SNEC deficit coming…why?
Six Nations Elected Council is headed to a deficit for the 2024 budget year, the only question is how much. And that question will be answered with how much of the community’s own source revenues SNEC uses to support its overspending. SNEC has become an over $150 million machine eating up limited government funding for variety of band services provided to the community. Services that are running over budgets and using own source revenue to offset the costs. Why? Why can’t the elected officials siting around the council table, some newbies, others who sat by while the bill ran up, do their job and get the funds needed. The single most important thing the elected band council does is watch the bottom line. It appears that line is hard to...
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Mississaugas of Credit First Nation elect new chief
MISSISSAUGAS OF THE CREDIT FIRST NATION -For the first time in eight years the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation has a new chief with the election of Gimaa Clara (Claire) Sault on Saturday Dec. 9. The MCFN 2023 election took place at the MCFN community centre. The votes were counted immediately after the close of the poll on Saturday and declared after the count. As stated on their website, MCFN has about 2,570 members with approximately two thirds of the community living outside the official MCFN reserve boundary. MCFN’s newly elected Gimaa Clara (Claire) Sault won with 220 votes, or 44.6 per cent of the votes. Chief candidate Margaret Ann Sault was just 10 votes shy of winning, she finished with a total of 211 votes, or 42.8 per...
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Complex climate file faces new Assembly of First Nations Chief
By Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter First Nations leadership from across the country will be descending on Ottawa to elect a new national chief, with questions remaining about how the new Assembly of First Nations leader will balance climate action with resource development. The Assembly of First Nations, AFN for short, recently released its national climate strategy, which centres on new ways of thinking about the climate crisis with an emphasis on relationality and responsibility towards Mother Earth. The strategy also de-emphasizes “technological’’ and “market-based’’ solutions. The AFN is more concerned about addressing the root cause of the climate crisis, which is an extractive mentality centred on taking without giving back to the world around us, Graeme Reed, a strategic adviser to the AFN, told Canada’s National Observer in...
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Local First Nations benefit from Jays Care Foundation food security funding
By Sam Laskaris Writer For the third straight year Indigenous communities from across Canada are benefitting from food security initiatives thanks to the Toronto Blue Jays. More than $300,000 is being invested this year into partnerships with Indigenous communities through the Jays Care Foundation, the charitable arm of the Major League Baseball franchise. Among those who will benefit from this year’s funding are members of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and Six Nations. “Everybody is doing something a little bit different,” Julia Ursini, the Jays Care Foundation program manager said of this year’s funding recipients. The varying projects include short-term initiatives such as providing funds for holiday food hampers or school food programs. And longer-term projects include starting community food banks or greenhouses. Ursini said 23 communities applied...
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Players wear Indigenous names on jerseys
By Julia Archelene Magsombol, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter This year, four junior hockey players from Golden Rockets are wearing orange jerseys with their Indigenous names on the back. The idea came from Nathan Andrew, an 18-year-old junior player and former graduate of Mount Baker Secondary School. “I took the chance. I was inspired by what Ethan Bear 1/8a Cree-Canadian professional hockey defenceman 3/8 did with his last name. I thought it’d be pretty cool. I never had the chance to express or show people that I’m proud to be Indigenous,’’ said Andrew. He explained that the idea started when he played in the Okanagan Hockey Club last year when he had the chance to have his Indigenous name on his jersey. This year he heard that his team would be...
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Miller and Monture to help lead Haudenosaunee squad at 2024 world championships
By Sam Laskaris Writer A pair of Six Nations members will be among those leading the Haudenosaunee Nationals men’s squad at the 2024 world box lacrosse championships. It was announced this past week that Landon Miller will serve as the general manager of the team. And Stew Monture has been named as an assistant coach for the team. The world tourney will be staged Sept. 20-29 in Utica, N.Y. Also announced last week was that Roger Chrysler, a member of Tuscarora Nation in the state of New York, will serve as the head coach of the club. Chrysler is currently working as an assistant coach for Halifax Thunderbirds of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The Haudenosaunee coaching staff will also include Mike Accursi and Bruce Codd, who are not Indigenous....
