‘How many more have to die?’: Northern Ontario fires expose delays in human rights complaints for First Nations

By Jon Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ricochet The fly-in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nationlost another home to fire over the weekend, as the Auditor General of Canada refuses to investigate allegations that the Canadian Human Rights Commission is “slow-walking” complaints over inequitable firefighting resources in northern Ontario First Nations. The March 28 duplex fire in the community 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay followed a house fire four days earlier that took the life of KI Chief Donny Morris’s three-year-old grandson. On Friday, the Auditor General’s office refused a public call by the five-member Independent First Nations Alliance and KI, supported by the 49 chiefs of Nishnawbe Aski Nation to investigate why there has been no progress on an urgent claim they filed with CHRC seven months ago. “Our office…

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