Amid a climate crisis, ‘Vital Signs’ documents the ‘relentless force’ of changing landscapes
By Amy Romer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews Tucked into a quiet corner of the Bill Reid Gallery is a nine-minute film by Nlaka’pamux artist Jade Baxter about the wildfire that devastated her homelands. Through a series of raw, handheld clips, Why Would I Leave? documents the months leading up to the June 2021 blaze that tore through “Lytton.” Baxter’s footage captures not only the fire itself, but the simmering tension of a community living under intensifying climate pressure. After weeks of record-breaking temperatures during the western “North America” Heat Dome, the fast-moving flames caused two fatalities and destroyed most of the Nlaka’pamux village. The piece is part of the new exhibition Vital Signs, which features work by six First Nations artists who explore the personal and collective impacts of...
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The Women’s Warrior Song has become a cultural touchstone
By Eva Takakenew, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Megaphone Magazine What does it sound like when women rise? When their voices unite in a single, powerful, anthem? The answer can be heard on the streets of the Downtown Eastside each year at events like the annual Women’s Memorial March on Feb 14. The Women’s Warrior Song — a stirring chant that echoes through the streets at Indigenous-led events like the march — was written more than 30 years ago by Martina Pierre (Saw̓t), an Elder in the Lil’wat Nation. It has since become a powerful song of resilience for the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people (MMIWG2S) movement across Canada. Pierre wrote the song after praying in a sweat lodge for her daughter who had recently become a...
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First Nations slam Bill 5 at committee hearing
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source TORONTO – First Nations leaders made a strong case against Bill 5 at committee hearings this week, Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa said Friday. “They made it very clear – this is a very wrong move on the part of the government,” Mamakwa told Newswatch. “The government talks about its duty to consult, but they don’t understand it. They don’t understand the treaty part of it. There’s no respect for the treaty.” Leaders from Treaty 9 First Nations spoke at a hearing of the Standing Committee on the Interior on Thursday against legislation the province’s Progressive Conservative government says is necessary to streamline resource development and make Ontario more competitive. An “overflow crowd” for the hearing underscored the depth of opposition...
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King’s throne speech marks ‘pivotal moment’ in Canada’s history, royal watchers say
By Sarah Ritchie Crews were at work in downtown Ottawa on Friday morning, touching up the protective coating on bronze statues around the National War Memorial before a whirlwind royal visit gets underway on Monday. King Charles and Queen Camilla will touch down in Canada for their first visit since the coronation more than two years ago. Royal watchers say the trip is a significant one on a number of levels. “If you would have told me six months, even three months ago, that the King would be opening Canada’s Parliament, delivering the throne speech, I wouldn’t have believed you,” said Robert Finch, chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada. “But the events of the world and the circumstances sort of made the stars align.” Prime Minister Mark Carney and...
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Dene Nation rallies against Alberta separatism
By Eric Bowling, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, NWT News/North Dene National Chief George Mackenzie has a blunt message for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and all politicians in Canada. “Whatever party they belong to, they have to honour and respect the treaty rights that was sacredly signed,” he said. “They cannot challenge the treaty. Us treaty people were here long, long before them. “The treaty was signed in friendship. It was signed for the opportunities for business people to do what they have to do. We’re not against development, but you must respect the treaties.” To drive that message home, the Dene Nation organized a rally in solidarity with the peoples living under treaties 6, 7 and 8 in Alberta. The Yellowknife rally was intended to make a statement to the...
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Why Canada hosts more old passenger jets than any other country — by far
By Christopher Reynolds Each morning, travellers and cargo take off from Montreal’s Trudeau airport for a 1,600-kilometre flight to Puvirnituq in northern Quebec aboard a nearly 50-year-old Air Inuit plane. This seasoned Boeing 737 previously cruised the skies above Europe and Central Africa for now-defunct carriers in France, Gabon and the Congo. But now its trips are all-Canadian, shuttling people, food and building materials between the country’s second-biggest city and a village of 2,100. The aging aircraft is no outlier in Canada, which plays host to more old jets deployed for passenger service than any other country. Their age can pose challenges for maintenance and fuel efficiency, while others question the safety of second-hand haulers, but operators say they are ideally suited for commercial flights to remote destinations. Thirteen of...
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Officials ‘disappointed’ after Highway 7 regional bus route rejected by province
By Grace Giesbrecht, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Fraser Valley Current A long-awaited bus route along Highway 7 won’t happen for at least another year. The route, which would take passengers between Agassiz and Mission, didn’t receive provincial funding for 2026, a new report to local politicians reveals. Other transit projects in the Fraser Valley, however, had better luck. Today, Grace writes about new and improved transit initiatives coming next year. Local politicians and residents have been calling for a bus route on the highway north of the Fraser River linking Agassiz and Mission since 2012. Planning began in 2018, but the project ground to a halt during the COVID pandemic. The route would run along Highway 7 and, in addition to Agassiz and Mission, would serve an array of rural...
