Anishinaabek elders and environmentalists unite to call for halt on herbicide use in Ontario forests
By Jacqueline St. Pierre Local Journalism Initiative TORONTO—A powerful coalition of voices representing the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Elders in the Robinson-Huron Treaty Territory gathered at Queen’s Park on Earth Day to advocate for the cessation of herbicide spraying in Ontario’s forests. Led by Elder Caroline Recollet of the Wahnapitae First Nation and Jo Bissaillion of the Serpent River First Nation, the group was joined by environmental advocates Joel Theriault of Stop the Spray Ontario, Mary Lou MacDonald from Safe Food Matters and Jessica Murray from Sierra Club. While the area currently affected is the North Shore, due to the large swaths of Crown Land, Anishinaabe elders from Manitoulin Island such as Evelyn Roy of M’Chigeeng First Nation have joined the fight. “They are killing the animals; they are killing...
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Marking Red Dress Day in Hamilton
Turning Hamilton streets red in support of no more Murdered Missing Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirited By Austin Evans Writer A sea of red flowed through Hamilton Saturday taking over city streets for three hours with a message of “Not One More.” Having lost her sister in a house fire set by her boyfriend, Ashley Neganiwina organized this march to bring awareness and foster discussion on the ways in which the Canadian justice system fails to protect Indigenous people. As the crowd marched through the city, accompanied by traditional drumming, she decried the lengths that Indigenous people have to go to for their issues to be taken seriously and demanded change. Neganiwina, who previously organized a rally at Hamilton City Hall last October, said she was expecting between 20...
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Six Nations Councillors may be tackling taxes
Six Nations councillors want to ensure Indigenous people don’t pay federal taxes. Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) doesn’t want to let the federal government collect taxes from community members and hopes to challenge the excise tax, carbon tax and more. Councillors took on the issue in Elected Chief Sherri-Lyn Hill’s absence recently. The Elected Chief was on a personal day. But that didn’t stop councillors from moving Forward. “I think we need to start fighting back on this matter. I hate to say, it’s almost like they are devious,” said Councillor Hazel Johnson. “You think you’re headed up a little bit and they come in the back door with some other idea to get more money out of the native people,” Councillor Hazel Johnson said. SNEC passed a motion, during...
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Chiefs of Ontario launch lawsuit, Canada and Ontario not keeping First Nations safe, can’t enforce band by-laws
TORONTO- The Chiefs of Ontario (COO) have launched a lawsuit against Ontario and Canada charging the two are “failing to provide First Nations with equal access to justice and the rule of law as other Canadians.” COO said the “discrimination causes serious harm and hardship to First Nations.” COO launched the lawsuit after a unanimous resolution was passed by the Chiefs-in-Assembly saying they had spent years of attempting to work with the Ford government on serious flaws in its new Community Safety and Policing Act (CSPA). The act excludes the enforcement of First Nations by-laws from mandatory police functions. The Act was passed by the legislature in 2019 and came into force on April 1,2024. “This legislation has always been discriminatory, but ignoring the serious concerns of First Nations was...
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Canoe trip seeking funds and some canoes for annual trip
Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) is looking to provide financial support again to an annual canoe trip down the Grand River. SNEC deferred a motion to assist the trip, called the Two Row on the Grand ,both financially and with in-kind donations, as soon as staff can find items the event requires and ensure they’re available at its General Council meeting on April 23. Ellie Joseph, organizer of the annual event presented the Two Row on the Grand to SNEC and said the event takes participants from Six Nations and settler allies on a canoe or kayak trip along the Grand River from Cambridge to Port Maitland, where it lets out into Lake Erie. The 10-day trip includes meals and cultural presentations from Six Nations band members and elders. Joseph...
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Traditions live on at Mohawk Seedkeeper’s Gardens annual seed give-away
By Lynda Powless Editor For the daughters of Mohawk Seedkeeper Terrylyn Brant the 9th annual seed exchange Saturday wasn’t just about exchanging seeds. It was about keeping their mother’s work alive and remembering her. Her daughters Theda, Tawnya, Dakota, Jesse Brant and their families got together to re-open the Mohawk Seedkeeper’s Gardens and Earthship at “Frogpond’ Saturday and the teachings that their mother instilled in them. Cars line the roadway when parking ran out on the property. People came from Guelph to Niagara to Toronto to be part of the re-opening. They had a number of workshops on garden design, clay pollinators even the planting of trees, but for those attending it was a time to remember. “Everyone said they were happy to be here and wanted to talk about mom,”...
