‘Buckets of tears’: The four women who died at the hands of a Winnipeg serial killer
The Canadian Press 11/07/2024 04:00 Jeremy Skibicki admitted to police that he killed four women in Winnipeg in 2022. Court heard he targeted them at homeless shelters. A judge was set to rule Thursday whether Skibicki is guilty of first-degree murder or not criminally responsible due to a mental illness. Here is a look at the victims: Rebecca Contois Rebecca Contois, 24, lived in Winnipeg but was a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River. She had a daughter. Court heard that in May 2022 a man looking for scrap metal found her partial remains in a dumpster in Skibicki’s neighbourhood. More of her remains were discovered the following month at a city-run landfill. Her family later said in a statement that the discovery was incredibly difficult....
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Judge to give verdict in trial of man who admitted to killing four women in Winnipeg
The Canadian Press 11/07/2024 04:00 A judge is scheduled to give his decision today in the first-degree murder trial of a man who admitted to killing four women in Winnipeg. Lawyers for Jeremy Skibicki argue he should be found not criminally responsible and say he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the slayings in 2022. But Crown prosecutors say he had the mental capacity and awareness to commit and cover up the killings. They have characterized the killings as racially motivated and say the 37-year-old targeted the Indigenous women at homeless shelters. The case sparked calls for governments and organizations to address the ongoing issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. A first-degree murder verdict would carry an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole...
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Brantford Mayor stepping down for new appointment
BRANTFORD, ONT-Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis has announced his resignation to take on a provincial appointment. The mayor’s announcement appeared in a Facebook post Wednesday (July 10) and statement. He said he received a provincial appointment as a member of the License Appeal Tribunal. Davis said the appointment will allow him to return to his roots as a lawyer and give him more time with his family. “It is with a mix of gratitude, pride and a touch of bittersweet sentiment that I announce my intent to resign at the end of the month,” Davis said in the statement. The tribunal is an independent, quasi-judicial agency that adjudicates applications and resolves compensation and licensing activities regulated by the provincial government. He takes on the new post in August. He has 18...
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Missing Brantford woman found safe
MISSISSAUGAS OF THE CREDIT FIRST NATION-A Brantford woman missing since July 5th has been found safe on the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. The Brantford Police Service announced Wednesday (July 5) missing person, 44-year-old Eugenia (Jenny) Dasilva has been located and safe and now in the company of family. The Brantford Police Service said it does not have any concern of foul play and there is no concern for public safety as a result of this missing person investigation. Out of respect for the privacy of the family, police said no further details will be released. Dasilva had last been seen in Woodstock at about 3:00 p.m. Friday July 5, 2024 wearing business attire; navy blue blazer, navy blue skirt, a white shirt and black wedge style shoes (heels)....
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AFN head told chiefs draft child-welfare reform deal with Ottawa worth $47.8B: source
The Canadian Press 10/07/2024 14:06 The head of the Assembly of First Nations has informed chiefs that a draft deal with Ottawa on child-welfare reforms is worth $47.8 billion, a source who was in the room says — more than double what was initially promised. National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak revealed that number to chiefs and their proxies on Tuesday afternoon, says the source, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to share the details publicly. She also referred to the political risks of not accepting the deal that is on the table, the source said, and affirmed that she wanted chiefs to be able to discuss the offer before voting on the matter at a special assembly this fall. The closed-door session, which members of the media...
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Renowned artist Alex Janvier, part of Indian Group of Seven, dies at age 89
The Canadian Press 10/07/2024 Renowned artist Alex Janvier has died at the age of 89. Officials at the Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting announced his death and held a moment of silence. Janvier, who was from Cold Lake First Nations in Alberta, is considered one of Canada’s greatest painters. His work is widely collected and hangs in private homes and public galleries across the country and around the world. He was a groundbreaking Indigenous artist and belonged to the so-called Indian Group of Seven. Janvier’s work is known for bright colours and flowing lines, which combined the influences of Denesuline beadwork and abstract modernists such as Vassily Kandinsky. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2024....
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Housing crisis in Indigenous communities should consider health and climate adaptation: report
By Matteo Cimellaro Local Jouranlism Initiative Reporter Solutions to the housing crisis in Indigenous communities should be viewed holistically and include cultural, health and energy-efficiency outcomes, a new report says. The report, written in collaboration with the Canadian Climate Institute and Indigenous Clean Energy, brings forward the concept of “healthy energy homes,” which are efficient, climate adaptive and support well being. The idea is not intended to create a new standard like net-zero or passive housing that can be certified, but instead is specific to each nation. The report suggests Indigenous housing must be different from the past by “creating that space for culture and creating that space for doing things in a way that makes sense for the community,” Janna Wale, a report co-author, told Canada’s National Observer. Take,...
