Indigenous leaders again left out of first ministers meeting as tensions grow
By Alessia Passafiume The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is warning the provinces and Ottawa it “may not end well” if they make decisions about major infrastructure projects at the upcoming first ministers meeting without First Nations involvement. First Nations leaders in Ontario, meanwhile, have a rally planned for Monday at Queen’s Park to protest the provincial government’s controversial Bill 5, legislation meant to speed up development. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak says the lack of First Nations representation at the first ministers’ table is “very disrespectful.” The Assembly of First Nations has long called for its inclusion at first ministers meetings but has only been able to secure secondary meetings with prime ministers ahead of the official meetings. Federation of Sovereign Indigenous...
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U.S. Army analysis finds Great Lakes pipeline tunnel would have sweeping environmental impacts
By Todd Richmond Building an underground tunnel for an aging Enbridge oil pipeline that stretches across a Great Lakes channel could destroy wetlands and harm bat habitats but would eliminate the chances of a boat anchor rupturing the line and causing a catastrophic spill, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday in a long-awaited draft analysis of the proposed project’s environmental impacts. The analysis moves the corps a step closer to approving the tunnel for Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac. The tunnel was proposed in 2018 at a cost of $500 million but has been bogged down by legal challenges. The corps fast-tracked the project in April after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies in January to identify energy projects for expedited emergency permitting. A final environmental...
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B.C. ostrich farm at heart of avian flu debate upbeat despite looming federal cull
The family that operates the British Columbia ostrich farm where some 400 birds face being euthanized by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says spirits remain high among protesters looking to stave off the cull. Katie Pasitney, whose parents own Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, B.C., say about 130 protesters are at the farm, and the group is holding an “indigenous culture” prayer circle every morning. Pasitney says the atmosphere at the farm has been “beautiful” despite the CFIA issuing a statement on Friday saying the farmers resisting the cull have not substantiated claims of scientific research on the birds that survived an avian flu outbreak. The federal agency says the infection at the farm is a mutation of the avian flu not seen elsewhere, and the cull is still planned...
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Ports, mines and pipelines top premiers’ wish lists ahead of meeting with Carney
By Catherine Morrison Canada’s premiers are heading into to a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Saskatoon Monday armed with their wish lists for major “nation-building” projects that could buttress the economy in the face of a U.S. trade war. Carney asked the premiers to each pass on five suggestions for national infrastructure projects, and Monday’s meeting will aim to identify the ones that will make the final cut to be fast tracked using legislation Ottawa may introduce as early as this week. The conversation is taking place against the backdrop of an ongoing trade war with the United States, renewed debate about separatism in Alberta and a push to break down interprovincial trade barriers to encourage more trade between provinces and less reliance on trade with the U.S....
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With hotel space in short supply, Manitoba fire evacuees welcomed in Niagara Falls
As emergency officials work to find hotel space for wildfire evacuees on the Prairies, a Manitoba Indigenous group says it has welcomed residents from the Pimicikamak Cree Nation at a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ont. The organization, which represents Indigenous peoples in Manitoba, said in a social media post that the first of the evacuees from Pimicikamak were greeted Sunday at the airport in Hamilton with snacks and drinks before being loaded onto a bus for the last portion of their trip. A hot meal was waiting for them, the post said, and children and pets were welcome at the hotel, too. “Once they are done they will have access to their room to get settled. We look forward to greeting the next two planes arriving later today,” said the...
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Ontario PCs to limit debate on controversial Bill 5, among other legislation
By Allison Jones Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government is moving to shut down debate on its most controversial piece of legislation this session, one of a plethora of bills getting the fast-track treatment before the legislature rises for a summer break. A mining law known as Bill 5 that would give the government power to suspend provincial and municipal laws for chosen projects in areas deemed to have economic importance – and remove some endangered species protections – has sparked a lot of opposition. A legislative committee heard from First Nations leaders and environmental groups, as well as mining groups, over two days and as the committee was considering amendments last week the NDP and Liberals used procedural tools to grind the process to a halt, in protest. Government house...
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Here’s what we’re watching…
Cooler week ahead as fires burn by Flin Flon, Man. Cooler temperatures and a chance of rain this week is forecasted in a northwestern Manitoba city that’s had to evacuate thousands due to wildfire. As of Sunday night, Environment Canada is projecting temperatures in the mid teens to mid 20s over the next week, with a good chance of rain coming next Saturday in Flin Flon. Crews have been trying to keep a blaze burning nearby at bay, as they have said the fire has been contained to outside its perimeter highway. At this time, crews say there have been no structure losses. To date, more than 17,000 people have been displaced by wildfires in Manitoba, including 5,000 from Flin Flon. Here’s what else we’re watching… Carney, premiers meeting in...
