Indigenous lawyer stresses early engagement is key to success of major projects
By Sam Laskaris Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Sara Mainville has held many prestigious posts. The Anishinaabe lawyer, who has been a member of the Ontario bar since 2005, stepped up a decade ago to serve as the chief of Couchiching First Nation in northern Ontario. Mainville was elected to a two-year term in an election that followed the sudden passing of then chief Chuck McPherson. Mainville uses her law background and also her experience as a former chief to currently assist Indigenous communities with various forms of dispute resolution. Mainville is a managing partner of JFK Law, a national law firm operating primarily in B.C., but that also does work across the country. She was a panelist at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference that was staged...
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‘Cow and Plows’ settlements could cost treaty rights, group says
By Brett McKay Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Several First Nations are negotiating settlements with the federal government to resolve an unfulfilled promise in the numbered treaties to provide agricultural supports. But accepting compensation for what was not delivered in the past comes with a concession of the treaty right to agriculture for future generations, an Indigenous legal team warns. “It’s a settlement that has a clause that indemnifies Canada and also a clause that says that this is the final, absolute payment, or the end of any action in this area,” said Rachel Snow. “That tells us that this one-time pay is not what our ancestors would have wanted, when they signed the treaty believing that the treaties are an eternal agreement, an eternal way of sharing with Canadian society...
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The US is springing forward to daylight saving. For Navajo and Hopi tribes, it’s a time of confusion
By Terry Tang THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TUBA CITY, Ariz. (AP)- Melissa Blackhair is not eager to spring forward Sunday. “I’m dreading it. I just don’t want to see how much we have to adjust,” Blackhair said while sitting in her home office in Tuba City on the Navajo Nation, the only area in Arizona that follows daylight saving time. With her husband working during the week in Phoenix, their clocks will vary. “Everything in our house is set to daylight saving time. It just kind of is an inconvenience because I am having to remember which car is on daylight and which is on standard time,” she said. “My husband will not change our time in our apartment (in Phoenix).” Those who live on the Arizona portion of the Navajo...
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Key recommendations ignored: Beaudin
By Julia Archelene Magsombol Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Kim Beaudin, national vice-chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP), attended the final inquest of Myles Sanderson last week, but unfortunately he felt unheard. “When the recommendations came down, people were asked for their comments . . . I didn’t have an opportunity to address those,” Beaudin said. The inquest shone a light on Sanderson’s case in which the troubled man killed 11 people and injured 17 others during a stabbing spree on James Smith Cree Nation in 2022. Beaudin described how many people were at Sanderson’s inquest, and how the recommendations he made through CAP weren’t included or addressed. “There should have been a national inquiry. Why are we into this? What happened?” From past interviews, it was known that Sanderson...
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Knowledge event held to share lessons learned in search for unmarked graves at residential schools
By Shari Narine Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Dr. Kisha Supernant says there’s an important balancing act that must be met when it comes to engaging with survivors of Indian residential schools. She took time out from presenting March 6 at the National Knowledge Sharing Event on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Graves held in Regina to speak with Windspeaker.com. “The question of the survivors is a really central one?(and) we recognize the importance of this work being survivor-centred and survivor-led,” said Supernant, a member of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) on Missing Children and Unmarked Graves in relation to Indian residential schools. Eugene Arcand is one of those survivors. He spent nine years at St. Michael residential school in Duck Lake and two years at St. Paul’s in Lebret,...
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Florida rivals ask courts to stop online sports gambling off tribal lands
By Mike Schneider THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)-The state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida will be raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from online sports betting this decade, thanks to a compact between the tribe and Gov. Ron DeSantis that gave the tribe exclusive rights to run sports wagers as well as casino gambling on its reservations. But are these online wagers on the outcome of sporting events legally on tribal land, when really only the computer servers are located there, accepting bets made using mobile phones and computers from anywhere in Florida? That’s a question two of the tribe’s gaming competitors are hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will take up soon and answer with a definitive “no.” A decision by the nation’s highest court...
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Vet services geared to First Nations
By Miranda Leybourne Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association will be launching a program in June that will deliver crucial veterinary services to northern and First Nations communities across the province. Working with the Winnipeg Humane Society and Manitoba government, the Limited Access Vaccinator Program was approved at the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA) annual general meeting at the end of January. “This is one of the first programs in Canada that’s operating in this way,” MVMA executive director Corey Wilson told the Sun. “We’re definitely first province in Canada and one of the first (places) in North America to offer a program like this.” The initiative, part of the MVMA’s response to the acute shortage of veterinarians in Manitoba, directly engages private veterinarians with communities to...
