Vancouver Island land returned to Lyackson First Nation and Cowichan Tribes
A stretch of culturally significant land in the Cowichan Valley has been returned to the Lyackson First Nation and Cowichan Tribes communities. The British Columbia government says the return of the Vancouver Island lands historically used by First Nations for gathering and harvesting represents a reconciliation landmark. The Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation says in a news release the 312-hectare land parcel is worth about $8.6 million. Lyackson Hereditary Chief Shana Thomas says in the release that the land is a former village site and the community has been fighting for its re-establishment over four generations. The government had purchased the land from Mosaic Forest Management, and Thomas says the return would not have been possible without the company being a “willing seller.” The incremental treaty agreement on the...
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‘I put a lot of hard work into what I own’: Vandals smash windshield of Fort St. John man’s Indigenous-inspired vehicle
By Ed Hitchins, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Energeticcity.ca FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A local Indigenous resident is appreciative of the positive messages he’s received from the community after his car was vandalized earlier this month. Dan Prince has owned his Dodge Challenger since 2021 and it has a black exterior adorned with First Nations decals. He said his front windshield was smashed on Monday, May 12th. Since that time, an outpouring of support for Prince’s wheels has surfaced, including one resident who paid for the damage to be repaired. Prince admits he “wasn’t a car guy” before purchasing the vehicle. While Prince says he had eagle art on his previous car, this art is more Indigenous-based. “Originally, it was actually originally to be white [decals] to go on [the]...
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Ontario insists it will consult with First Nations on controversial mining bill
By Liam Casey Ontario is insisting it will consult with First Nations over a proposed bill that would suspend provincial and municipal laws in areas it designates as so-called special economic zones. But many First Nations across the province are livid with the government over the proposed law, known as Bill 5, which is being studied at committee on Thursday. The province says it intends to declare the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario as one such zone. Energy and Mining Minister Stephen Lecce says the province is rewriting the law’s preamble to clarify and reinforce the province’s constitutional duty to consult with Indigenous people. New Democrat deputy Leader Sol Mamakwa says the province has failed in its duty to consult. Mamakwa tabled a motion to add one day of...
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‘Now is the time for action,’ says Kashechewan chief
By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com With states of emergencies called due to serious flooding risks, First Nations leaders are urging upper levels of government to respond. Mushkegowuk Council is calling on Prime Minister-elect Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford to visit flood-threatened communities in Northern Ontario, as rising waters force full-scale evacuations in both Kashechewan and Fort Albany First Nations. Kashechewan Chief Hosea Wesley said his community gas endured near-annual evacuations during spring breakup. The federal government has promised to relocate the community to a safer location upstream, but those plans remain stalled. “It is unacceptable that the lives of our people continue to be put at risk every spring,” wrote Wesley in a statement Friday (May 2). “We have enough studies, we have enough promises, now...
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‘Unleashing Change’: Hard work pays off for pageant winner
By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com COCHRANE – For Sydney Echum, pageants have never just been about the sash and crown, they’ve been a way to speak up and champion causes close to her heart. The 16-year-old from Moose Factory, now living in Cochrane, was crowned Teen Regional Canada 2025 at a competition held at Collège Boréal in Sudbury over the weekend. “It felt so good,” Echum told TimminsToday. “Like all the work that I’ve done paid off. I competed last year and I got third runner-up, and I knew that I wanted to go back right away. So putting in that hard work really made it feel worth it.” Echum is no stranger to the spotlight. She was crowned Miss Chimo 2024. The pageants, she said, have helped...
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B.C. municipalities join First Nations in criticism of tariff bills
By Wolfgang Depner Municipal leaders from across British Columbia have joined First Nations to ask the provincial government to withdraw or delay proposed legislation to fast-track major projects in response to U.S. tariffs. But the president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities says there’s no sign the government is changing course, after Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma fronted an online meeting last Friday with more than 120 local officials. Union president Trish Mandewo says members want the bill delayed until proper consultation can take place or “cancelled altogether.” That echoes the concerns of First Nations leaders who met Premier David Eby last Thursday and said they were deeply disappointed by the government’s refusal to withdraw the proposed legislation, which they described as unilateralism. Mandewo says local officials’ response to their own...
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Prestigious posthumous recognition for work of Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook
By McMichael Collection exhibition, Nunavut News The artwork of the late Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook continues to leave an enduring legacy after recent international recognition was given to one of her drawings. ARTnews, one of the most trusted sources of news in the art world, named Pootoogook’s 2002 coloured pencil and ink drawing Man Abusing His Partner one of the 100 best artworks of the 21st century. For William Huffman, the executive manager of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-Operative in Kinngait, Nunavut, it is a recognition well-deserved for the artist who died in 2016 under suspicious circumstances in Ottawa. “It’s not a surprise to us that she would be selected as one of the most significant artists of the 21st century. I mean, she did have a meteoric career,” Huffman...
