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Nowhere to Run: The Killing of Constable Dennis Strongquill

By Mike McIntyre

Great Plains Publishing

223 pages, $11.95 (sc)

Constable Dennis Strongquill was the kind of officer the RCMP would have liked to plaster on their recruitment posters. The 20-year veteran served with pride in Canada's famous police force.

During a routine traffic stop four days before Christmas 2001 in Russell, Man. he was shot. Cst. Strongquill left behind a grieving girlfriend and six children-the youngest of whom was seven weeks old.

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Artist-Wayne Lavallee

Album-Green Dress

Song-Green Dress

Label-Independent

Producer-

Kevin Kane

with Wayne Lavallee

Important sound, lyrics in new CD from the coast

Wayne Lavallee has the most interesting voice. Think the growls that set rocker Melissa Ethridge apart, and the amazing range of Simply Red. Then think about putting that on the powwow trail and you've got an approximation of the material that can be found on Green Dress.

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Eden Robinson, the award-winning author of Traplines and Monkey Beach, has a number of projects on the go. Robinson, who spent a year as Markin-Flanagan writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary during the 2001-2002 school year, is currently working on a screenplay for a movie adaptation of Monkey Beach, and has a new book, Blood Sports, due out in 2005.

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?

Eden Robinson:

A sense of humor.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

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Violinist Tara-Louise Montour arrived at the restaurant just after noon. She'd already done three media interviews and she had about an hour for lunch before she had to be at the CBC television studios nearby. After that it was more media and then rehearsals in preparation for her guest appearance with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra on March 13.

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Toronto Fashion Week 2004 had its official launch on March 22 at the Liberty Grand entertainment complex at Exhibition Place with a group show by six Aboriginal fashion designers and design houses. Pam Baker, Tammy Beauvais, Angela DeMontigny, Dene Fur Clouds, Ronald Everett, and D'Arcy Moses showcased their fall 2004 collections under the Fashion Nation banner with a gala runway show.

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A group of Quebec Crees who say they were forced off their land in the 1950s and 1960s are pressing Ottawa and Quebec to create a new community for them.

The Crees of Washaw Sibi, which means River of the Bay in the Cree language, say they have spent the last 40 years as outcasts scattered across northern Quebec and Ontario after the Indian Affairs department forcibly relocated them by threatening to cut off family allowance and other basic services.

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Was that "a priority like never before" or "never a priority, just like before?"

The first quote is from the Throne Speech and represents Prime Minister Paul Martin's promise to make First Nation needs a front-burner issue for his government. The second quote is what many First Nations' people are wondering after hearing Martin's first budget as prime minister.

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The federal legislation that created the gun registry and imposes fines for possession of unregistered firearms took several hits this month.

The law that was spawned by the outrage caused when Mark Lepine gunned down 14 women and injured another 15 in December 1989 at the University of Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique has outraged Aboriginal, northern and rural people. Even some police services have come out against the legislation.

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The sketch of the police officer that Darlene Katcheech claims she saw putting Lawrence Wegner into a police cruiser shortly before he was found dead on the outskirts of Saskatoon is not the one she signed off on, the Native witness said.

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The inquiry into the death of 17-year-old Neil Stonechild resumed on March 8 and wrapped up on March 19. Mr. Justice David Henry Wright, having heard testimony from more than 60 witnesses over 43 days, is now at work on his report, which is expected to be released this summer.

The inquiry was called to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of Stonechild, whose body was found in an industrial area of Saskatoon in November 1990. The original investigation determined the cause of death was probably hypothermia.