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Biden, White House support Indigenous lacrosse team for 2028 Olympics
By Eddie Pells THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Joe Biden is pushing to allow the Indigenous nation that invented lacrosse to play under its own flag when the sport returns to the Olympics in 2028. Biden’s position, being announced Wednesday at the White House Tribal Nations Summit, is a request for the International Olympic Committee to allow the Haudenosaunee Nationals to compete as its own team at the Los Angeles Games. That would require the IOC to make an exception to a rule that permits teams playing only as part of an official national Olympic committee to compete in the Olympics. The Haudenosaunee have competed as their own team at a number of international events since 1990. “We’re hopeful the IOC will see it our way, as well,’’ Tom Perez, the...
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Mixed results for Six Nations-based squads during Arena Lacrosse League’s opening weekend
By Sam Laskaris, Writer Two of the three Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) clubs that play their home contests in Six Nations managed to register victories in the first week of regular season action. For starters, the Paris RiverWolves hit the road this past Saturday and downed the host Peterborough Timbermen 14-12. That match was held at the Millbrook Arena. The Ohsweken Bears also emerged with a W, downing the visiting Oshawa Outlaws 17-10 in a match held on Sunday at Six Nations’ Iroquois Lacrosse Arena (ILA). As for the Six Nations Snipers, they were defeated 13-10 by the Whitby Steelhawks, in another contest held on Sunday at the ILA. The RiverWolves, Bears and Snipers all play their home matches at the ILA. The eight-team ALL’s East (Ontario) division also includes...
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Who’s it gonna be? AFN to elect new national leader
AFN to get new National Chief today after removal of first female National Chief Before the end of the day today there will be a new leader of the Assembly of First Nations. Indigenous leaders from coast to coast are meeting in Ottawa this week for an AFN Special Assembly and election of a new National Chief. The assembly is taking place from Dec., 5-7, 2023, at the Shaw Centre The organization began as the National Indian Brotherhood in 1968 just as the Pierre Trudeau government was about to release its infamous White Paper, that would assimilate First Nations into mainstream society. It later grew into the AFN in 1982 . It continued to push Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals, even after the AFN helped enshrine Aboriginal rights in Canada’s Constitution. Voting...
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Gate going up on “Glebe lands” to keep homeless camps out
By Lynda Powless Editor Six Nations Public Works has erected gates and cement barriers blocking any entrance to the Glebe Lands as part of Six Nations Elected Council’s (SNEC) attempts to evict squatters from the lands and ensure more do not take up residence. Late last week bulldozers, trucks and other heavy equipment were on site removing the trailers and campers and tents that became home to homeless people. Only two of the dozens of homeless people identified as Six Nations people. Councillor Greg Frazer gave SNEC an update on the initiative’s progress at the General Council meeting on November 28 and said it’s going well. Director of Public Works Mike Montour, Frazer and Six Nations Police visited to assess the entrances on November 24 and 26 to block them off....
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Ontario Premier Ford step back from developing Greenbelt a win for the Haldimand Tract
It’s a win for the Haldimand Tract. At least that’s what Six Nations Elected Council’s (SNEC) Consulation and Accommodation Process Team (CAP) are celebrating after the Ford government walked back its plans to build on the Greenbelt and expand urban areas. In its monthly report for October and November the CAP Team told SNEC’s Political Liaison Committee meeting (November 27). Peter Graham, Consultation Supervisor said meetings and advocacy work for the Greenbelt and urban expansion have concluded with Ontario taking steps to reverse its decisions to remove land from the Greenbelt and force municipalities like Hamilton and Waterloo to expand their urban areas. The move came in October after Ford’s decisions and motives for the Greenbelt were investigated by the province’s integrity commissioner, the OPP (who handed off the investigation...
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Six Nations not impressed with Indigenous Services Canada
Six Nations councillors and staff say a Joint Gathering with Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) felt “pointless,” repetitive and concerns seemed to “fall on deaf ears.” Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) sent a delegation to the Joint Gathering with ISC on November 15 and 16 and gave verbal reports at the Political Liaison Committee meeting on November 27. Clair Pietron, Strategic Advisor and Systems Analyst said the updates presented were similar to last year’s and this year there were few ministers who spoke, or were present at the gathering leaving ISC employees to field questions they couldn’t answer. “They aren’t equipped [to answer] hard questions on the floor and say things like ‘I’ll take this back to my bosses.’ A lot of that is what kind of happened in presentations from...
