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January/February 2008 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Feature: Polar vision Feature: Carbon cemetery Feature: North Shore highway The Inside Story Editor's Notebook Reverberations Explorer À la carte Mosaic

On the road Writer Christopher Frey embarked on a two-week journey through Quebec’s Lower North Shore to learn about the region’s rich history and culture and to discover what a planned road through the isolated towns and villages might bring Story by Christopher Frey
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Day 4-5: St. Augustine
The parking lot of the local arena is filled with snowmobiles at rest — keys left in the ignition of almost every one. Inside, the Blanc Sablon Chiefs have taken to the ice for their pre-game warm-up against the team from Pakua Shipi. The Innu children gathered around me in the stands happily boo and taunt the players.

The Chiefs are easy favourites to win. They are younger, faster and more finely tuned. But Pakua Shipi plays a spirited, hard-hitting game and scores the first goal. The crowd, packed thick in the rafters, is delighted. As the game wears on, however, the Chiefs take control and pot four unanswered markers. The children, clambering exuberantly over the plexiglass, laugh when their own players stumble. Even as their team loses 4-1, spirits are high. The score is closer than anyone expected.

Hockey is an integral part of the coast’s winter culture, as important as the snowmobiling and ice fishing. You’ll find a tournament somewhere on the coast every weekend in winter, but the largest showdowns are held in St. Augustine, thanks to its approximate location in the centre of the region.

As important as what happens on the ice this weekend is a party planned for tonight. A large hall overlooking the rink hosts coasters from miles around. When I leave at about 2 a.m., there’s still a steady stream of arrivals dancing to a rather enterprising one-man band — back-up tapes accompany his electric guitar. If there were no police in town, the bar would stay open until sunrise. Instead, with the Sureté du Quebec eyeing things, organizers have been told to shut things down by five.

Day 6: Pakua Shipi
I spend most of the day talking with Beaudoin Lalo, the 41-year-old addiction counselor for Pakua Shipi. He tells me about the origin of the sweat lodge, what he calls “the story of the new man.” The sweat lodge, both church and hospital, purifies its supplicants, rebirthing them into the world like a new child. Stories like this are being lost, Lalo says. He partly blames the elders of the community, the keepers of the Innu myths. “The grandfathers who could tell these stories at the school, too often they want to get paid to go,” he says. “It’s sad. The stories will get lost, because those who know don’t want to share them unless they get money. I asked one of them, ‘Did you have to pay someone to tell the stories to you?’”

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