Sharbot Lake Has Lost Some Movers & Shakers

Jeff Green | Nov 13, 2024

It has been a brutal year in our communities. It began with a car crash on Burke Settlement Road in early May, an event that continues to devastate the Sharbot Lake community and Granite Ridge Education Centre, This was followed by the Bobs Lake boat crash that is back in the news this week with a bail hearing for Matthew Splinter on Thursday, And more recently, a terrible accident in Ardoch has shocked the local community, as they struggle to support a cherished new family facing a tragic loss.

Also this fall, Sharbot Lake has lost some of the movers and shakers who spent their lives making a positive difference by working hard, and showing initiative and drive.

Audrey Tarasick lived a good, long life. She died last month. She was 95. 

Audrey was already almost 60 when she got involved with what was then North Frontenac Community Services, and a group of young mothers, to get The Child Centre built in Sharbot Lake, bringing daycare and a host of other children’s services to the area in 1990. She served as the first Director of The Child Centre, and with her help. The Child Centre developed programming for young families, and art classes for youth, all setting the groundwork for the EarlyON program that the agency now called Rural Frontenac Community Services delivers across Frontenac County, from its home base at the Child Centre.

Audrey has had a positive impact on the lives of young families in our rural communities that has spanned generations.

Dawn Hanson died three weeks ago. She was Mrs. Lion around Sharbot Lake, and her home base in Parham, along with her husband Dave who is still Mr. Lion. Dawn did a lot more than that. If anything needed doing, for decades, she did it. She was nice, but could be tough when necessary.

After making a mistake with the listing for a Lions event, more than one time, I received one short, blistering email from Dawn telling me that this was not acceptable from the paper. She later sent a note apologising for her tone, but the message had already been delivered, clear as day. When you hear from someone who treated all of her volunteer commitments with precision, you take notice.

Dawn was also, in the words of one Frontenac Little Theatre veteran, “the best stage manager, and line prompter, ever” - She was with the little theatre for most of its 45 year history.

It is hard to imagine the Sharbot Lake Lions, and her husband Dave, who is no shrinking violet either, without her. But they made a team like no other.

Earl Badour was a quiet man, but he commanded massive respect in Sharbot Lake generally, and among members of the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, of which he was an elder, and the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and allies, as well.

Back in 2008, the two first nations, who were at loggerheads with each other over the Algonquin Land Claim, were drawn together to oppose a uranium exploration program at the former Robertsville mine site, on land close to Crotch Lake, an important, even sacred watershed for both of them.

Shabot Obaadjiwan Chief Doreen Davis asked Earl Badour to be her war chief at the site, when the Shabot Obaadjiwan and Ardoch Algonquin occupied the site on National Indigenous Day of that year.

Earl took that on, and remained in place, on the site, for the 110 day occupation.

Earl was the war chief, but his role was that of a peacekeeper and mediator at the site, navigating the often competing interests of the leadership of the Shabot Obaadjiwan and Ardoch Algonquin, and a settler group that developed to support the occupation.

“Earl was able to dissolve issues with a quiet word,” Chief Doreen recalled, in a phone interview.

She also mentioned one night when a group of Mohawk Warriors arrived.

“When we sat down at the fire, Earl introduced me as chief. One of the warriors said he could not accept a woman as chief. Earl was appalled, but he did not say anything at first. A bit later he approached the warrior and asked him to go with him, away from the fire. I don't know what Earl said to the man, but 10 minutes later they both came back and sat down, and I had no other problem with the man. We sat up all night and told stories. Earl had a way about him.”

Earl went back to his life after the occupation, and continued to be there when called upon.  Earl leaves behind a family that is as committed to the future, and the truth, as he was.

He is missed by everyone.