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Community Awareness Week from artifacts to wildlife
By Lynda Powless Editor Cole Thistle-Hill is watching history come alive and from time to time he is bringing it to life. The monitor for the Six Nations Lands and Resource department for the past three years has seen sites uncover a variety of archeological treasures from arrow heads to stone implements. Now he is also making replicas of artifacts found at sites for display and teaching session. He explains during the Lands and Research office open house Friday the replicas he makes may take a few hours, but in the 1600s or earlier it would have taken days. “They didn’t have the luxury of just going and buying materials, they had to find them, work them, sometimes dry them,” he says as he shows some of his display at...
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Axe the tax may be an election issue!
It looks like Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) is trying to get out of training mode and finally moving ahead…on at least one political item. And it’s a big one. The Liberals’ carbon tax! The councillors, albeit without Elected Chief Sherri-Lyn Hill who was on a personal day, took the helm last week and came out fighting aiming at taxes that have begun invading the community’s jurisdiction. Council members said they want to petition federal and provincial officials about removing taxes, in particular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new carbon tax that has begun surfacing in the community. The tax is being masked as a “charge” and as a result is skirting First Nations’ jurisdiction. Councillors want to challenge, in particular, both the excise tax, carbon tax. And they aren’t alone...
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Weekly Cartoon
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UNDER THE NORTHERN SKY: In The Spirit Of The Traditional Hunt
By Xavier Kataquapit Turtle Island News Columnist It looks like the swallows are back and that is a sure sign of spring and warmer weather to come. A couple of weeks ago I heard the honking of Niska (Canada geese) as they paused to take a break on the field behind our house here in Kirkland Lake. They seemed to have moved on now and have arrived at their summer destinations on the shore of James Bay. My family and friends have been heading out to their traditional camps for the past week or so and they are having success in harvesting Niska. This is a time where my people enjoy being on the land and practising our traditional pursuits in the way that our ancestors have since the dawn...
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‘A place that nobody wants to be:’ Police search Saskatoon landfill for missing woman
By The Canadian Press The father of a missing woman looked out over the Saskatoon landfill Wednesday, as police wearing white chemical-resistant suits scoured through piles of debris looking for evidence of his daughter. “It’s a cold morning,” said Paul Trottier. “This is a place that nobody wants to be.” Mackenzie Lee Trottier was 22 when she was last seen in December 2020. She said she was going to get a lift with a ride-booking service when she left her family’s home. She was in good spirits, said her father. More than three years later, Paul Trottier looked on as officers accompanied by dogs specialized in searching for human remains began examining a specific area of the landfill. Officers went in and out of a large white tent, moving wheelbarrows...
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Rivermen split games with Merchants in Ontario Series Lacrosse action
By Sam Laskaris Writer The Six Nations Rivermen had to settle for a split in their two most recent Ontario Series Lacrosse (OSL) contests. For starters, the Rivermen only had 13 runners available this past Friday. Despite valiant efforts from those that did show up, the local Senior B squad was edged 12-11 by the host Brooklin Merchants. That contest was held at the Luther Vipond Memorial Arena in Brooklin. Then, one night later, the Rivermen almost had a full bench, 17 runners and two goalies, one player under the maximum allotment of 20, as they defeated the same visiting Merchants 19-16. Ironically, the Merchants, who had a full roster on Friday, showed up with 13 runners for Saturday’s outing, staged at the Six Nations Sports and Cultural Memorial Centre....
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Six Nations members to square off in National Lacrosse League championship series
By Sam Laskaris Writer John Tavares will have an opportunity to win yet another championship. Tavares is the head coach for the defending national Mann Cup champion Six Nations Chiefs AND the head coach of the Buffalo Bandits, the reigning champs of the professional National Lacrosse League (NLL). The Chiefs will kick off their 2024 campaign with their regular season opener at home on May 20, versus the visiting Owen Sound North Stars, at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena. While Tavares is expected to be at that contest, his focus right now is clearly with the Bandits, who are hoping to win back-to-back NLL championships. Buffalo qualified for the league’s championship series on Sunday thanks to a 10-8 home victory against the visiting Toronto Rock. The Bandits also downed the host...
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Six Nations Fire win season opener versus Allegany Arrows
By Sam Laskaris Writer The Six Nations Fire managed to win its first ever regular season contest. The Fire, an expansion team in the First Nations Junior B Lacrosse League, downed the host Allegany Arrows 10-7 this past Saturday. The match was held at the Arrows’ home rink, the Allegany Community Center, in Salamanca, N.Y. The Fire travelled to its road contest with 13 runners and two goalies. Squads are allowed to dress a maximum of 18 runners and a pair of netminders. “I think they had the same amount of players,” said Johnny Powless, the former National Lacrosse League (NLL) star, who is serving as the head coach of the Fire in its inaugural season. “We both had short benches.” Powless was pleased his charges were able to emerge...