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Three week trial set for Alberta man accused in 1976 death of Calgary teen mom
CALGARY- A three-week trial has been scheduled for next year in Calgary for an Alberta man accused of killing a teenage girl in 1976. Ronald James Edwards, 74, of Sundre, Alta., is set to appear before a judge and jury on March 3, 2025. Edwards is charged with non-capital murder, an offence in the Criminal Code at the time of Pauline Brazeau’s death. Brazeau, a 16-year-old Metis mother from Saskatchewan, had relocated to Calgary with her infant daughter in the fall of 1975. She was last seen leaving a restaurant one morning in January 1976, and her body was found hours later west of the city. Edwards was arrested as a result of an RCMP historical homicide unit and Calgary cold-case investigation using genetic genealogy. This report by The...
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Manitoba government urged to keep promise to search of landfill for women’s remains
WINNIPEG- The families of two slain First Nations women are continuing to press the Manitoba government to search a landfill for their remains. The families, along with supporters and Indigenous leaders, rallied outside the legislature and accused the government of delays and inaction. Cambria Harris, whose mother Morgan Harris is believed to have been killed and taken to the Prairie Green Landfill, says she hasn’t heard fr m the province in weeks. She says Premier Wab Kinew has yet to follow through on a promise to search the landfill, and she’s hoping for movement at a meeting set for March 25 with the provincial and federal governments. Police believe Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran were killed in the spring of 2022 and their remains were taken to the privately owned...
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Suncor signs oilsands lease development MOU with Fort McKay First Nation
By Amanda Stephenson THE CANADIAN PRESS CALGARY- Suncor Energy Inc. has signed an agreement with the Fort McKay First Nation that the oilsands giant says could lead to its first-ever bitumen extraction project on reserve lands. The Calgary-based energy company, together with the Fort McKay First Nation, announced Thursday that they have struck a memorandum of understanding on an oilsands lease development opportunity. Suncor said it is in the process of conducting early-stage technical and commercial feasibility assessments to determine the quality and quantity of mineable bitumen ore in the area, which is located within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in northern Alberta and on the Fort McKay First Nation’s traditional territory. (Bitumen is a variant of oil common in the oilsands.) “Any resource extraction from this lease would...
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Leaked map suggests B.C. has approved less than half of proposed old growth deferrals
By Brenna Owen THE CANADIAN PRESS A report from the B.C. branch of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says a leaked map suggests the province has approved a pause for logging in less than half of the old-growth forests identified as being at risk of permanent biodiversity loss. Ben Parfitt, a resource policy analyst with the centre, says a comparison of the maps against 2.6 million hectares of old-growth proposed for deferral in 2021 found 55 per cent of the areas with large and very large trees had been removed from the ministry’s map. At the same time, Parfitt says it shows the ministry has added deferrals in forests with smaller trees that offer little or no commercial value to the logging industry. A statement from Forests Minister Bruce...
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`They’re big moccasins to fill’: Outgoing TRU chancellor honoured for trailblazing work in education
By Dionne Phillips Local Journalism Initiative Reporter During an event to honour outgoing Thompson Rivers University (TRU) chancellor Nathan Matthew, he was presented with a gift from his successor _ whose family recognized him for his work as the first Secwepemc person to hold the role at the university. TRU’s new chancellor DeDe DeRose, a member of the Esk’etemc First Nation, brought her mother Cecilia to Monday’s gathering at the Brown Family House of Learning. Her mom crafted a pair of buckskin gloves and medicine pouches for Matthew’s family when she heard about his retirement. Before gifting the items, Cecilia spoke in Secwepemctsin to Matthew and ended her words with “kukwstec-kuc,” meaning “we thank you.” DeRose noted how she has been behind Matthew throughout their mutual careers in the education...
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Letter from B.C. ministers calls for `direct and immediate action’ at Union Bay ship breaking facility
By Madeline Dunnett Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A letter sent from two British Columbia ministers on Feb. 20 calls for urgent federal action to regulate and respond to concerns regarding the Deep Water Recovery ship breaking site in Union Bay. The Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, Nathan Cullen, and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, George Hayman, urged the federal government to take more action to regulate the dismantling and recycling of vessels at the site. “The lack of appropriate federal action has put the environment at risk and culminated in the calls for the immediate shutdown of shipbreaking operations at the site, directed to the Prime Minister, Premier, and all levels of government and non-governmental organizations,” according to the letter. The provincial government is doing...
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Six Nations Elected Council reminding band members to apply for the Drinking Water Settlement not eligible for
By Lisa Iesse Writer SIX NATIONS OF THE GRAND – Six Nations community members are raising questions about a March 6th band council notice to apply for a drinking water settlement they are “not eligible” for. On March 6th, the Six Nations band council posted a reminder on their facebook site about tonight’s application deadline for the First Nations Drinking Water Settlement. Applications for the First Nations Drinking Water Settlement. from First Nations communities deemed eligible and individuals can be submitted up to Thursday March 7, 2024 11:59 PM PST. In 2021, Canada settled a historic drinking water class action lawsuit for their failure to provide clean and safe drinking water to First Nations’ communities. The settlement offers compensation to First Nations communities, families and individuals for harms experienced from...