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Heritage Fund aids Northwest economic projects
By Mike Stimpson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Thunder Bay Source KENORA – A nearly $2-million Northern Ontario Heritage Fund announcement was music to Chief Chris Skead’s ears. “It’s a great announcement, for sure,” the Wauzhushk Onigum Nation chief said Tuesday. “And it’s definitely going to go a long way in our community.” Greg Rickford, MPP for Kenora–Rainy River, announced Monday that the Anishinaabe nation south of Kenora will receive $1.5 million in Heritage Fund money to build a new 9,600-square-foot education facility. The facility will deliver land-based learning to Wauzhushk Onigum (Rat Portage) members, Skead said. Rickford also announced funding for three other projects in Wauzhushk Onigum: a new radio station, an accessible washroom and changing facility at the community’s Roundhouse, and cleanup and remediation of the Devil’s Gap site...
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MODG plans to ‘move quickly’ in advancing equity
By Alec Bruce Local Journalism Initiative Reporter GUYSBOROUGH — Under a new partnership with the Association of Municipal Administrators, the Nova Scotia government is targeting municipalities and villages as the first public bodies in the province required by law to tackle systematic hate, inequality and racism. But that doesn’t worry Barry Carroll, chief administrative officer of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG), who said his staff is ready for this and more. “Council has given us clear directions to set up an equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility committee,” he told The Journal in an interview last week. “The plan for MODG is that we will have an accessibility policy, as well as an equity and anti-racism policy.” According to a provincial government news release last week, following the...
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Recovery camp being offered
By Alexandra Noad Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Alvin Mills spent nine years at St. Paul Residential School and another four years at St. Mary’s Indian Residential School. He says although people can talk about their experiences, one can never truly understand what trauma went on without experiencing it firsthand. “Until you walk through the hall, until you hear the footsteps, you could never really know what goes on. Tell you the truth, they were a breeding ground for violence. A lot of times in the residential schools we always focused our attention on the supervisors. The nuns and abuses that they did. Oftentimes it was the older students that were just as bad, if not worse, of abuses they inflicted to on younger students,” said Mills. The trauma brought Mills...
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More Indigenous youth are learning to spearfish, a connection to ancestors and the land
The Associated Press 10/07/2024 09:33 HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) — Ganebik Johnson started learning traditional Ojibwe songs when he was about 2 years old. He’d hang around listening to his uncle sing, or observe elders, or even pull up music on YouTube. Spearfishing came shortly after, at around age 7, when his grandfather took him out on a northern Wisconsin lake for the first time. Now 13, he’s already teaching others. Johnson kept a steady beat on his drum as he joined other youth playing and singing the welcoming song at this year’s annual spearfishing event for kids put on by the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. He and 40 or so other young people spread tobacco into the water along the shoreline, an offering of respect...
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Bites. Bruises. Tears: What unions are saying about the growing violence in schools
By Celeste Percy-Beauregard Local Journalism Initiative. Educators crying in their cars, trying to convince themselves they can get through another day. Bite marks, bruises, and the daily fear of violence from the elementary students they teach. These were a few of the challenges handwritten on postcards delivered to the Grand Erie District School Board (GEDSB) by the presidents of four unions representing Brant-area education staff. The representatives hoped the words would inspire the board to allocate some of its $11.1 million budget surplus to support staff. None of the stories came as a surprise to the union heads from CUPE 5100, ETFO Occasional Teacher Local, ETFO DECE Local and ETFO Teacher Local, who represent more than 2,800 education workers in GEDSB elementary schools. Still, reading through the challenges of local...
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Influx of money largely goes into junk food, says wellness co-ordinator
By Darrell Greer Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 10/07/2024 09:14 Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same, and unhealthy food choices seem to have crept back to the top of the list in Baker Lake. Hamlet wellness co-ordinator Karen Yip hasn’t liked a lot of the food choices she’s seen being made since funds from the Inuit Child First/Jordan’s Principle Food Security program were rolled out in the community. Yip said she’d like to see more people do their due diligence when it comes to selecting food items with the extra food money they’re now receiving. “I would like to do a community event and talk about nutrition, play games, and, maybe, get people to taste things that they could easily make just by buying the ingredients...