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Six Nations Elected Council approved $27 million to build language schools in a closed meeting
OHSWEKEN, ON – Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) has approved spending $27 million to build the longed for Kawenní:io/Gawení:yo Elementary and Secondary School (KG). SNEC approved the $27 million expenditure in a closed Political Liaison meeting Monday, May 26th 2025 . Turtle Island News has learned that $6 million of the $27 million is coming from Six Nations Social Services’ Jordan’s Principle funding and the remaining $21 million from the community’s Ontario First Nations Ltd., Partnership funding received from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG). Elected Chief Sherri-Lyn did not comment on where the funding was coming from. SNEC, in the same closed meeting, also accepted a tender for the project from Lanca Contracting. It is expected to take two years to build the school. In a statement Six...
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CFL, nine member clubs donate over $4.5 million to grassroots football programs
The CFL and its nine member clubs invested over $4.5 million into amateur football last year. The league announced Friday that it and the nine franchises combined to donate $4,518,900 to grassroots football initiatives, projects and programs throughout Canada in 2024. “The community involvement of the CFL, its clubs and players is something that sets us apart from other leagues,” said CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston. “To be able, among all of the clubs in the league, to donate over $4.5 million is encouraging participation and exposure to the game and ultimately having kids fall in love with the sport. “That’s wonderful for a number of reasons, one of which is the game of football teaches such great skills that can be applied to life.” The CFL said it made 2,019...
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Community mourns loss of teacher, students from WDCS
By Pauline Kerr, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Walkerton Herald Times WALKERTON – The entire community is in mourning following the fatal collision near London the afternoon of Friday, May 23, that claimed the lives of four student-athletes, Rowan McLeod, Kaydance Ford, Danica Baker and Olivia Rourke, and popular teacher and coach, Matt Eckert, from Walkerton District Community School. They were on their way home from a sports event. Throughout the weekend, people gathered at the school as word of the tragedy spread throughout Brockton and area. A memorial of flowers, teddy bears, running shoes and hand-written messages in front of the school kept growing. A candlelight vigil Sunday night saw hundreds of students – some wearing team jerseys and a number of them from other schools, family members, and...
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Nunavik Police Service aims to reinvent itself with funding increase
By Cedric Gallant, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News The Nunavik Police Service hopes to reinvent the way it serves the region after receiving a five-fold increase in its funding through an agreement between Kativik Regional Government and the Quebec and federal governments. The deal provides Nunavik police with $562 million to carry out its operations, spread over a five-year period from 2024 to 2029. That dwarfs the previous agreement, signed in 2018 and in effect until 2023, which totalled $115 million. “Historical,” is how police Chief Jean-Pierre Larose described April’s renewal of the Agreement on the Provision of Policing Services in the Kativik Region, during a French interview at his Kuujjuaq office on Wednesday. “We have the means for our ambitions now,” he said. He said the funding increase...
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4 Nunavut elders come home to Rankin Inlet
By Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News Some elders are starting to come home to Nunavut from their stays in Ottawa, says Health Minister John Main. The first group of elders who will live at the new 24-bed Rankin Inlet long-term care facility arrived back in the territory this week. “As of today, this group of elders are receiving advanced elder care here in our territory,” Main said, speaking in Inuktitut in the legislature Thursday. “The Kivalliq facility in Rankin Inlet will be their new home.” Four elders have arrived so far and more are on their way. Main said they will come north on three or four medevac flights per week. “A state-of-the-art facility — the first of its kind in Nunavut — awaits them with [a]...
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School divisions mobilize in response to wildfires
By Maggie Macintosh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Free Press A Manitoba First Nation school put out a plea to families to send their children to class more regularly, citing “a decline in student attendance,” 24 hours before wildfires engulfed the community. “Regular attendance is essential for students to stay engaged, participate in lessons, and develop the skills needed for their future,” Sakastew School administration wrote in a memo to families on Mathias Colomb Cree Nation on Monday. “We kindly ask for your co-operation in encouraging your child to attend school consistently.” The next day, the kindergarten-to-Grade 12 school was forced to abandon its efforts to re-engage students for the final month of the school year. Instead, leaders have been focused on rerouting their fleet of yellow buses to help...
