Ontario legislator to make history at Queen’s Park with speech, questions in Oji-Cree
The Canadian Press 28/05/2024 04:00 A First Nation legislator in Ontario is set to make history today when he rises at Queen’s Park to speak in his language, Oji-Cree. For the first time in its history, the Ontario legislature will allow, interpret and transcribe a language other than English and French. New Democrat Sol Mamakwa sparked the change after convincing Government House Leader Paul Calandra to allow him to speak in the language his parents taught him. About 100 supporters will gather in Toronto to watch the historic moment, including Mamakwa’s mother, siblings, friends and First Nation leaders. Mamakwa, from Kingfisher Lake First Nation in northern Ontario, says the milestone is important because Indigenous people are losing their languages and his speech and question in the legislature will mark a...
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Manitoba First Nation warns of drugs in community being cut with dangerous, possibly deadly ingredients
By Dave Baxter Local Journalism Initiative reporter A Manitoba First Nation is warning that drugs being sold in the community are being cut with dangerous and possibly deadly ingredients, and pleading with residents to avoid illicit drugs, because of what the consequences of taking them could be. “These contaminants pose a significant risk to your health and safety,” Sioux Valley Dakota Nation (SVDN) chief and band council said in an “urgent” health advisory released Sunday on the community’s website. Community officials say multiple dangerous contaminants have been found recently in illicit drugs in SVDN, a community west of Brandon that is home to more than 1,000 on-reserve residents. Substances now circulating in the community that drug users might be taking unknowingly, according to SVDN, include amphetamines, methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy),...
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Progress is being made in Kenora housing
By Mike Stimpson, Loal Journalism Initiative Reporter KENORA – Ontario’s westernmost city has made significant progress in affordable housing, according to its mayor and the head of the Kenora District Services Board (KDSB). The city benefits from a recently completed 20-unit affordable housing project and a nearly completed 56-unit seniors complex, Mayor Andrew Poirier said in an interview at Kenora City Hall. The 20-unit Matheson Street project, which includes four abodes that are barrier-free and fully accessible, opened last fall. The Matheson complex demonstrates that “when communities in the North are empowered we can actually get housing done and build relatively quickly,” KDSB chief administrative officer Henry Wall said last October after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the site. Construction of a 56-unit seniors complex at 8th Avenue S. and 8th...
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B.C. announces online building permit hub to speed up homebuilding across province
The Canadian Press The British Columbia government says a new online “hub” will speed up building permit processes across jurisdictions. Premier David Eby says “slow and complicated” building permit processes have delayed housing development at a time when it’s urgently needed. The province says the digital building permit system will be a “one-stop shop” for local building permits, and 12 municipalities and two First Nations governments are part of the first pilot phase of the new system. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the new system is unique in North America and aims to cut wait times for builders by standardizing requirements that suffer from inconsistencies in different communities. Eby says builders have seen interest rates rise dramatically, and holding land while awaiting building permits creates a significant cost. Kahlon says...
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Blood Tribe Can’t Sue Ottawa For Treaty Violation Due To Provincial Time Limitations
By Jeremy Appel Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the federal government broke its Treaty with Kainai Nation by shortchanging them on reserve land, but the province’s statute of limitations precludes the band from seeking remedy through the courts. On April 12, the court delivered its unanimous decision in the case of Jim Shot Both Sides v. Canada, in which Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin declared the Canadian government’s failure to fulfill its Treaty obligation “deplorable,” but argued the nation failed to bring the matter to court in the required timeframe. Kate Gunn of First Peoples Law, which represented Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta in the case, called the Supreme Court’s decision “disappointing.” “It affirms what the Blood Tribe has been saying all along,” Gunn...
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Flying taxis, drones spark high hopes — and safety worries — among Canadians
The Canadian Press Canadians feel both “optimism and concern” over the prospect of flying cars and drones whizzing between remote communities and above city blocks, a new report says. The Léger study commissioned by Transport Canada found residents hold a broadly positive attitude toward so-called advanced air mobility, which refers to both drones and electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) — drones’ larger, typically human-piloted cousins. Despite limited knowledge of the futuristic transport mode, respondents liked advanced air mobility’s potential for search and rescue, firefighting, medical use and other critical services, the survey showed. Comfort with those three uses of the technology in urban areas hovered at around 80 per cent. Surveying, inspections — of power lines, for example — and cargo shipment also had overwhelming support. Only transport...
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Grassy Narrows proves environmental racism is not over
By Matteo Cimellaro & Natasha Bulowski Local Journalism Initiative The discovery that pollution from a paper mill is contributing to the long-standing mercury poisoning afflicting Grassy Narrows First Nation is another example of widespread environmental racism, say federal MPs. The mercury contamination at Grassy Narrows dates back to the 1960s and ’70s, when Dryden Chemical dumped roughly 10 metric tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system. The pollution has caused serious health problems for the vast majority of members of Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nations, including neurological issues, birth defects and more. “The reality is Indigenous communities, racialized communities have to continue to suffer when corporations pollute,” Edmonton-Griesbach NDP MP Blake Desjarlais said, pointing to the Grassy Narrow’s case and Danielle Smith’s government’s RStar program that “uses tax...
