Tsilhqot’in First Nation Chief says 2004 slide saw Chilcotin River blocked for days
The Canadian Press There’s not a lot that can be done other than “sit and wait” for a landslide to clear that is blocking British Columbia’s Chilcotin River, Chief Joe Alphonse of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation says. Alphonse said Friday that a landslide that dammed the river two decades ago burst in about four days, but this latest slide is “a lot larger than it was last time.” “This is not really anything new for us,” he said. “There’s not a lot we can do.” Alphonse said there’s not much use in worrying about what may happen, other than hoping people don’t get too close to the water should it rapidly rise after the debris clears. He said a salmon run expected late next week has already likely been affected...
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Water building behind B.C. slide appears to have doubled in size: First Nation chief
The Canadian Press The chief of Williams Lake First Nation says water building behind a landslide of debris that has dammed the Chilcotin River in British Columbia’s central Interior appears to have nearly doubled in size since Wednesday. Chief Willie Sellars, who toured the slide site by helicopter Wednesday and Thursday, says the water is continuing to build on one side of the dam, while the riverbed on the other side had “completely dried up” for about two kilometres. Officials have said the water collecting behind the slide south of Williams Lake could reach a level where it will start flowing over the debris, or it will erode the material, setting off a release. They have estimated a release could come Friday or Saturday, and could set off dozens of...
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Six Nations development corporation slates $1 million of community own source revenue to post secondary
By Austin Evans Writer Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation (SNGRDC) announced that $1 million of profit from their battery systems will fund post-secondary education. SNGRDC will provide $50 thousand to the Grand River Post Secondary Education Office’s (GRPSEO) general scholarship fund each year for the next 20 years. This contribution comes from additional funding generated by SNGRDC’s Economic Interest portfolio. This commitment was first announced during the information sessions SNGRDC held regarding the battery energy storage systems they are co-developing with Aypa Power. Each battery system will provide $25 thousand of their profit to the scholarship fund annually, totalling $1 million after 20 years. This annual contribution will further increase SNGRDC’s existing $1.48 million postsecondary contributions over 20 years to a total of $2.48 million. “We are...
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Six Nations Police investigate car collision as second crash hits
By Austin Evans Writer A car crashed into a ditch as Six Nations Police were responding to a different collision. Six Nations police officers were responding to an unrelated motor vehicle collision on Chiefswood Road at approximately 10:30 pm on July 27 when another car approached the scene. The car was driving slowly with its turn signal on, and as it got closer to the collision it turned the opposite way and went into a ditch. Officers saw a man exit the car as they approached and observed signs of impairment. Neither he nor those in the initial collision reported any injuries to the police. As a result of the investigation, police arrested 41-year-old Hagersville resident Aaron Sault. Sault was charged with impaired operation, alcohol per se offence, using a...
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“It feels surreal to me,”: Membertou’s Karlee Waldvogel chosen to represent Team Indigenous Canada in soccer at 2025 Games
By Meghan Dewar is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter 02/08/2024 08:30 Membertou’s Karlee Waldvogel will be representing the Mi’kmaq community on a grand scale when she plays soccer for Indigenous Team Canada at the 2025 Indigenous World Games. Waldvogel was born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario, but has deep familial roots in Membertou. She has been involved in soccer since childhood. “I’ve been involved in soccer since I was around three years old. From my understanding, my parents told me I was a pretty hyperactive kid and they wanted to put me in some sort of sport, so they put me in both soccer and gymnastics when I was younger,” Waldvogel explained. “I ended up having to pick between competitive gymnastics and playing high level soccer when I was...
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Ojibwe dubbed version of Star Wars premieres Aug. 8
By Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 01/08/2024 (ANNews) – An Ojibwe-dubbed version of Star Wars: A New Hope, the film that started the Star Wars franchise in 1977, is coming to select big screens in August, marking the second occasion the iconic film has been translated into an Indigenous language. Anangong Miigaading, the Ojibwe, or Anishinaabemowin, translation of Star Wars will premiere at Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall on Aug. 8, with a limited release in Winnipeg and other select markets starting Aug. 10. Afterwards, it will air on APTN and be available to stream on Disney+, but those dates have yet to be revealed. In December, the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council and University of Manitoba announced that they entered a partnership with Disney/Lucasfilm and APTN to adapt an official...
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Chief disappointed by feds’ funding cuts
Local Journalism Initiative 01/08/2024 GRASSY NARROWS – The federal government is making a big cut in funding for residential schools initiatives, and that’s “very disappointing” to Chief Rudy Turtle. “We weren’t expecting it,” the Grassy Narrows First Nation chief said Thursday of Ottawa’s decision to cut funding by 83 per cent. “It caught us by surprise, for sure.” Turtle said the feds didn’t communicate the decision directly to him or Grassy Narrows (Asubpeeschoseewagong) council. Instead, he said, “I heard it through the media, plus from our residential school workers.” He said the reduction “definitely slows things down” in his First Nation’s investigation of the former McIntosh Residential School, which had children from Grassy Narrows and many other reserves from 1925 to 1969. The First Nation northeast of Kenora is heading...
