Omand's Creek: A gripping crime thriller packed with mystery and suspense by Don Macdonald

Author:Don Macdonald [Macdonald, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cordova Publishing Company
Published: 2020-11-14T22:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

On his computer screen, Shelter studied a newspaper photo of Charlie Osborne from a few years before. Osborne was one of three men seated behind a table at a press conference in a downtown hotel. He was on the right, unsmiling in a leather vest over a Western-style shirt. According to the photo caption, the man in the middle was Lyle Mackay, chief of the Lone Pine reserve. He was much younger than Osborne, probably in his late thirties. His hair was cut short, and he wore a dress shirt. He looked to be in a jovial mood, smiling and saying something to the other man in the photo, a federal official named Stephen Miller. Bald, middle-aged, and looking to be about thirty pounds overweight in his jacket and tie, Miller fit the stereotype of a grey, overfed bureaucrat. The caption said he was the assistant deputy minister in the federal Indigenous Affairs department.

Shelter scanned the short article under the photo. The press conference had been called to announce a land settlement between the Lone Pine First Nation and the federal government. Ottawa was handing over $21 million in recognition that the community — like other First Nations in Manitoba — had received only a fraction of the land it should have had under historic treaties. Besides the cash, the Lone Pine First Nation also received close to ten thousand acres of Crown territory added to its land base. McKay was quoted as saying the money would be used to improve the lives of his people, including the many who lived off the reserve. Shelter scrolled down the article and found a brief mention of Osborne, saying he favoured using part of the money to establish an urban reserve in Winnipeg.

A reserve inside Winnipeg? A vision of gravel roads, unpainted plywood houses, and people motoring around on ATVs came to Shelter’s mind — the stereotypical image of reserves in the North.

He plugged the term “urban reserve” into Google and was surprised to learn several had been established in Manitoba and other western provinces and that they bore no relation to the reserves he was thinking of. Instead, they were commercial developments integrated into the cityscape. The idea was that a First Nation band negotiated with the federal government to have a piece of urban land designated as a reserve. After negotiating a deal to pay for municipal services, the First Nation attracted both Indigenous and non-Indigenous businesses. Shelter found an article that portrayed urban reserves as a success story. It said they provide business opportunities and jobs to people who had left remote reserves in large numbers to come to the city, as well as much-needed revenue for First Nations communities.

Shelter glanced at Traverse, who was seated at his desk a few metres to his left. “Hey, Gabe,” Shelter said. “I’m just reading up on urban reserves here.”

Traverse looked up and nodded. “A lot of people think they’re the way forward, or one of them, anyway.” He paused before adding,

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