(PHOTOS COURTESY SUZANNE JACOBS) Dear Readers: As an essential service that is still open during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Eastern Door is fighting hard to keep news like this flowing, in our print product, though an online subscription at www.eastermdoor.com and here, for free, on our website and Facebook. But when a large
Author: Steve Bonspiel
Eastern Door Editor/Publisher Steve Bonspiel started his journalism career in January 2003 with The Nation magazine, a newspaper serving the Cree of northern Quebec.
Since that time, he has won numerous regional and national awards for his in-depth, impassioned writing on a wide variety of subjects, including investigative pieces, features, editorials, columns, sports, human interest and hard news.
He has freelanced for the Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star, Windspeaker, Nunatsiaq News, Calgary Herald, Native Peoples Magazine, and other publications.
Among Steve's many awards is the Paul Dumont-Frenette Award for journalist of the year with the Quebec Community Newspapers Association in 2015, and a back-to-back win in 2010/11 in the Canadian Association of Journalists' community category - one of which also garnered TED a short-list selection of the prestigious Michener award.
He was also Quebec Community Newspapers Association president from 2012 to 2019, and continues to strive to build bridges between Native and non-Native communities for a better understanding of each other.
Wendy and her crazy antics return
(Courtesy Dana Marquis) Wendy, that hard-drinking, over-thinking, introverted slacker who is perpetually hung-over is baaaaaaack! All 273 pages of her; 275 if you count the last two totally dark ones, which you probably should, since, you know, she’s pretty dark. Reviewing books in a community newspaper can be serious work, but when Kahnawa’kehró:non
Kahnawake couple battle COVID-19
Peter and Randi (Diabo) Jaramillo will be fully recovered from COVID-19 by Sunday, but having their three-year-old daughter Sofia during the recovery process, and trying to keep her safe, free of the sickness, has been stressful. “She still hasn’t shown any symptoms, we check her temperature daily and keep a close
Faith and ceremony during a pandemic
Brave faces of the frontlines
Dr. Bruemmer has been working at the Kateri Memorial Hospital Centre (KMHC) for almost 23 years, and with the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s had to find ways to adapt his practice quite drastically. “I would say, overall, there are fewer patients, but it’s very unusual from the way we usually practice, you
New group pushes people to be more active
Janice Patton is one of the devoted Soaring Spirit Movement members on Facebook. When she started a special Facebook group, Waneek Horn-Miller wasn’t exactly in the best of spirits. “I was feeling super isolated, getting down and stressed and so, as I always do, I exercised,” she said. “I started to think about
Blockades bring out emotion through art
(Courtesy Kaiente:ri McGregor) Kaiente:ri Tyra McGregor has a deep love and appreciation for Frida Kahlo, often drawing in similar cartoon-like fashion, emulating one of the most famous Indigenous artists in the world, whose popularity continues to rise long after her death. Although she said she doesn’t draw old school selfies of her
Blockades pop up in Kanehsatake
Kanesatake protesters were blocking Highway 344 in response to the OPP decision to arrest people Monday at a rail blockade in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. (Steve Bonspiel, The Eastern Door) A few hours after the Ontario Provincial Police raided Tyendinaga, arresting 10 people and hospitalizing two, Kanehsatake land protectors closed off all access
Secret Door raises over $56K for radio station
(Courtesy Ashley Stacey) To say the Secret Door fundraiser was successful would be a big understatement. What started out as an idea of this reporter years ago, turned into months of selling, sponsors, buyers and supporters coming together from multiple Native communities, resulted in over $56,000 raised for Reviving Kanehsatà:ke Radio to
