Grand River Research Articles

Development of thin-film solid-phase microextraction coating and method for determination of artificial sweeteners in surface waters

A semi-automated and sensitive method was developed for simultaneous determination of the six most consumed artificial sweeteners (AS) in surface waters using thin-film solid-phase microextraction (TF-SPME) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A triple quadrupole mass spectrometer and an electrospray ionization source (ESI-MS) run in negative ionization and multiple reaction monitoring modes were employed for instrumental analysis. The TF-SPME method was optimized for the extraction phase, sample pH, desorption solvent, extraction time, and desorption time. In-house-synthetized-hydrophilic-lipophilic balance weak anion exchange (HLB-WAX) particles imbedded within a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) binder were selected as the extraction phase for the thin-film coating due to their cost-effectiveness and enhanced sensitivity for artificial sweeteners. Suitable analytical parameters that include linearity (R2 > 0.9914), recovery > 80%, inter, and intra-reproducibility less than 18% were obtained for the AS compounds studied. The developed method estimated limits of detection (LODs) ranging from 0.004 to 0.038 ng mL−1 The SPME method was successfully applied for the determination of ultra-trace levels of AS in water samples collected from Grand River (Ontario, Canada), downstream of three municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Concentrations ranging from 0.03 to 20.3 ng mL−1 were found for the AS compounds studied.

Queering the Waters: The Subversive Potential in E. Pauline Johnson's Canoe

Queering the WatersThe Subversive Potential in E. Pauline Johnson's Canoe Kristen Brown (bio) O, sweetest of all music, the far-off laughter of a rapid, rollicking and scampering among its stones. Nearer, nearer it came; the ripple grew into a roar, the sweet, wild laughter arose into boisterous, tempestuous merriment, and in another moment we swirled round a bend, dashing headlong into a tossing, twirling mass of waters that fretted and fumed themselves into eddies and whirlpools and showers of pearly spray, with a petulance that defied restraint. —E. Pauline Johnson, "Forty-Five Miles on the Grand" (1892) Thinking about queerness through gesture animates how bodies move in the world, and how we assign meaning in ways that are always already infused with cultural modes of knowing. —Juana María Rodríguez, Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings Emily Pauline Johnson was a master of gestures, both literal and figurative. Whether steering her canoe through the rapids of the Grand River or taking her recital tour to the elite of London, her hyperconscious self-fashioning of her public persona emphasized her doubleness as Mohawk princess and Victorian New Woman. The quote above, taken from an article in Ontario's Brantford Expositor, appeared during the emergence of Canada's recreational canoe craze in the late-Victorian era. The newspaper situates Johnson's essay after a leading, multipage article proudly touts Brantford's "early settlement" a century earlier, when the "sturdy and true pioneers of the province appeared upon the scene" (1). What follows are two pages replete with dozens of photographs of "The Representative Men of Brantford County," a visual reminder of the hierarchy and ambition in the growing town. Juxtaposing this account of settler [End Page 137] colonialism with Johnson's relatively lighthearted narrative of paddling forty-five miles on the Grand River renders both texts testaments to British North America's successful navigation of settler-Indigenous relations and concomitant establishment of patriarchal power structures. Interspersing her story with photographs of the Brantford Canoe Club and other athletic organizations, the emerging newspaper culture simultaneously posits the newly named province of Ontario's—and, by extension, Canada's—dedication to physical vitality and modern leisure. Like the calculating editorial staff at the Expositor, Johnson, too, had a knack for shrewd moves and nuanced navigation. A close look at her article reveals the often overlapping and seemingly contradictory characteristics that affected a great deal of her writing and performance. First she fashions herself as a modern Mohawk who is loyal to the British Crown, taking care along her narrated canoe run to identify sites like the home of Alexander Graham Bell (who was a friend of her father's and named an honorary chief of the Mohawks) and "the oldest chapel in Upper Canada … built especially for the Mohawks" (20). While Johnson's amicable references to these constructed sites suggest a cultural hybridity, her narration is also prone to place-based musings of an ecologically dynamic, pre-settler space.1 Though she opens the article with the declaration that "Ontario boasts many a beautiful inland river" and reminds readers that "a lovelier run cannot be found in the province," she still laments the loss of the "erstwhile rapids" whose remaining ripples and rills are but "souvenirs of the long ago" and recalls "the olden days" before the Grand became "a broad, semi-sluggish stretch of water, owing to many mills and their requisite dams" (17). The photograph accompanying Johnson's narrative depicts her attired in the materials of modern leisure expected of proper female canoeists, yet she sits alone in the stern, poised and in possession of the sole means with which to navigate the fragile vessel through the rapids that remain—the paddle (fig. 1). While her rhetoric and appearance express congenial acceptance of late-Victorian era behavior and the British empire's land claims with their requisite names and borders, she simultaneously embodies the memory and unchecked energy of precolonial, prepatriarchal, [End Page 138] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig 1. E. Pauline Johnson in canoe. Photo courtesy of the Brant Historical Society. unbordered ecology, proudly aligning herself with what once was "the most...