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Six Nations Elected Council reviewing tender policy
Six Nations will review its tender policy in an attempt to give community members a leg up in the process. Councillor Helen Miller brought a complaint regarding the tender acceptance process from a community member at the Six Nations Elected Council’s (SNEC) l meeting on November 28. Miller said the member’s tender wasn’t selected for the snow removal contract put out earlier this month, and that person discovered an outside company’s bid was awarded the contract. “I thought this new council was going to work to get our people back in positions. Here you are hiring a non-native company,” she said. “If it’s true I am very concerned. We have several people in our community who do plowing.” Nathan Wright, CEO, confirmed it was true SNEC accepted a bid from...
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Six Nations Elected Councillors discuss travels and meetings
Some Six Nations council members are off to Ottawa this week attending the Assembly of First Nations meeting. The meet runs to Wednesday culminating in the election fo a new national chief. COO Six Nations Elected Councillor Audrey Powless-Bomberry has concerns about the Chiefs of Ontario (COO), but is enjoying the addition of culture to the meeting. She gave a verbal report at the Six Nations Elected Council General Council meeting on November 28. She attended the Fall Chief’s Assembly in Toronto on November 21 to 23 and said there weren’t enough chief’s to carry all of the member nation’s flags, which was disappointing. Community members were asked to carry flags. The COO have had an entrance of flages for more than two decades. She attended a committee for education...
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Six Nations to co-own battery storage system
By Lisa Iesse Writer Six Nations will co-own a new battery storage system if the community’s latest bid gets a green light from the province. Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation (SNGRDC) is teaming up with the Mississaugas of the Credit Business Corporation (MCBC), along with NRStor Inc and Aecon for the new project. The project partners hope to build a Battery Energy Storage System (“BESS”) on a 20-acre lot near Simcoe within five years. The structure would take up about 8 acres of space, and would house up to 106 MW, supplying 424 megawatt hours to the electric grid. If SNGRDC’s latest battery project bid is approved by the province’s Electricity System Operator (IESO), SNGRDC will hold a 25 percent ownership. MCBC will hold another 25 per...
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Local businesses hit by thieves in smash and grabs
Three local Six Nations business have been hit by robbers in the past week. The latest was a cannabis shop call the “Tribe” that sells cannabis and other items. The Chiefswood Road shop was hit Dec., 3 at 6:45 a.m. Two males broke into the shop through a door and stole an inside ATM machine from the store. They were driving a GMC SUV. The theft comes just six days after a local restaurant, Maracle’ Man’s, was hit. The restaurant was hit last Tuesday Nov., 28th at 4:21 a.m. Video shows two men getting out and used a crowbar to smash through the back door entering the shop and stealing the safe before leaving in a tan coloured pick up truck The driver never left the vehicle. There were two...
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Canada treading on First nations rights….again?
It looks like any love affair between the Liberal party and First Nations is quickly coming under fire. A parliament committee began studying Bill C-53, the Métis self government bill, last week and the new Crown-Indigenous Relations minister found himself getting off to a rocky start. The Liberal minister came out defending a bill that is aimed at formalizing Métis self-governance agreements. Agreements that have come under fire by Indigenous leaders who question the Bill and its affects upon Indigenous rights, in particular in Ontario. But no one is surprised, the newly appointed Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree, has continued to defended the government position saying the Liberal government is righting the wrongs of the past. He argues Métis have been fighting for their rights for centuries. And he told...
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Six Nations Police charge man who barricaded self in house
Six Nations Police said no one was injuried after a man barricaded himself inside a Sixth Line Road home and shot at police last Thursday, Dec., 1. Six Nations Police Const. Cody Johnson said the incident began when officers responded to a weapons call on Sixth Line between Chiefswood Road and Tuscarora Road in Ohsweken around 10:30 p.m. Thursday. Ontario Provincial Police were called in as back-up. Constable Johnson said a man had barricaded himself in a home and began shooting at police early Friday morning. He said he shot multiple times during the standoff with police. A hold and secure for the immediate neighbourhood was put in place and residents were urged not to travel to the area. “Throughout the early morning police were under fire from the individual...
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