No further jail time for man who caused $14,000 damage to jail
By Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince George Citizen A 27-year-old man who caused almost $14,000 in damage to the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre was sentenced Nov. 24 to time served in Provincial Court. Smitty Ralph Bent pleaded guilty to mischief over $5,000, resisting a peace officer and breaching probation conditions. Judge David Simpkin agreed to the joint Crown and defence proposal for a 285-day sentence. Since Bent had spent 194 days in custody, he qualified for a time-and-a-half credit of 291 days. The most-serious offence accounted for 150 days of the sentence. On Aug. 7, 2024, the day he was scheduled to be moved from a regular unit to segregation, Bent lit a fire with a rice cooker in a sink. Despite thick smoke, he refused to...
Register
Zacharias Kunuk is making Inuit stories for the future with TIFF-winning ‘Wrong Husband’
By Alex Nino Gheciu Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk says his new fantasy feature is as much about the future as it is about a 4,000-year-old tale. “We’re thinking a hundred years from now, when we’re down in the ground, people will study these films,” says the 68-year-old. “So we have to try to do it right.” Set in 2000 BCE in Igloolik, Nunavut, “Uiksaringitara” (“Wrong Husband”) opens with two young lovers, Kaujak and Sapa — played by Theresia Kappianaq and Haiden Angutimarik — who were pledged to each other at birth. Their bond is tested when Kaujak’s mother remarries after her husband’s death, sending her to a different camp. Guided by spirit helpers — and stalked by a lumbering, child-thieving troll — they set out on separate paths in hopes...
Register
Louisiana is shrinking. Some tribes are fighting to protect what’s left of their communities
By Dorany Pineda POINTE-AU-CHIEN, La. (AP) — Cherie Matherne looked out into Bayou Pointe au Chien, wide enough for several boats to pass through. In the distance, a stand of dead trees marked where saltwater comes and goes during storm-driven flooding. It wasn’t always this way. The bayou was once shallower and just wide enough for a small boat to pass. Land that cattle once roamed is submerged now, and elders tell stories of tree canopies once so lush they nearly shut out the day. The delicate lattice of Louisiana’s coastline has been steadily retreating for generations. As it does, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe and other Indigenous people are fighting to protect what’s left and to adapt to their changing environment. That includes a painstaking effort to build makeshift reefs...
Register
Indigenous initiatives get $4.8M in help from FedNor
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source THUNDER BAY — Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu on Friday announced $2 million in federal money for Indigenous-led economic development initiatives across Northwestern Ontario. The funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario, or FedNor, includes about $2 million for projects specifically for First Nations in the Northwest: $500,000 to Pemiijiwan Support Services to support the hiring of a CEO and a finance manager to help First Nations near the Ring of Fire in development and partnership opportunities. $459,800 for Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek, also known as Sandpoint First Nation, to support installation of a district biomass heating system in the community. $400,000 to the Sioux Lookout-based Shibogami First Nations Council for completion of a two-phase business analysis...
Register
Mexican composer turns fire and ritual into a musical journey of renewal
By María Teresa Hernández MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican composer María Leonora prepares for each concert as if she’s gearing up for battle. Her makeup has a tribal edge. Her clothes are arranged in layers she sheds as the show unfolds. An amulet over her belly button serves as protection. “I look into the mirror and I sort of go to war,” she said prior to a recent presentation in Mexico City. “I brace myself to walk through the fire and whatever happens happens.” Her 2025 performances were conceived as chapters connected by a common thread. She called the series “Through All the Fire,” believing that both music and flames carry a powerful renewal quality. “A fire can burn and destroy,” she said. “But if you make it through, you...
Register
Ottawa moving to reissue fishing licences to Mi’kmaq group despite Inuit objections
By Nick Murray The federal government says it is proposing to reissue fishing licences to a coalition of Mi’kmaq First Nations in Atlantic Canada, despite objections from Inuit in Nunavut who successfully sued to have the original licences quashed. In 2021, Inuit asked the Federal Court to set aside a decision by the minister of fisheries to transfer the licences for Greenland halibut and shrimp from seafood company Clearwater Foods to the coalition, after the Mi’kmaq group partnered to buy the company in January of that year. The licences are for zones off the coast of Baffin Island. They were originally held by Clearwater Foods but were reissued as part of the sale of the company to a coalition of seven Mi’kmaq First Nations. The suit was launched by Nunavut...
Register
Hundreds of federal public servants warned this week of job cuts
By Catherine Morrison Hundreds of workers have been warned they may lose their jobs as the government moves to shrink the size of the public service. The Public Service Alliance of Canada said Friday that 219 of its members at Natural Resources Canada received notices this week saying their jobs might be cut. In addition to those, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada said Friday about 200 of its own members at Natural Resources Canada received notices. Another 109 people at the Public Service Commission of Canada, 92 people at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and 74 staffers at the Department of Finance received similar notices, the union said. Ottawa is looking to cut program spending and administration costs by about $60 billion over the next...