Custom, Text, and Property: Indians, Squatters, and Political Authority in Jacksonian Michigan

A controversy over land in the Grand River Valley of Michigan reached the United States Attorney General's office in 1837. The quarrel warrants attention not only because the lands had value but because it engaged several groups with competing understandings of their rights to property. Native Americans confronted settlers, who confronted one another. At one level, the dispute pitted two forms of customary rights—one exercised by Indians and the other by squatters—against the demands of capital and the discipline of the state. But on another level, the contest reveals how in the early national period, irregular settlers could look to law, Native people could speak the language of improvement and look to text, and advocates of federal order could invoke imaginary violence.

Prediction of Optical and Non-Optical Water Quality Parameters in Oligotrophic and Eutrophic Aquatic Systems Using a Small Unmanned Aerial System

The purpose of this study was to create different statistically reliable predictive algorithms for trophic state or water quality for optical (total suspended solids (TSS), Secchi disk depth (SDD), and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a)) and non-optical (total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN)) water quality variables or indicators in an oligotrophic system (Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) Duck Creek Nursery Ponds) and a eutrophic system (City of Commerce, Oklahoma, Wastewater Lagoons) using remote sensing images from a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) equipped with a multispectral imaging sensor. To develop these algorithms, two sets of data were acquired: (1) In-situ water quality measurements and (2) the spectral reflectance values from sUAS imagery. Reflectance values for each band were extracted under three scenarios: (1) Value to point extraction, (2) average value extraction around the stations, and (3) point extraction using kriged surfaces. Results indicate that multiple variable linear regression models in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum best describe the relationship between TSS (R2 = 0.99, p-value = <0.01), SDD (R2 = 0.88, p-value = <0.01), Chl-a (R2 = 0.85, p-value = <0.01), TP (R2 = 0.98, p-value = <0.01) and TN (R2 = 0.98, p-value = <0.01). In addition, this study concluded that ordinary kriging does not improve the fit between the different water quality parameters and reflectance values.

Seasonal nutrient export dynamics in a mixed land use subwatershed of the Grand River, Ontario, Canada

