B.C. orders forage farmers to stop using water to protect endangered chinook salmon
By Wolfgang Depner The British Columbia government has ordered forage-crop farmers in the province’s south to turn off their irrigation taps, because “severe low flows” are threatening endangered chinook salmon. Randene Neill, B.C.’s minster of water, land and resource stewardship, said “when stream flows drop to critical levels, and vulnerable species are at risk,” government must take regulatory action. “Temporary protection measures are always issued as a very, very last resort after voluntary measures, because we recognize the huge impact it has on water users, including farmers and their businesses,” Neill said. She added that protection orders like the ones issued Monday are “guided by science, Indigenous knowledge and local knowledge, and economic analysis as well,” she said. “They are targeted and they are short-term, to restore flows as quickly...
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Manitoba grand chief calls for better cell service after mass stabbings
By Steve Lambert Ensuring First Nations communities have cellular coverage would help responses to emergencies such as the mass stabbing on Hollow Water First Nation, a Manitoba grand chief said Monday. “That should just be a no-brainer. We have to have connection to emergency services,” Grand Chief Jerry Daniels said in an interview. An 18-year-old woman was killed and several others were hospitalized last Thursday after a series of stabbings on the reserve. The suspect — Tyrone Simard, 26 — fatally stabbed his 18-year-old sister, wounded seven others, and later died after driving a stolen vehicle and colliding with an RCMP officer responding to the tragedy, RCMP have said. Hollow Water is not a remote community. It is about 200 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg and connected by road. But it...
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DFO ‘legacy of neglect’ leaves North Coast salmon to flounder
By Rochelle Baker Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer –Fisheries and Oceans Canada cut the monitoring of salmon streams along BC’s North and Central Coast, leaving critical stocks uncounted at the height of spawning season. Seasonal “creek walkers” — contractors for the fisheries department (DFO) who trek along streams to record salmon returns — haven’t been hired as stocks return along the coast from Bella Bella to the Alaskan border, including major watersheds like the Skeena, Nass and Kitimat systems, says a coalition of conservation groups. Assessing returns to key streams is critical for estimating stocks, managing fisheries and conservation, said Misty MacDuffee, wild salmon program director at Raincoast Conservation Foundation. “Not having contracts in place as salmon are returning to rivers is unprecedented,” she said. “Budget cuts have...
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Federal Court rules for BZA chief
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source ROCKY BAY — A Federal Court judge has granted Chief Gladys Thompson an injunction to resume work as the top elected official of Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek (BZA). The decision came two days after Thompson and her legal counsel appeared before the court via Zoom to make their case for her reinstatement. Band councillors in BZA, formerly Rocky Bay First Nation, had suspended her without pay in July pending an investigation into her conduct as chief. Justice Patrick Gleeson granted an injunction on Sept. 5 for Thompson to continue as chief “pending final disposition” of her application for a judicial review of the suspension. A July 14 band council resolution to suspend her and appoint Coun. Myles Becker as acting chief...
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NCC Development lacked ‘full team’ to deliver on Nunavut 3000 agreement: CE
By Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News When NCC Development Ltd. signed on to build 2,000 homes as part of the Nunavut 3000 initiative, it lacked a “full team,” CEO Clarence Synard said. Synard made the remarks before the Nunavut legislature’s government oversight committee Friday, where MLAs have been reviewing the auditor general’s 2025 report on public housing in Nunavut. Part of that report noted that Nunavut Housing Corp. is facing “challenges to meet its public housing targets under the Nunavut 3000 Strategy by 2030.” While committee members were examining that issue, Netsilik MLA Joseph Quqqiaq asked Synard if NCC had the “resources, personnel, equipment, corporate structure to deliver” on Nunavut 3000. “At the time of the signing of the agreement, we did not have a full team...
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Kanesatake comes together at the powwow
By Olivier Cadotte, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door This year’s Kanehsatà:ke Traditional Powwow was a time for Kanehsata’kehró:non and non-locals to come to town and spend a positive weekend of dancing, drumming, crafts, and good food – all the good things you’d expect in a powwow. Shirley Bonspille, one of four members of the organizational committee, said that apart from the stress of putting together a powwow with a small team and a couple small incidents, it was a good time to be at the powwow grounds on August 30-31. She said the big reason why was all the people who participated: volunteers, dancers, vendors, and the event emcee Lance Delisle, among many others. “It was just absolutely amazing. Everybody loved it. We had good feedback from the...
