TOP Stories

The Eastern Door Goes Weekly, not Weakly
By: Kenneth Deer

Not since the first day of publishing has The Eastern Door taken such dramatic step in producing a community newspaper. As a bi-weekly, The Eastern Door has grown from a sixteen page paper to upwards of forty-four pages at times. So large was our size that we became the largest English language, paid subscription, bi-weekly newspaper in Quebec. No easy feat for a community of only 6,000 people.

But size leads to problems. The Eastern Door has reached the limits of the printing press we use. A 36 page paper with one color is the most our printer can produce in one run. Any larger and we have to go to two sections, such as our Christmas issues, and that would need more time to print and assemble and our paper would get out late on Friday afternoon or early evenings. A larger paper takes more time to layout and makes our mailing cost higher.

Going weekly will solve some problems, but will create others. Our target is to produce a 24 to 28 page paper. It is a little more manageable to layout, a little more manageable to layout, a little less expensive to print and mail, and it may increase our revenue to meet the demands of more staff.

On the other hand, producing a paper every seven days just about doubles the workload of our present staff. There will no longer be an 'easy' week and a 'deadline' week. Every week will be a 'deadline' week. Every week will be a deadline week. The pressure to put out a quality newspaper every seven days will be a real test for our staff.

People have asked if we have enough news in Kahnawake for a weekly. News is like the weather, there are stretches of good have been times when our paper, even at 32 or 36 pages was 100% local news and information.

It is not the goal of The Eastern Door to have local news only. Our goal is to provide a balance of outside news from across the Confederacy, Canada, the United States and other parts relevant to our people.

More and more in the last few months we have had new stories from many other areas of Indian country. We share this kind of information so our readers can learn how our brothers and sisters are doing in their own situations.

Some stories you will read are not covered by the mainstream press. At times we will repeat stories from the local mainstream press for the benefit of our Kahnawakehro:non living far away.

More so, we try to cover the French press with their rather interesting and sometimes controversial points of view. We also will run more government press releases concerning Native programs.

Will there be more advertisements?

Well, we hope so. Advertising pays the bills. But remember, advertising is information too. Ads give information on businesses that you need and advertisers need you, the reader. Ads tell about products and services available, what's on sale, phone numbers and valuable information to make your purchasing easier.

By going weekly, the advertiser gets information to you more frequently and ads can be more current and timely.

Over the brief three years of our existence, The Eastern Door has become know for its unraised reporting, its clean appearance, its editorial content and editorial cartoons. Though the stress of producing a weekly will be great, we have the confidence that we will maintain the high level of journalism that this community expects and deserves. Although we may have our rough spots during this transition to a weekly, we hope you will be patient with us and support this paper as you have in the past.

In the end it is you, the customer, who will benefit. Instead of 32 to 36 pages to read every two weeks, you now will get 48 to 56 pages in the same two weeks.

Nia:wen kowa.

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Connie McArdle "Christmas Miracle"
By: Chad Rice

Former Eastern Door production assistant, Mavis Connie MxArdle made history recently when she became the first person in Canada to be kept alive in a transplant procedure using a pig's liver. The five hour procedure prolonged her life long enough to receive a healthy human donor liver.

McArdle is better known to friends and relatives in Kahnawake as Connie. Many people may know of her grandfather Thawitha or his eldest daughter, Connie's mother, Annie Montour.

Connie was first diagnosed with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis is a liver disease where bile ducts, necessary for norma. Bodily functions, become inoperative. The disease, in effect, causes the body to reject its own liver.

The debate is ongoing as to whether the disease is environmental (due to your actions and/or lifestyle) or hereditary in origin. Doctors are not yet sure of the exact causes of this disease, but some speculation exists. Possible causes include a previous history of hepatitis or contact with toxic substances.