Algal blooms in the Great Lakes are a concern due to excess nutrient loading from non-point sources; however, there is uncertainty over the relative contributions of various non-point sources under different types of land use in rural watersheds, particularly over annual time scales. Four nested subwatersheds in Southern Ontario, Canada (one natural woodlot, two agricultural and one mixed agricultural and urban) were monitored over one year to identify peak periods (‘hot moments’) and areas (‘hot spots’) of nutrient (dissolved reactive phosphorus, DRP; total phosphorus, TP; and nitrate, NO3−) export and discharge. Annual nutrient export was small at the natural site (0.001 kg DRP ha−1; 0.004 kg TP ha−1; 0.04 kg NO3—N ha−1) compared to the agricultural and mixed-use sites (0.10–0.15 kg DRP ha−1; 0.70–0.94 kg TP ha−1; 9.15–11.55 kg NO3—N ha−1). Temporal patterns in P concentrations were similar throughout the sites, where spring was the dominant season for P export, irrespective of land use. Within the Hopewell Creek watershed, P and N hot spots existed that were consistently hot spots across all events with the location of these hot spots driven by local land use patterns, where there was elevated P export from a dairy-dominated sub-watershed and elevated N export from both of the two agricultural sub-watersheds. These estimates of seasonal- and event-based nutrient loads and discharge across nested sub-watersheds contribute to the growing body of evidence demonstrating the importance of identifying critical areas and periods in which to emphasize management efforts.

Shifting Cattle Producer Beliefs on Stocking and Invasive Forage: Implications for Grassland Conservation

To advance the dialogue to define sustainable working landscapes, it is essential to include the perceptions, knowledge, and factors guiding decision making. We surveyed livestock producers in the Grand River Grasslands region of southern Iowa and northern Missouri, United States, to gain insight into key factors shaping decision making and perspectives on effective management practices in the eastern Great Plains, focusing in particular on demographic and social change and producer willingness to reduce stocking rate as a conservation practice. First, a longitudinal evaluation of livestock producer demographics in 2007 and 2017 revealed individuals were older and were renting grazing land to a greater extent than in 2007. Second, when making land management decisions, producers in 2017 focused on economic concerns more than environmental concerns compared with more balanced views in 2007. For those who prioritized the environment over economics, this prioritization was related to both higher levels of education and a willingness to reduce stocking rate (livestock production) if there is a positive conservation outcome. In contrast, a lower willingness to reduce stocking was associated with increasing rental acreage and prevalence of an invasive cool-season grass that responds favorably to heavy grazing (tall fescue, Schedonorus arundinaceus Schreb.). Regardless, about 37% of cattle producers representing ∼40% of the land area surveyed were at least moderately willing to reduce stocking rates to achieve a conservation outcome. In conclusion, our findings suggest that producers’ need to gain income from livestock may limit the willingness to enact a conservation practice similar to reduced stocking rates. However, there is clearly conservation receptiveness from a segment of the producer community, which indicates potential for improved conservation.

Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital

Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital

Maximum entropy method for flood frequency analysis: A case study of the Grand River in Ontario, Canada

Flood frequency analysis provides the fundamental information for the design of hydraulic and civil infrastructure facilities as well as water resources management. The available procedures to determine flood distributions and their parameters from historical data suffer from restriction on the family of presumed standard classical distributions, such as gamma distribution and extreme value distributions. This paper presents a distribution-free approach for flood frequency analysis by using the combination of maximum entropy method and Akaike’s information criterion. The determination procedure is given in a flowchart. It is distribution-free because no classical distributions were presumed in advance and the inference result gives a universal form of probability curves. Comparative studies from historical flood data show that the proposed method can, accurately and reasonably, characterize the probabilistic information of observed or transformed flood data.

Identifying Opportunities to Conserve Farm Ponds on Private Lands: Integration of Social, Ecological, and Historical Data

In some landscapes, effective conservation of wildlife habitat requires extending beyond the boundaries of reserves and addressing stewardship of private lands. This approach could be especially valuable for the conservation of farm ponds, which are abundant and serve key agricultural functions on private lands. Though farm ponds also provide wildlife habitat, little is known about how they are managed or how values and beliefs of their owners relate to their quality. To address this knowledge gap, we collected data on pond habitat quality and management using historical aerial imagery and high-resolution Google Earth satellite imagery of the Grand River Grasslands of southern Iowa and Northern Missouri. We also collected spatially congruent social data using a mail back survey sent to 456 landowners in the region (32.7% response rate). We used mixed-effects linear regression to link indicators of habitat quality to the survey results. We found that many ponds were permanent, accessible to cattle, in early successional states, and had little wetland vegetation, indicating a scarcity of suitable habitat for wildlife. At the same time, 35–57% of survey respondents said they would be willing to change their management to benefit aquatic organisms. Our analyses indicated that higher cover of cattails correlated with ownership by respondents who regarded row crops or income from agriculture as less important and ponds tended to be temporary if owned by respondents who had many ponds. Moving forward, large landowners and those willing to manage their land to benefit wildlife may constitute a core set of future partners for conservation efforts focused on improving pond habitat in the region.