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Shelley Niro’s award-winning film Café Daughter to stream
After a limited theatrical release throughout Canada, award-winning Mohawk writer-director Shelley Niro’s latest film Café Daughter will be released to a wider audience through streaming and video-on-demand platforms May 7. The film is an adaptation of Kenneth T Williams’ one woman play Café Daughter. While reading the play, Niro said she instantly felt connected with the main character, Yvette Wong, and wanted to protect her. The play and film are based on the life of Chinese/Cree neuroscientist, scholar, feminist and retired Canadian senator, Lillian Eva Quan Dyck. Growing up in Saskatchewan in the 1960s, Dyck struggled against racism. She aspired to become a doctor and healer but was held back in school despite her aptitude. She struggled too with her own identity, told by her mother, a residential school survivor...
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Trial begins for Winnipeg serial killer who claims he was mentally ill
The Canadian Press 08/05/2024 04:00 The trial of a man who admits he killed four women in Winnipeg is set to begin Wednesday, and a law professor says lawyers for Jeremy Skibicki have multiple hurdles to clear for a defence of mental illness. Skibicki, 37, faces four counts of first-degree murder. His lawyers told court this week they will argue that he committed the killings but is not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder. Brandon Trask, an assistant professor of law at the University of Manitoba, said proving Skibicki had a mental disorder at the time of the killings is only the first step for the defence. Once a mental illness has been established, Trask said, it comes down to whether the diagnosis made Skibicki incapable of knowing that...
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Pulaarvik Kablu Friendship Centre First intake all set to go
Local Journalism Initiative The Pulaarvik Kablu Friendship Centre is at full speed gearing-up for its first intake of a 28-day addiction program on the land near Rankin Inlet. The first intake will be aimed at male participants from Rankin Inlet and will run from June 2 until June 30. The friendship centre’s addiction program manager, Linda Haulli, said the centre will, eventually, host a women’s intake, followed by future intakes aimed at participants from the entire Kivalliq region. She said this being the centre’s first intake, it is only geared to Rankin Inlet residents as part of a trial run because of it being so new to the program’s delivery. “We did hire facilitators from outside of Rankin Inlet who are coming in to do the 28-day, on-the-land-treatment program with...
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Civil suit settled in shooting of Native American activist at protest of Spanish conquistador statue
The Associated Press ESPANOLA, N.M. (AP) — A settlement has been reached in a civil lawsuit seeking damages from three relatives in the shooting of a Native American activist in northern New Mexico amid confrontations about a statue of a Spanish conquistador and aborted plans to reinstall it in public, according to court documents published Tuesday. The shooting, in September 2023, severely wounded Jacob Johns, of Spokane, Washington, a well-traveled activist for environmental causes and an advocate for Native American rights who is of Hopi and Akimel O’odham tribal descent. His attorney, John Day, confirmed the settlement and said the terms were confidential. A single gunshot set off chaos at an outdoor gathering in Española over canceled plans to install a bronze likeness of conquistador Juan de Oñate, who is...
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Orca pod spotted in vicinity of orphan B.C. killer whale, but no evidence of family
The Canadian Press A pod of killer whales has been spotted far offshore from the remote Vancouver Island inlet where an orphaned orca has been spending time since escaping a lagoon last month, but a member of her rescue team is downplaying the prospect of an imminent family reunion. The sighting of a pod of nine orcas occurred Monday in waters off Kyuquot Sound, about 80 kilometres southeast of the inlet where the two-year-old female calf has been seen. It’s the closest confirmed report of orcas since the death of the calf’s mother, who became stranded in the lagoon, about 450 kilometres northwest of Victoria, on March 23. The next week, a pod of their relatives was seen south of Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. But marine...
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Liberal government not immune from auto thefts: 48 vehicles stolen in recent years
The Canadian Press The federal Liberals are trying to crack down on a scourge of auto thefts across the country, even as the government is struggling to keep its own vehicles away from thieves, new data show. Documents tabled in the House of Commons on Monday show 48 government vehicles from 14 departments and agencies were stolen between January 2016 and February of this year. Ministers are not immune, either. The official vehicle of the minister of justice was stolen three times in as many years between 2021 and 2023. Ontario is the province where the largest proportion of vehicles were nabbed, including 10 in Ottawa, where most of the federal government is based, and two in the Toronto area. Vehicles were also reported stolen in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan,...
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