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Alaska man unscathed after being pinned for three hours by 700-pound boulder in glacier creek
By Mark Thiessen ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska man who was pinned facedown in an icy creek by a 700-pound (318-kilogram) boulder for three hours survived the ordeal with only minor injuries, thanks in part to his wife’s quick thinking and lots of luck. Kell Morris’ wife held his head above water to prevent him from drowning while waiting for rescuers to arrive after Morris was pinned by the boulder, which crashed onto him during a hike near a remote glacier south of Anchorage. His second stroke of luck came when a sled dog tourism company that operates on the glacier overheard the 911 dispatch and offered up its helicopter to ferry rescuers to the scene, which was inaccessible to all-terrain vehicles. Once rescuers arrived, it took seven men...
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Ottawa tabling bill to skirt impact assessment law for ‘national interest’ projects
By Nick Murray The federal government is developing a “national interest” bill to fast-track nation-building projects with a streamlined regulatory approval process as a substitute for reviews under the Impact Assessment Act. A briefing document obtained by The Canadian Press indicates the legislation would lay out the criteria to decide if a project is in the national interest. Once that’s decided, a single federal minister would be named to oversee a review process laying out how the project can be built. The document, dated May 23, was prepared for consultations between the Privy Council Office, or PCO, and provinces, territories, and Indigenous partners on the government’s major projects strategy. PCO officials met with those partners as recently as Wednesday night to go over the proposal. It’s expected to be a...
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As allies turn on B.C. NDP, house leader Farnworth celebrates ‘great session’
By Wolfgang Depner Can a government have a “great session” if its flagship legislation draws condemnation from a coalition of historical allies? B.C. NDP house leader Mike Farnworth thinks so, celebrating the end of the legislature’s spring sitting that culminated Wednesday night with the passage of two controversial bills that fast-track infrastructure projects, thanks to rare tiebreaking votes from Speaker Raj Chouhan. “Yeah, Bill 14 and Bill 15 were controversial,” Farnworth said Thursday after the final question period of the session. “There were a lot of people opposed and a lot of people in favour, but we made it clear that we want to get things done in this province. The public expects us to be doing that.” The bills had become a flashpoint for the government, attracting criticism from...
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Respected senior verbally attacked two weeks after being physically roughed up while cleaning up encampment
By Keith Lacey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Penticton Herald A Penticton senior, recognized and appreciated for his long-standing efforts to pick up trash and remove invasive weeds along the Penticton Channel Parkway, was verbally attacked Wednesday by three homeless individuals from a controversial encampment. This incident occurred just two weeks after he was physically assaulted by another person from the same site. Allan Garland, 82, is a familiar figure to many local motorists as the tall, older gentleman who has been collecting trash between Warren and Fairview Avenues for the past decade. As he has done regularly for years, Garland was weeding along the channel parkway Wednesday morning when he was confronted by two young men—whom he had never seen before—and a young woman he had previously encountered. She had...
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Buffalo harvest brings tradition and lunch to northern Saskatchewan schools
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer On a frigid prairie day, students from northern Saskatchewan gathered outside — not for recess, but for a lesson. Dressed in layers against the December wind, they stood around a freshly harvested buffalo. There was no textbook. Instead, knives were passed between mittened hands, as they learned to skin, gut, and cut the meat for their own school lunches. The buffalo harvest project, led by the Meadow Lake Tribal Council and its member First Nations, is changing how a generation thinks about food, tradition and self-sufficiency. “It’s a food source, so there’s this nutritional value, but it’s so much more than that,” said Tammy Shakotko, a community nutritionist with Meadow Lake council. “The real value is cultural — the social...
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Last-minute changes to Ontario mining bill are not good enough, First Nations say
By Liam Casey Last-minute changes to a controversial Ontario mining bill are not good enough and ignore a central plea to work together on drafting legislation, First Nations said Thursday. Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents 49 First Nations in northern Ontario, said the province should scrap Bill 5 and write a new law alongside Indigenous leaders that would allow for shared prosperity. “It’s just way too late in the process. It’s an insult to our leadership for the government to now come back to us with some proposed amendments,” Fiddler said. “It’s just not acceptable.” The proposed law seeks to speed up the development of large projects such as mines, and while First Nations are not necessarily opposed to such moves, they want a seat...
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Appeals court revives Native American challenge to $10B SunZia energy transmission project
By Susan Montoya Bryan A federal appeals court has sided with Native American tribes in their fight against the federal government over a $10 billion energy transmission line designed to carry wind-generated electricity from New Mexico to customers as far away as California. The Tohono O’odham Nation — along with the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity and Archaeology Southwest — sued the U.S. Interior Department and then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2024. They argued that the agency failed to properly consult with the tribes on a historic property designation for southern Arizona’s San Pedro Valley. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a lower court erred in dismissing the case last year and ordered the matter to be reconsidered....
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