First Nation battles to stop history repeating at Mount Polley mine
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer More than a decade after the catastrophic collapse of the Mount Polley tailings dam, a BC First Nation is back in court this week challenging the province’s decision to approve expansion of a dam at the same mine. The 2014 collapse of the tailings dam at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine operated by Imperial Metals — sent a massive volume of mine waste into local lakes and rivers, causing widespread environmental damage from which the ecosystem is still recovering. Despite this history, the province recently approved an expansion of the dam at the site northeast of Williams Lake — allowing the tailings dam to be raised by four metres — from its current height of 60 metres. The...
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Senate passes controversial bill to fast-track major projects
By Alessia Passafiume -CP-The Senate passed the Liberal government’s controversial major projects bill Thursday — legislation Indigenous leaders have warned could lead to widespread protests and legal challenges if Ottawa doesn’t respect their rights and title. Bill C-5 gives Ottawa the power to fast-track projects meant to boost the national economy by side-stepping environmental protections and other legislation. An initial draft of the bill gave Ottawa the ability to sidestep the Indian Act, but that law was removed from the bill before its passage. The politically charged legislation has angered Indigenous and environmental groups, who criticize the government for rushing to grant itself sweeping new powers to speed up development. Several Indigenous leaders called on MPs and senators to slow the bill’s passage to give Indigenous communities more time to...
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Major projects: How Bill C-5 works and why it alarms its critics
By Dylan Robertson -CP-Parliament has passed controversial major projects legislation that Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada needs to shore up its economy in the face of a trade war with the United States. Bill C-5 gives the federal government sweeping new powers to speed up permitting for what the Liberals call “nation-building projects.” The legislation’s opponents have attacked the legislation as a massive power grab. Here’s what’s C-5 does and what people are saying about it. What problem is this trying to solve? Canada has built few large projects over the past decade. That has led Conservatives, some provinces and some industry groups to argue that Ottawa’s regulatory burdens are holding back growth. The Liberals tried to streamline project approvals through Bill C-69, an impact assessment law meant to...
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Dehcho Youth Energy Council plans to educate youth on green tech
By Eric Bowling, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, NWT News/North To say Angus James Capot-Blanc Jr. was surprised to learn the Dehcho Youth Energy Council was named Arctic Inspiration Prize laureates would be an understatement. “We were shocked when we found out we won,” he said. “We heard our name called up and it really took us by surprise. “We just started this council in October. With this extra funding, we have opportunities to do so much more. Now the real work starts.” The budding youth group was awarded $100,000 on May 13 to develop programming that will advocate for renewable energy and green alternatives to the infrastructure currently in place in the Dehcho region. Capot-Blanc Jr. is the educational resource lead for the council. Meeting virtually every second week and...
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Health the topic at Tipi Talks in Aklavik
By Eric Bowling, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, NWT News/North Evening gatherings for men’s mental health and wellness in Aklavik have grown so popular that the Aklavik Indian Band (AIB) is fielding calls for how to set up wellness nights in other communities. Tipi Talks, part of AIB’s Community Wellness ‘Cultural Connections’ initiative, hosts evening meals on Monday and Tuesdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. for men and Thursdays for women. Elders are also welcome. Wellness support worker Frederick Arey said the group was initially established in August 2023. Originally, they began hosting Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous groups, but the stigma surrounding those two organizations was causing some people to stay away. So they reorganized the evenings around traditional knowledge and feasts, and they’ve been a hit ever...
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Controversial legislation to fast-track major projects, Bill C-5, becomes law
By Alessia Passafiume The Liberal government’s controversial major projects bill became law Thursday — legislation Indigenous leaders have warned could lead to widespread protests and legal challenges if Ottawa doesn’t respect their rights and title. Bill C-5 gives Ottawa the power to fast-track projects meant to boost the national economy by side-stepping environmental protections and other legislation. An initial draft of the bill gave Ottawa the ability to sidestep the Indian Act, but that law was removed from the bill before its passage. The politically charged legislation has angered Indigenous and environmental groups, who criticize the government for rushing to grant itself sweeping new powers to speed up development. Several Indigenous leaders called on MPs and senators to slow the bill’s passage to give Indigenous communities more time to suggest...
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‘No Arctic sovereignty without Inuit security,’ Tunraluk says
By Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News For Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Jeremy Tunraluk, Arctic sovereignty and security can only happen if Nunavut communities are supported and Inuit culture can thrive. “Our message is clear: there can be no Arctic sovereignty without Inuit security,” Tunraluk said Thursday in a keynote speech opening the Nunavut Arctic Sovereignty and Security Summit in Iqaluit. The conference, held at the Aqsarniit hotel, is bringing together hundreds of government, military and business leaders for a series of talks covering security, infrastructure and Inuit leadership. Tunraluk tied security and sovereignty to the well-being of Inuit communities. “If our communities lack roads, runways, clean water or reliable communications, they are not secure,” he said. “If homes are overcrowded and crumbling, if food is to be...
