The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 33

temp entertainmentlifestylescolumnists Ottawa, Tuesday, May 29, 1979, Page 33 A Sited9 retwrns to stai I. i 3 BROWN'S BEAT By Dave Brown Margaret Munson avoids words like "psychic" or "spiritualist" but firmly be-lives she is "gifted." Her story is told here the way she believes it and the way this writer saw it. Munson was a moderately successful professional singer and dropped from stage and sight some IS years ago. She reappeared in public two weeks ago when she dropped into the Chateau Royale Dining Lounge and reintroduced herself to entertainer Dick Maloney. She and Maloney had worked together when she was still singing.

She still sings well, but threw a curve at Maloney when she said she also did readings. Maloney called her on that, and invited people from the audience to step up for a reading. She surprised the dozen people who volunteered. She told them things they didn't think anybody could know. Word of her "gifts" reached this desk and we located Munson at an apartment building on Bronson Avenue.

She consented to an interview. It's a small apartment, clean but cluttered. The stove, fridge and cupboards are tucked abway behind a folding screen, which when open makes the kitchen part of the living room. She's a short woman with long black hair, black eyes and was wearing a bright polka dot dress. She wears two chains around her neck supporting a collection of crosses and religious medals.

She was not reluctant to talk. Asking her a question is like turning on a tape. The answer is longer and more detailed than you want, and you have to cut in to get the conversation to move to another point. She holds out her hands, palms up, and shows marks she claims appeared less than two years ago in the form of blisters in the shape of crosses. "They oozed a thick white fluid for a few days.

Then the fluid thinned to almost water. At Easter they bled." She didn't consult a doctor but says she showed the wounds to two priests. "One told me I was very lucky and had been selected for a special gift. The other just looked and said I should have them bandaged to avoid infection." She says she has all her life experienced "feelings" about people and events, but never talked about them. "I thought Margaret Munson shows marks on her palms she says bled at Easter: 'One priest I showed them to said I had been selected for a special gift Another said I should have them ftuss Mart, Citizen Pierre Trudeau: "I feel a man with great empathy for people.

He started out really wanting to help people but somewhere along the line he lost that feeling. He became a leader and lost his interest in people. He will get it back." Margaret Trudeau: "I feel a sadness. I feel a frightened and confused young woman. She has a long way to go and many disappointments.

She doesn't have the talent for stardom, but there are those who can give her that. If she is marketable, they will market her. They'll use her. And she'll sit back as a supposedly successful person and realize: This isn't where I want to be." Joe Clark: "I feel this man is not particularly strong, but he genuinely wants to do the right things. He's possibly a bit frightened right now.

But when I think of him I have to think of his wife. That's where he draws his strength and she still has plenty in reserve." Munson claims she receives spiritual messages, which she writes down and keeps carefully filed away. She says she often doesn't understand them, and pulled out a sheaf of papers and started to read. As she read she kept glancing over the top of the papers with a look that said: Isn't that profound? I found it confusing. The words and phrases were understandable but somehow, when strung together, didn't make sense.

The difficulty of breaking in when she was talking now became an impossibility. She read for a long time. Suddenly she informed me: "You're very tired. Your aura is fading:" The droning and endless reading had me irritated too, but if she picked up that feeling she was too polite to mention it. She body else talked about them, I didn't either." But with the marks on her hands, she says, came stronger and more frequent "feelings." About this point I asked for a demonstration.

I was seated on a sofa a short distance from her. She was sitting con-fortably back in a small upholstered chair. She smiled and a dark eyebrow shot up. The expression seemed to say: I've met skeptics before. She asked me to tell her the name of someone she couldn't possibly know.

I did. She leaned further back into her chair, closed her eyes, and began to describe chacteristics and problems that fit that person. Maybe she was generalizing. Another name. She was silent for a long time and then began with: "Loneliness.

I feel I want to cry with this person." She went on to describe an unusual person with unusual problems. There could be no generalizing here. She ran through a few other names until she heard the words she wanted to hear Okay, I'm impressed. On a more general theme, she sees a tough period of adjustment ahead for all of us. "It isn't just energy shortages we'll have to face.

In the near future we're going to face food shortages. People are going to find the times difficult, but actually, I think it will be good for them. People, particularly in this part of the world, eat too much. They eat foolishly. When I say shortages, I mean in the things they like, not in the things they really need." stood, pulled out a straight-back chair and asked me to sit for "a rejuvenation." This consisted of sitting on the chair with my back to her and my eyes closed.

The eyes were closed because she placed her hands over them and it was the only way to avoid a finger in the eye. The hands moved to temples, cheeks, neck and shoulders, and back again. All the while I could hear her muttering, probably prayers, and her chains rattled. I tried to tune into any change of feelings I might have, but was aware only of the rejuvenation taking too long and the seat being too hard. And there was a growing irritation.

Munson says she has worked with scientists interested in her "gifts" and has had some success in contacting the spirit world. She says she has delivered messages to troubled people and when they try to thank her, she says they should thank Him. "Often I don't know the meaning of what I'm passing along. The message comes from Him." She enjoyed her evening with Maloney and they have agreed to repeat performances. She doesn't see this as a step to commercializing her gifts, but as a means of sharing them.

