Robert Ghiz, Premier of Prince Edward Island, broke ground in Rustico Monday on the new French school, L’Ecole St Augustin, ending more than a decade of effort by local parents to educate their children in a French language school of their own.

The 23,000 square foot school is being built on land adjacent to the Farmers Bank, Doucet House and St. Augustine Church in one of PEI’s oldest Acadian communities.  

The school will house classes for children to grade six including an “Early Years Centre, Conseil Acadien de Rustico offices,  and a cultural development office.”

Everyone was all smiles at the groundbreaking ceremony. Construction had already started with the footings in and some of the building rising above the former farmer’s field.

The Premier highlighted to need to educate children for the future and the importance of the French language and culture to Prince Edward Island. He gave his speech in both English and French.

Doug Currie Minister of Education said the school provided for French education and culture while preparing the children for the technological changes ahead.

The right to educational and cultural institutions in the French is contained of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Province of Prince Edward Island refused to grant French language education outside Charlottetown or the Acadian region until two Island mothers won the right in the Supreme Court of Canada. That court decision in favour of Madeleine Monpetite and Noella Arsenault paved the way for the construction of a French school in Summerside.

Opposition Leader Robert Ghiz promised to build a French school in Rustico, a fishing and farming community west of Cavendish on the north shore of PEI. Once elected, Ghiz assigned the task to local MLA Carolyn Bertram. Bertram sided with the local Lions Club who saw the new school as a loss of annual rent from the government. The Lion’s Club had been rented out as a temporary school for nine years.

The French school board, French parents and community leaders waged an intense battle with Bertram and the government to have their promises kept. Ghiz replaced Bertram in the Francophone portfolio this year. He assigned new Education Minister Doug Currie to a find consensus and build the school.

On NJN, the story spawned a running series of biting, satirical pieces by an anonymous writer, Donnie St. Pierre, who regularly hammered the government and Bertram over breaking faith with the French community.

La Voix Acadienne, the Acadian newspaper, took the government to task in an editorial saying the Ghiz government had lost the confidence of the Acadian community. La ministre Bertram a perdu notre confiance The Acadian leadership rattled sabers, threatening to re-open the Supreme Court lawsuit.

In the end, the government relented and agreed to the school in the historic setting of Rustico, where one of the first French language schools in PEI had been established.

Engineers on site hoped the building would be closed in by winter. No one was predicting when classes would begin.

A father was accompanying his son home from the temporary school in the Lion’s Club as we left Rustico. In the coming years, the community hopes to expand and flourish with the facilities being built for them by the Federal and Provincial governments.

Ron Petrides is back in Charlottetown performing on Victoria Row. Petrides first came to PEI 13 years ago when the Always on Stage jazz festival was in its infancy.

It’s a real treat to have Ron Petrides perform in Charlottetown.  He is both a jazz composer and interpreter of the greats including John Coltrane in the featured video, Blue Trane.

Petrides wide smile and tall stature make him a pleasure to watch. His style includes virtuoso guitar runs mixed with on-the-money rhythm, improvisation and warm tone.

I’ve enjoyed jazz since my father introduced me to Louis Armstrong in the 1950s. Miles Davis, Mingus, Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, and Wes Montgomery – I’ve heard them all. I collected some of the best records from the 1930s onward and in 1965 wrote jazz record reviews. Perhaps a little cheeky for my tender years but I knew the music.

Rod Petrides impressed me the first time I heard him. He knows and interprets the golden era of  jazz from the 50s and 60s but he doesn’t copy anyone. He has also composed some decent pieces of his own.

Playing a semi-hollow Gibson, Petrides tone is warm and his fingers quick.  He lays the groove down and swings. Petrides is not cocktail bar jazz with another rendition of My Funny Valentine. He’s the real thing.

The video is from his performance in Charlottetown last August. Ron said my camera work was a little shaky but the shots of his wife and children were priceless.  The whole thing was shot amazingly on a Flip HD Ultra. The sound was re-mixed down to tame the sizzle.

Petrides is faculty at the New School University Jazz and Contemporary Music program. “Previously taught at the New York and Columbia Universities. Dr. Petrides holds a Ph. D. in composition from NYU, where he conducted an original research into the life and music of the late 20th century American composer Stephen Albert.”

“During the last two decades, Petrides established himself on the New York jazz scene, having performed with many famous musicians, including Walter Bishop Jr., Dizzy Gillespie, Ron McClure, Billi Hart, Duffy Jackson, and Bob Mover.”

Accompanying Ron this year are Chris Buddan on bass, Barrie Sorensen on Sax and Matt Maceachern on drums.  Show starts around 6 pm each evening and runs until 9 pm or so.

Always on Stage is the longest and longest running music festival on PEI and anywhere we know in Canada. For the past 13 years, promoter Chris Buddan put on 7 days of music, 11 hours a day f0r 8 weeks in the summer. More than 50 musicians work at entertaining patrons and tourists on Victoria Row for more than 1,000 hours a summer. This year Chris expanded to include music on Sydney Street.

For the public this is a one-of-a-kind experience. There are few places where one can go and enjoy free live music for 11 hours a day in the summer. The ambiance created on Victoria Row is unique and second to none.

Always on Stage is funded by  the Government of Canada, the Province of P.E.I., and the City of Charlottetown. Chris Buddan deserves the credit for putting the festival together and managing it year after year on essentially a shoe-string budget. He is dedicated to the Festival and providing a music performance experience for young musicians on Prince Edward Island.

It’s been my pleasure to work with Chris over the years, including organizing the singer-songwriter performers for two years. This year I’m happy to be just performing my usual Tuesday lunch set.

Chris Buddan is one of the unsung heroes of the PEI music scene.  Since he started as a high school student, Chris has earned three degrees including his Doctorate in Music. He has traveled and performed in the United States and Europe. Dr. Buddan is a PEI treasure.

If you follow the Bear River Road it turns to a clay road in Saint Margarets when it intersects the Northside Road at 16. Keep on the clay Bear Shore road to a secluded, local beach where a pond empties into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Updated – I got corrected this beach is called Bear Shore or St. Margarets Beach depending on who you ask.

There is a small bank to navigate with rocks to walk on. Not the best for the disabled but it may be OK for you. Check out the video.

The water was good for both wading and swimming. There is a nice walk along the shore to the cliffs after you cross the stream. The views were spectacular like most PEI beaches.

The pond doesn’t have a name according to the maps. Some references say the stream and pond are the end of the Bear River.

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CBC News – The P.E.I. government released a new strategy for the diagnosis and treatment of autism Tuesday, but the Autism Society says concrete results are a ways off.

The reports contains 37 recommendations, including:

* Development of a kindergarten support model.
* Increasing service capacity by hiring a preschool autism co-ordinator and three full-time preschool autism specialists.
* Hiring two new autism consultants to support students at the Eastern and Western School Boards.
* Creation of an autism resource centre and an autism research council
* Increasing wages for autism tutors from $10 to $11 an hour.

This last point was a major bone of contention for parents, as many have been topping up tutors’ wages out of their own pocket. Ronnie Nicholson has a four-year-old with autism, and he has struggled to find a steady tutor. Nicholson walked out of the government news conference in frustration, saying the wage increase is not enough to make a difference.

“We know what needs to be done,” said Nicholson, “but anyway, hopefully something will happen and soon.”

Education Minister Doug Currie said he understood the frustration, something that was also on display in November when parents of children with autism rallied at Province House.

“We saw today a typical example of the frustration,” said Currie, “but keeping in mind that the province has never had an action plan or a strategy, and today is a great first step.”

The Autism Society of P.E.I. agrees a bigger wage increase is required.