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Ontario launches $3.1-billion critical minerals plan
By Abdul Matin Sarfraz / Canada’s National Observer / Local Journalism Initiative Ontario’s new $3.1-billion plan for a critical minerals supply chain created in partnership with First Nationsis raising concerns about weakened environmental protections and inadequate Indigenous consultation. Announced Wednesday, the provincial initiative will create a “made-in-Ontario” supply chain and boost First Nations equity, according to the government. But critics say environmental protections and First Nationsconsultation will be sidelined in the rush to develop the Ring of Fire — a vast region about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. The new provincial funding includes $3 billion in loan guarantees through an expanded First Nations Opportunities Financing Program, $70 million over four years to strengthen First Nations capacity in mining-related regulatory processes, and $10 million in scholarships for First Nations students...
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First Nations want feds to block landfill ear Dresden
By Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Chatham Voice Walpole Island First Nation Bkejwanong Territory officials are asking the federal government to step in to stop the York1/Whitestone Fields dump expansion north of Dresden. On behalf of the band and nearby communities, Chief Leela Peters has sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney calling for an “immediate moratorium” on the York1/Whitestone Fields project. Dated May 9, the five-page letter states the proposal “threatens critical ecosystems; First Nation sovereignty; public health and safety; and reinforces an increasingly visible pattern of environmental racism, injustice and constitutional neglect.” The letter outlines various threats posed by the expansion, including the potential to pollute the water that 30 million users on Great Lakes depend on; the threat to 88 species at risk in the...
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Ottawa claims child welfare talks stalled over AFN’s ‘unreasonable’ requests
By Alessia Passafiume The federal government has told the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that negotiations with the Assembly of First Nations on reforming the child welfare system are stalled and the AFN’s requests are “unreasonable.” In a May 15 filing to the tribunal, Ottawa said it has made “intensive and meaningful efforts” to reform the system since 2016 — when the tribunal concluded that the federal government had discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding the on-reserve child welfare system. But Ottawa told the tribunal that negotiations with the AFN are “no longer working” and there is no “practical utility” to continuing them. “Canada has met its obligations under the Tribunal’s consultation orders, which do not require that Canada consult indefinitely or until the complainants obtain the variable outcomes they...
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Wabun Tribal Council picks up leadership and innovation award
By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com A northern tribal council has received provincial recognition for its leadership in helping shape inclusive energy policy in Ontario. At the Power of Water Canada Technical Conference in Niagara Falls on May 8, Wabun Tribal Council (WTC) was presented with the Ontario Waterpower Association’s 2025 Leadership and Innovation Award. Mattagami First Nation Chief Jennifer Constant said the award reflects the progress being made in First Nations leadership across the region. “Wabun received it on behalf of the communities for their participation in developing policy,” she said. “So it feels great. It feels great to be one of the communities that’s fortunate to have such leaders in those areas, in helping shape new ways of inclusion for First Nations.” WTC is a non-profit regional...
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New study reveals massive carbon stores in Hudson and James Bay peatlands
By Marissa Lentz-McGrath, Local Journalism Initiative, TimminsToday.com As debate around the Ring of Fire intensifies, new research is bringing fresh urgency to the conversation. The Hudson and James Bay lowlands, home to some of the most expansive peatlands on the planet, contain an estimated 30 billion tonnes of carbon, enough to meaningfully shape global climate trajectories if released, according to the new study. The five-year collaboration between WWF-Canada, Mushkegowuk Council’s Department of Lands and Resources, and McMaster University’s Remote Sensing Lab was published in Geophysical Research Letters. It maps peat depth and calculates carbon storage across a vast region of muskeg, wetland, and subarctic forest. James Snider, vice president of science, knowledge and innovation at WWF-Canada, said the findings reinforce the global importance of protecting the area. “The headline message...
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Film at imagineNATIVE discusses range of masculinity of Siksika Nation men
By Sam Laskaris, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com The documentary feature Siksikakowan: The Blackfoot Man by writer/director Sinakson Trevor Solway will screen at imagineNATIVE in Toronto, the largest Indigenous film and media arts festival in the world. Solway is a member of Siksika Nation in Alberta. His film will be shown June 7 at the TIFF Lightbox. Siksikakowan delves into the masculinity of the Blackfoot men of Solway’s First Nation. Men from the community discuss their lives, showing not only their strengths but their vulnerabilities as well. “Growing up in the prairies and growing up with my family in Siksika, I grew up around a lot of ultra-masculine men,” Solway said. “And I didn’t always feel like I fit into that as, like, a young artist or a sensitive, creative...