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Fort Nelson, B.C., evacuees heading home after being forced to flee wildfires
The Canadian Press 27/05/2024 04:00 Residents in Fort Nelson are able to go home today after being evacuated for more than two weeks due to wildfires. The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and the Fort Nelson First Nation say they’ll jointly rescind their evacuation orders at 8 a.m., lift roadblocks and allow people to return. About 4,700 residents were evacuated from Fort Nelson on May 10, when strong winds pushed the Parker Lake wildfire within a few kilometres of the town. The fire destroyed four homes and damaged six other properties in the area. Crews are also fighting the Patry Creek fire north of town, which is a holdover fire that was initially ignited by lightning in July 2023. The regional municipality’s Mayor Rob Fraser has asked residents to be patient...
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Who is Buffalo Woman? Serial killer trial hears of police efforts to identify victim
The Canadian Press 26/05/2024 08:00 In mid-March 2022, a young Indigenous woman stood outside Winnipeg’s Salvation Army and spoke with a man who invited her back to his home. Wearing a reversible Baby Phat branded jacket and a cloth face mask, she would later board a bus with the man and head to his apartment in the North Kildonan neighbourhood. The woman was the first victim of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. In the two years since her slaying, police have been unable to identify her or find her remains. To Indigenous community members, police and the court system, she has become known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, a name that was gifted to her by a group of Indigenous grandmothers. “Our community has adopted her. We wanted her to...
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‘Language is identity’: Indigenous Ontario legislator to make history at Queen’s Park
The Canadian Press 26/05/2024 06:00 Decades after being punished in a residential school for speaking his own language, Sol Mamakwa will hold the powerful to account at Ontario’s legislature in the very same language past governments tried to bury. On Tuesday, Mamakwa, the only First Nation legislator at Queen’s Park, will rise in the legislative chamber – with his mother, sister, brothers, friends and elders watching from the gallery – and ask a question in Anishininiimowin, known in English as Oji-Cree. For the first time in its history, the Ontario legislature will allow, interpret and transcribe a language other than English and French. It will also be a birthday gift to his mom, Kezia Mamakwa, who turns 79 that day, and a nod to his late father, Jerry Mamakwa. “Language...
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Ontario reaches land claim settlement with Matachewan FirstNation
The Canadian Press 25/05/2024 14:07 The Ontario government says it has reached a settlement in a treaty land entitlement claim linked to the Matachewan First Nation. Under the settlement, the First Nation located southeast of Timmins, Ont., will receive $590,000 and more than 2,000 hectares of provincial Crown land, which may be added to its reserve. Treaty land entitlement claim settlements are meant to remedy instances where First Nations did not receive the amount of reserve land promised to them under numbered treaties. The province says Treaty 9, also known as the James Bay Treaty, provided First Nations with nearly 260 hectares of land per family of five, or just over 50 hectares per member. However, the Matachewan First Nation did not receive all the land it was entitled to....
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TBM mayor named one of four co-chairs of water equity commission
Local Journalism Initiative The Blue Mountains Mayor Andrea Matrosovs is excited about a new role she has with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. Matrosovs attended the Cities Initiative’s annual conference/meeting in Montreal from May 15 – 17 and it was an eventful occasion for her. Matrosovs has been selected as one of four co-chairs of the Cities Initiative’s Mayor’s Commission on Water Equity, which is comprised of two Canadian mayors and two American mayors. Joining her as co-chairs are Nicolas Dufour – Reptetigny, Quebec, Cavalier Johnson, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Shawyn Patterson-Howard, Mount Vernon, New York. “The four of us will lead that mayor’s commission and provide opportunities to keep the dialogue going in communities across the basin,” Matrosovs said in an interview with CollingwoodToday. “There is a...
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‘Crime of vengeance’: Saskatchewan RCMP say witnesses key to solving brutal slaying
The Canadian Press Mounties suspected Tiki Laverdiere was dead before her burned, bludgeoned body was found wrapped in a carpet under rocks in a Saskatchewan pond in the summer of 2019. She was a 25-year-old mother of two. Her death launched five years of investigation and prosecutions, revealing a story of suspicion, drugs, booze and revenge, climaxing in one long night of torture. Ten people were eventually convicted, with the final cases recently wrapped in court, freeing up documents that had been under a publication ban. The savagery of the crime helped clear the path for investigators, said Supt. Joshua Graham, head of the Saskatchewan RCMP major crimes unit. “When you have something like this, something so brutal, people became very self-interested as they were looking at life in jail...
