The Latest: Trump says it’s on other nations to open the Strait of Hormuz
WASHINGTON, USA-U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that the responsibility for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open should belong with countries that rely on it, rather than the U.S. He said there’s “no reason for us to do this.” Trump expressed frustration earlier Tuesday with allies who have been unwilling to do more to support the U.S. war effort, telling them to “go get your own oil.” Trump recently has vacillated between insisting there is progress in diplomatic talks with Iran and threatening to widen the war. U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday, as the Iran war continues to push fuel prices higher worldwide. Analysts say those high fuel costs will trickle into groceries as businesses’...
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Trump officials exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf from endangered species rules
By Matthew Brown The Trump administration on Tuesday exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said environmentalists’ lawsuits threatened to hobble domestic energy supplies as the U.S. wages war against Iran. Critics said the move by the government’s Endangered Species Committee could doom a rare whale species and harm other marine life. Nicknamed the “God Squad” by groups who say it can decide a species’ fate, the committee comprises several Trump administration officials and is chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. It met Tuesday for the first time in more than three decades amid global oil shocks and soaring energy prices brought on by the Iran war. The U.S. pumps more oil than any other nation, but...
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‘Be in that moment’: Astronaut Jeremy Hansen’s wife prepares for his lunar mission
By Kelly Geraldine Malone Artemis 2 crew member, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, of Canada, smiles after the crew’s arrival at the Kennedy Space Center Friday, March 27, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara) As Jeremy Hansen prepares to begin a historic mission to the moon aboard the Artemis II, his wife says his family will be trying to take in every single moment. If everything goes as planned, Catherine Hansen will be on the roof of the launch control centre at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center Wednesday evening to watch her husband begin a 10-day lunar fly-around. “I’m really trying to encourage everyone — and very, very specifically myself — to be in that moment and to allow whatever emotions may come,” she told The Canadian Press on Tuesday....
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Stopgap measures aren’t enough to halt rising gas prices as the world scrambles for more oil
By Cathy Bussewitz NEW YORK (AP) — Global leaders have been scrambling to contain the rising cost of oil and gasoline since the start of the Iran war, which took a record amount of oil off the market when tankers full of crude were stranded in the Persian Gulf and military strikes damaged refineries, pipelines and export terminals. Hoping to ease some pain for consumers, President Donald Trump and other heads of state have been pulling on various levers, launching more oil on the market in a bid to calm the chaos. A group of 32 nations that are members of the International Energy Agency began releasing the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history: 400 million barrels. Trump is tapping into oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve...
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First Nation establishes ‘Lubicon standard’ for new climate-resilient housing and infrastructure
By Aaron Walker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com A small, remote First Nation in northern Alberta is undertaking a major initiative to build climate-resilient structures in response to the increasing regularity of debilitating smoke from wildfires and the impacts of environmental change. On evenings when new building plans are discussed with members of the Lubicon Lake Cree Nation, the process often begins not with blueprints, but with a shared meal. Residents gather to talk about where a doorway should go, how a kitchen should feel, or how a space can better serve families who live in close relation to the land. Those conversations are helping shape a series of new buildings that are designed to reflect both the realities of a changing climate and the priorities of the people who...
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Ottawa leaving First Nations ill-equipped to fight deadly fires: retired fire chief
By Alessia Passafiume After three house fires ripped through a First Nation in northern Ontario in less than a week, killing a small child, a retired fire chief said First Nations’ firefighting operations in the region are being set up to fail by a lack of federal funding for equipment and training. Monique Belair worked for 39 years for Kingston Fire and Rescue and now works with a group of five northern Ontario First Nations, the Independent First Nations Alliance, to help with fire services and emergency preparedness. She told The Canadian Press the severe lack of funding and proper equipment in the region is making attending fire calls unreasonably dangerous. She said her old colleagues in Kingston never had to cope with the conditions that face First Nations firefighters...
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Dene laws and spiritual stories help in examining human-made climate challenges facing Mother Earth
By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Mother Earth is Our Elder: A Northern Indigenous Perspective on the Climate Crisis blends author Katłįa’s perspective as a woman from Dënéndeh with the stories and wisdom of Dene Elders and knowledge carriers from across the Northwest Territories. It’s very much a collective effort, although Katłįa, also known as Catherine Lafferty, did the “heavy lifting” over a three-year period travelling throughout N.W.T. to gather stories. “Copyright is different for (First Nations), right? It’s a collective ownership. And, unfortunately, because of the mainstream publishing industry, the copyright is in my name, but it’s more of a collective,” she said. “This book wouldn’t have been what it is without the generous sharing of the knowledge carriers and Elders.” Mother Earth is Our Elder weaves...