Pumped Storage Hydro: Reliable Choice for the New Electric Storage Era

The use of electric storage is a critical component to the integration of intermittent clean energy technologies on the electric grid. That being said, however, just mentioning Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) to some stakeholders often unleashes a torrent of criticism of how its use adversely affects riverine and lake aquatic systems. In addition, opponents cite the high cost of PSH as an argument against using PSH as an energy storage technology. This opposition explains, in part, why only 42 PSH projects were built in the United States since 1929 by electric utilities, and public power and water authorities like the New York Power Authority, California Department of Water Resources, and Grand River Dam Authority.

Supporting cancer patients quit smoking: the initial evaluation of our tobacco cessation intervention program

AbstractBackground:Tobacco is a known addictive consumer product and its use has been reported to be associated with several health problems as well as the leading cause of premature, preventable mortality worldwide. For patients undergoing cancer treatment, tobacco smoking can potentially compromise treatment effectiveness; however, there is sufficient evidence suggesting numerous health benefits of smoking cessation interventions for cancer patients.Methods:The Grand River Regional Cancer Centre (GRRCC) smoking cessation program began in October 2013 to provide evidence-based intensive tobacco intervention to patients. All new patients are screened for tobacco use and those identified as active smokers are advised of the benefits of cessation and offered referral to the program where a cessation nurse offers counseling. Patients’ disease site, initial cessation goal, quit date, number of quit attempts and mode of contact are collected by the cessation nurse. This study reports on the initial evaluation of the smoking cessation program activities at GRRCC.Results:There are 1,210 patients who were screened, accepted a referral and counseled in the program. The referral pattern shows a modest increase every year and most of the patients (58%) indicated readiness to quit smoking. Overall, 29 and 26% of patients either quit or cut-back smoking, respectively. Among 348 patients who quit smoking, 300 (86%) were able to quit at the first attempt. The data indicated that 309 (44%) out of the 698 patients who indicated their initial intent to quit smoking were able to quit, whereas about 242 (35%) were able to cutback. A total of 15 patients out of 32 who indicated initial readiness to ‘cutback’ smoking were able to reduce tobacco use and three patients actually ended up quitting, although their initial goal was ‘ready-to-cut-back’.Conclusions:GRRCC smoking cessation program started in October 2013 to provide evidence-based intensive smoking cessation interventions for patients with cancer. Most patients referred to the program indicated a readiness to quit smoking affirming that if patients become aware of the various risks associated with continual smoking or if they are informed of the benefits associated with cessation with regard to their treatment, they will be more likely to decide to quit. Therefore, it is essential that patients, their partners and families are counseled on the health and treatment benefits of smoking cessation and sustainable programs should be available to support them to quit smoking. It is imperative then, that oncology programs should consistently identify and document the smoking status of cancer patients and support those who use tobacco at the time of diagnosis to quit. Evidence-based smoking cessation intervention should be sustainably integrated into the cancer care continuum in all oncology programs from prevention of cancer through diagnosis, treatment, survivorship and palliative care.

