Cape Breton Author and Activist Remembered

D’ESCOUSSE – The legacy of author, filmmaker, environmentalist and community activist Silver Donald Cameron will be felt long after his death in May at the age of 82.

The last book in his lengthy catalogue, Blood On The Water, is making its debut this month. The book chronicles the 2013 disappearance and presumed death of Philip Boudreau, an Isle Madame fisherman who was last seen in a violent altercation on the lobster fishing boat Twin Maggies that resulted in several criminal charges, convictions and prison sentences for the three fishermen on board and the boat’s owner, the spouse of one of the fishermen.

Cameron had previously gained attention and acclaim for his commentaries about the Twin Maggies case in such national newspapers as The Globe and Mail. Speaking to TELILE 24/7 host Adam Cooke for a panel discussion on Cameron’s life and work, long-time friend Greg Silver suggested that this combination of bravery and passion for rural communities marked his 82 years on the planet.

“The people I met in D’Escousse, thanks to Don – including men my age that couldn’t read or write – he could have an intelligent discussion with them,” recalled Silver, a resident of St. Peter’s.  

“Formal education isn’t everything, but I didn’t get to see that until I started working with Don on Isle Madame, and I got to meet some very bright people.”

Far beyond his literary and film work, which helped to earn him such distinctions as the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia, Cameron also poured himself into community development.

Settling with his wife Marjorie Simms in D’Escousse, on the northern shore of Isle Madame, Cameron co-founded the economic-recovery organization Development Isle Madame following the downturn in the Atlantic fishery in the early ‘90s. He would later be instrumental in co-founding, launching, and training volunteers for Telile Community Television, encouraging the people of Isle Madame to tell their own stories.

“Not only did he have the vision, but he could bring the people together to execute these ideas that will be with us and exist on this island for a very long time,” said Arichat musician and Acadian educator Delores Boudreau.

“I would consider him to be larger than life.”