Hot Tubbin' For...GGCLC: Mountain, Cornwall, Akwesasne

Early morning again and it’s a team effort – coffees at Starbucks and breakfast sandwiches from Timmy Ho’s. Breakfast of champions! Then we have a long drive to Mountain where we are going to meet with the House of Lazarus, a community organization that runs a foodbank, thrift store, recycle depot. The woman who runs this place is a firecracker – she’s supercommitted to the organization and introduces us to the mayors of South Dundas and North Dundas. We get a tour of the food bank (which is small) where they let people pick their food rather than get preset packages. We learn that 30% of their patrons are working poor and like other communities in Ontario, manufacturing and mining were the 2 large employers and when they left town, people had to travel way outside of the area to find work. As shitty as the situation sounds, there is hope here. She works with public, private and social partners exemplifying a McKinsey “trisector athlete.” All of the money that she raises goes into training staff  - giving people work and building the capacity of her workforce. Although our stop was short, we got a lot out of it and left inspired.

After Mountain, it was onto Cornwall to the St. Lawrence River Institute to meet with the scientists studying the pollution in the river. We’re split up again, one group gets into hip waders to go get fishies from the river and the other group goes and learns about the diagnostics of the water. One of the mandates of the Institute is to reach out to the community to make the research accessible for a regular person, not just scientists. 

By this point we’re hungry again and it’s time for lunch at the Nav Centre. We’re shown into the Robert Thirsk Room and I’m reminded that his daughter worked in the Library as a student assistant…cool. We are met by a few alumni (city councilors, a former labour council president) and the Mayor of Cornwall to learn more about the city. We are introduced to “Team Cornwall”  - a city initiative to have people work together to promote the Cornwall. Back on the bus, we're off to Supply Chain Management, Walmart's Distribution Centre for most of eastern Canada. Cornwall is in the middle of building a lot of these type facilities - Target's distribution centre will open later this year.

Once we pull up to the office we meet with one of the managers and then go for a tour. This was not a unionized worksite and they were proud of that fact. Interesting - not sure if I would have said that knowing that there were labour reps in the group...oh well, they got some difficult questions to answer from me  (just a reminder to my faithful readers that I am not supposed to post the conversations we have with the folks we meet so if you want deets, you'll have to give me a call). The cool thing about the warehouse tour is that there are some tributes to workers who've passed by having flags of their favourite hockey teams erected in their areas. I thought that was a nice touch. 

Now it was time to head towards the border to go to the Ahkwesasne Freedom School (created out of concern over the sustainability of the Mohawk language and culture) on the Mohawk reservation in New York. We pick up Joyce King, a member of the Mohawk Council. She's warm and friendly  - teaching us the basics of Mohawk culture. The Mohawk nation spans Ontario, Quebec and New York so you can imagine the challenges and complications re: governance. ON the reservation we drive up to the school and it's smaller than I expected. Inside the hallways are lined with pictures that kids have drawn and everything on the walls is in the Mohawk language. Joyce takes us through the morning prayer in Mohawk) as if we're attending school!  We meet with senior band council members to discuss the school (everything is in Mohawk, not English or French) and leadership. They introduce us to the 2 row wampum belt representing the creation of strong relations based on Skennen (peace), Kasestensera (respect) and Kanikonriio (Friendship) and we're reminded of the trisector approach to leadership - though the Mohawks have hundreds of years on McKinsey. :)

O2 with members of the Mohawk Nation at the Akwesasne Freedom School

This was a long day because we had another 2 meetings before dinner at the Nav Centre. We had to go back on the bus and through the border where we were meeting with Fred Cappuccino, one of the founders of Child Haven International, an organization dedicated to helping children in India and Pakistan. Then it was a meeting with the Nav Centre to talk about the facility and tour the radar room. By the end of the last meeting it was almost 9:00pm. Good thing we were treated to another steak BBQ and then another late night debrief. Lucky for us we can sleep in a bit the next morning, yes!