Application of continuous turbidity sensors to supplement estimates of total phosphorus concentrations in the Grand River, Ontario, Canada

Accurate estimates of total phosphorus (TP) loadings to eastern Lake Erie are critical for developing load reduction targets and for determining if commitments are being met under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, 2012 (GLWQA). Currently, loading calculations from Canadian priority tributaries are supported by year-round event-focused water quality sampling using automated samplers and laboratory water quality measurements. Here we evaluate the suitability of continuously-measured parameters, namely turbidity and flow, to supplement or enhance knowledge about TP concentrations in the Grand River, ON, by providing continuous data alongside event-focused sample measurements. A series of simple and multiple linear regression models were evaluated and compared with respect to their ability to predict TP water concentrations as a function of different combinations of explanatory variables. Explanatory variables included turbidity, flow, season and flow condition (i.e. hysteresis). The models that performed best explained 63–65% of the variation of TP which is comparable to surrogate model applications in the U. S and elsewhere. Additional model calibration work is needed due to gaps in turbidity data particularly during high flow events. We emphasize the need for continued automated, event-focused water quality sampling. However, provided that operational challenges are overcome, our results indicate that sensor-derived water quality parameters to predict TP concentrations is a promising technique that may supplement and improve nutrient loading estimates in the Grand River into the future and provides guidance for the utilization of this method in other tributaries.

Hybrid models to improve the monthly river flow prediction: Integrating artificial intelligence and non-linear time series models

Prediction of river flow as a fundamental source of hydrological information plays a crucial role in various fields of water projects. In this study, at first, the capabilities of two time series analysis approaches, namely self-exciting threshold autoregressive (SETAR) and generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models, then three artificial intelligence approaches including artificial neural networks (ANN), multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), and random forests (RF) models were investigated to predict monthly river flow. For this purpose, monthly river flow data of Brantford and Galt stations on Grand River, Canada, for the period from October 1948 to September 2017 were used and their performances were evaluated based on various evaluation criteria. The SETAR model showed better performance than the GARCH one in prediction of river flows at the stations of study. Additionally, the stand-alone MARS and RF models performed slightly better than the ANN. Next, hybrid models were developed by coupling the used ANN, MARS, and RF models with SETAR and GARCH models as the non-linear time series models. The performance of various models presented in this study indicated that the new hybrid models demonstrated a much better performance compared with the stand-alone ones at both stations. Among the developed hybrid models, the RF-SETAR models generally had the best accuracy to improve the river flows modeling. As a result, it can be concluded that the presented methodology can be used to predict hydrological time series such as river flow with a high level of accuracy.

Quantifying the fate of wastewater nitrogen discharged to a Canadian river

Addition of nutrients, such as nitrogen, can degrade water quality in lakes, rivers, and estuaries. To predict the fate of nutrient inputs, an understanding of the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients is needed. We develop and employ a novel, parsimonious, process-based model of nitrogen concentrations and stable isotopes that quantifies the competing processes of volatilization, biological assimilation, nitrification, and denitrification in nutrient-impacted rivers. Calibration of the model to nitrogen discharges from two wastewater treatment plants in the Grand River, Ontario, Canada, show that ammonia volatilization was negligible relative to biological assimilation, nitrification, and denitrification within 5 km of the discharge points.

Contrasting Water Quality Treatments Result in Structural and Functional Changes to Wetland Plant-Associated Microbial Communities in Lab-Scale Mesocosms.