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Liberal MP says she regrets ‘distress’ caused to witnesses who left meeting in tears
The Canadian Press 01/08/2024 Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld fell short of an apology after instigating a fracas on Wednesday that led two witnesses testifying about violence against women to storm out of a parliamentary committee hearing. Vandenbeld said in a statement that she deeply regrets the “distress that this meeting caused the witnesses.” The statement came after a domestic violence survivor Cait Alexander demanded an apology from the MP for what she described as “abusive” behaviour. “Sorry, I don’t accept this statement from her,” Alexander, who appeared before the committee as a witness, said Thursday. “She knew what she was doing. She didn’t make a mistake — mistakes happen. I can forgive mistakes. This was intentional.” Another of the committee’s witnesses, women’s’ advocate Megan Walker, said Vandenbeld’s regrets don’t amount...
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Centuries-old Pentlatch fish trap panel connects K’ómoks, Qualicum people to their ancestors
By Madeline Dunnett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 01/08/2024 This Pentlatch fish trap panel is 550 years old and would have been part of a broader fishing system used by the ancestors of K’ómoks First Nation. Photo by Madeline Dunnett/The Discourse As a child, Pamela Mitchell recalls her father telling her about the ancient fish traps on the shoreline of K’ómoks territory, near her home. As she learned about the traps, which were used over generations by her ancestors, and their corresponding posts sticking out of the water, she recalls her dad telling her, “don’t touch! They are very old!” Mitchell is Säsitla, and her ancestors joined to become the K’ómoks First Nation alongside the Sahtloot, Ieeksun and Pentlatch Peoples. Mitchell is now the culture coordinator for K’ómoks First Nation, and...
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Day parole revoked for man who killed Indigenous woman with trailer hitch
Canadian Press 01/08/2024 The Parole Board of Canada has sent Brayden Bushby back to jail, revoking the release granted to the man convicted of killing an Indigenous woman by throwing a trailer hitch at her from a moving vehicle in Thunder Bay, Ont. Bushby, now 25, was sentenced in 2021 to eight years in prison for the 2017 manslaughter of 34-year-old Barbara Kentner and granted day parole last year, which allowed him to live at his mother’s home. The parole board says it found Bushby had violated several terms of his day release, including a condition not to consume alcohol, noting that he failed a breathalyzer test during a traffic stop. The board’s report also says Bushby failed to remain at the scene of a collision in which he reversed...
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First Nation calls for removal of mining firm from managing Yukon disaster site
The Canadian Press 1/08/2024 The Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation in Yukon says the company that owns the gold mine where there was a massive ore slide and cyanide spill should be removed from managing the cleanup. The nation said in a statement that the Eagle Gold mine’s owner, Victoria Gold Corp., has failed to follow government directions and can’t be relied upon to fix the situation. It says the nation is urging the Yukon government to “take immediate and robust action” to make sure mitigation efforts continue to “remedy and prevent” further environmental contamination from the site, which is on its traditional territory. Yukon government officials said Thursday that some water samples taken downstream from the site where two million tonnes of contaminated ore spilled have shown cyanide levels...
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N.L. opposition calls for firing of university chair over forwarding of alumna email
The Canadian Press 01/08/2024 Newfoundland and Labrador’s Progressive Conservatives called Thursday for the removal of the chair of Memorial University’s board of regents after he forwarded an alumna’s pro-Palestinian campaign email to her father last month. In a news release, Paul Dinn, the Official Opposition education critic, said Glenn Barnes showed a “severe” lack of professionalism and judgment and violated the woman’s privacy. “Members of the board are expected to act with integrity, respect, and in a manner of trust and confidentiality,” Dinn said in the release. “Unfortunately, MUN continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, and the chair of the board of regents must be held accountable.” Barnes said in an email earlier this week that he will not be making any public comments on the matter....
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Sturgeon Lake First Nation overwhelmingly approves ‘cows and plows’ deal with Federal Government
By Susan McNeil Local Journalism Initiative 01/08/2024 The members of Sturgeon Lake First Nation (SLFN) have overwhelmingly approved a historic settlement agreement with the federal government, securing approximately $152 million for the community. The approval came following a community vote held from July 22 to 26. This significant settlement resolves SLFN’s Agricultural Benefits Settlement Agreement, also known as the longstanding “cows-and-plows” clause of Treaty 6. The settlement addresses unfulfilled promises made by Canada to provide agricultural tools and support to the Cree community, located about 50 km northwest of Prince Albert. “I’m thrilled that Sturgeon Lake has secured that $152 million from the federal government through a groundbreaking settlement. This money will help us to address the promises that were made during the signing of our Treaty 6 that that were...