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Lawsuit takes on Alberta Energy Regulator, province over Kearl oilsands releases
By Bob Weber THE CANADIAN PRESS EDMONTON- An Alberta First Nation has filed a sweeping lawsuit against the province’s energy regulator and the government over releases from an oilsands mine, alleging the agency acted in bad faith and is set up in a way that violates the Constitution. “The (Alberta Energy Regulator) has to change,” Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation said in an interview Wednesday. The lawsuit stems from releases of process-affected water from Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine north of Fort McMurray, Alta. In May 2022, seepage on the site was reported to First Nations and communities as discoloured water pooling on the surface. They were not informed that the seepage contained toxic tailings until February 2023, when the regulator issued environmental protection orders against Imperial,...
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Norfolk banking on flood of cash from province, Ottawa to fund $450 million water system
Norfolk County Mayor wants to bring clean water to Six Nations of the Grand River Canada’s most populous First Nation By J.P. Antonacci Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Norfolk County needs to come up with $450 million to fund a badly needed water treatment and delivery system. Whether the planned interurban water supply leaves taxpayers drowning in debt depends on Ottawa and Queen’s Park throwing the rural municipality a life preserver. The multi-year, multi-phase plan would see drinking water piped into Norfolk, Six Nations and throughout Haldimand County from a giant treatment plant in Nanticoke. As the pipelines reach Norfolk’s five urban areas, the county’s existing water and wastewater plants would come off-line. That would make for a more efficient system and cheaper water bills, eventually. In the meantime, Norfolk council...
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Vancouver based restaurant captures national Indigenous culinary tourism award
By Sam Laskaris Local Journalism Initiative Reporter It’s a good thing that perseverance is one of Inez Cook’s traits. Cook, a former flight attendant who retired last year after more than three decades in the business, opted to become a restaurant owner back in 2010. Cook, a member of Nuxalk Nation in British Columbia, opened Salmon n’ Bannock shortly after the 2010 Winter Olympics began in Vancouver. The restaurant is on West Broadway, one of Vancouver’s best-known streets. “The Olympics were coming and it was a good time to do it,” Cook said. “I’ve lived all over the world and met all the cultures.” But there was one major problem. Visitors from around the globe who were taking in the Vancouver Olympics did not flock to Cook’s restaurant. That’s because while...
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Hai?zaqv takes legal action against `Canada’ after DFO shut down nation’s herring fishery (
By Meral Jamal Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Since time immemorial, the Hai?zaqv (Heiltsuk) Nation has sustainably harvested wan?ai (herring) in their waters. But in 2022, one month before the spawn-on-kelp harvesting season, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) shut down Hai?zaqv’s commercial fishery, prompting dismay from the First Nation’s leadership at the infringement of their rights to steward their own territories.Now, after unsuccessful negotiations with the DFO, Hai?zaqv is moving forward with a lawsuit against the federal government for banning the herring spawn-on-kelp fishery two years ago. “We did not take the decision to commence legal action lightly,” said elected Chief Marilyn Slett of launching the lawsuit in a news release on Feb. 27. “We have worked hard to build trust and collaboratively manage herring stocks in Heiltsuk territory with DFO....
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Coroner’s Jury concludes cocaine overdose caused Myles Sanderson’s death
By Ryan Kiedrowski Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A high-speed chase, risky vehicular takedown and fatal drug overdose. These aspects received hyper-focus during a four-day coroner’s inquest in Saskatoon last week. The goal of the inquest was to discover facts about the final hours of Myles Sanderson_the man solely responsible for the Sept. 4, 2022 mass killing on the James Smith Cree Nation and nearby Village of Weldon. Sanderson fatally stabbed 11 people during his rampage and was responsible for 17 attempted murders during that weekend. The inquest, presided by coroner Robert Kennedy, ran from Feb. 26 to 29, hearing from medical experts, responding police officers, and emergency responders that were in contact with Sanderson when he died in custody on Sept. 7. High-risk takedown During the early afternoon of Sept. 7,...
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Ottawa, Nunavut sign $36M deal to improve health care services in territory
Iqaluit, Nunavut -Nunavut and the federal government are spending nearly $36 million to improve access to health care in the territory. The agreement, announced in Iqaluit, is to increase the number of Inuit working in health care. It is to help recruit and retain nurses and to assist remote communities in determining their health-care needs. The deal is also to improve obstetric and addiction services. Ottawa has committed $23.6 million to the three-year program, with the remaining funding coming from the territory. A separate agreement will see the federal government contribute $12 million more to expand long-term care and home care in the territory. “These agreements … mean better care for the people who live here, in their communities,” federal Health Minister Mark Holland said Tuesday. “Nunavut has its own unique...
