Parks Canada eyed boat-ban pros and cons
By Connor McDowell, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Brandon Sun A Parks Canada document shows that staff weighed pros and cons — including a legal threat from Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation — before deciding to ban motorboats from Clear Lake last May. A briefing document was prepared for Thomas Sheldon, the acting superintendent of Riding Mountain National Park at the time, requesting his decision before May 14. The note identified the legal threat from the First Nation, as well as the risk of an outcry from boat owners and businesses, among factors to consider when deciding on the boat policy for 2025. Sheldon signed off on May 14 in favour of the boat ban, the document shows. The file was obtained by the Sun through an access-to-information request, along with internal...
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Summit Lake campground status remains a “triable issue,” says appeal court
By Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince George Citizen A BC Court of Appeal tribunal dismissed appeals on Dec. 10 of a lower court ruling that said the treaty rights of a McLeod Lake Indian Band member who runs a commercial campground are a triable issue. In a long-running dispute, Regional District of Fraser-Fort George accused Bernard Dale Chingee of violating provincial and municipal land use laws by the north shore of Summit Lake. In his defence, Chingee argued he received the property fee simple as a treaty entitlement and the laws infringed on his Aboriginal treaty rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The chambers judge, Justice Michael Tammen, dismissed the regional district’s application for a summary judgment in September 2024. The regional district and province appealed,...
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Jennifer Bone remains Sioux Valley chief under deal: Tacan
By Connor McDowell, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Brandon Sun Jennifer Bone will remain the chief of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation under an agreement that ends the former chief’s court challenge of the November election result. Vince Tacan told the Sun on Tuesday he reached an agreement with Bone to move forward outside of court. The agreement ends Tacan’s push to ask a judge to invalidate the election and call for a new vote. “It’s not ideal,” Tacan said. “I’m not happy with it, actually, but it’s the best we can do under the circumstances.” Bone did not speak to any details of the agreement, but told the Sun that an announcement will be released in the near future. According to Tacan, the agreement empowers the original election officer, Burke Ratte,...
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Four-and-a-half years jail for sex crime that led to relative’s suicide
By Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince George Citizen A 67-year-old man convicted of the 2021 sexual assault and sexual touching of a girl under 16 was sentenced Dec. 5 by a judge in Fort St. John to four-and-a-half years in jail. “This type of sexualized violence committed against a vulnerable girl in her own home is absolutely intolerable,” said BC Supreme Court Justice Michael Brundrett. The sentencing decision was, coincidentally, published on Dec. 23, the fourth anniversary of the victim’s suicide. The Crown asked for a five-year sentence. Brundrett emphatically rejected the defence’s proposal of two years less a day, with two years probation, or two-to-three years jail. He called it too low for the serious crime which had such a profound effect on the victim. “The offences...
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‘Disrespectful and offensive’: Inuit, Canadian politicians react to U.S. Greenland threats
By Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News When Aaju Peter first heard U.S. President Donald Trump talk about buying or taking Greenland during his first term, she didn’t take it seriously. “But now that he is becoming more serious, I’m taking his words more seriously,” Peter, an Iqaluit-based lawyer and activist originally from Greenland, said in an interview. “It’s disrespectful and offensive that a leader of a country would want to buy our land, my motherland.” The United States has had a foothold in Greenland since the 1950s, where it operates the Pituffik Space Base military installation, and both the U.S. and Greenland — as part of Denmark — are members of the NATO political and military alliance. When Trump returned to office last year, he reiterated his...
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Indigenous Services Canada ramps up Kashechewan evacuation
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer Indigenous Services Canada is assisting with evacuation plans and repairs for a remote Ontario First Nation that declared a state of emergency after its aging water treatment plant and sewage system failed. Kashechewan First Nation, a fly-in Cree community on James Bay in northern Ontario with about 2,300 people, is under a “do not consume” short-term water advisory. Members of the community have been hauling river water or melting snow to flush toilets and wash dishes and relying on donated bottled water for drinking and cooking. The crisis has left families struggling to care for children amid an influenza outbreak, with sewage backing up into the community’s only health clinic. Kashechewan Chief Hosea Wesley said the community’s broken water system...
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Ontario First Nation says Ottawa still slow to act after 18 years of water issues
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer A remote Cree community on the shores of James Bay has declared a state of emergency after its water treatment plant failed this week — a crisis residents say the federal government is responding to far too slowly. Kashechewan First Nation, home to around 2,300 people alongside the Albany River in Ontario’s northern region, is now under a “do not consume” short-term water advisory. Residents have been ordered not to drink tap water or bathe babies and young children in it. In many homes, taps are dry — no water to flush toilets or wash hands. Kashechewan Chief Hosea Wesley said the community’s broken water system has left young parents scrambling to care for their children. “I have a mother...
