Meet the people trying to improve Indigenous patients’ experiences
By Simona Rosenfield Local Journalism Initiative Funding to address racism in Canadian healthcare is supporting research on Stanton Hospital’s Indigenous wellness program – a service some patients have never heard of. Anastassia Judas, a senior Indigenous patient advocate at Yellowknife’s Stanton Territorial Hospital, says she’s excited to work on this research because of the potential it has to change the way Indigenous patients experience healthcare. “As an Indigenous person growing up in the community of Yellowknife and the small community of Dettah, I often think of my grandmothers when they used to go to Stanton to access care and how uncomfortable they felt when they went there,” said Judas. “I hope to see other grandmothers and grandfathers and people – my people, Indigenous people, Inuit people, Métis people – just...
Register
New report shows the disproportionate impact of drug poisoning on First Nations
By Jeremy Appel 29/05/2024 08:39 – First Nations people continue dying of drug poisoning at a disproportionate rate compared to the non-First Nations population, according to the latest surveillance report from the Alberta government and the Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre. Despite making up just 3.6 per cent of the population in Alberta, First Nations people represent 20 per cent of all apparent unintentional opioid poisoning deaths in the province from 2016 to 2022, the May 2024 report found. That percentage has increased from 14 per cent of all unintentional opioid poisoning deaths in 2016 to 24 per cent in 2022. For First Nations people, the rate of apparent unintentional opioid poisoning per 100,000 people reached a height of 224 in 2021, compared to 26 for the non-First Nations...
Register
Conservatives stall Indigenous clean water law, minister says
By Matteo Cimellaro Local Journalism Intiative Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services, says the First Nations Clean Water Act will be “another tool” for nations to curb environmental racism and protect their waters. Also known as Bill C-61, the bill proposes a new water commission, run by First Nations and funded by Ottawa. The commission will increase capacity to help First Nations monitor their water for pollution, Hajdu said. The bill will also mandate that Ottawa and the provinces and territories ensure stronger protections for bodies of water that feed into First Nations’ lands and that First Nations have the same rights to quality of water as Canadian municipalities, Hajdu explained. “And of course, that is still not the case in many First Nations in this country,” she added. But...
Register
Ancient Ohio tribal site where golfers play is changing hands – but the price is up to a jury
The Associated Press NEWARK, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s historical society is one step away from gaining control of ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks maintained by a country club where members golf alongside the mounds. A trial was slated to begin Tuesday to determine how much the historical society must pay for the site, which is among eight ancient areas in the Hopewell Earthworks system named a World Heritage Site last year. Built between 2,000 and 1,600 years ago by people from the Hopewell Culture, the earthworks were host to ceremonies that drew people from across the continent, based on archeological discoveries of raw materials from as far west as the Rocky Mountains. The Ohio History Connection, which owns the 2,000-year-old Octagon Earthworks in Newark in central Ohio, won a state...
Register
First Nation legislator makes history at Queen’s Park with speech in Oji-Cree
A First Nation legislator addressed Queen’s Park in his own language Tuesday, marking the first time a language other than English and French has been allowed by officials in Ontario’s legislative chamber. In the process, New Democrat Sol Mamakwa, who spoke for 10 minutes in Anishininiimowin, or Oji-Cree, in the Ontario legislature, secured a pledge from the premier to build a long-term care home in Sioux Lookout, Ont. “I want to say thank you to everyone present. I’m very grateful, thankful for the opportunity to be able to speak my Anishininiimowin, in Indigenous Oji-Cree language in this legislature,” Mamakwa said through an interpreter at the start of his speech. “I am speaking for those that couldn’t use our language and also for those people from Kiiwetinoong, not only those from...
Register
Two Manitoba First Nations seek $1B from City of Winnipeg, province, feds over pollution of Red River, Lake Winnipeg
By Dave Baxter Local Journalism Initiative reporter Two Manitoba First Nations are seeking $1 billion in total damages, and have joined a long list of communities suing three levels of government for what they say has been the ongoing pollution and degradation of the Red River and Lake Winnipeg. Bloodvein First Nation Chief Roland Hamilton and Dauphin River First Nation Chief Lawrence Letander are named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed on behalf of their communities on May 21 that seeks $500 million in damages each for both of those communities. The lawsuit says the city, province and the feds have “contravened” Treaty rights and their fiduciary duties by allowing sewage and other contaminants to continue to pollute the Red River, which flows downstream to Lake Winnipeg, and other bodies...
Register
Cassidy Caron won’t seek re-election as MNC president
By Jeremy Appel Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Sitting president Cassidy Caron has announced she won’t run in September’s Métis National Council (MNC) election, citing the coming birth of her first child. Caron, who is the youngest and first female president in MNC history, announced her decision not to seek re-election after a single term at a May 23 news conference on Parliament Hill. Caron said the MNC “needed significant rebuilding as a national Indigenous organization” at the time she secured election in September 2021. “From the outset of my term, I committed to leading this period of change and transition. And now, three years later, I am proud of what we have accomplished,” she added. The MNC is now a “transparent, accountable and effective” national organization, she added, with strong...