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Carney rolls out new $3.8 billion nature strategy, new conservation areas
By Nick Murray The Liberal government has unveiled a $3.8 billion strategy to protect nature through measures like creating new national parks and marine conservation areas. Prime Minister Mark Carney is making the announcement today just weeks after conservation groups warned that federal funding was running out. Carney says his government is taking an “ambitious” approach to creating new conservation spaces and new urban parks which will require “significant funding.” Carney is announcing the plan at an event in Wakefield, Que., this morning and released a list of planned new conservation areas. Those include the Wiinipaawk Indigenous protected area and national marine conservation area in the Eastern James Bay and the Seal River watershed national park in Manitoba. The federal government committed four years ago to protecting 30 per cent...
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Nearly 1 million Canadians suffer with climate anxiety — how one Caledon artist is subverting it
By Anushka Yadav, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Pointer A few days after Southern Ontario’s skies turned orange and the choking air carried the chemical scent of burnt trees, Caledon resident Andie Trépanier was suddenly terrified by the life-shattering sight of the family house and the entire street on fire. Trépanier tried to fight the devouring blaze but felt “helpless”. As its rampant power destroyed everything in sight, an equally gripping sense of panic spread with the fire, consuming the local artist. Then, Trépanier woke up. Waking from a bad dream, however, did not change the nightmare unfolding outside the bedroom window. Wildfire smoke drifting from northern Ontario and Western Canada blotted out the sun, turning it into a dim, washed out orb set back against an eerie sky that...
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OPP seek public’s help in locating missing federal offender
Lisa Hutchinson TORONTO (ON) – The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are seeking the public’s help in locating a federal offender believed to be in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). The OPP announced on March 31, 2026, the Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement (R.O.P.E.) Squad had launched a search for a federal offender wanted on a Canada Wide Warrant after breaching the terms of their Statutory Release. A Statutory Release is a legal requirement that allows certain fixed-sentence federal inmates in Canada to serve the final third of their sentence in the community under supervision after completing the first two-thirds of their sentence. They are expected to report to a Correctional Service of Canada parole officer and follow specific conditions, including travel restrictions. OPP described the offender, Lisa Hutchinson 44...
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Indigenous operators struggle for equal pay, training equity as most First Nations deal with ‘appallingly insufficient water supply’
By George Lee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Macleod Gazette A lack of good water infrastructure persists as a health and welfare threat for Indigenous communities across Canada, as two days underscoring the issue surfaced last week in the Alberta legislature. National Indigenous Water Operator Day was March 21 in Canada, followed by World Water Day on March 22. Both earned a mention from Scott Cyr, the UCP member representing Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul. “As we often say, water is life, and those who protect it deserve our highest respect and support,” Cyr said in a member statement last Wednesday. “While much of their work goes unseen … water operators provide an essential service and the foundation of health and safety in Indigenous communities every single day, and this government will...
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Federal ‘God squad’ poised to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf from endangered species rules
By Matthew Brown A U.S. government panel convened Tuesday for the first time since 1992 to consider exempting oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act due to unspecified national security concerns, a move critics say could doom a rare whale species and harm other marine life. Nicknamed the “God Squad” by groups who say it can decide a species’ fate, the Endangered Species Committee comprises several Trump administration officials and is chaired by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Republican President Donald Trump has made increased fossil fuel production a central focus of his second term. He wants to open new areas of the Gulf off the Florida coast to drilling, and has proposed sweeping rollbacks of environmental regulations disliked by industry. Defense Secretary Pete...
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Iqaluit builds real-life Inuit village as part of Qaggiq 2026
By Arty Sarkisian, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News There were a lot of songs, cheers and mitten-muffled claps over three days of the Qaggiq festival in Iqaluit this past weekend. “I think even the lighter is frozen,” said elder Mary Panipak, who was lighting the qulliq at the start of the festival on Friday. Iqaluit builds real-life Inuit village as part of Qaggiq 2026 (Nunatsiaq News photo) It was -30 C and windy as about two dozen people gathered near the road to Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park at what the organizers called the “Inuit village.” Eventually, someone brought Panipak a working lighter; the qulliq was lit and the events carried on. The free festivities ran from Friday to Sunday, bringing together performers for drum dancing, throat singing, theatre and...
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Alberta proposes election blackout on citizen-led proposals for referendum questions
By Lisa Johnson Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government is proposing major changes to its law governing citizen-led petitions for the third time in less than a year. Justice Minister Mickey Amery introduced Monday a bill that, if passed, would make it impossible to start a petition for a constitutional or policy referendum a year before or a year after a provincial election. Petitions currently completed or underway wouldn’t be affected by the two-year blackout period, and corresponding deadlines for holding a referendum would be repealed. Amery told reporters before introducing the changes that they’re about creating a consistent window for those looking to bring proposals forward. “We want voters to be able to weigh in on election matters during elections without having citizen-led initiatives stand in the way of that,”...