The impact of contrasting water quality treatments on wetland plant-associated microbial communities was investigated in this study using 12 lab-scale wetland mesocosms (subsurface flow design) planted with reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) or water speedwell (Veronica anagallis-aquatica) over a 13-week period. Mesocosms received water collected from two sites along the Grand River (Ontario, Canada) designated as having either high or poor water quality according to Grand River Conservation Authority classifications. All mesocosms were established using sediment collected from the high water quality site and received water from this source pre-treatment. Resulting changes to microbial community structure were assessed using PCR-denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis (DGGE) on microbial 16S rDNA sequences extracted from rhizoplane, rhizosphere, and water samples before and after exposure to water quality treatments. Functional community changes were determined using Biolog™ EcoPlates which assess community-level carbon source utilization profiles. Wetland mesocosm removal of inorganic nutrients (N, P) and fecal coliforms was also determined, and compared among treatments. Treatment-specific effects were assessed using a repeated measures restricted maximum likelihood (REML) analysis. Structural and functional characteristics of rhizoplane microbial communities were significantly influenced by the interaction between plant species and water treatment (P = 0.04, P = 0.01). Plant species-specific effects were observed for rhizosphere structural diversity (P = 0.01) and wetland water community metabolic diversity (P = 0.03). The effect of water treatment alone was significant for structural diversity measurements in wetland water communities (P = 0.03). The effect of plant species, water quality treatment, and the interaction between the two is dependent on the microhabitat type (rhizoplane, rhizosphere, or water). Rhizoplane communities appear to be more sensitive to water quality-specific environmental changes and may be a good candidate for microbial community-based monitoring of wetland ecosystems.

Characterizing species co-occurrence patterns of imperfectly detected stream fishes to inform species reintroduction efforts.

Species reintroduction efforts can improve the recovery of imperiled species, but successful implementation of this conservation strategy requires a thorough understanding of the abiotic and biotic factors influencing species viability. Species interactions are especially understudied, in particular by omitting the effect of imperfect detection on negative, neutral, or positive associations within a community. Using repeat surveys from 5 southern Ontario, Canada, Great Lakes tributaries, we quantified species co-occurrence patterns with the eastern sand darter (ESD) (Ammocrypta pellucida), listed as federally threatened, and characterized how imperfect detection during sampling can influence inference regarding these relationships. We used a probabilistic framework that included 3 approaches of increasing complexity: probabilistic co-occurrence analysis ignoring imperfect detection; single-species occupancy models with subsequent co-occurrence analysis; and 2-species occupancy models. We then used our occupancy models to predict suitable sites for potential future reintroduction efforts while considering the influence of negative species interactions. Based on the observed data, ESD showed several positive associations with co-occurring species; however, species associations differed when imperfect detection was considered. Specifically, a negative association between ESD and rosyface shiner (Notropis rubellus) was observed only after accounting for imperfect detection in the Grand River. Alternatively, positive associations in the Grand River between ESD and northern hogsucker (Hypentelium nigricans) and silver shiner (Notropis photogenis) were observed regardless of whether imperfect detection was accounted for. Our models predicted several potential reintroduction sites for ESD in formerly occupied watersheds with high levels of certainty. Overall, our results demonstrate the importance of investigating imperfect detection and species co-occurrence when planning reintroduction efforts.

Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital

Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital

Water Security Assessment of the Grand River Watershed in Southwestern Ontario, Canada

Water security is the capability of a community to have adequate access to good quality and a sufficient quantity of water as well as safeguard resources for the future generations. Understanding the spatial and temporal variabilities of water security can play a pivotal role in sustainable management of fresh water resources. In this study, a long-term water security analysis of the Grand River watershed (GRW), Ontario, Canada, was carried out using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT). Analyses on blue and green water availability and water security were carried out by dividing the GRW into eight drainage zones. As such, both anthropogenic as well as environmental demand were considered. In particular, while calculating blue water scarcity, three different methods were used in determining the environmental flow requirement, namely, the presumptive standards method, the modified low stream-flow method, and the variable monthly flow method. Model results showed that the SWAT model could simulate streamflow dynamics of the GRW with ‘good’ to ‘very good’ accuracy with an average Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency of 0.75, R2 value of 0.78, and percentage of bias (PBIAS) of 8.23%. Sen’s slope calculated using data from over 60 years confirmed that the blue water flow, green water flow, and storage had increasing trends. The presumptive standards method and the modified low stream-flow method, respectively, were found to be the most and least restrictive method in calculating environmental flow requirements. While both green (0.4–1.1) and blue (0.25–2.0) water scarcity values showed marked temporal and spatial variabilities, blue water scarcity was found to be the highest in urban areas on account of higher water usage and less blue water availability. Similarly, green water scarcity was found to be highest in zones with higher temperatures and intensive agricultural practices. We believe that knowledge of the green and blue water security situation would be helpful in sustainable water resources management of the GRW and help to identify hotspots that need immediate attention.

