Niagara Falls, Ont., mayor apologizes for comments about Kashechewan evacuees
NIAGARA FALLS ONT-The mayor of Niagara Falls, Ont., has apologized for comments about Kashechewan First Nation evacuees made during a recent council meeting that discussed homelessness in the city. The city has been hosting in hotels hundreds of evacuees from the First Nation for almost six months after a water crisis in the northern Ontario community forced them to leave their homes. Niagara Falls’ former chief administrative officer Ken Todd said in a presentation to city council on June 23 that many residents think Indigenous people staying in the community are homeless when they see them congregating or walking on the street. Kashechewan First Nation Chief Hosea Wesley said the comments left many evacuees feeling unwelcome in their host community. Wesley said the evacuees have been living through “one of...
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Regina exhibition ‘Love Medicine’ celebrates Two Spirit and Indigiqueer artists
By Brittany Boschman, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews A new art exhibition in Oskana kâ-asastêki (Regina) gathers Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ artists around a tender and political belief that love, in all its forms, can be medicine. Love Medicine brings together the work of 22 artists at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, whose collective work asks what love can hold for Two Spirit and Indigiqueer people across generations, communities and forms of making. The exhibition was curated by Michelle McGeough, a Métis art historian and assistant professor at Concordia University, and opened on June 12. It will be on display until Nov. 1. “I wanted to create a space where we could talk about these types of things, and talk about what it means to love,” McGeough tells IndigiNews. “Love is in itself...
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Wasauksing First Nation secures $1.2M boost: Inside the maple and playground upgrades
By Shania Tabobondung is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter At the newly renovated Wasauksing Maple Products facility, Parry Sound—Muskoka MPP Graydon Smith was joined by Chief Shane Tabobondung, Coun. Pazhe Rice and sugar bush manager Chris Chomyshyn to announce a $1.2-million investment from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) for three local projects. “These investments reflect our government’s commitment to strengthening small businesses and community spaces in rural and northern Ontario,” said Smith. “This funding has helped establish a strong foundation and a modern, functional maple facility that positions Wasauksing Maple Products for continued growth while supporting the sustainable harvesting of one of our traditional springtime resources,” said Chomyshyn. Of the total investment, $848,074 will support Wasauksing Maple Products, a local maple syrup operation. Newly installed processing equipment is...
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New Brunswick needs to better protect clean drinking water, residents say
By Eli Ridder Citizens, community organizations and First Nations say the New Brunswick government must better protect the drinking water supply. They say they also want the province to create an online portal featuring interactive maps and dashboards showing water safety conditions and historical water quality information. Those suggestions came out of public consultations last year on the province’s Clean Water Act, summarized in a report released today. The consultations took place between June to November 2025 and included six public engagement sessions, an online public survey and 26 written submissions. New Brunswick’s Environment Department says it will use the feedback as it considers proposing improvements to the Clean Water Act. Meanwhile, witnesses at related legislative hearings in May pushed lawmakers to enshrine into law the legal right to clean...
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Seven years in jail for man convicted of sexually assaulting siblings
By Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince George Citizen More than a year after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting his sisters, a man has been sentenced to seven years in prison. On June 19 in BC Supreme Court in Prince George, Justice Palbinder Kaur Shergill sentenced the man to six years for offences against one victim and four years for offences against another. However, Shergill reduced those sentences to five years and two years, respectively, and ordered them served consecutively because the combined sentence must not be unduly long or harsh. “Ultimately, the sentence reflects the serious and harmful nature of the offences, the significant harm caused to two vulnerable victims and the need to protect the public, while remaining consistent with the applicable principles of sentencing...
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Premiers Smith, Ford unveil proposed west-east oil pipeline route
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled Monday a route for a proposed west-east oil pipeline. The two premiers say it would stretch 3,300 kilometres from Hardisty, Alta., to refineries in Sarnia, Ont., without crossing the U.S. border. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford have unveiled a route for a proposed west-east oil pipeline. Following Smith’s pancake breakfast the two premiers say it would stretch 3,300 kilometres from Hardisty, Alta., to refineries in Sarnia, Ont., without crossing the U.S. border. (July 6, 2026) They made the announcement at the Calgary Stampede after the two leaders were up bright and early flipping pancakes at Smith’s annual premier’s breakfast. An Ontario government brochure says the line, referred to as the Northern Shield Energy Corridor, would move...
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B.C. wildfire prompts evacuations and heavy smoke warnings in Fraser Canyon
Thick smoke from a wildfire burning out of control near Boston Bar, B.C., has led to air-quality warnings and forced crews fighting the flames to restrict the use of helicopters. An update Monday from the province’s wildfire service said poor visibility meant aircraft had to be restricted while fighting the 12-square-kilometre Brunswick Creek wildfire that has forced multiple evacuation orders and alerts after it grew by more than 10 times over the weekend. “High winds continue to pose a risk for both responder safety, due to the increase in fire behaviour as well as potentially carrying embers farther north which can cause spot fires,” the update said. “Poor visibility and steep terrain will limit the use of aviation resources. The safety of our crews, pilots and the public is our...
