B.C. NDP pledges to help middle-income homebuyers with 40% of financing
The Canadian Press British Columbia’s New Democrats have unveiled a plan that Leader David Eby says will help middle-income families purchase a home by financing 40 per cent of the price. The plan commits up to $1.29 billion per year in financing to help middle-income people buy their first home, while supporting the development of up to 25,000 new units over five years. A statement from the NDP says the government would partner with non-profit organizations, local governments, First Nations and market-housing providers to identify land and projects for development. It says government financing and the use of low-cost land would allow builders to offer units for sale at 40 per cent below market prices, and buyers would need to come up with the remaining 60 per cent. When the...
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“It’s pretty dang cool,”: Mi’kmaq youth empowered by involvement in photo exhibit honouring Marshall Decision
By Meghan Dewar is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter Several Mi’kmaq were featured in a photo exhibit by Steve Wadden at the Eltuek Arts Centre in honour of the 25th anniversary of the Marshall Decision. Among those photographed was Colton Brooks-Marshall, an 11-year-old from Potlotek First Nation. Brooks-Marshall shared that it was an exciting experience for him, representing his culture through photography. “I got to experience holding an eel, so that was pretty cool. When I saw the photos, I was excited. I was really, really excited.” Brooks-Marshall felt he looked strong and powerful in the photo featured in the exhibit. “I’ve been learning the Mi’kmaq language probably about my whole life. The Mi’kmaq language is dying, so seeing a bunch of Indigenous people in an art exhibit, it’s pretty...
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First Nations call for ban of aerial spraying after spill
By Darlene Wroe, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter LATCHFORD – Temagami First Nation and Teme-Augama Anishnabai leaders are calling for a ban on aerial spraying of herbicides of the forest following a spill of over 600 litres of GlySil (glyphosate) concentrate on the evening of September 10. The spill occurred at the 21-kilometre mark on Eagle Lake Road northwest of Brickstock Lake, northwest of the head of Lake Anima Nipissing and about ten kilometres west of Latchford. The truck carrying the material to be used for aerial spraying overturned and released 600 litres into a ditch on the side of the road. Representatives of the Temagami Forest Management Corporation (TFMC), Forest Resource Management Group, Apex and the Ministry of Environment have been at the scene. Apex has brought environmental technicians to...
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First Nations call for ban of aerial spraying after spill
By Darlene Wroe, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter LATCHFORD – Temagami First Nation and Teme-Augama Anishnabai leaders are calling for a ban on aerial spraying of herbicides of the forest following a spill of over 600 litres of GlySil (glyphosate) concentrate on the evening of September 10. The spill occurred at the 21-kilometre mark on Eagle Lake Road northwest of Brickstock Lake, northwest of the head of Lake Anima Nipissing and about ten kilometres west of Latchford. The truck carrying the material to be used for aerial spraying overturned and released 600 litres into a ditch on the side of the road. Representatives of the Temagami Forest Management Corporation (TFMC), Forest Resource Management Group, Apex and the Ministry of Environment have been at the scene. Apex has brought environmental technicians to...
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“It’s pretty dang cool,”: Mi’kmaq youth empowered by involvement in photo exhibit honouring Marshall Decision
By Meghan Dewar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Several Mi’kmaq were featured in a photo exhibit by Steve Wadden at the Eltuek Arts Centre in honour of the 25th anniversary of the Marshall Decision. Among those photographed was Colton Brooks-Marshall, an 11-year-old from Potlotek First Nation. Brooks-Marshall shared that it was an exciting experience for him, representing his culture through photography. “I got to experience holding an eel, so that was pretty cool. When I saw the photos, I was excited. I was really, really excited.” Brooks-Marshall felt he looked strong and powerful in the photo featured in the exhibit. “I’ve been learning the Mi’kmaq language probably about my whole life. The Mi’kmaq language is dying, so seeing a bunch of Indigenous people in an art exhibit, it’s pretty dang cool.”...
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Saskatchewan man wanted for robbery killed in RCMP standoff
The Canadian Press 25/09/2024 12:15 Saskatchewan’s police watchdog is investigating the shooting death of a man facing several arrest warrants for robbery. Local RCMP say they had learned the man, wanted in the robbery of two businesses and a home, was in the area of Fishing Lake First Nation. Police say a van seen speeding through the area had been stolen by the man from a school on Fishing Lake First Nation and that he was armed. Officers chased the van on rural roads before it drove onto a field, where shots were fired to get the vehicle to stop. Police say 34-year-old Joseph “Joey” Desjarlais was found dead inside the van and that his family has been told. The Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team is now looking into Desjarlais’s...