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Brazeau recovering after collapsing in Senate Wednesday due to ‘dizzy spell’
By David Baxter Sen. Patrick Brazeau is recovering after a “dizzy spell” made him “briefly lose consciousness” during debate in the Senate on the government’s major projects bill, a Senate spokesman said Thursday. The 50-year-old Independent senator rose to speak before falling sideways to the floor just after 4 p.m. Wednesday. Based on video of the incident, it was apparent that Brazeau knew something was wrong just before he fell. The Senate spokesman said Brazeau was taken to Ottawa’s Civic Hospital and returned home later that evening. The spokesman said Brazeau is “recovering and in good spirits.” Brazeau was alert when paramedics came to help him in the Senate chamber Tuesday afternoon, according to the spokesman. He added the senator is grateful to paramedics, Senate colleagues and hospital staff for...
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Federal Court approves Indian Hospitals class-action settlement
By Alessia Passafiume The Federal Court has approved a class-action settlement for people who suffered abuse at federally run ‘Indian hospitals’ following out-of-court negotiations with Ottawa and Indigenous survivors. The federal government ran 33 such hospitals between 1936 and 1981. Former patients, some of whom spent years in the segregated facilities, filed a lawsuit against the government in 2018 alleging the hospitals were rife with abuse and unfair treatment, and settled out of court earlier this year. The class covers people who were admitted to an Indian Hospital between January 1936 and December 1981 and who suffered abuse during their time there. Claimants will be assessed under five “levels,” with compensation ranging from $10,000 to $200,000. Ottawa is also earmarking $150 million for a healing fund and $235.5 million for...
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Town’s park litigation statement appreciated: Couchiching chief
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source COUCHICHING – A media statement from the Town of Fort Frances on Point Park litigation was appreciated, says the chief of the municipality’s First Nation neighbour. “I appreciated them putting that out,” Couchiching Chief Richard Bruyere said Wednesday in a phone interview with Newswatch. “No problems with it at all.” The town’s written statement on Tuesday came one week after a Superior Court judge rejected its bid to establish legal title to land along Highway 11 that Fort Frances residents know as Point Park. The judge’s decision ended more than 25 years of legal wrangling between the municipality and the Agency One group of four First Nations including Couchiching. The First Nations claimed ownership of the land while the town...
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Two First Nations setting up encampment near proposed bridge to Ring of Fire
By Liam Casey A political decision one thousand kilometres from Jeronimo Kataquapit’s home in a remote First Nation near James Bay set the course for his summer. Now, the 20-year-old from Attawapiskat First Nation, his father, mother and older brother are headed upriver in two 24-foot freighter canoes on a 400-kilometre journey to “reassert First Nations’ presence” near the Ring of Fire region in northern Ontario. The family hopes to make it to their final stop, near a proposed bridge over the Attawapiskat River, by Saturday. There, they will meet a contingent from Neskantaga First Nation as the two communities unite to build a quasi-permanent encampment — and make a political statement. “This is our home. This is our own territory, not just Attawapiskat’s, but every nation in the area,”...
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Health minister affirms ‘suicide crisis,’ but GN won’t declare public health emergency
By Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News The Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. agree the territory is in a “suicide crisis,” but Health Minister John Main says there is no plan to declare suicide a public health emergency. Main and NTI vice-president Paul Irngaut said Wednesday they are “reaffirming” a crisis declaration that was made by then-premier Peter Taptuna in 2015. “This declaration is coming out of the coroner’s inquest in Kimmirut which did call on the government to declare suicide a crisis,” Main said, during a news conference with Irngaut at the Nunavut legislative assembly. “Today we’re reaffirming that yes, it is a crisis. Yes, it does demand our attention and demands that we do everything we can to address it.” That coroner’s inquest, held...
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Health minister affirms ‘suicide crisis,’ but GN won’t declare public health emergency
By Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News The Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. agree the territory is in a “suicide crisis,” but Health Minister John Main says there is no plan to declare suicide a public health emergency. Main and NTI vice-president Paul Irngaut said Wednesday they are “reaffirming” a crisis declaration that was made by then-premier Peter Taptuna in 2015. “This declaration is coming out of the coroner’s inquest in Kimmirut which did call on the government to declare suicide a crisis,” Main said, during a news conference with Irngaut at the Nunavut legislative assembly. “Today we’re reaffirming that yes, it is a crisis. Yes, it does demand our attention and demands that we do everything we can to address it.” That coroner’s inquest, held...