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Indigenous Treaties feeling threatened once again
By Alexandra Noad, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lethbridge Herald Due to colonialism, many Indigenous people have a complicated relationship with Canada Day, but this year it was amplified with the separatist movement. A few weeks ago, chiefs from Treaty 6,7 and 8, gathered in Calgary to hold a rally, during which many of them stated their concern over the lack of respect for the treaties. Indigenous people value the treaties their ancestors signed with the Crown as a sacred promise to their lands and ancestors who wrote them. Despite the treaties being signed over 100 years ago, Samuel Crowfoot, chief of the Siksika Nation says they are still in effect today. “The sad part is that people forget about that Treaty, they forget what it means,...
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‘No safe levels’: Former federal scientist warns Bill C-30 opens door for more pesticides in already broken regulatory system
By Anushka Yadav, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer Four months after resigning as co-chair of the science advisory committee to Canada’s national pesticide regulator in 2023, Bruce Lanphear went to a Warrior Monk Retreat on Bainbridge Island, where after a predawn meditation session, a monk asked participants to write down what they were feeling. What emerged on the paper was a poem he titled ‘Confessions of a Toxicologist’. The monk then asked Lanphear to read it aloud: “I am guilty. I believed, as many of us did, that a little poison would be safe— like an aspirin, or a glass of wine with dinner. I stood by as it seeped quietly into the soil, the womb, the breath of morning. I waited for proof, as if the...
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Astronaut Jeremy Hansen leaving Canadian Space Agency
By Catherine Morrison Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who made a historic trip around the moon aboard NASA’s Artemis 2 mission in April, is leaving the Canadian Space Agency. A statement released by the agency said Hansen will pursue “new professional opportunities” as of September. He will continue to serve as a reservist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. “This unique position is a deliberate launch pad designed to leave the door open for creative, ongoing ways to support and enable the vital work happening in Canada with respect to space, and I’m excited for the new challenges it will bring,” Hansen said in a social media post on Monday. Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who made a historic trip around the moon aboard NASA’s Artemis 2 mission in April, is leaving the Canadian...
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Federal government says self-identified Inuit group is fishing illegally in Labrador
By Sarah Smellie A group that says it represents about 6,000 Inuit in southern Labrador has launched its own fishery outside of the oversight and authorization of the federal Fisheries Department. The NunatuKavut Community Council, or NCC, has been encouraging its members to fish together if they are worried about enforcement by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which says any fishing under the council’s unauthorized harvesting plan is illegal. The dispute is the latest source of friction involving the NCC as it pushes for federally mandated rights as an Inuit group, despite lacking recognition by any federally recognized, rights-holding Inuit collective. “We do this work … so that our people can have food forever, their own foods, their traditional foods, doing it in a way that passes along our traditions and...
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Environmentalists have mixed reactions to Quebec-Ottawa caribou funding deal
By Morgan Lowrie Environmentalists are divided on whether a new funding deal reached between Quebec and the federal government is a meaningful first step to saving the province’s dwindling caribou herds or a “smokescreen” that does little to protect the threatened species. The agreement announced Tuesday will see Ottawa send Quebec $25 million over five years to spend on caribou conservation initiatives, as well as another $15 million to Indigenous communities who are implementing their own programs. The deal signals an end to the years-long federal-provincial battle over caribou that began in 2022, when then-federal environment minister Steven Guilbeault threatened to act unilaterally to protect the threatened herds if the province failed to submit a concrete plan to save them. Retired biology professor Marco Festa-Bianchet describes $25 million Quebec-Ottawa caribou...
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Out-of-control wildfire near Boston Bar, B.C. exceeds 12 square kilometres
By Wolfgang Depner An out-of-control fire near Boston Bar, B.C., has grown more than 10 times its estimated size a day earlier, and responders have requested additional resources to deal with it. BC Wildfire Service says in its latest update posted on Sunday afternoon that the Brunswick Creek fire has now reached a size of more than 12 square kilometres, up from an early report of one square kilometre. The update came after the Boothroyd Indian Band issued an evacuation order Sunday morning, which followed the Fraser Valley Regional District ordering residents living in the North Bend area to leave. Officials first detected the Brunswick Creek fire on July 2 and it is believed to have been sparked by human activity. BC Wildfire say three initial attack crews, two unit...