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Ontario premier tasks Ministry of Education with investigating TDSB field trip
The Canadian Press Ontario’s Ministry of Education is investigating a Toronto District School Board field trip that saw students from 15 schools attend a protest on mercury contamination that is affecting a First Nation community in the north. Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday he had asked Education Minister Jill Dunlop to investigate, saying kids shouldn’t be at protests, they should be in school learning math, spelling, geography and history. The TDSB has launched its own investigation, but Dunlop says in a statement that the board has failed to take swift and decisive action and she wants to see those responsible held accountable. TDSB says in a written statement that it is doing a review of field trip procedures and told schools that students should not be participating in organized protests,...
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More Indigenous participation in labour market would boost Alberta economy: Report
The Canadian Press A new report says increasing Indigenous participation in Alberta’s labour market could boost the province’s GDP by between two and three percentage points, the equivalent of $8 billion to $11 billion annually. The report by ATB Financial and professional services firm MNP pegs the total contributions of Indigenous governments, businesses and households to Alberta’s GDP in 2023 at $9.2 billion, approximately three per cent of the province’s total GDP. It says the contributions of Indigenous people to Alberta’s economy have grown by 12 to 15 per cent since 2019. But the report says disparities in income and educational attainment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Albertans persist. It says Indigenous workers are still overrepresented in lower-paying roles and under-represented in management and professional positions The report calls on businesses,...
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TURTLE ISLAND NEWS SPECIAL EDITION: Truth and Reconciliation…the searches go on
Survivors’ Secretariat holding hope for missing children By Austin Evans Writer One hundred children…so far. Children who would have been lost to history if the Six Nations of the Grand Rivers’ Survivors’ Secretariat hadn’t stepped in. With the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on the horizon on the lawn outside the secretariat’s Fourth Line headquarters are 100 signs in the shape of feathers not just to commemorate the national day, but to honour 100 children the secretariat has identified, so far, as having either died at, or due to, the Mohawk Institute. “By using feathers, they are a symbol of how feathers fall from a bird, and they become a part of the environment where they land, returning back to mother earth where we come from,” said display creator Misty...
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Norfolk County Council approves Indigenous acknowledgement minus the land
By Austin Evans Writer After three years of debate, Norfolk County Council will start meetings with an Indigenous Acknowledgement. But it won’t mention any land. Instead the acknowledgment will only address “historical and current contributions of Indigenous Peoples.” The council’s Chief Administrative Officer Al Meneses presented the acknowledgement to the council for approval. “With Council’s approval today, the new Indigenous acknowledgement will be read at the start of each council meeting going forward as early as the October council meeting,” he said. “If Council so direct staff through the recommendations in this report, staff will also explore different opportunities, avenues and arenas for us to read this Indigenous acknowledgement at the start of other meetings.” Councillor Tim Masschaele moved the recommendation. “It’s a timely and appropriate motion to make, especially...
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Six Nation Elected Council admin changes creating concerns
Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) continues to experience issues with processes, procedures and memories. Councillor Helen Miller expressed concern about researchers skipping the ethics committee and going straight to council. Her concerns focused on Andri Kramarenko, a University of Waterloo Masters student, who visited in August requesting to film drone footage of the Grand River and a project called Lazar, that wasn’t discussed in an open agenda. “Do these not have to go through ethics anymore?” Miller asked. “They’re collecting data, they’re doing research.” CEO Nathan Wright said Kramarenko had gone through the ethics committee and was approved, but he acknowledged the Lazar project had not and he was pushing it back to ethics, “to get it back through the proper channels.” Councillor Cynthia Jamieson interjected that she had never...
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At same time…staff wondering who’s the boss ?
A not for profit organization is creating confusion over who’s the boss at the Six Nations Elected Council adminstration building. The Ontairo Woodlot Association, involved biodiversity on Ontario woodlots is sending work to band staff. Six Nations staff are not sure who is supposed to assist the Ontario Woodlot Association and they’re not making it easy. Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) did not pass a motion from the Nation Building Committee directing Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and the woodlot association to go back and complete the “administrative process,” to gain access to Six Nations staff at its General Finance meeting on September 16. Instead SNEC directed CEO Nathan Wright to have a conversation with OPG. “The work being done within this project; it is good work, but we need to...
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Six Nations Public Works …. going green
Six Nations Public Works may complete two green energy feasibility studies and ramp up community engagement. Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) post approved a motion from the Built Environment Committee to allow the Public Works department to apply for funding from the Independent Electricity Systems Operator Indigenous Support Program at its General Finance Meeting on September 16. Councillor Dayle Bomberry, chair of the Built Environment Committee said the post approval was necessary because the projects are ongoing, and the application deadline dates fell before the general finance meeting. The studies will aid Six Nations in the goal to gain energy independence, a priority listed in the Six Nations Community Energy Plan. The applications will provide $25,000 for a solar photovoltaic feasibility study. The study will analyze sites and tell Six...
