B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton dead following prison attack
Convicted B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton, who preyed on women he lured from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to his rural pig farm, has died.
Todd Labrador, a Mi’kmaq man from the Wildcat Reserve in Queens County, N.S., has made it his life’s work to preserve the traditional craftsmanship of birchbark canoes.
Labrador, who is a member of Acadia First Nation, was born in Bridgewater, N.S., in 1960 and grew up on the reserve with his father who was the first Chief of the Acadia First Nation. It was there that Labrador learned the traditional craft of building birchbark canoes from his great grandfather and father, according to a Facebook page dedicated to his art.
The Mi’kmaq travelled the lakes and rivers of eastern Canada for thousands of years in the canoes, and deep in Kejimkujik National Park, Labrador continues the tradition, using generational knowledge that was all but wiped out through Canada’s forced assimilation residential school system and genocidal colonial history.
“I always said, if you don’t have patience, don’t try to build birchbark canoes,” Labrador said in an interview with CTV National News.
The process for making a traditional birchbark canoe is time consuming, from combing the forest for the summer bark that will peel properly, to stretching it over the “ribs” of the canoe with heat, to stringing and scraping spruce roots.
The skills required to build a birchbark canoe were usually passed down from generations of master craftsman. The canoe frames were typically made of cedar, soaked with water to make them malleable to bend into the shape of the canoe.
The joints were sewn with spruce or white pine tree roots that traditionally would have been pulled up, split and boiled by Indigenous women. The seams would then be waterproofed with hot spruce or pine tree resin.
Birchbark makes an ideal construction material as it is smooth, light, hard, waterproof and its grain wraps around the tree rather than lengthwise – allowing it to be shaped easily.
Birch trees are found almost everywhere in Canada, making them an abundant resource for Indigenous people, which is why birchbark canoes were the principal means of waterway transportation for many First Nations -- and later, the voyageurs.
“Learning about nature, learning about wood, bark, that was always my interest,” Labrador explained of how he pieced together stories and details from his family on the construction process. “I wanted to do what my ancestors did.”
Labrador has made more than a dozen canoes, and is the sole practitioner of the craft in his area, making his teaching skills highly in demand.
“Canoe building is so much more than just building canoes,” he said. “It’s community building.”
Convicted B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton, who preyed on women he lured from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to his rural pig farm, has died.
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
The ex-husband of Tatjana Stefanski – the woman whose disappearance and death set the small town of Lumby, B.C., on edge last month – has been charged with her murder.
The Edmonton Oilers are one win away from returning to the Stanley Cup final for the first time in 18 years.
A newborn is dead after being delivered via emergency C-section to a woman in police custody.
Jennifer Lopez has cancelled her 2024 North American tour, representatives for Live Nation confirmed to The Associated Press.
There's a luxury 'tree home' for sale in Calgary.
The Department of National Defence is moving approximately 1,000 employees out of an office building in Ottawa's Lowertown neighbourhood, citing safety concerns for its employees.
A man convicted of murdering a Toronto police officer more than four decades ago has been granted day parole for six months.
A hefty donation by a renowned local activist to the University of Winnipeg has created what is believed to be the most comprehensive two-spirit archives in all of Canada.
Leanne Van Bergen discovered a skulk of 10 baby foxes, and two mothers, had made themselves at home on her property in Beausejour.
An 81-year-old Waterloo, Ont. woman thought she’d never ride a horse again after a brain bleed led to severe physical complications.
A CP24 camera caught the moment a driver frantically got out of her car as it was being dragged by a truck on Avenue Road Wednesday afternoon.
Prince Edward Island is celebrating its first-ever International Day of Potato on Thursday.
The president of Covered Bridge Chips in New Brunswick is hoping to have his factory rebuilt for late 2025 following a devastating fire last year.
Students and staff at Winnipeg’s Westwood Collegiate had a unique problem to solve this month; how do you lead ducks to water from the school’s courtyard when 12 of them can’t fly yet?
Debby Lorinczy remembers her father as an amazing person and as a man who also made an amazing discovery.
Abigail Strate is a member of the Canadian national ski jumping team and an Olympic bronze medallist. She's also a certified beekeeper.