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More workers, heaters headed to Manitoba First Nation struggling with frozen water
More workers and heaters and are on the way to a beleaguered First Nation in northern Manitoba, where thousands have been forced out due to frozen pipes and sewage backup. A day after politicians travelled to Pimicikamak Cree Nation, the community announced additional heaters are expected to arrive Monday and 30 more tradespeople are to follow suit. Chief David Monias says the extent of damage to more than 1,300 homes remains unclear, nearly two weeks after a power outage led to the failure of critical infrastructure. He says many holding tanks in homes remain frozen and testing will need to be done on water lines once they’re thawed. Federal, provincial and First Nations leaders toured the community Wednesday and saw flooded homes with buckled ceilings and cracked pipes. The federal...
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Name change? Mi’kmaq included 100 years later in Cabot Trail plans
By Rosemary Godin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cape Breton Post As plans for the 100th anniversary commemoration of the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton unfold, they’re promising to bring some changes. Among new infrastructure and stopping places, will be signage of place names that have been forgotten by all but cultural historians. “So much history has been erased and we’re trying to help with education and awareness about that,” says Robert Bernard, executive director for the Nova Scotia Indigenous Tourism Enterprise Network (NSITEN). “We hope our work will help to build a stronger relationship with the different cultures that are here on this island. For example, when people say Cape Breton, they don’t realize that it was Unam’aki (Land of the Fog) before.’ “These traditional names have a place and...
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Civil case against estate of Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau is dismissed
The lawsuit brought by a British Columbia man against the estate of acclaimed Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau alleging he was sexually assaulted by the painter has been dismissed. Mark Anthony Jacobson filed the lawsuit last year, seeking $5 million from the estate in general, aggravated and punitive damages. He claimed Morrisseau reached into his pants and touched him on the buttocks after Morrisseau’s assistant suggested he could heal Jacobson’s back pain. In response to lawsuit, the estate said Morrisseau “was in no position to be physically or socially aggressive” at the time of the alleged 2006 assault, that he “had no libido,” was held upright in a wheelchair by straps, and was in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease before dying the next year at the age of 75. The...
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Kashechewan First Nation planning evacuation after water system failure
By Cassidy McMackon A remote First Nation in northern Ontario says it is looking to evacuate the entire community in the coming days due to multiple failures in its water supply and wastewater systems. Kashechewan First Nation, a fly-in community on the western shore of James Bay, says its water level has significantly dropped, triggering an automatic shutdown to avoid damages to an already fragile system. A news release adds the community has been plagued with pump failures in the sewage lift stations due to an overworked system that is now more than 30 years old. It says the situation is causing an urgent public health and safety problem, as sewage is creeping into people’s homes and contaminating fresh water systems. The community does not have a timeline for when...
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Kinew, leaders visit Manitoba First Nation dealing with frozen water crisis
By Brittany Hobson Politicians travelled to get a look at a First Nation in northern Manitoba that’s scrambling to clean up and fix up after a frozen water catastrophe buckled ceilings, swamped homes in sewage and forced thousands out. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, federal Northern and Arctic Affairs Minister Rebecca Chartrand and Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak were among the delegation that toured Pimicikamak Cree Nation on Wednesday. With them came renewed supplies of bottled water and food. But the biggest need? Plumbers. Todd McConnell, a plumber brought into Pimicikamak, said it could take months to make repairs to the estimated 800 damaged homes. “We’re trying to get everything fixed one house at a time,” McConnell said. “We have come across some homes that have been...
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Man who held himself out as Native American activist sentenced to 46 years for serial rapes
By Martha Bellisle SEATTLE (AP) — A man who held himself out as a Native American activist was sentenced Wednesday to 46 years in prison for drugging and raping women in a case that inspired calls for changes in Washington state law to prohibit defendants who represent themselves from directly questioning their accusers. Redwolf Pope, who had apartments in Seattle and Santa Fe, New Mexico, was arrested in 2018 after guests at his Seattle apartment gave police videos from his iPad that showed him raping several women who appeared to be unconscious, court documents said. Police also found a secret camera in Pope’s bathroom that was used to capture video of women in the shower. “I’ve had the horror of witnessing the scale of violence Pope inflicted on multiple women...
