Lenny Carpenter — Wawatay News

Youth in northern Ontario had the opportunity to enhance their hockey and leadership skills during Right to Play’s hockey camp tour of Attawapiskat, Webequie, Sachigo Lake and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI).
Right to Play, an international organization that uses sports to educate and empower youth facing adversity, brought its Hockey for Development program to the northern communities along with a former NHL player and an Olympic gold medalist.

Sage Mawakeesick was only doing what he felt was his duty when he volunteered to help during Sandy Lake’s evacuation last summer.
As a forest fire threatened his community, Mawakeesick stepped up and volunteered his services to the local Canadian Ranger patrol sergeant after an evacuation was declared.
“As soon as I heard, I immediately knew I had to do something,” the 17-year-old said. “As a Junior Ranger, I just had to do it.”
On Feb. 28, Mawakeesick was commended for his efforts by the commanding officer of the Canadian Rangers in northern Ontario.

Lakehead University students conducting a sit in protest outside the university president’s office have rejected a proposed solution developed by the school administration and Aboriginal leaders.
Lee Stuesser, dean of Lakehead’s new law school, had hoped a proposed new course developed in coordination with NAN Deputy Grand Chief Goyce Kakegamic and Metis Nation of Ontario’s president and CEO Gary Lipinski would satisfy the student protestors.

Global warming continues to be a topic studied in Canada considering the impacts it has on the country’s weather, especially in northern regions.
Recently, a group of researchers from Montreal’s McGill and Concordia universities predicted the widespread disappearance of outdoor hockey rinks across the country over the next 50 years due to global warming.
The scientists — Nikolay Damyanov and Lawrence Mysak of McGill and Concordia’s Damon Matthews — tracked historical temperature trends recorded since 1951 at 142 meteorological stations in every corner of the country.

Residents in the Moosonee-Cochrane region likely saw a flurry of military activity during the week of Feb. 11-21.
Contingents from the Canadian army, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Rangers took part in Exercise Trillium Response, an annual field training exercise aimed at developing and maintaining the armed forces’ capability and expertise to conduct various operations in remote areas and austere conditions.
This year’s exercise focused on a “defense of Canada” scenario in the region.