Register
A political picture is worth a thousand words — and, sometimes, a career
The Canadian Press They say a photo is worth a thousand words. Sometimes, it’s worth your career. A momentary snapshot can send the public a strong signal about what a politician’s fate could be. It can seem to seal that fate. That was in part the case for former Progressive Conservative leader Robert Stanfield, who was captured in an award-winning photo that became one of Canada’s most legendary political images. Fifty years ago, on May 30, 1974, former Canadian Press photographer Doug Ball was there when Stanfield tossed around a pigskin with reporters as they travelled together for an election campaign. While the Opposition leader caught some tosses, the photo most news outlets chose for their front page showed him with his hands clasped, brows furled, lips pursed...
Register
Ancient Ohio tribal site where golfers play is changing hands – but the price is up to a jury
The Associated Press 28/05/2024 00:28 NEWARK, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s historical society is one step away from gaining control of ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks maintained by a country club where members golf alongside the mounds. A trial was slated to begin Tuesday to determine how much the historical society must pay for the site, which is among eight ancient areas in the Hopewell Earthworks system named a World Heritage Site last year. Built between 2,000 and 1,600 years ago by people from the Hopewell Culture, the earthworks were host to ceremonies that drew people from across the continent, based on archeological discoveries of raw materials from as far west as the Rocky Mountains. The Ohio History Connection, which owns the 2,000-year-old Octagon Earthworks in Newark in central Ohio, won...
Register
Ontario legislator to make history at Queen’s Park with speech, questions in Oji-Cree
The Canadian Press 28/05/2024 04:00 A First Nation legislator in Ontario is set to make history today when he rises at Queen’s Park to speak in his language, Oji-Cree. For the first time in its history, the Ontario legislature will allow, interpret and transcribe a language other than English and French. New Democrat Sol Mamakwa sparked the change after convincing Government House Leader Paul Calandra to allow him to speak in the language his parents taught him. About 100 supporters will gather in Toronto to watch the historic moment, including Mamakwa’s mother, siblings, friends and First Nation leaders. Mamakwa, from Kingfisher Lake First Nation in northern Ontario, says the milestone is important because Indigenous people are losing their languages and his speech and question in the legislature will mark a...
Register
Manitoba First Nation warns of drugs in community being cut with dangerous, possibly deadly ingredients
By Dave Baxter Local Journalism Initiative reporter A Manitoba First Nation is warning that drugs being sold in the community are being cut with dangerous and possibly deadly ingredients, and pleading with residents to avoid illicit drugs, because of what the consequences of taking them could be. “These contaminants pose a significant risk to your health and safety,” Sioux Valley Dakota Nation (SVDN) chief and band council said in an “urgent” health advisory released Sunday on the community’s website. Community officials say multiple dangerous contaminants have been found recently in illicit drugs in SVDN, a community west of Brandon that is home to more than 1,000 on-reserve residents. Substances now circulating in the community that drug users might be taking unknowingly, according to SVDN, include amphetamines, methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy),...
Register
Progress is being made in Kenora housing
By Mike Stimpson, Loal Journalism Initiative Reporter KENORA – Ontario’s westernmost city has made significant progress in affordable housing, according to its mayor and the head of the Kenora District Services Board (KDSB). The city benefits from a recently completed 20-unit affordable housing project and a nearly completed 56-unit seniors complex, Mayor Andrew Poirier said in an interview at Kenora City Hall. The 20-unit Matheson Street project, which includes four abodes that are barrier-free and fully accessible, opened last fall. The Matheson complex demonstrates that “when communities in the North are empowered we can actually get housing done and build relatively quickly,” KDSB chief administrative officer Henry Wall said last October after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site. Construction of a 56-unit seniors complex at 8th Avenue S. and 8th...
Register
B.C. announces online building permit hub to speed up homebuilding across province
The Canadian Press The British Columbia government says a new online “hub” will speed up building permit processes across jurisdictions. Premier David Eby says “slow and complicated” building permit processes have delayed housing development at a time when it’s urgently needed. The province says the digital building permit system will be a “one-stop shop” for local building permits, and 12 municipalities and two First Nations governments are part of the first pilot phase of the new system. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the new system is unique in North America and aims to cut wait times for builders by standardizing requirements that suffer from inconsistencies in different communities. Eby says builders have seen interest rates rise dramatically, and holding land while awaiting building permits creates a significant cost. Kahlon says...