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NDP’s Nenshi supportive of public cash for Alberta pipeline, wants honesty from Smith
By Jack Farrell Alberta’s Opposition NDP leader says Premier Danielle Smith’s plan for a new pipeline has his support, but he’s calling on her to be honest about how much taxpayers could be on the hook for it. Naheed Nenshi also says public financing for the pipeline shouldn’t be a deal-breaker. “There sometimes is space for public dollars, and the big pipelines that have been built over many years in Canada certainly had public participation in different ways,” Nenshi said in an interview Friday. “What we really need is transparency and honesty from the premier and from the (United Conservative) government on precisely what they’re putting in, and if they’re doing it for good economic reasons.” Smith announced Thursday that her United Conservative Party government has submitted to Ottawa a...
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‘The light at the end of the tunnel is very far away:’ mayor of flooded Manitoba town
Residents in a western Manitoba town are stuck waiting for waters to recede before they can begin cleaning up from a second historic flood in a month. Swan River Mayor Lance Jacobson said that while water levels looked to have dropped by about 30 centimetres since Wednesday’s flood, there’s still a couple of metres to go in places. He said there’s little the upwards of 200 households that were forced to flee their homes can do now but wait. “People that are flooded, they’re just sitting coiled up like a spring, waiting to get what they need to get done, and dealing with the grief of all that, and that’s very difficult,” Jacobson said. He said he wishes there’s more he could do. “It’s very heart-wrenching, you know, when you...
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First Nation chief says landowner waited too long to challenge Cowichan title case
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer A First Nation chief says a major landowner waited too long to challenge the Cowichan Aboriginal title case after a BC court rejected the company’s bid to reopen the trial this week. BC Supreme Court Justice Barbara Young rejected Montrose Properties’ attempt to reopen the case, calling it an “abuse of process” after a 513-day trial over Cowichan title in part of Richmond, a Metro Vancouver city where homes, businesses and public land already exist. Montrose is the area’s largest landowner, with about 120 hectares of industrial land in the title area, including properties used for distribution centres for Canadian Tire, Wayfair and Coca-Cola. The company went to court after the August 2025 decision, saying it should have been included...
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Poet kit-xgwélemc kennedy wins an Indigenous Voices Award
By Dionne Phillips, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews For Secwépemc poet kit-xgwélemc kennedy, it was his mom and grandma’s shared love of literature that inspired him to appreciate the power of the written word. But it wasn’t until attending university that the St’uxwtéws (Bonaparte First Nation) member says he truly found himself as a writer — and ultimately, an award-winning poet. “There’s just such an intensity with how the language works in poetry,” he says. “Poetry is such a powerful medium and such a form of self-expression.” Last month, kennedy was among the winners at the Indigenous Voice Awards (IVAs), recognized for his unpublished poetry. Even through the influence of his family, he never imagined writing could become a career. Besides English class, what really inspired him to begin a...
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Canadian ‘Little House on the Prairie’ actors talk Indigenous representation in Netflix retelling
By Craig Macrae Actors in Netflix’s upcoming “Little House on the Prairie” series say the latest adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book series was intentional about portraying its Indigenous characters with depth and avoiding the racial stereotypes that the original text has been criticized for utilizing. Ojibwe actor Meegwun Fairbrother says the producers wanted an inclusive retelling of the novels that depict a white family settling in the American West on Osage land in the 19th century, and that they wanted to avoid any continuation of “the history of erasure of Indigenous peoples in North America.” Canadian Indigenous stars talk representation on the new Netflix retelling of “Little House on the Prairie.” (July 3, 2026) The semi-autobiographical books and previous screen adaptations have been criticized by scholars and Indigenous communities...
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Women who killed foster son and abused his sibling sentenced to life in prison
BURLINGTON, ONT- Two women who abused two Indigenous brothers in their care will spend the rest of their lives in prison. The two women recieved mandatory life sentences with no chance of parole in the abuse of two Indigenous brothers in their care, killing the oldest. Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney of Burlington, Ont., were found guilty in early May of first-degree murder in the death of a 12-year-old boy, and of unlawful confinement, assault with a weapon and failure to provide the necessaries of life regarding his younger sibling. First-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. The couple took in the two boys, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, in the fall of 2017 and sought...
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Who are the partners behind a proposed new West Coast oil pipeline?
By Lauren Krugel Alberta’s pitch to the major projects office for a new oil pipeline to the West Coast is being billed as a public-private partnership, though its current structure skews almost entirely toward the public end of the spectrum. Ninety per cent of the proposal would be in the hands of provincial and federal Crown corporations — at least in the beginning. Energy infrastructure company Pembina Pipeline Corp. would be a minority partner. Here is a rundown of what each entity does and what they bring to the table: Trans Mountain Corp. The new pipeline would have a familiar builder and route. It would largely follow the path of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline that runs from the Edmonton area to the B.C. Lower Mainland. Trans Mountain Corp., a...
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