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Tribes say their future is at stake as they push for Congress to consider Colorado River settlement
The Associated Press Within the heart of the Navajo Nation and in the shadow of the sandstone arch that is the namesake of the tribal capital, a simple greeting and big smiles were shared over and over again Friday as tribal officials gathered: “Yá‘át’ééh abíní!” It was a good morning, indeed, for Navajo President Buu Nygren as he signed legislation in Window Rock, Arizona, outlining a proposed settlement to ensure three Native American tribes have water rights from the Colorado River and other sources — and drought-stricken Arizona has more security in its supply. The signature came a day after the Navajo Nation Council voted unanimously in favor of the measure. The San Juan Southern Paiute and Hopi tribes also approved the settlement this week. Now, the three tribes in...
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RCMP officer’s social media posts prompt calls for suspension from First Nation chief
The Canadian Press A British Columbia First Nation is calling for the suspension and removal of an RCMP officer from Bella Bella over social media posts he made before joining the Mounties. Heiltsuk Tribal Council Chief Marilyn Slett says in a letter to the Bella Bella detachment of the RCMP that the officer posted “racist text and images.” Supt.-Cmdr. Brian Edmonds of North District RCMP says in a statement the force is aware of the concerns and a “non-conduct-related administrative process” involving the officer is underway. Slett’s letter includes images of social media posts showing a white man wearing an Afro-style wig with a caption saying “BLACK AND PROUD.” Another social media post shows a man dressed in a colonial-style uniform in front of a Union Jack, with a comment:...
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B.C. misses the mark with old growth update, critics claim
By Rochelle Baker Local Journalism Initiative The B.C. government continues to move at a glacial pace to meet an overdue promise to transform the logging industry and protect endangered old growth forests and ecosystems, say B.C. conservation groups. On Monday, the province issued its latest progress report on transforming forestry practices to preserve ancient forests and vital ecosystems and meet 14 calls to action from the old-growth strategic review (OGSR) completed in spring of 2020. The From Review to Action plan is a lackluster effort that fails to include any new steps, specific details, or deadlines urgently needed to preserve what little old growth remains, said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club BC’s senior policy and science advisor. “I’m disappointed. Without ambitious timelines and milestones, the newly-released update does not guarantee the...
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Pronouns and tribal affiliations are now forbidden in South Dakota public university employee emails
The Associated Press 24/05/2024 17:42 A new South Dakota policy to stop the use of gender pronouns by public university faculty and staff in official correspondence is also keeping Native American employees from listing their tribal affiliations in a state with a long and violent history of conflict with tribes. Two University of South Dakota faculty members, Megan Red Shirt-Shaw and her husband, John Little, have long included their gender pronouns and tribal affiliations in their work email signature blocks. But both received written warnings from the university in March that doing so violated a policy adopted in December by the South Dakota Board of Regents. “I was told that I had 5 days to remove my tribal affiliation and pronouns,” Little said in an email to The Associated Press....
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Oil company seeks arrest of Woodland Cree First Nation chief
By Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter An oil company is attempting to have the chief of the Woodland Cree First Nation jailed for refusing to allow its drilling project to proceed on his nation’s traditional territory in northern Alberta. As first reported by journalist Brandi Morin for IndigiNews and Ricochet, the First Nation has set up a blockade to prevent Obsidian Energy employees from accessing its land near Peace River. On May 6, the company obtained an injunction against Woodland Cree First Nation and the people occupying the blockade camp. The First Nation has called Obsidian’s “intimidation tactics … the worst we’ve ever seen.” A week later, Obsidian CEO Steven Loukas flew to the region for scheduled negotiations with representatives of the First Nation, including Chief Isaac Laboucan-Avirom, band...
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Feds announce $31 million funding boost for SCO’s downtown project
By Dave Baxter Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A massive, Indigenous-led development project in downtown Winnipeg got a major financial boost when the federal government announced they would put an additional $31 million towards the work being done to transform the former Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) building into Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn. “We know that Winnipeg is Canada’s most vital city when we talk about reconciliation,” federal Minister Dan Vandal said Friday morning, while speaking at the current construction site that was once the main floor shopping area of Winnipeg’s flagship HBC department store. “I often say Winnipeg is the Indigenous capital of Canada. This transformation is more than just a symbol of reconciliation, we are moving beyond promises to do better as governments and as a society, people who come here will...
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Study points to Dryden mill’s pollution
By Mike Stimpson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter GRASSY NARROWS – New research suggests there’s no end in sight to his First Nation’s mercury-poisoning woes, and that comes as no surprise to Chief Rudy Turtle. “We’ve always had some suspicion that there was still something being dumped into the Wabigoon River that’s causing problems, because our band members would drive by the river and see these suds and the discoloration of the river,” the Grassy Narrows chief said in an interview Friday. “There’s always been suspicion that something else was going on,” he continued. “So we’re not surprised, but at the same time we’re very disappointed.” A team led by Western University biologist Brian Branfireun looked into whether effluent from Dryden’s pulp and paper mill is elevating mercury levels in the...
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