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Clayoquot Sound’s only tree farm licence subdivided into three lots to assert First Nations’ land visions
By Nora O’Malley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ha-Shilth-Sa Clayoquot Sound, BC – The logging tenure for a landscape made famous by the “War in the Woods” protests on the west coast of Vancouver Island has been divided up into three new Tree Farm Licences (TFL) to assert First Nations’ unique land-use visions. TFL 54 in Clayoquot Sound was transferred from MaMook Natural Resources, which is owned by a partnership of five central region First Nations (Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht, Hesquiaht, Toquaht and Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ), and reconfigured into TFL 66, TFL 67 and TFL 68. According to the Ministry of Forests, Tla-o-qui-aht is now the holder of TFL 66 comprising over 13,000 hectares within their territory, TFL 67 is held by Ahousaht and comprises over 29,000 hectares in Ahousaht territory and Hesquiaht is now...
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Neglected North Shore Plantation Waterways Fueled Damaging Hawaii Floods
By Thomas Heaton, Blaze Lovell And Caitlin Thompson/Honolulu Civil Beat Sarah Ghio leans on the rear bumper of her dead silver SUV, taking a sip of juice to wet her chapped lips. It’s her sole alternative since she returned to her flood-stricken North Shore Oʻahu farm, where tap water remained unsafe to drink. You can see the exhaustion in her face, hear it in her voice. Ghio lives off the grid on leased land once owned by Dole Food’s sister company Castle and Cooke, a small piece of more than 300 acres still framed by the pineapple plantation’s century-plus-old irrigation ditches. Invasive weeds have, over time, strangled that ditch system, which merges with natural streams to carry water through farm fields and out to the ocean. If the Kona low...
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Mark Taylor’s Flutes: Connecting Audiences to Indigenous Sound and Culture
By Chevi Rabbit, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News (ANNews) – The flute, one of the oldest instruments known to humankind, has long carried stories through generations. The Indigenous flute held particular importance in courtship, ceremony, and storytelling. Today, Cree flutist Mark Taylor continues that legacy, mastering both the craft and the music, and sharing it with audiences across Edmonton. “I grew up in Treaty 5, just outside of Winnipeg, in a small town called Selkirk, Manitoba. I did not grow up on a reserve,” Taylor recalled. “When my father and his siblings were being taken to residential school, my grandmother – who had attended residential school herself – told them to go hide. They ran into the bush and hid. A lot of my family didn’t go back...
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‘Full of gratitude’: First Nations child welfare deal approved
By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, NWOnewswatch.com TORONTO — First Nations leaders in Ontario are celebrating a decision by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal over the future of child welfare. On Monday, the tribunal approved the Ontario Final Agreement — the nine-year, $8.5-billion deal that the Chiefs of Ontario and Nishnawbe Aski Nation reached with the federal government in 2025 that will give communities control over things like foster care, child protective services and adoption in their First Nations. “The chiefs have the authority to decide how to look after their own children and what is in the best interests of their children,” Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler told a press conference in Toronto Monday afternoon after the tribunal issued its decision. “I’m so full of gratitude...
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Human rights tribunal approves massive child welfare deal for Ontario FirstNations
By Alessia Passafiume The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has approved a landmark First Nations child welfare deal between the federal government and First Nations in Ontario, partially ending a decades-long discrimination case. Monday’s decision comes after chiefs twice voted down a national $47.8 billion deal proposed by the federal government to reform the child welfare system, and a tumultuous two years of political infighting in the country’s most prominent First Nations organization on the way forward. The tribunal said it chose to issue a “letter decision” ahead of a formal decision to come later, so First Nations in Ontario do not lose a full year of funding under the agreement. It said it reserves the right to make changes to the letter decision after its release. “In choosing to work...
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Federal government rejects Inuit association requests on assault-style weapons ban
By William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunavut News The federal government has declined to extend the amnesty period for assault-style firearm owners to turn their guns in to police by Oct. 30. Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) asked the federal government on March 26 to delay the ban on rapid reloading guns by five years. “The amnesty period will expire on Oct. 30, 2026. After this date, owners of prohibited firearms who do not come into compliance with the law risk losing their possession and acquisition licence and [would be] facing criminal liability,” said Simon Lafortune, press secretary for the Minister of Public Safety. In addition, NTI also asked the Government of Canada to allow Inuit to use the soon-to-be banned weapons during an extended amnesty period. The federal...
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