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Six Nations Language Commission increases student stipend
The Six Nations Language Commission has increased the stipend students receive. Karen Sandy, coordinator of the language commission presented the budget at Six Nations Elected Council’s General Finance meeting on September 16 and said they’ve increased the student stipend by $100 a week due to high inflation. The Haudenosaunee Chiefs Confederacy Council (HCCC) offers every Six Nations Member who chooses to take full-time language classes a stipend of approximately $300 a week, Sandy says, it hasn’t changed in years and she’s not even sure exactly how much it is. “In this case it was sort of initiated by us, that’s the case [that HCCC pays the stipend] but they don’t talk to us, basically we just picked that cost up ourselves. This year too, we increased stipends and pay an...
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Today in History
Sept 26 In 1990, the Oka crisis ended when Mohawk Warriors laid down their weapons after a 78-day standoff with Quebec police and Canadian soldiers. The standoff began July 11 when police raided a barricade set up to protest the expansion of a golf course on land claimed by the Mohawks. It ended, as it began, with violence. Unarmed Mohawks and Warriors got into wild scuffles with police and soldiers. By the end, army officials had taken 34 men, 16 women and six children into custody. One police officer was killed. In 2008, Newfoundland and Labrador reached an agreement with the Innu to build a massive hydroelectric project on the Lower Churchill River. The deal included both an ownership stake in the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric project and redress for...
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Weekly Cartoon
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The CMA says sorry…!
Last week the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) became the latest organization to formally apologize to Indigenous Peoples for the “actions or inactions’ they played in the medical racism they coined as research. Actions, and sadly more disconcerting, the inactions and misconduct they engaged in for the past 157 years or since its founding in 1867. They apologized on behalf of physicians, residents, and medical students that “have harmed Indigenous Peoples.” And they apologized for the “ripple effects’ the actions caused on an innocent people. Their 47-page report includes cases of forced sterilizations, withholding nutrition from children to research the effects on the body, unethical research on Indigenous children, including depriving them of dental care and subjecting them to nutritional experiments. Doctors, dentists, the medical community treated Indigenous peoples as test...
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LETTERS TO EDITOR: Securing the future, identifying our own
By Helen Miller If we fail our children, we are bound to fail our present, future, faith, cultures and civilizations.” Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) is failing our children, and we are allowing it to happen. For decades the federal government imprisoned our children in residential schools. The goal was to assimilate the children into the white society thereby “getting rid of Indians.” Children and families and the Six Nations community continue to deal with the intergenerational trauma. In speaking only for myself and not the Six Nations Grand River Elected Council (SNGREC) over decades the federal government used any number of tactics to get rid of the “Indian Problem.” And they continue to do so. One of the culprits today is the Registration Provisions in the Indian Act. The Indian...
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Host society for 2027 North American Indigenous Games appoints its CEO
By Sam Laskaris Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The host society for the next North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) has named its CEO. Lowa Beebe, who is a leading advocate, strategist and advisor in Indigenous governance, public relations and cultural awareness, was chosen to spearhead the 2027 NAIG, which will for the most part be held in her current hometown of Calgary. Beebe is a member of Piikani Nation in Alberta. Though she will be overseeing details for the 2027 NAIG, Beebe will be getting plenty of assistance. Various committees will be handling some of the organizational details. “Part of our governance is also taking the direction of the Indigenous Sport Council of Alberta (ISCA),” Beebe said. ISCA is the governing body for Indigenous athletics in the western province. “They’re the...
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Details for upcoming Arena Lacrosse League season released
By Sam Laskaris Writer Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) representatives can now start making more concrete plans for the upcoming season. That’s because league officials released the 2024-25 schedule for the eight-team ALL East circuit this past Sunday. The league’s eight-team East grouping features Ontario-based squads. Three of those teams – Six Nations Snipers, Ohsweken Bears and Paris RiverWolves – all play their home contests out of Six Nations’ Iroquois Lacrosse Arena. The league also includes the Whitby Steelhawks, Oshawa Outlaws, Brampton Express, Peterborough Timbermen and Toronto Monarchs. Meanwhile, there’s also a four-team ALL West division featuring teams from British Columbia. Though there has been some talk of holding a national championship between the Ontario and B.C. champs, they have never played one another. Besides a regular season schedule for the...
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