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Ontario town to decide whether it’s willing to host a nuclear waste repository
The Canadian Press A northwestern Ontario town is set to decide today whether it is willing to become the site of a deep geological repository for Canada’s nuclear waste. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization plans to decide this year where millions of bundles of used nuclear fuel will be placed in a network of underground rooms connected by cavernous tunnels. The process for the $26-billion project is already narrowed down to two sites, one in northern Ontario and one in southern Ontario, and the NWMO says that both the local municipality and the First Nation in those areas will have to agree to be willing hosts. The northern Ontario town of Ignace, between Thunder Bay and Kenora, is set to be the first of those four communities today to make...
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Behind Upper Midwest tribal spearfishing is a long and violent history of denied treaty rights
The Associated Press HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) — On a twilight so calm the red and white pines are reflected in the waters of northern Wisconsin’s Chippewa Flowage, John Baker plans to go spearfishing — a traditional Ojibwe method of harvesting walleye. But before he sets out, he detours his boat to land on a sandy shore, hops out and crosses the tree line, crunching through dead leaves. “This is my sanctuary,” he says, recalling childhood visits in his dad’s rowboat. He points out divots in the earth — former graves, once behind a church, whose occupants have since been moved. But the burial sites of many Native people in the area were not. When a local power company created the Flowage by building the Winter Dam in the 1920s, it...
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Environmental group buys Fraser River island near Chilliwack, B.C., to protect salmon
The Canadian Press An ideal natural salmon habitat of gravel beds and side channels on British Columbia’s lower Fraser River will be protected by the purchase of a private island by an environmental organization, with the help of the federal government and private donors. The deal to buy the 248-hectare Carey Island near Chilliwack is a “big win for conservation” in the important ecological area between Mission and Hope known to environmental groups as “the Heart of the Fraser,” Steven Godfrey, Nature Conservancy of Canada West Coast program director, said Monday. The conservancy announced it had bought the island off Carey Island Farms Ltd., which was using it to grow corn. Godfrey said up to 90 per cent of the gravel shoreline of the lower Fraser River from Hope...
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Fort Nelson First Nation orders remote B.C. site evacuated by boat due to wildfire
The Canadian Press The Fort Nelson First Nation in northeast British Columbia has issued a wildfire evacuation order for a remote riverside reserve, telling residents and visitors they must immediately leave by boat. The First Nation said the order covered the Kahntah Reserve, which is a few kilometres south of an out-of-control fire that was discovered on Monday. The BC Wildfire Service said on its online dashboard that the blaze, measuring five hectares in size, was believed to have been caused by lightning. The evacuation order comes as the service announces a provincewide campfire ban, with the exception of the Haida Gwaii Forest District, which will take effect on Friday because of the increased risk of wildfire starts from current and forecasted weather conditions. The Fort Nelson First Nation issued...
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Advocacy group pulls out of Pickton evidence hearing after serial killer’s death
By Amy Romer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 09/07/2024 16:26 A women and girls’ advocacy group has pulled out of a court case where they were demanding that the RCMP preserve more than 14,000 exhibits from the Robert Pickton murders. Justice for Girls was previously an intervenor in the RCMP’s application to dispose of the items, but removed itself from the case prior to a hearing at the B.C. Supreme Court in “New Westminster” on June 26. Instead, Justice for Girls has made the decision to “push very hard” outside the courtroom, targeting political and RCMP decision makers who have the power and resources to investigate unsolved cases which would necessitate the preservation of remaining evidence, said the group’s lawyer and director of advocacy Sue Brown. “We initially intervened because we...
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First Nations leaders from across Canada gather in Montreal for AFN’s annual general assembly
By Sam Laskaris Writer MONTREAL-First Nations leaders from across the country have assembled in Montreal this week for the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Annual General Assembly. The three-day event, the 45th annual assembly, began on Tuesday morning and continues until Thursday. The assembly is being held at the Palais des Congres in Montreal. The theme of this year’s event is Strengthening Our Relations. That will act as the foundation for discussions in dialogue sessions, caucusing and plenaries. This is the AFN’s first annual general assembly since Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak was elected to be the national chief this past December. “This year’s theme, Strengthening Our Relations, highlights the importance of our connections on multiple levels, connection with our nations, connection to this country, connection with each other,” she said. “It...
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Six Nations Elected Council fails to answer who ordered it
By Austin Evans Writer The Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) has provided a statement about the bulldozing at Chiefswood National Historic Site (CNHS) but it failed to mention who ordered it. SNEC released their statement about the removal of the naturalization site at CNHS on July 3. It said the project was a collaboration between Kayanase and SNGR departments including Lands and Resources and Six Nations Tourism, and that the Chiefswood Board of Trustees was the first to know about this project in October 2023. The statement announced that there are plans to repurpose the space for future projects and programming, though it did not specify whose projects and programming these would be. It also mentioned that the tall grass prairie had trees and other non-native plants due to the...
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