What's a Barnacle? It's yellow, sticks and screams if you try to pry it off your car
Barnacles, bright yellow devices used to make sure parking scofflaws pay their tickets, could soon be making their way to cities across Canada.
An ancient Indigenous knife unearthed during the renovation of Centre Block will be the first artifact found on Parliament Hill to be returned to the stewardship of the Algonquin people who live in the Ottawa region.
Archeologists say the return of the stone knife, which is estimated to be 4,000 years old, is a historic move that officially recognizes Indigenous Peoples inhabited the land -- considered unceded territory -- that is now the site of Parliament Hill.
The Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, an Algonquin First Nation based about 130 kilometres north of Gatineau, Que., and the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, about 150 kilometres west of Ottawa, are to share ownership of the artifact.
It will be displayed on Parliament Hill when the refurbishment of Centre Block finishes and the building reopens, which is not expected to happen until at least 2030.
Until then, it will be shown in Indigenous communities, including schools, according to Doug Odjick, a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg council.
The knife, shaped from Onondaga chert quarried in Ontario or New York state thousands of years ago, is not the first Indigenous artifact found in the parliamentary precinct. Shards of pottery and a shell bead were found on Parliament Hill in the 1990s.
However, Ian Badgley, manager of the archeology program at the National Capital Commission, said the knife's discovery had prompted a new approach by the federal government to returning First Nations artifacts.
"It's the first time that the government of Canada has accepted a pre-contact artifact as indicating use of Parliament Hill by the Indigenous population," said Badgley, who is also archeological consultant to the two First Nations who will take stewardship of the knife.
"It's one artifact, but it is really remarkable how it has spawned an interest in the Canadian government in working with the Anishinaabe Algonquins."
Jeremy Link, a spokesman at Public Services and Procurement Canada, said: "Discussions are ongoing on how to transfer joint ownership of this artifact to the communities."
The knife's discovery, by archeologists working on the revamp of Centre Block, coincided with the capital's first archeological field school, aimed at training First Nations archeologists.
The field school, which this year excavated the site of an Algonquin camp in Ottawa, will now be an annual event near the capital.
There are plans to establish field schools across Canada to train First Nations archeologists and give Indigenous Peoples greater control over their own excavations.
For many thousands of years, the Ottawa Valley was a trading hub for First Nations from across North America, because of its location at the confluence of rivers, which made travel by canoe easier. This has made the capital region a rich seam for archeologists.
They have dug up pre-contact artifacts originating from across North America, including shell beads and alligator teeth, and knives and other tools made from stone found far from Ottawa.
These were likely passed on as trade goods by different Indigenous communities over many seasons.
"The things that have been found in and around Ottawa have come from places as far as New York, to Hudson Bay to the West Coast as far as California," said Odjick, who is responsible for the education, culture and language portfolio on the band council.
"The knife that was found on Parliament Hill still has a point. It's about two-and-a-half inches long and it kind of looks like a spearhead. It definitely had a handle. It was from the early Woodland to late Archaic period, 2,500 to 4,000 years old."
The two First Nations who will share the knife are in talks with the federal government about "showing it off," said Odjick. "We would like it to be at the main entrance of Parliament."
The refurbished Centre Block is to have more Indigenous elements, including carvings by Indigenous people who are being recruited to work there, according to Public Services and Procurement Canada which is in charge of the renewal project.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2021
Barnacles, bright yellow devices used to make sure parking scofflaws pay their tickets, could soon be making their way to cities across Canada.
He decided to spend Christmas somewhere that wouldn't involve snowstorm disasters. She was spending the holidays with family, travelling for the first time outside of her native country of Venezuela. 23 years later, they're still in love.
A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former U.S. President Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said.
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
An Airbnb in Montreal's Verdun borough was the source of much frustration from neighbours who say there were constant parties at the location. It has been taken down from the app, but housing advocates remain upset about short-term rentals.
RCMP say the fire that prompted a state of emergency in a Labrador town is now under control.
Thirteen victims of the Columbine High School shooting were remembered during a vigil Friday on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the shooting that was the worst the nation had seen at the time.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza's southernmost city killed at least nine people, six of them children, hospital authorities said Saturday, as Israel pursued its nearly seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Soulful gospel artist Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer who got her start as a contestant on 'American Idol' in 2006, has died, according to a statement on her verified social media. She was 47.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.