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Innovation is our Motivation:
From our early days introducing cthe community radio concept to creating small-system cable Internet service, we also generated community supprt forCanad's first long range fibre-optic network.
Above are Buckley Petawabano, a founder of the Eeyou Communications Network (ECN) and the founder of the James Bay Cree Communications Society and RTS Canada's first president, Fernand Fred Leclaire.
Innovation and Breakthroughs in Telecom
Bringing modern telecommunications to the North required many successful initiatives in technology, many of these experiments became "firsts" in Canada and models for the world.
Many were applications adapted by local technicians to overcome problems caused by isolation, weather, distance, language, available services, lack of materials - however, none of these obstacles overwhelmed the enthusiasm of the Cree participants and they succeeded; other innovations came about by trust and cooperation between local residents and telecommunications specialists.
Here are a few:
Canada's First Aboriginal Radio Network
(1980) Cree regional Radio had no delivery facilities anywhere, anywhere
in the north. CBC North decided to introduce a program in 1980 but
had no staff; together with local communities, it sponsored the first
radio training course in the north in Mistissini.
Successful candidates were hired by CBC and worked in Montreal on the Northern Service short-wave service.
(1985) Local communities decided that they needed full-time radio
t replace the one-hour a day CBC service. Twenty participants from
all Cree communities gathered in Mistissini for a one-year course
sponsored by the Cree School Board (Adult Education) to learn radio
broadcasting and management. It produced managers and broadcasters
for all Cree communities, many of whom are still at their stations
today.
(1986) Mistissini FM signed on and the James Bay Cree Communications
Society (JBCCS) was created.
First Use of Satellite for Radio Broadcasting
(1986-87) Satellite Radio - first use of satellite for radio in Canada
(Canada was the first country in satellite broadcast technology with
Anik systems). Experimenting with a small portion of the television
band and a converted television transponder, JBCCS and Telesat were
able to transmit radio from Mistissini on a dedicated channel to all
Cree communities and to the CBC network in Montreal for retransmission
on its short-wave service. As a result, they reduced significant communications
costs and transformed a tinny long-distance telephone connection to
Montreal with a high-quality FM signal.
(Ongoing) A significant but unplanned benefit from this innovation:
by broadcasting only in Cree, these local radio services were the
first use of radio broadcasting as a tool for language retention:
Prior to the formation of JBCCS in 1984 and local radio societies
in the late 1980s, northern communities could only listen to southern
radio stations in English or French or the one-hour daily Cree broadcast
from CBC. Cree stations were the first of the local Aboriginal broadcast
stations to broadcast exclusively in the language of the community.
With a successful training program from the Cree School Board, Cree
is today among the leading successful Aboriginal spoken languages
alive and well in its own communities.
First Small-System Cable-Internet service;
First Northern Canadian Internet Service
(1994-98) Internet. Creenet in Wemindji in 1995 was the first dialup
service in the north, even before Val d'Or or Chibougamau while Chisasibi
was Canada's first small cable system to begin 2-way cable Internet
service. By 1998 ehrn Chisasibi began the Internet experiment, only
Rogers and Cogeco offered the service in large urban centres. In Wemindji,
by adapting toll-free long-distance and dedicated microwave technology
and in Chisasibi by experimenting with satellite Internet delivery,
the communities were the first in the north to be On-Line. Unique
applications within the systems included a protective firewall invented
by Oliver Rupert to secure television reception.
Rupert's Mound: How-To eliminate C-Band Interference from snowmobiles
First Independent Fibre Optic Transport Network
First Use of Long-Haul Telecommunications Technology
(2000-08) Fibre optic service. As a result of a protracted battle
over telephone rates, the James Bay Cree Regional Authority concluded
an agreement with Hydro-Québec to build the world's first long-haul
fibre network using applications for technology ever before used in
aerial transmission, including the use of submarine technology for
transport. It is Canada's only Aboriginal telecom transport network
that is fully independent from the telephone system and is the largest
fibre network in Quebec. Significantly, it was also the first major
partnership between Cree and non-Aboriginal local governments in Eeyou
Istchee.
New projects include fibre to the Home and Community-Wide pubic access
wi-fi Hot-Spots.
First radio signals to cover James Bay Highway, Route du Nord and
Highway 113
(2010-ongoing) Highway radio and emergency services: expansion of
radio signals from coastal communities to cover the James Bay highway
with a series of very tall telecom towers allowed for the first time
radio services of the Cree network to include the James Bay highways
and hunting/trapping territories. Work is currently underway to include
all of the James Bay and Highway 113 and, for the first time, applying
D3 technology for Digital Display Systems for Weather and Highway
Warning Systems and weather warnings. Next the FM system intends to
expand to include French language services for highway travelers.
© RTS Canada 2012
A Salute to Canadian Innovation across the years