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Native Centre gets $73K grant for HR role
By Paige Seburn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Lake Report The Niagara Regional Native Centre in Niagara-on-the-Lake announced yesterday it received a $73,100 seed grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation for a human resources manager. Halley Irwin, the centre’s director of development and community engagement, said the funding will support a human resources manager, who will be a part of recruitment and strengthen the centre’s capacity to serve the Indigenous community. Cynthia Whyte was hired for the position on a one-year contract in February and works closely with the executive director to create an internal system for human resources at the centre and strengthening its team of staff — a “strictly internal” role, said Irwin. “To help us put some structure in place to support our staff,” Irwin told The...
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‘Significant amount of work’ to be done planning new hospital
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source KENORA — A new All Nations Hospital to replace the Lake of the Woods District Hospital will be completed in 6-8 years and cost over $800 million to design and build, hospital officials told reporters Thursday. A key feature of the new hospital will be an “expansion in traditional healing, traditional medicines (and) cultural practices” for Indigenous patients, said Cheryl O’Flaherty, CEO of the district hospital. “We’re also hoping to build a larger campus of care, have other health-care partners co-locate on the same property as us, and really essentially build a location where the population will be able to attend for health-care services regardless of whether it’s hospital, primary care, mental health and addiction services, that sort of thing....
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18-year-old from Ivujivik takes action against Elections Canada
By Cedric Gallant, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News An 18-year-old from Ivujivik has issued a formal complaint to Elections Canada. Tiivi Tullaugak says he wants to hold the government agency accountable for failing to arrive in his community on April 28, federal election day, to set up polling stations. “I knew I had to do something, not just for our community but for Nunavik,” he said. Tullaugak said he would have voted in the election — his first — if he’d had the chance. Liberal Mandy Gull-Masty won the riding with 12,578 votes, defeating second-place finisher incumbent Sylvie Bérubé of the Bloc Québécois who received 10,381 votes, and two other candidates. Elections Canada is investigating why people were denied the chance to vote in seven Nunavik communities on election...
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Memoir tackles intergenerational trauma and the author’s determination to overcome circumstances
By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Chyana Marie Sage offers a brutally honest look at the impact intergenerational trauma had on her family in her memoir Soft as Bones. “It’s a story that I knew was important for me to tell, not just for my own personal healing or the healing of my family and the acknowledgement of what we went through, but also recognizing that our story is one small piece of the puzzle that makes up the mosaic of Indigenous people across Turtle Island,” said Sage, who is Cree, Métis and Salish. Sage earned her Master of Fine Arts in creative non-fiction from Columbia University, in Manhattan. She has been teaching online courses in remote Indigenous communities for Connected North and is also a journalist. Residing...
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Six Nations Police Project PANDA seizes over $9 million in contraband tobacco and illegal cannabis in massive plant shutdown
Six Nations Police shut down an illegal tobacco and cannabis operation on Chiefswood Road on May 7, 2025 seizing over $9 million in illegal tobacco and cannabis (Turtle Island News Photo) SIX NATIONS OF THE GRAND RIVER, ON – Six Nations Police seized over 25,000 kg (or 25 metric tonnes) of contraband tobacco, (fine cut tobacco and cigarettes) with an estimated street value of more than $6.29 million, over $3 million in illegal cannabis and 15 firearms after shutting down what they called a “criminal network” producing and manufacturing contraband tobacco on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in May. The four month long investigation began after the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau’s (OCEB) launched Project PANDA in February 2025 supporting the Six Nations Police Service...
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‘Cows and plows:’ The settlement over a broken Indigenous treaty shows the urgent need for more transparent governance
By Jas M. Morgan Members of the Tootinaowaziibeeng Treaty Reserve (TTR) in Manitoba recently voted to ratify the Treaty 4 Agricultural Benefits Settlement Agreement. Commonly known as the “cows and plows” settlement, the agreement aims to address longstanding, unmet promises made by the British Crown in 1874 to TTR and other Indigenous communities in several treaties, including Treaty 4. This settlement compensates Indigenous communities for agricultural support that was promised but never delivered. When the British Crown signed Treaty 4 in the 1800s, it committed to providing Saulteaux peoples with farming equipment, livestock and enough seed to cultivate the lands they were assigned. Canada’s push to teach Prairie Indigenous Peoples how to farm was part of a broader colonial project to settle so-called “nomadic” communities. Yet despite these historical promises,...