Register
Blood Tribe Can’t Sue Ottawa For Treaty Violation Due To Provincial Time Limitations
By Jeremy Appel Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the federal government broke its Treaty with Kainai Nation by shortchanging them on reserve land, but the province’s statute of limitations precludes the band from seeking remedy through the courts. On April 12, the court delivered its unanimous decision in the case of Jim Shot Both Sides v. Canada, in which Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin declared the Canadian government’s failure to fulfill its Treaty obligation “deplorable,” but argued the nation failed to bring the matter to court in the required timeframe. Kate Gunn of First Peoples Law, which represented Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta in the case, called the Supreme Court’s decision “disappointing.” “It affirms what the Blood Tribe has been saying all along,” Gunn...
Register
Flying taxis, drones spark high hopes — and safety worries — among Canadians
The Canadian Press Canadians feel both “optimism and concern” over the prospect of flying cars and drones whizzing between remote communities and above city blocks, a new report says. The Léger study commissioned by Transport Canada found residents hold a broadly positive attitude toward so-called advanced air mobility, which refers to both drones and electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) — drones’ larger, typically human-piloted cousins. Despite limited knowledge of the futuristic transport mode, respondents liked advanced air mobility’s potential for search and rescue, firefighting, medical use and other critical services, the survey showed. Comfort with those three uses of the technology in urban areas hovered at around 80 per cent. Surveying, inspections — of power lines, for example — and cargo shipment also had overwhelming support. Only transport...
Register
Grassy Narrows proves environmental racism is not over
By Matteo Cimellaro & Natasha Bulowski Local Journalism Initiative The discovery that pollution from a paper mill is contributing to the long-standing mercury poisoning afflicting Grassy Narrows First Nation is another example of widespread environmental racism, say federal MPs. The mercury contamination at Grassy Narrows dates back to the 1960s and ’70s, when Dryden Chemical dumped roughly 10 metric tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system. The pollution has caused serious health problems for the vast majority of members of Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nations, including neurological issues, birth defects and more. “The reality is Indigenous communities, racialized communities have to continue to suffer when corporations pollute,” Edmonton-Griesbach NDP MP Blake Desjarlais said, pointing to the Grassy Narrow’s case and Danielle Smith’s government’s RStar program that “uses tax...
Register
Fort Nelson, B.C., evacuees heading home after being forced to flee wildfires
The Canadian Press 27/05/2024 04:00 Residents in Fort Nelson are able to go home today after being evacuated for more than two weeks due to wildfires. The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and the Fort Nelson First Nation say they’ll jointly rescind their evacuation orders at 8 a.m., lift roadblocks and allow people to return. About 4,700 residents were evacuated from Fort Nelson on May 10, when strong winds pushed the Parker Lake wildfire within a few kilometres of the town. The fire destroyed four homes and damaged six other properties in the area. Crews are also fighting the Patry Creek fire north of town, which is a holdover fire that was initially ignited by lightning in July 2023. The regional municipality’s Mayor Rob Fraser has asked residents to be patient...
Register
Who is Buffalo Woman? Serial killer trial hears of police efforts to identify victim
The Canadian Press 26/05/2024 08:00 In mid-March 2022, a young Indigenous woman stood outside Winnipeg’s Salvation Army and spoke with a man who invited her back to his home. Wearing a reversible Baby Phat branded jacket and a cloth face mask, she would later board a bus with the man and head to his apartment in the North Kildonan neighbourhood. The woman was the first victim of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. In the two years since her slaying, police have been unable to identify her or find her remains. To Indigenous community members, police and the court system, she has become known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, a name that was gifted to her by a group of Indigenous grandmothers. “Our community has adopted her. We wanted her to...
Register
‘Language is identity’: Indigenous Ontario legislator to make history at Queen’s Park
The Canadian Press 26/05/2024 06:00 Decades after being punished in a residential school for speaking his own language, Sol Mamakwa will hold the powerful to account at Ontario’s legislature in the very same language past governments tried to bury. On Tuesday, Mamakwa, the only First Nation legislator at Queen’s Park, will rise in the legislative chamber – with his mother, sister, brothers, friends and elders watching from the gallery – and ask a question in Anishininiimowin, known in English as Oji-Cree. For the first time in its history, the Ontario legislature will allow, interpret and transcribe a language other than English and French. It will also be a birthday gift to his mom, Kezia Mamakwa, who turns 79 that day, and a nod to his late father, Jerry Mamakwa. “Language...
Register
Ontario reaches land claim settlement with Matachewan FirstNation
The Canadian Press 25/05/2024 14:07 The Ontario government says it has reached a settlement in a treaty land entitlement claim linked to the Matachewan First Nation. Under the settlement, the First Nation located southeast of Timmins, Ont., will receive $590,000 and more than 2,000 hectares of provincial Crown land, which may be added to its reserve. Treaty land entitlement claim settlements are meant to remedy instances where First Nations did not receive the amount of reserve land promised to them under numbered treaties. The province says Treaty 9, also known as the James Bay Treaty, provided First Nations with nearly 260 hectares of land per family of five, or just over 50 hectares per member. However, the Matachewan First Nation did not receive all the land it was entitled to....
Register