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Ontario PC caucus member opposed to government’s landfill plan in Dresden
By Allison Jones and Jordan Omstead A southwestern Ontario member of Premier Doug Ford’s caucus is speaking out against his government’s decision to cancel an environmental assessment for a landfill expansion in his riding. Steve Pinsonneault, who was elected last year in a byelection in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, promised during that campaign to work to get an environmental assessment for the site and the government ordered one last year, but now it is backtracking. An omnibus bill before the legislature that would also give cabinet the power to suspend laws for certain projects by creating “special economic zones” and change endangered species rules in a way critics say guts protections would also revoke the requirement for an environmental assessment for the Dresden, Ont., landfill proposal. Pinsonneault posted a video to Facebook saying...
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Environmental lawyers tell courtroom Ottawa’s protections for piping plovers flawed
By Michael Tutton Environmental groups argued in Federal Court this week that Ottawa’s plans for protecting the habitat of the piping plover are too vague to provide adequate protection to the endangered species. The migratory shorebirds build their nests along coastal beaches of the Atlantic Ocean, where the animals are increasingly at risk from human activities. Lawyers for East Coast Environmental Law and for Nature Nova Scotia presented their case on Tuesday, arguing that the approach approved by the federal minister in 2022 for protecting specific parts of beaches has unclear language and is weaker than Ottawa’s prior conservation strategy from a decade earlier. Federal lawyers provided countering arguments in the Halifax hearing on Wednesday morning before Justice Richard Southcott, who reserved his decision on the matter. Tina Northrup, a...
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Opportunity joins regional tourism society
By Pearl Lorentzen, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeside Leader The M.D. of Opportunity is the newest municipality to join the Slave Lake Regional Tourism Society. On May 14, council voted to join the Slave Lake Regional Tourism Society for $2 per capita. This turns out to about $3,000 annually, said M.D. CAO Chad Tullis. The society has adopted a regional model similar to the Mighty Peace Tourism Society and Mackenzie Frontier Tourism Society, says the written report. The society asked the M.D. to appoint someone to the board. Joining the society could benefit tourism in the M.D., said Tullis. “I think this is a good value for our money,” said Reeve Marcel Auger. Membership could help the M.D. reach its tourism goals, he added. He put his name forward to...
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Mining claims in Ring of Fire up 66 per cent over past 3 years: environmental group
By Liam Casey Mining claims in the Ring of Fire region are up 66 per cent over the last three years and now total an area 14 times the size of Toronto, an environmental group said Wednesday after compiling the data. There are now more than 43,000 claims in the region that is some 450 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont., said Anna Baggio, the conservation director of Wildlands League. “The claims are exploding, so that’s a problem,” said Baggio, who extracted the data from the Ontario Geological Survey site. “The problem is that much like the rest of Canada, this is all happening under a free entry system where anyone can register a claim as long as they have a prospector’s licence and do the Mining Act course.” Ontario...
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The Latest: Trump confronts South Africa’s president during tense Oval Office meeting
House Republicans are pushing to vote on their multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks package as soon as Wednesday, grinding out last-minute deal-making to shore up wavering GOP support and deliver on President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority. The Trump administration acknowledged in court that it deported eight migrants after being called to answer questions Wednesday about a deportation flight of Asian migrants to the African nation of South Sudan that potentially violated a judge’s order. Immigration authorities told the judge that their home countries would not take them back. They refused to say what the migrants’ final destinations would be. And Trump hosted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House after accusing the country’s government of allowing a “genocide” to take place against minority white farmers. Afrikaner farmers in the...
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Poilievre names 48 Conservative MPs as critics, announces House leadership team
By Sarah Ritchie -CP-Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has named 73 MPs to his party’s leadership team and critic roles ahead of next week’s return to the House of Commons. He has named 48 Conservative members of Parliament to critic roles, while another 14 will become associate critics. Most of them are returning MPs, though some have been shuffled to new positions left by people who were not re-elected on April 28. Rookie Alberta MP Billy Morin, the former chief of Enoch Cree Nation, takes over as critic for Indigenous services, while newly elected British Columbia MP Ellis Ross is handling environment and climate change. The party said in a press release that most critics will remain in their roles for the upcoming sitting of Parliament, “while newcomers learn the ropes...
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Ontario’s Bill 5, meant to accelerate mining starts, concerns Indigenous leaders, conservationists
By Jacqueline St. Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor ROBINSON-HURON TREATY TERRITORY—From the so-called ‘Ring of Fire’ in Treaty 9 Omushkego territory in the James Bay lowlands , to the Robinson-Huron Treaty Territory, the Ford government’s Bill 5 has landed like a bulldozer on sacred soil, eliciting vigorous objections from First Nations leadership across the province. Anishinaabek Nation Grand Chief Linda Debassige, former chief of M’Chigeeng First Nation released an official statement saying: “As the original and rightful caretakers of these lands, waters, and resources, the Anishinabek have never surrendered or ceded title to Ontario or any colonial entity. Our inherent jurisdiction flows from our continuous occupation, our traditional governance systems, and the sacred natural laws given to us by the Creator—long before the existence of Canada or...
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