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New agreement for former offenders
By Eve Cable, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Door A memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) and the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) will see nearly $200,000 flow into the community over the next two years, in an agreement that could serve as a model for other First Nations across Turtle Island. “A non-Native parole officer has no idea what it’s like to be a Mohawk, to be Kahnawa’kehró:non,” said Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) chief Ryan Montour, who is the lead portfolio chief on community safety. “They have no idea, they don’t know the cultural aspect to it, they just have no idea what it means.” Montour said that Kahnawake has been developing a program focused on social reintegration for offenders since...
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Spel’kúmtn Community Forest distributes $339K to shareholders
By Luke Faulks, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Pique Newsmagazine The Spel’kúmtn Community Forest (SCF) has distributed more than $339,000 from its 2024 harvest, with the Líl’wat Nation and the Village of Pemberton each receiving $169,515. The distribution, announced Aug. 31, reflects earnings from the harvest and sale of timber from the community forest’s 17,727-hectare tenure. The area covers lands around Pemberton and Mount Currie, within the unceded and traditional territory of the Líl’wat Nation. SCF executive director Andrea Blaikie said in a release she was “pleased to announce this distribution of funds, reflecting a productive 2024 harvest. The intention of the Spel’kúmtn Community Forest was always to create direct benefit for the local communities.” Blaikie said the results came from a successful standing single stem harvest program carried out on...
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Coquihalla Highway reopens after wildfire closure but truck fire causes delays
By Brenna Owen A semi-truck on fire closed the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt on Friday, just hours after the key route to and from British Columbia’s Lower Mainland reopened following a two-day closure due to a wind-fuelled wildfire. The truck fire temporarily closed the route in both directions, but the Coquihalla has since been fully reopened, the province’s driver information service said. The route had just reopened after towering flames forced its closure for several days, and with the wildfire still burning, the Transportation Ministry said drivers could expect the status of the highway to change again on short notice. It said drivers were advised not to stop in the fire zone, and there would be intermittent lane closures as crews assessed and repaired roadside damage. Cellphone coverage...
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Salmonbellies down visiting Chiefs in first two Mann Cup matches
The New Westminster Salmonbellies (white jerseys) have been shutting down the potent Six Nations Chiefs’ offence and lead the best-of-seven Mann Cup series 2-0. (Photo by Darryl Smart0. By Sam Laskaris Writer The Six Nations Chiefs are still hoping to win their third consecutive Mann Cup championship. But in order to keep their dreams of capturing another national Senior A lacrosse title alive, the Chiefs need to quickly start registering some victories. That’s because the Six Nations squad is now trailing the host New Westminster Salmonbellies 2-0 in its best-of-seven Mann Cup series. Game 3 in the series is scheduled for Monday night. And then Game 4 will follow on Tuesday. The Salmonbellies, who earned the right to host this year’s national final by winning the British Columbia-based Western...
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First Nation development corporation opens new Trans-Canada Highway gas station
By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com NETMIZAAGGAMIG NISHNAABEG — Travellers along the Highway 17 North Shore corridor have a new option for where they can fill up. The White Lake Limited Partnership, the economic development corporation of Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg (also known as Pic Mobert First Nation), officially opened its latest venture, Johnny K’s Gas and Convenience Store, on Aug. 29 along the Trans-Canada Highway. Between Marathon and White River, it sits next to Netmizaaggamig’s powwow grounds. Crystal Finlayson Pirie, White Lake’s chief executive officer, said when additional highway-side reserve lands were added to Netmizaaggamig several years ago, the community’s chief and council made it a priority to use them for such a project. She said the corporation is always looking at ways to diversify its interests. “It’s allowed...
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OPP believe swatting calls coming from outside of Canada after third call hits
HALDIMAND COUNTY, ON – Haldimand County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have found themselves investigating a third incident of an Emergency Fraud Call (swatting) . Just days after investiging two fraud calls, one involving a local high school, Haldimand County OPP responded to a residence on Haldimand Road 53 near Jarvis Thursday September 4, 2025, at about 8:20 p.m.after receiving a report of a family dispute. The investigation determined that there was no emergency and no threat to public safety. Investigators believe all three calls are connected to the same individual or individuals. Haldimand County Major Crime Unit members have been called in and are assisting with the sequence of incidents and have reason to believe that these calls are being generated from a remote location outside of Canada using Voice...
