For Lynda Powless and Robert Thompson's information, who waxed so eloquent in recent letters to the editor about a recent T. R. U. E. meeting that neither attended, please let me explain something that shouldn't have to be explained had either party been present.
I'm sure two of the panel of professional journalists (plus a CUPE union human rights activist) featured that night didn't appreciate that their native heritage and legitimate bloodlines have been called into question by the publisher of Turtle Island News and subsequently picked up on by Thompson and, of all people, Gary McHale. Ironically, this kind of misrepresentation is exactly the point we were making that night, which was, the responsibility and power of the media in moulding public opinion.
As anyone from the Six Nations-New Credit community would or should know, Al Sault is an Ojibwa from the Mississauga of the New Credit Nation and Sandra Isaacs (nee Muse) is of the Cherokee Nation and is married to Six Nations' Mohawk, Kevin Isaacs. Both Isaacs and Sault have first-hand knowledge of the events talked about at that meeting. All five guest panelists are also familiar with the events which led to the Caledonia land reclamation and have personally put themselves at risk on the front lines at times to get the real story out.
Powless knows this very well but left the assumption in her self-promoting letter to the editor that hers is the only truly native news outlet on the reserve. The fact is, her past four news writers, including Donna Duric, one of the panelists that night, as well as her present lead news reporter have all been non-native, so let's put those self-righteous comments in the delete file where they belong.
Regarding Thompson and McHale's letters, these men seem to have their own world view, and they are welcome to it.
Some of the incidents referred to by McHale did occur, some did not, and some have been grossly exaggerated, but these issues were already handled by the mainstream media. It was the intention of that T. R. U. E. meeting to present the side of the story that was not published in the mainstream, and that is what we did.
Also for the record, I stand corrected on one issue spoken about that night regarding the arrest of Dwayne Maracle at the Kingspan site. The Expositor did, in fact, correct the story the next day within the copy of a separate article, written by Susan Gamble.
Jim Windle Brantford