Baba Yaga, Detroit

69 MARY KAISER Baba Yaga, Detroit  Cupping a skull in my hands, candlelight casting a forked beam from its sockets, (because a skeleton can open any lock), I have found my way into the clearing. My granny’s house settles on knobby knees, trembling to receive me. Inside, aprons starched, their earlobes hanging low and soft, grey curls netted, the girls are waiting. They have lived in this house all their lives. Julia’s father was a farmer who fought for Mr. Lincoln. Julia learned to snip savage beads from Indian moccasins, her final gesture a turn of the heel, her work flat and thin until Edma’s hand came after her pulling a thread, hand of the bee. Every lock, no matter how flimsy, protects some treasure, so every Wednesday before the house grew legs, white girls in their fifties would wrap the pelts of vixens around their shoulders, and pulling flocked nets over their eyes, they’d lunch downtown at the city club in the book tower near the courts and the gold fisher dome. 70 In midcentury winter twilight, Eunice would sail homeward down grand river in her sky-blue fairlane, her satin pillbox floating inches above the dashboard, through streets where wild dogs roamed, past houses with no heat, no water, dark streets white people pretended not to see. In those days she was always lucky at cards, returning to her mother’s house brandishing a better pestle or a smoother spinning lazy susan, the false stones on her lobes sparkling when she laughed. Before the house grew legs, Mary Sylvia dyed her eggs with onionskins and laid them among crocuses in the warm loam of their magical clearing. Tiger-stripe, tortoise shell, she carried her work wherever she went. And as any key, no matter how unwieldy, promises release, so, in July a drawl floated out of the kitchen window before the house grew legs, cool as a breeze from Mackinaw, chanting a pop fly past the lefty in right field standing stock-still as a house by the side of the road, the seventh stretching, never calling a perfect game until the last pitch crossed the plate. But candles gutter and hollow bones give no light. I step away and turn to watch 71 as my granny’s house, rising on scaly legs, lifts then plops one huge webbed sole after the other across the grass, lurching pigeon-toed into the shadows, listing gently, top-heavy. The lot is empty. All the spells are broken, and the city has lost all its keys. Hard rains soak the soil and open the pods of impenetrable greens. Finally, they can breathe. ...

Revisiting the Labrador Boundary Decision to Include Indigenous Interpretations of the Region

This article examines the lack of Indigenous considerations in settling the Labrador boundary dispute between Quebec and Newfoundland. The Dominion of Newfoundland granted timber permits to the Grand River Pulp and Lumber Company in Labrador in 1902, an act Quebec contested, given its claim to the territory. The final decision by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in 1927 largely relied on Newfoundland’s definition of the word coast, granting Newfoundland significant territory at Quebec’s expense. Ignored throughout the process were the Indigenous peoples of Northern Quebec and the Labrador region. This is significant and, as our analysis of the Inuit, Innut, and Algonquian peoples reveals, their concept of the Labrador territory differed greatly from that of both governments. Influenced by their semi-nomadic lifestyle and trade patterns, their understanding of the Labrador territory was larger than that conceived of by Newfoundland or Quebec. This is substantial and provides us with a fuller understanding of the Labrador boundary dispute, and how the inclusion of Indigenous understandings in the dispute may have impacted decision making. On a broader scale, the paper contributes to regional scholarship on the historical relationships between the governments of Quebec and Newfoundland and the Indigenous peoples of the Labrador region. The fact the JCPC ignored known Indigenous knowledge and worldviews is a reflection of Canada’s colonial history.