She believes she'll have to institute a fee. "I've found too often that people are just curious and want something proved. Charging a fee would keep these people away." When leaving, she asked me to mail a letter for her. On the return address she used the title "reverend." For those who believe, she'll be around Maloney's stage occasionally, and says she's available at 232-2516 between 1 and 4 p.m. everybody felt these things and since no- Radio above Arctic Circle When the cold wind blows, CBC North is there JL 4 4 1, 1 Tf juk Hanson and Cilastine Erkidjuk present a magazine format program covering public affairs, cultural items, humor, group discussions and music, all in Inuktitut.

"The program has a little of everything," according to Kelly. "We try to talk to people who are directly involved with the topics we're discussing. We also try to interest people in what's going on in their communities and throughout the region. "A lot of people think As It Happens is a very popular show in the South with 30 to 40 per cent listenership, but in the Arctic our program draws about 90 per cent of the listening audience," said Kelly. In a culture where the most common means of communication has always been oral, radio is a natural source of information and entertainment.

"Most Inuit like to talk, tell stories, and share ideas orally," said Cousins. "Radio is natural for them to use and as a result, it is a more important medium in the North than in the South." Now and during 1980, CBC Frobisher will be making a special effort to increase listener participation and to involve a wider range of its audience in the actual content of th programs in order to maximize the potential of the medium for contributing to increased self-determination. "By encouraging more people to express themselves, there will hopefully be more discussion, more self-confidence, more awareness and more interest and participation in decision-making," said Cousins. As for the future, staff development and encouragement of freelancers rate high on Cousins's list of priorities. Linked with this will be an increased emphasis on public expression and participation.

"I think the people are generally satisfied with northern radio, although we are still some distance away from our true potential. From now on we have to emphasize the quality as well as the By Rick Belanger Citizen special correspondent FROB1SHER BAY, N.W.T. It takes an isolated northern outpost, like this community of 2,600 hardy souls on the southeastern shore of Baffin Island, to make a radio service earn its spurs. Case in point, last winter's great February blizzard. For 12 straight days a virtual white-out paralysed this town 2,000 air kilometres north of Ottawa, isolating the residents not only from the outside world but from each other.

While the community quickly shivered to a halt, CBC Frobisher, located in the town's main commercial complex and one of the links in the CBC's Northern Service network, managed to persevere and faithfully feed much-needed information and entertainment to the frozen masses despite its own many operating problems, according to station manager Brian Cousins. "In addition to many emergency announcements," said. Cousins, "CBC Radio broadcast a 90-minute snow special' when the blizzard had reached alarming proportions after over four days of 'white-out' conditions. "This special, as did much of our programming during this period, included advice from local agencies such as the RCMP, the hospital and town officials as well as telephone calls from individual residents asking for help or offering assistance. Many compliments were received from the public who appreciated the communication, information and reassurance provided by the program." One of the lighter program moments occurred when announcer-operator Peter Novak contacted a resident of Hell, Michigan by telephone for an interview to prove that Frobisher Bay really was "colder than Hell." While seldom having to function under such demanding circumstances, the Northern Service's radio operation has made sub- isn't very important." In the Baffin Island and eastern Arctic region, 88 per cent of the approximately 10,450 residents are Inuit, with the dominant language being Inuktitut.

Since the northern radio service began in 1958, it has progressed from providing taped programs to its far-flung stations through a shortwave network to offering a mix of locally and regionally produced programs plus network items delivered via ground facilities and by satellite. Radio programming centres are located in the Northwest Territories at Yellowk-nife, Inuvik and Frobisher Bay and in the Yukon at Whitehorse. Another production centre is being established at Rankin Inlet to serve the Keewatin District. These centres are supported by the Northern Service's Ottawa-based Lanark Avenue headquarters. "Our Frobisher station has three specific media goals," said want to inform the public, entertain our audience and provide a forum for expression by the public." As part of this process, the use of Inuktitut has been significantly increased in recent years through the development of bilingual (Inuktitut and English) programs, often with two hosts, and entirely native language productions.

By recruiting more Inuit staff as announcers and reporters, the emphasis for the past three years has been on promoting Inuktitut news and public affairs information. Probably the station's most popular program is a grab-bag confection of northern information, songs, stories and legends, entitled Tausonil, which Cousins refers to as the "Morningside of Inuktitut." Loosely translated, the title means 'smelling like an Inuk' but is otherwise known as Inuit World. For 90 minutes each Monday to Friday, programs hosts Jonah Kelly, Ann Meekit- Rick Belanger photo Ian Creery hosts public affairs programs for CBC Northern service stantial advances in the provision of news, information and entertainment to Canada's northernmost residents since its inception 21 years ago. Although the first stations were manned by the armed forces, with the majority of listeners being transplanted white southerners wanting to maintain links to the outside, today's audiences are largely composed of native northerners. These listeners want more programming in their own languages while expecting the media to reflect and affirm northern lifestyles.

With its increasing emphasis on Inuit and Indian language programming, relating to northern traditions and realities, CBC has come to play an important role in pre serving this cultural identity and language. In sharp contrast to the Northern Service's troubled television component, which tends to confuse and obscure northern values by simply foisting southern and foreign programming upon its native audience, the radio segment involves the Inuit and Indians in the promotion of their own identity- "The impact of TV is largely negative in terms of what it does to the culture and lifestyles of an area like the Arctic," said Cousins. "While it is appreciated in the North, with almost every community indicating they want TV, when this mirror of society that you are watching doesn't show your own society, it can seem your society.