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Trump tariff threats on EU, Apple, send US futures and global markets skidding
By Jiang Junzhe And Matt Ott U.S. futures and global markets slumped Friday after President Donald Trump posted a pair of tariff threats on social media, one aimed at Apple and the other at the European Union. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.5% and Nasdaq futures tumbled 1.7% before the bell. Oil prices fell and Treasury yields sank. Markets took a sharp turn downward after Trump posted on social media that he wants “a straight 50% Tariff” on the EU beginning June 1 because representatives of the bloc have been difficult in negotiations. European markets fell nearly immediately after Trump’s post on his own Truth Social site. Germany’s DAX quickly swung to a 1.9% loss, while the CAC 40 in Paris fell 2.4%....
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‘Different from a textbook’: Doig Day returns in 2025 to educate kids about Indigenous culture and language
By Ed Hitchins, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Energeticcity.ca DOIG RIVER, B.C. — With a little wind in the air, school buses parked in an area on the grounds of Doig River First Nation (DRFN) for the annual Doig Day. One by one, excited fourth graders filed off the vehicles on May 22nd, donning navy blue t-shirts for what has become a tradition for School District 60 students. Started in the 1970s in a classroom with a handful of students, the event has become a staple on the North Peace region’s cultural calendar. Community members, industry partners and the public explored the area, with stations dedicated to hunting and trapping, smoking meat, preparing a moose hide to use for materials such as clothing and drums and even learning the Beaver alphabet....
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Supreme Court declines to reinstate independent agency board members fired by President Donald Trump
By Mark Sherman WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Thursday said President Donald Trump likely has the authority to fire independent agency board members, endorsing a robust view of presidential power. But the court suggested that it could block an attempt to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who Trump has complained has not cut interest rates aggressively. The court’s action essentially extended an order Chief Justice John Roberts issued in April that had the effect of removing two board members who Trump fired from agencies that deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for federal workers as Trump aims to drastically downsize the workforce. The firings have left both agencies without enough board members to take final actions on issues before them, as...
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B.C. First Nations fear protests and conflict over fast-track legislation
By Darryl Greer First Nations leaders in British Columbia say proposed legislation to fast-track resource projects will likely lead to protests and litigation should the provincial government push the law through. Robert Phillips with the First Nations Summit says the B.C. government’s proposed legislation, known as Bill 15, to approve infrastructure projects more quickly was done unilaterally, causing frustration and upset among First Nations leadership. He says there will be conflict, litigation and protests if the B.C. NDP fails to “kill the bill” without engaging with First Nations on potential amendments. Phillips and other First Nations representatives and municipal leaders spoke at a joint news conference to outline opposition to the legislation, which Premier David Eby says is needed to combat the threat of tariffs imposed by the United States...
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Manitoba Tory loses critic duties but will remain in caucus after ethics probe
By Steve Lambert A Manitoba Progressive Conservative has been stripped of his critic duties in the wake of a report from the province’s ethics commissioner. Jeff Wharton is one of three Tories who were found by the ethics commissioner this week to have violated the conflict of interest law in pushing for a silica sand mine. The report says Wharton, former premier Heather Stefanson and former deputy premier Cliff Cullen tried to get approval for the project after the Tories lost the 2023 election but before the incoming NDP government was sworn in. Wharton has apologized and said he accepts the report’s findings, which include thousands of dollars in fines. Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan says Wharton will remain in caucus but has been removed as critic for business, mining,...
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Prison time for woman guilty of child porn, bestiality
By Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince George Citizen A woman who admitted making and sharing pornography featuring her young child and using a cat in a sex act was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail by a Provincial Court judge in Prince George on Thursday, May 15. “It disturbs us all when we hear such acts of violence perpetrated by a mother against her child,” said Judge David Simpkin. The woman, whose name is banned from publication in order to protect the young victim, had pleaded guilty in November 2023 to four offences between January 2021 and May 2022: making child pornography, distributing child pornography, sexual interference of a person under 16 years of age and bestiality with a cat. The Crown had asked Simpkin for a total...
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First Nations leaders pledge ‘confrontation on the ground’ over Ontario mining bill
By Liam Casey Several First Nations travelled from the far reaches of northern Ontario to Queen’s Park in Toronto on Thursday to have their voices heard on a proposed law that seeks to significantly speed up mining approvals in their traditional lands, only to come away exasperated with Premier Doug Ford’s government. Several dozen First Nations leaders and supporters sang and beat a large drum before entering a committee hearing for Bill 5, an omnibus bill introduced by the province as its solution to build mines faster. With words failing, several First Nations leaders pledged to take the fight to the land should the province stay its course. “There will be confrontation on the ground,” said Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of Nishnawbe Aski Nation after voicing concerns at a committee...
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