Register
Yukon Energy ordered to come up with risk plan for deteriorating dam spillway
The Yukon government says it will need to spend more than $150 million to replace an aging dam spillway. A statement from the government says engineers have confirmed that temporary repairs are no longer an option to extend the life of the Wareham Dam Spillway in Mayo. An order issued last month by Environment Yukon’s manager of environmental compliance and inspections says there is a “reasonable and credible risk of failure” of the spillway “with potential danger to persons, property, and the environment.” It says the Yukon Energy Corp. must develop and implement a risk management plan by the end of the year that lays out measures to reduce risk and prepare for emergencies. The corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but an undated post on...
Register
Manitoba informs residents of revised location for supervised drug consumption site
By Steve Lambert The Manitoba government announced a new location Friday for the province’s first supervised drug consumption site, months after its initial proposed location ran into public opposition. The government is eyeing a single-story building at 366 Henry Ave. in inner-city Winnipeg, west of Main St. It is several blocks away from the former site east of Main St. that many area residents opposed due to its proximity to homes and a high school. “The proposed supervised consumption site … is located where people need the services and sits well beyond 250 metres from any school or registered child care facility,” Bernadette Smith, the minister for housing, addictions and homelessness said in a statement. The NDP government has planned to have the site up and running in January, and...
Register
Carney, Trump and Sheinbaum talk trade at 2026 World Cup draw in Washington D.C.
By Kelly Geraldine Malone Prime Minister Mark Carney met privately Friday with U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in Washington, D.C., with no staff in the room. The meeting, which happened at the Kennedy Center following the FIFA World Cup Draw, lasted about 50 minutes. Trump said earlier in the day the three leaders would talk about trade during their meeting and that he gets along well with both Carney and Sheinbaum. This was the first private meeting between Carney and Trump since the U.S. president abruptly ended trade talks in October in response to an anti-tariff ad sponsored by the Ontario government. Trade relations between the three nations were upended earlier this year by Trump’s sweeping sectoral tariffs. The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, known as CUSMA,...
Register
Feds to proceed with promised review of firearms classification regime, minister says
By Jim Bronskill and Catherine Morrison The federal government will move ahead with a promised review of Canada’s firearms classification regime that will include consultations with Indigenous communities on the SKS rifle, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said. The classification review, first announced in March, will take a broad view of the legal framework for firearms, ammunition and magazines while emphasizing simplicity and consistency, Anandasangaree said in a media release. The government has been heavily criticized by gun control advocates for not including the semi-automatic SKS in its list of banned firearms. Since May 2020, Ottawa has outlawed approximately 2,500 types of guns on the basis they belong on the battlefield, not in the hands of hunters or sport shooters. The government says a federal buyback program will provide owners...
Register
Eby says DRIPA law could be amended after First Nations win appeal in mining case
British Columbia Premier David Eby said his government will review a court decision that appears to show “confusion” over his government’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and will amend the legislation if necessary. Eby said the B.C. Court of Appeal ruling, in which the Gitxaala and Ehattesaht First Nations challenged the province’s mineral tenure system, “potentially puts courts in the driver’s seat instead of British Columbians.” The ruling released on Friday says the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the provincial law was intended to incorporate, and the mineral claims regime are “inconsistent.” The appeal ruling says the provincial law should be “properly interpreted” to incorporate UNDRIP into the laws of B.C. with immediate legal effect. The First Nations, whose appeal was allowed,...
Register
Province could appeal or rewrite reconciliation law after Appeal Court ruling
By Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince George Citizen Premier David Eby says the BC NDP government may appeal a Friday, Dec. 5 decision by the BC Court of Appeal and possibly amend the key reconciliation law. In a majority ruling, the province’s highest court agreed with two First Nations and decided that the province’s version of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), called the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, is legally enforceable. “We’re going to review the decision, and, if necessary, amend the Declaration Act, to ensure that our original intention, when we introduced it, is clear,” Eby told reporters in Surrey. “We’re prepared to do that work, if necessary, to assist the courts in understanding this is work for...
Register
Christmas celebrations return to Bethlehem after 2 years of war in Gaza
By Megan Janetsky BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — For the past two Christmases, John Juka’s family restaurant looked about the same as any business in Bethlehem: shuttered and eerily empty. But on Saturday evening, it bustled with families and was lit by strings of red lights, a hopeful change in the Palestinian city that’s been reeling since war broke out in Gaza. Christmas celebrations are slowly returning to the traditional birthplace of Jesus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. While a shaky ceasefire holds in Gaza, Palestinians hope the festivities are a step toward a more peaceful future in a region shaken by tragedy. “It’s not like it was before the war,” 30-year-old Juka said. “But it’s like life is coming back again.” Muslim-majority city thrives on Christmas Tourism and religious...