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West Moberly First Nations seeks delegates for annual youth leadership conference
By Ed Hitchins, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Energeticcity.ca MOBERLY LAKE, B.C. — A northeast B.C. First Nation is urging the youth voices in its community to express interest in an annual Indigenous youth leadership event. The Gathering Our Voices conference is an annual showcase seeking to “provide Indigenous youth with the tools to empower and inspire,” both in their communities and the world, according to the event’s website. West Moberly First Nations (WMFN) issued a Facebook post on Tuesday, January 6th encouraging its members between the ages of 14 and 24 to submit letters of interest for their delegation. Brittany Knott is the recreation coordinator for WMFN, and says candidates will benefit from the experience. “It shows all our youth what amazing opportunities there are out there,” said Knott. “Not...
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First Nations chiefs alarmed by feds’ lack of commitment to protecting source water
By Alessia Passafiume Some First Nations chiefs say Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty’s recent refusal to commit to source water protections in a promised clean water bill shows the government is sidelining the health of Indigenous communities in its push to build up the economy. Two provinces — Alberta and Ontario — objected to clean water legislation introduced by former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government that failed to pass before Parliament was prorogued last year. Gull-Masty said last summer she was committed to reintroducing the bill. The minister vowed at the time the legislation would affirm First Nations’ human right to clean drinking water. She did not explain how that might work after the passage of legislation in June that speeds up the approval timeline for major infrastructure projects and...
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Kashechewan First Nation planning evacuation after water system failure
By Cassidy McMackon A remote First Nation in northern Ontario says it is looking to evacuate the entire community in the coming days due to multiple failures in its water supply and wastewater systems. Kashechewan First Nation, a fly-in community on the western shore of James Bay, says its water level has significantly dropped, triggering an automatic shutdown to avoid damages to an already fragile system. A news release adds the community has been plagued with pump failures in the sewage lift stations due to an overworked system that is now more than 30 years old. It says the situation is causing an urgent public health and safety problem, as sewage is creeping into people’s homes and contaminating fresh water systems. The community does not have a timeline for when...
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Ex-Listuguj police officer faces charges after Quebec police watchdog investigation
A former officer with the Listuguj Police Department is facing criminal charges following an investigation by Quebec’s police watchdog. Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes says Cass Barnaby is facing charges of extortion, non-consensual publication of intimate images, and harassing communications. The charges are related to alleged offences in 2024 in the Mi’kmaq community of Listuguj, a First Nation on the Gaspé Peninsula near the border with New Brunswick. The watchdog says Barnaby was arrested in early December and appeared in court in Carleton-sur-Mer, Que., on Dec. 18. It says 38 peace officers have been arrested after investigations by the watchdog since the agency was created in 2016. The agency investigates serious incidents involving police officers in the province. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2026....
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Indigenous businesses ‘stabilizer’ of economy
By Sandi Krasowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle-Journal The Indigenous business landscape in Northwestern Ontario has seen a year of business formation and diversification, which is moving beyond the traditional resource service model. Jason Rasevych, president and founder of Anishnawbe Business Professional Association (ABPA), said 2025 was a year of qualitative growth with a surge in technical trades, creative arts and professional services. There were success stories of small operations growing to secure major government contracts and newly established retail hubs for Indigenous culture. Attawapiskat First Nation, for instance, now supports 12 local businesses. “The release of the Indigenous Economic Impact Analysis confirmed that Indigenous spending and business now contribute $1.55 billion annually to the Thunder Bay economy,” Rasevych said. “The data is now undeniable — Indigenous business is...
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Fitness program has roots in Indigenous teachings
By Emily Plihal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, South Peace News It’s the new year and it’s time to kickstart healthy habits to ensure your body is in tip-top shape for health and vitality. Women from Peace River and surrounding areas are being urged to participate in a free fitness and nutrition program for women tentatively to start on Jan. 26 and running for 15 weeks. Makoyoh’sokoi (Blackfoot word for Wolf Trail) will be a 15-week holistic wellness program that will include Indigenous cultural and spiritual foundations. “It’s a great chance to learn about health and to participate in different activities to get people moving,” says Elder Priscilla Lalonde. “It teaches women how to walk a good life using cultural tools and foundations,” she adds. The program was developed by the...
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Why Greenland is strategically important to Arctic security
By Danica Kirka And Stefanie Dazio Location, location, location: Greenland’s position above the Arctic Circle makes the world’s largest island a key part of security strategy. Increasing international tensions, global warming and the changing world economy have put Greenland at the heart of the debate over global trade and security, and U.S. President Donald Trump wants to make sure his country controls the mineral-rich island that guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America. Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a longtime U.S. ally that has rejected Trump’s overtures. Greenland’s own government also opposes U.S. designs on the island, saying the people of Greenland will decide their own future. The island, 80% of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people...
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