My name is Jason. I was born June 25, 1973, in Mary's Harbour, Labrador. I'm the fourth of five children. With the exception of my sister, who lives in Nova Scotia, family still lives in Labrador.Until I was 18, Fox Harbour was my home. The only times I had been outside that tiny, isolated fishing community before then was moving to Petty Harbour every summer with my family. Petty Harbour, located just north of Fox Harbour, is where we fished commercially until 1992, when the cod fishery collapsed. Fox Harbour turned to the crab fishery to sustain itself after the cod moratorium. Petty Harbour had about 5 or 6 families in the summer - it was only a seasonal community. I remember, as a kid, I hated being there. I wanted to be somewhere, anywhere but there. In some ways, I miss it now.

In June 1991, I finished grade school and that winter I left Labrador to attend university in St. John's, Newfoundland. Having never been outside Labrador prior to that move, St. John's was total culture shock. I arrived two days before Christmas. Before moving there, I had never experienced busy streets....or well, streets....escalators, buses, malls, supermarkets.......it all seemed so big. I remember sitting on my bed the night I arrived and wishing I could go back home. Luckily, my sister was there for a few days for Christmas (she was stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia) and she dragged me through St. John's showing me as much as she could to get me used to it.

I quickly got used to St. John's and university. I wasn't making friends because of my shyness, but I liked it anyway. During my first month there I boarded with a friend of my sister. It was an old three-story townhouse, almost downtown. I did actually figure out the bus routes there - no small feat considering St. John's streets aren't built in a grid. The streets go off in every direction. It's a very old city - Newfoundlanders are quick to claim it as the oldest city in North America. It's an interesting place to visit.

I spent a year and a half in St. John's. In June 1993, while I was home for the summer, my brother showed me a job posting from the Labrador Metis Nation. It involved collecting and compiling genealogical and land use data in preparation for submission of the Metis Land Claim to the federal government. I had little experience in genealogy but was always interested in it. I applied for the job assuming that I wouldn't get an interview, but figured "what the hell". Not only did I get an interview, I got the job. I knew I liked genealogy, but it wasn't until this job came along that I realized just how much I loved it. Labrador genealogy and history fascinates me. Putting the pieces of a family tree together is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. I guess that's why I love jigsaws, too.

My work with the Labrador Metis Nation (LMN) allowed me to travel and meet people. I also became more involved in the LMN as I learned more about it. I've been a member since 1991 and until 1993 I knew very little about the organization. My employment with the LMN ended in 1994. Since I knew a lot about the ancestral roots of the Metis of Southern Labrador, I joined the membership committee and I provided more genealogical information to the LMN on a volunteer basis.

It was around the same period that I became involved with THEM DAYS Inc., an archive/magazine based in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. I began doing a lot of volunteer work with THEM DAYS - anything they'd let me do, eventually serving on their Board of Directors. In 1996, they found funding for two projects: accessioning the backlog of material for the archive and helping compile a photo book on Labrador. I worked on both projects. It's the best job I ever had - I loved working there. But after those projects ended in January 1997 I was again looking for work.

In March of 1997 I got a computer and got online. I had discovered bears on the net in December 1996 while browsing at work and wanted to explore it further.

I finally had found a group of guys who liked being big and hairy, and were very proud of it. It really helped me come to terms with my own sexuality.

While searching the net for bears in Eastern Canada, I came across a page for LairBear. I thought he was very good looking and wanted to write him, but being too shy, I didn't at first. After visiting his page a few times, I finally got up the nerve to write him an email and introduce myself. We began emailing back and forth; then the emails turned into phone calls. I realized I could not live the life I wanted in Labrador and, as much as I didn't want to go, I knew I would have to leave it. But where to go? Larry had mentioned that he had a vacant apartment downstairs in his house. So, after much thought, I decided that I would move to Fredericton. That May, I moved back to Fox Harbour to complete a contract with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP -- national organization of which the LMN is a member). That contract ran from June to August. I arrived in Fredericton on August 25, 1997. I remember being very nervous when I arrived. What would Larry think of me? Would he like me? Well, that feeling ended when I saw him walk through the door of the bus terminal. He came right over and gave me a big hug.

I lived in the apartment downstairs and began looking for work. There was absolutely nothing available in the fields I had worked in before - genealogy and archiving. After about a week I found work at the gas bar of the co-op we where we shopped.

Larry and I grew very close very quickly after I arrived in Fredericton. We didn't plan it, it just happened that way. Soon, I moved upstairs with him and we've been together ever since. We've had our ups and downs......many more ups than downs. We had our civil union in Vermont on May 19, 2001 and were legally married here in New Brunswick on August 12, 2005.

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