Register
Medical licence renewed for Labrador doctor under investigation following complaints from at least 20 patients
By Justin Brake, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Independent Newfoundland and Labrador’s new health minister is vowing to address what she calls a “crisis of trust” among reproductive health patients in Labrador amid an ongoing investigation by the province’s College of Physicians and Surgeons into complaints against Happy Valley-Goose Bay’s only obstetrician/gynecologist. “I want to make it clear to residents in Labrador that […] it’s my responsibility to ensure that patients can feel respected, that they have access to safe and respectful reproductive healthcare,” Lela Evans, the Inuk MHA for Torgat Mountains, told The Independent in a phone interview Thursday. The minister’s comments come after the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador (CPSNL) renewed the medical license of an obstetrician/gynecologist in Happy Valley-Goose Bay under investigation following...
Register
Mi’kmaq chiefs, former attorney general disappointed with N.S. cannabis directive
By Lyndsay Armstrong Mi’kmaq chiefs and a former Nova Scotia justice minister are criticizing the provincial government for directing police to crack down on illegal cannabis and asking for First Nations’ support in that effort, saying the order undermines relations with Indigenous Peoples. Sipekne’katik First Nation Chief Michelle Glasgow said in a statement on Friday she and her council are “appalled” by the province’s directive, which she calls a direct threat to their communities’ safety. “The province’s actions through the minister of justice are acts of systemic racism and inciting hate against Mi’kmaw people, labelling us the problem, and this narrative is absolutely disgusting,” Glasgow said. Her comments are in reaction to Armstrong’s directive on Thursday for all Nova Scotia police agencies to prioritize cannabis enforcement by identifying and disrupting...
Register
Feds to proceed with promised review of firearms classification regime, minister says
By Jim Bronskill and Catherine Morrison Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the federal government will move ahead with a promised review of Canada’s firearms classification regime that will include consultations with Indigenous communities on the SKS rifle. The classification review, first announced in March, will take a broad view of the legal framework for firearms, ammunition and magazines while emphasizing simplicity and consistency, Anandasangaree said in a news release. The government has been heavily criticized by gun control advocates for not including the semi-automatic SKS in its list of banned firearms. Since May 2020, Ottawa has outlawed approximately 2,500 types of guns on the basis they belong on the battlefield, not in the hands of hunters or sport shooters. The government says a federal buyback program will provide owners...
Register
First Nations say BC rushing mine expansion without proper review
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer Two First Nations in BC’s southern interior say the province is rushing a decision on a major mine expansion without giving them enough time to assess the risks. The Upper and Lower Similkameen Indian Bands are asking the province to slow the approval of the New Ingerbelle expansion at Copper Mountain Mine, right along the Similkameen River south of Princeton. “We do not consent at this point. We have too much more we have to work through,” said Keith Crow, chief of Lower Similkameen. Under the expansion plan, the open pit would extend to within roughly 50 metres of the river and be dug more than 160 metres below the riverbed. If approved, it would be the first mine ever...
Register
QuickFacts on the Alberta politicians facing citizen recall petitions
Seventeen Alberta legislature members with Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party caucus are officially facing recall petitions from constituents. A recall campaign has also been approved for Opposition NDP member Amanda Chapman. Three more are expected to be named soon. It’s the first time the province’s Recall Act has been used on provincial politicians. It was brought in under former UCP premier Jason Kenney as a way to empower citizens and hold politicians accountable between general elections. Under the legislation, a petitioner must submit a reason in 100 words or fewer about why they feel an MLA should be recalled. The person must live in the constituency and pay a $500 processing fee. There are no set criteria on what the reasons can be. If the petition is approved by...
Register
Pan-Arctic Vision rocks Iqaluit with global talent
By William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunavut News The Black Heart Cafe was packed for the first performance of the 2025 Pan-ArcticVision music festival, featuring Indigenous artists from Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) and Siberia. Greenlandic Inuit duo Kimmernaq Kjeldsen and HH Suersaq Poulsen performed in the Inuit languages of Kalaallisut and Inugguit. Kjeldsen said Inuit are one people and that meeting Nunavummiut was like finding a family she didn’t know she had. In 1996, Kjeldsen visited Nunavut for the first time, arriving by sailboat and was surprised by her affinity with Inuit in the territory. “We spoke the same language, we thought the same things were funny… and I was like ‘Why didn’t anybody tell me that I had fellow family here’?” Kjeldsen said. Inuit in Nunavut and Greenland...
Register