When people hear the Dr. J. Tchervenkov, a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, explained the 'pig liver' procedure:

PIG LIVER PROCEDURE

A catheter, or tube was inserted into one of Connie's femoral arteries. A pump was attached to initiate blood pressure throughout the external circuit. The blood pressure throughout the external circuit. The blood was first pumped through a combination warmer/oxygenator, which kept the blood at an acceptable temperature and introduced beneficial oxygen. The pig liver, which was surgically removed from a specially bred pig, was fed the toxin infected blood. The outgoing blood was fed back to Connie's other femoral artery.

Ammonia, a blood toxin, was measured and showed a 50% decrease after passing through the pig's liver. After about five hours, the pig's liver was no longer efficient, but had done ad adequate job of stabilizing Connie, keeping her alive. The pig liver was then removed.

The filtering effects of the procedure would last 24 to 36 hours. If a donor liver had not been found in that time, the procedure would have had to be repeated. Fortunately, a donor liver was found and a transplantation took place.

Dr. Tchervenkov said that although liver transplants are not quite routine procedure, they are considered standard medical practice. He also indicated that the largest restraint on liver transplants is the lack of donors "If we had 500 donor livers, we would probably do 500 liver transplants."

He feels that with further refinements, the pig liver procedure can become a valuable tool in prolonging life. Not only in cases such as Connie's, which was rather extreme, but also in other cases, where short term liver trauma endangers a person's life. Relieving the body's liver functions for a short time, with a pig liver procedure, may be enough for that person's liver to recover.

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Editorial

Police Ethics Committee
By: Kenneth Deer - The Eastern Door

Ronald Cross is in the news again. This time he is taking the Surete du Quebec to court. Cross had made a formal complaint to the Police Ethics Committee of brutality and mistreatment after he was arrested in 1990.

There were a number of Mohawks who were abused by the SQ during and after the 'crisis' of 1990. Everyone knows someone who has been a victim of these abuses. One can look at the films made about the crisis; 'Act's of Defiance' or 'Kanesatake: 270 Years of Resistance'. Alanise Obonsawin's "Kanesatake" documents eyewitness reports of SQ officers intimidating and then brutalizing Mohawks just because they were Mohawk. Even non- Mohawk were brutally treated, as evidenced by the behaviour of the riot squad on the bridge in Valleyfield during the summer of 1990.

There is clear proof of unprofessional behavior and many charges could have been brought against the SQ, but very few were. The Police Ethics Committee should have been deluged by complaints from people, Mohawks especially, in the aftermath of 1990. Instead, for one reason of another, almost no one acted. Now Ronald was 'Lasagna' Cross is front and center again.

Ronald was beaten just because of who he was. He didn't kill Corporal Lemay but the SQ probably wanted to beat a confession out of him. He didn't deserve to be beaten by the police they way he was, the police do not have the right to beat anyone whether they are innocent or guilty.

The SQ were out of control during 1990. The inquiry into Lemay's death should confirm that. What's more, the political machinery protected the SQ in order to keep public confidence in the police force. No one had the courage to stand up to the SQ and demand immediate and severe sanctions against officers who violated the rights of people.

So some people ask 'Why does it have to be Lasagna again?' No one else seems to be pushing the issue. Everyone else seems to be content to complain about the treatment they received from the SQ, but no one is willing to take the time and effort to carry through on lodging a serious complaint.

We hope Ronald Cross is successful in publicly exposing the brutal, racist, vengeful and exceedingly unprofessional actions of the SQ.

QUEBEC DOES IT AGAIN

Again the Quebec Government has shown its contempt for Native People. By passing Bill 57 on policing, the Government has undermined years of negotiations by Native Nations on Native policing.

During these negotiations, Natives have told Quebec's that our police forces will be responsible to our own governments and not Quebec. An earlier draft of the law was acceptable to many Natives as it stated this possibility. But Quebec, by amending the law to equate Native police forces to municipal forces, betrays the good faith that Natives have put in these negotiations.

Like the beating of Ronald Cross, the shooting of David Cross, and the unprofessional behavior of the SQ during 1990, the Quebec Government has reinforced our distrust of the policing and political system.

Is this a preview of the behavior of a separate Quebec?

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