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Massive B.C. landslide could mean new barriers for struggling salmon
The Canadian Press 02/08/2024 An expert on British Columbia’s salmon populations says the massive landslide that blocked off part of Canada’s largest sockeye salmon run has created an unprecedented situation potentially putting the already struggling fish at even more risk. Scott Hinch, the associate dean at the University of British Columbia’s Pacific Salmon Ecology and Conservation Laboratory, said the debris piled 30 metres high and 600 metres long blocking the Chilcotin River could cause problems for chinook and sockeye populations both while the water is being held back, and when it eventually bursts free. “These are natural events, but what’s unusual about this event is it’s occurring at a time when the rivers are way warmer than they used to be,” he said in an interview Thursday. “And that creates...
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First Nation chief says B.C. landslide doubled in size, sparks concerns
The Canadian Press 02/08/2024 The chief of Williams Lake First Nation says a landslide of debris that has dammed the Chilcotin River in British Columbia’s central Interior has nearly doubled in size since Wednesday. Chief Willie Sellars, who toured the slide site by helicopter Wednesday and Thursday, says the water is continuing to build on one side of the dam, while the other had “completely dried up” for about two kilometres. Officials have said the water collecting behind the slide south of the city of Williams Lake could reach a level where it will start flowing over the debris, or it will erode the material, setting off a release. They have estimated a release could come Friday or Saturday, and could set off dozens of evacuation orders and alerts downstream....
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Parole board ignored trauma of Indigenous man convicted of murder, court rules
Canadian Press 01/08/2024 An Indigenous man convicted of murder and attempted murder could get parole after the Federal Court ruled the parole board failed to consider his traumatic past when it denied his release. Jeffrey George Ewert, 61, was convicted in 1984 after he sexually assaulted and strangled two women in British Columbia in two separate incidents while highly intoxicated, killing one and leaving the other disabled. The Parole Board of Canada denied his application for day parole in 2022, concluding he still posed an undue risk to society. But a Federal Court judge last week overturned that decision, ruling the board failed to consider what are known as Gladue factors — Ewert’s traumatic childhood and the Indigenous healing process he has undertaken. The case will now return to the...
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Ohio historical society settles with golf club to take back World Heritage tribal site
The Associated Press 01/08/2024 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s historical society announced a deal Thursday that will allow it to take control of an ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks site long located on the site of a golf course. Ohio History Connection will pay Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark to buy out its lease and end the long-running legal dispute over the Octagon Earthworks, although the sum is confidential under a settlement agreement. The deal avoids a jury trial to determine the site’s fair market value that had been repeatedly postponed over the years. The Octagon Earthworks are among eight ancient areas in the Hopewell Earthworks system that were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site last year. The historical society, a nonprofit state history organization, takes control of them Jan....
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Old-growth forests still not protected despite Province’s plan: Valhalla Wilderness Society
By Timothy Schafer Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 01/08/2024 The Provincial government has fallen short in protecting B.C.’s old-growth forests says a West Kootenay environmental group and is calling for fulfillment of the recommendations of two auditor generals and the creation of two new parks. In a New Future for Old Forests — a series of recommendations to protect old-growth forests released in 2020 — the Provincial government overlooked the fact old-growth forests are seriously depleted and that the rich coastal and interior rainforests that grow big trees are almost gone, said Amber Peters, biologist and campaigner with the Valhalla Wilderness Society based in New Denver. However, a Provincial government-authored progress report released in late May stated that work was underway in response to 14 recommendations made by an independent panel...
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Judge finds former business manager ‘harmed interests’ of LKDFN, sends case to trial
By Tom Taylor Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Published: 31/07/2024 NWT Supreme Court Judge Karan Shaner has found “overwhelming evidence” that Ron Barlas “knowingly breached his fiduciary duties” as the boss of several Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation (LKDFN) companies, harming the First Nation’s members and “gaining significant financial benefit for himself and his family” in the process. Barlas served in leadership roles with LKDFN’s Denesoline Corporation as well as the Tsa and Ta’egera companies — all three of which aim to produce profits for the First Nation. In April 2023, the First Nation and its chief, James Marlowe, accused Barlas of misappropriating roughly $14 million during his time with the companies, later making more specific accusations that he used company money to buy everything from real estate to jewelry to...
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Amazing Race Canada competitors include three First Nations members
By Crystal St. Pierre Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 31/07/2024 The Amazing Race Canada is midway through the series but the competition isn’t slowing down. The CTV series started with 11 teams including two with Indigenous participants. Former pro basketball player Michael Linklater and his son Amari, members of Thunderchild First Nation in Saskatchewan, are the first Indigenous father/son duo to compete in the race. The Linklater duo also share the excitement of representing their Indigenous ancestry and heritage on screen. Taylor McPherson, a member of Miawpukek First Nation in Newfoundland and Labrador is also excited to not only compete but to have the opportunity to have a cultural presence on screen. She is paired with Katie Mulkay who is a strong supporter and friend. “I feel that you know Indigenous...
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