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First Nations leaders allege consent without veto is not consent
By Jacqueline St. Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor ONTARIO—On June 21, while communities across the country marked National Indigenous Peoples Day with cultural celebrations, some Indigenous leaders were once again drawing attention to concerns about the ongoing erosion of Indigenous rights through federal and provincial legislation. In an interview, First Nations policy analyst Russell Diabo emphasized that the passage of Bill C-15 in 2021—Canada’s legislation to align federal law with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)—was fundamentally flawed. “In 2021, the Liberal-NDP alliance refused to accept any amendments to Bill C-15 to fix the fatal flaws,” Mr. Diabo said. “That includes amendments proposed by Chief Ross Montour of Kahnawà:ke, representing the AFNQL (Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador). Those were ignored.” Mr. Diabo...
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Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee paddlers reignite the Dish with One Spoon Treaty
By Jacqueline St. Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor WIIKWEMKOONG—Two canoes moved across the morning water like prayers whispered in two languages. Paddles stirred the shoreline silence, each stroke a syllable in a story long interrupted. It was day two of the Two Nations Cultural Exchange—an event bringing together the Haudenosaunee of Six Nations of the Grand River and Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. Together, they paddled to Skulls Point, a site of layered history on Mnidoo Mnising—sacred ground for both nations, though claimed by neither in recent memory. Until now. “This hasn’t happened in generations,” said Jackie Jameson, senior manager of tourism and community development for Six Nations Tourism. “Maybe ever. Our nations paddling together, as allies, to this place—it’s powerful. Not just symbolic. Real.” Before the French, before...
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Health minister affirms ‘suicide crisis,’ but GN won’t declare public health emergency
By Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News The Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. agree the territory is in a “suicide crisis,” but Health Minister John Main says there is no plan to declare suicide a public health emergency. Main and NTI vice-president Paul Irngaut said Wednesday they are “reaffirming” a crisis declaration that was made by then-premier Peter Taptuna in 2015. “This declaration is coming out of the coroner’s inquest in Kimmirut which did call on the government to declare suicide a crisis,” Main said, during a news conference with Irngaut at the Nunavut legislative assembly. “Today we’re reaffirming that yes, it is a crisis. Yes, it does demand our attention and demands that we do everything we can to address it.” That coroner’s inquest, held...
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Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee paddlers reignite the Dish with One Spoon Treaty
By Jacqueline St. Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor WIIKWEMKOONG—Two canoes moved across the morning water like prayers whispered in two languages. Paddles stirred the shoreline silence, each stroke a syllable in a story long interrupted. It was day two of the Two Nations Cultural Exchange—an event bringing together the Haudenosaunee of Six Nations of the Grand River and Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. Together, they paddled to Skulls Point, a site of layered history on Mnidoo Mnising—sacred ground for both nations, though claimed by neither in recent memory. Until now. “This hasn’t happened in generations,” said Jackie Jameson, senior manager of tourism and community development for Six Nations Tourism. “Maybe ever. Our nations paddling together, as allies, to this place—it’s powerful. Not just symbolic. Real.” Before the French, before...
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National chief asks senators to slow down major projects bill, as senator collapses
By Kyle Duggan and Alessia Passafiume The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is calling on senators to slow down Ottawa’s sprint to pass Prime Minister Mark Carney’s controversial major projects bill this week. Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said Wednesday she hopes the Senate “does the right thing this week” and allows more time to study the legislation and bring forward amendments — a call that went largely unanswered when she issued it to MPs. The legislation was introduced in the upper chamber on Wednesday and the Senate completed second reading, after the bill was fast-tracked through the House of Commons and went through a rare pre-study by the Senate. A programming motion adopted by the chamber fixes the bill to a tight schedule, with a final vote that...
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Across Canada, politicians are forcing laws in the ‘national interest’ and dismantling our democracy along the way
By Anushka Yadav, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer “Climate change is a major threat to financial resilience and economic prosperity,” Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, wrote in his book ‘Value(s): Building a Better World for All.’ “It is within our grasp to create a virtuous cycle of innovation and investment for the net-zero world that our citizens are demanding and that future generations deserve. But the task is large, the window of opportunity is short, and the risks are existential.” Published in 2021, before Carney formally entered politics, the national bestseller envisions bold changes for the future: a country powered by clean innovation, grounded in ethical capitalism and driven by a sense of shared responsibility. He penned a passionate plan to use the power of democracy alongside the economic...
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Twenty years after conception, Wiidookdaadiwin Lookout officially opens
By Wayne Doyle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, BarrieToday.com Originally conceived by a group known as the Huronia Lookout Committee two decades ago, the Wiidookdaadiwin Lookout took its first official breath Wednesday afternoon under a beautiful blue sky and a scorching sun. With more than 100 onlookers gathered to celebrate the opening of the lookout, built on top of former Vespra Landfill No. 14 on George Johnston Road, just south of Snow Valley Road, the site features a huge observation area, hundreds of native plantings, signs explaining the history and importance of the site and the icon — a life-size bronze sculpture of two figures: one, an Indigenous scout, and the other, a canoe-carrying European, and their luggage. The sculpture, created by Hillsdale artist Marlene Hilton Moore, was based on the...
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