Los Angeles. "And any person that buys a guitar book during their lifetime, that money goes to the publishers."

Mr. Balch, who took down guitar tabs from his site in late July at the behest of the music publishers, added that, "I'd think the music publishers would be happy to have sites that get people interested in becoming one of their customers."

Cathal Woods, who manages Olga.net, one of the pioneer free tablature sites, said he had run the site for 14 years with the help of a systems administrator, "and we've never taken a penny." Mr. Woods, who teaches philosophy at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, said Olga.net had earned an undisclosed amount of money by posting ads on Google's behalf, but he said that money had paid for bandwidth and a legal defense fund.

Anthony DeGidio, a lawyer for Olga.net, said he was still formulating a legal strategy, while also helping decide whether the site could pay licensing fees "in the event that that's required." For now, though, the site remains unavailable to users.

Because the music tablature sites are privately held, they do not disclose sales figures, and because industry analysts generally do not closely follow tablature sites, it is unclear how much revenue they generate. But with the Internet advertising market surging, almost any Web site with significant traffic can generate revenue.

Google also dabbles in tablature through its Google Groups discussion board service, in which guitar players trade tabs they have figured out by listening to the songs, or by copying tabs found elsewhere. A Google spokesman, Steve Langdon, said Google would take down music tablature from its Groups service if publishers claimed the materials violated copyright agreements and if Google determined that infringement was likely. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Web hosts may review, case by case, a publisher's claims regarding instances of copyright infringement.

To hear music publishers tell it, though, the tablature sites are getting away with mass theft. Mr. Keiser, of the Music Publishers' Association, said that before these sites started operating in the early '90s, the most popular printed tablatures typically sold 25,000 copies in a year. Now the most popular sell 5,000 copies at most.

But Mike Happoldt, who was a member of the '90's band Sublime and whose music is sold in sheet music books, said he sympathized with the tablature sites.

"I think this is greed on the publishers' parts," said Mr. Happoldt, who played guitar on Sublime's hit "What I Got."

"I guess in a way I might be losing money from these sites, but as a musician I look at it more as a service," said Mr. Happoldt, who now owns an independent record company, Skunk Records.

"And really, those books just don't sell that much for most people." 

Assuming a tablature site musters the legal resources to challenge the publishers in court, some legal scholars say they believe publishers may have difficulty arguing their complaints successfully. Jonathan Zittrain, the professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University, said "it isn't at all clear" that the publishers' claim would succeed because no court doctrine has been written on guitar tablature.

Mr. Zittrain said the tablature sites could well have a free speech defense. But because the Supreme Court, in a 2003 case involving the extension of copyright terms, declined to determine when overenforcement or interpretation of copyright might raise a free speech problem, the success of that argument was questionable. "It's possible, though, that this is one reason why guitar tabs generated by people would be found to fit fair use," Mr. Zittrain said, "or would be found not to be a derivative work to begin with."

Doug Osborn, an executive vice president with Ultimate-Guitar.com said his site violated no laws because its headquarters were in Russia, and the site's practices complied with Russian laws.

Jacqueline C. Charlesworth, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Music Publishers' Association, would not comment on the legality of specific sites, including Ultimate- Guitar, but she said she had seen no international licensing agreements that might make free United States distribution of guitar tablature legal.

Online discussion boards have been thick with comments from guitar tablature fans, looking for sites that are still operating and lamenting the fate of sites they frequented. One user of the guitarnoise.com forums, who calls himself "the dali lima," said he had no doubt that the music publishers would win the battle.

"Hopefully we will get to a place where the sheet music/tab will be available online just like music $0.99 a song. The ironic thing might be that a service like that with fully licensed music/tab offered at a low per song rate might actually benefit guitar players by providing the correct music/tab and not the garbage that we currently sift through."

A small handful of sheet music sites now sell guitar tablature. Mr. Keiser, of the Music Publishers' Association, estimated that, including overhead costs, tablature could cost about $800 per song to produce, license and format for downloading.

Musicnotes, an online sheet music business based in Madison, Wis., is considering a deeper push into guitar tablature, said Tim Reiland, the company's chairman and chief financial officer. The site has a limited array of tablature available now for about $5 a song, and it also offers tablature as part of $10 downloadable guitar lessons.

But Mr. Reiland said that with the music publishers "dealing with the free sites," and a stronger ad market, his business might be able to lower the cost of its guitar tabs.

"Maybe we could sell some of the riffs to Jimmy Page's solo in 'Stairway to Heaven' for a buck, since that's really what the kids want to learn anyway," Mr. Reiland said.

Low prices are only part of the battle, though, Mr. Reiland said. The free tablature sites often host vibrant communities of musicians, who rate each other's tablature and trade ideas and commentary, and Musicnotes would have to find a way to replicate that environment on its site. Furthermore, these communities often create tablature for songs that have little or no commercial value, he said.

"Less than 25 percent of the music out there ends up in sheet music because sometimes it just doesn't pay to do it," Mr. Reiland said. "So the fact that someone comes up with a transcription themselves just because they love that song and want to share it with people, there's some value to that."

"I don't have an answer for that," Mr. Reiland added. "But I think the industry needs to play around with it, because it could be a nice source of revenue for songwriters, and for the community it could be a really good thing.

From http://www.timminspress.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=168629&catname=Local+News&classif=

Military, Ontario have plan to clean up radar bases near Hudson Bay - CP - Saturday, August 26, 2006

A plan to clean up 17 toxic radar bases in Northern Ontario could soon be up for federal approval, the Defence Department says.

Department spokesman Doug Drever said Friday military officials have spoken with senior Ontario government officials on a joint effort to clean up abandoned radar posts along the southern shore of Hudson Bay and the western shore of James Bay.

The sites have been contaminating nearby First Nation communities for decades.

"As a result of these discussions, senior government officials have developed an approach that will be presented to the federal government for approval," Drever said.

"The time frame for this is not known at this time."

The sites were once part of the Mid-Canada Radar Line, built in the 1960s.

When the sites were abandoned they were turned over to the province. At many sites, barrels of oil, fuel and PCBs have been left to rust for decades.

As a result, contaminants have leached into the hunting grounds and waterways of dozens of First Nations communities.

MP Charlie Angus (NDP - Timmins-James Bay) says a federal government advisory telling the communities not to eat wild animals or fish is useless, since these animals are such a vital food source for the First Nations.

"These people have to survive off wild game," he said. "They have no other choice."

Angus said was pleased that the military has changed its tone on the issue, but said First Nations communities need a firm timeline for the work to be done.

"The commitment to talk is better than the position that (then Defence Minister) Bill Graham took, which was to stonewall us," Angus said.

"But, a commitment to talk is not a commitment to clean up."

Angus described the First Nations community along the northern stretch of the Winisk River as Ground Zero for contamination.

At an old radar base near that community, aerial photos show thousands of rusty barrels stacked 10 high left to deteriorate.

Thousands of barrels have already washed into the river, elevating the amount of PCBs to dangerous levels, Angus said.

At another site north of Kapuskasing, the level of PCBs in the ground is 16,000 times above acceptable amounts, Ontario government documents indicate.

Angus said he wants the federal government commit to a long-term health study on the effects of these toxic radar bases on nearby First Nations communities.

He said higher cancer rates in these communities illustrate how serious the problem has become over the last several decades.