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Peru rejects creation of Amazon reserve to protect uncontacted tribes, drawing Indigenous outcry
By Steven Grattan BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Peru’s Congress rejected Friday a proposal to create a long-delayed Amazon reserve meant to protect uncontacted Indigenous tribes living in voluntary isolation along the border with Brazil. Advocates for the reserve say the decision leaves the remote forest vulnerable to logging, mining and other incursions, and deals a setback to a plan that has languished for more than two decades despite legal obligations to establish it. Francisco Hernández Cayetano, president of the Federation of Ticuna and Yagua Communities of the Lower Amazon, said the commission’s rejection “shows its anti-Indigenous face in the 21st century” and signals it does not care about “the environment, the water, the culture and everything as a whole.” He told The Associated Press that without Indigenous peoples, the Amazon...
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Ambulance service liable after man dies of nut allergy after hospital transfer delay
A Quebec ambulance service is on the hook for $442,000 in damages for not following protocols, leading to the death of an 18-year-old man after a reaction to a nut allergy. Urgences-santé was ordered by Quebec Superior Court to pay to the family of Nutin McFarland, who died even though he became ill less than a kilometre from a Montreal hospital. McFarland was an 18-year-old Innu man who had moved to Montreal from the Maliotenam Innu reserve, located near the town of Sept-Îles, to attend junior college. He was otherwise healthy but had a peanut and tree nut allergy. While visiting the residence of his girlfriend’s father in Verdun, a Montreal suburb, he suffered an anaphylactic reaction after eating a tuna sandwich he found in the fridge. The hospital was...
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‘Exciting day’ at Goose Lake as Nunavut’s fourth mine begins production
By Arty Sarkisian, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News More than 300 people gathered Thursday at a big white tent in the middle of the Kitikmeot tundra to celebrate the grand opening of Nunavut’s newest gold mine. “You are now part of Canadian mining history,” William Lytle, B2Gold’s senior vice-president and chief operating officer told the crowd. Many were wearing B2Gold baseball caps made to mark the long-awaited occasion. Goose Mine is located in the Back River area, about 400 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay. It was first identified as a potential gold mine site in 1982. After a decades-long approval process, ownership change and three years of construction, the mine was ready for its first gold pour in July and a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday. The mine is expected...
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More resources needed for First Nations cancer screening, treatment: report
By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com SIOUX LOOKOUT — People living in Indigenous communities across a vast swath of Northwestern Ontario are more at risk of dying from certain cancers, in large part due to a lack of resources for close-to-home screening and treatment. That’s one conclusion drawn by a new peer-reviewed study released by the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority. The organization serves 33 First Nations, most of which are remote, across Northwestern Ontario. It provides things like primary care, counselling, accommodations, transportation and other services, according to its website. “We (hear) from communities quite often that people have cancer and they get a late diagnosis, and then they pass away before treatment can be provided,” said Janet Gordon, the health authority’s vice president of community...
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Local emergency declared over B.C. fire that shut highway as evacuation orders expand
Three British Columbia wildfires, including a blaze that forced the closure of the Coquihalla Highway, have prompted local officials to issue new evacuation orders. The Fraser Valley Regional District says it has declared a state of local emergency and issued an evacuation order for the Coquihalla Lakes Lodge and the Coquihalla Summit Snowmobile Club site due to the Mine Creek fire that shut the highway on Wednesday. Traffic between the Lower Mainland and the B.C. Interior has been further disrupted with a vehicle crash closing Highway 1 just north of Hope, leaving Highway 3 as the only main road route eastward. The 19-square-kilometre Mine Creek fire had already triggered an evacuation order and other alerts from the Thompson-Nicola Regional District for properties along the highway. Two fires have also triggered...
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Man who killed sister in Manitoba mass stabbing was out on bail: court records
By Steve Lambert The man police say killed his sister and attacked several others with a knife on Hollow Water First Nation in Manitoba was out on bail. Court records show Tyrone Simard, 26, was charged with assault with a weapon and mischief for alleged offences that happened June 8. He was also facing charges of sexual assault, sexual interference, and invitation to sexual touching from alleged incidents in 2017. The records show a Winnipeg court granted his release June 12 on both matters with various conditions, including a curfew and an order not to use drugs or alcohol or to possess weapons. He was also ordered not to contact four people. Simard was asked whether he understood the conditions. “Yes,” he told the court. Records also show Simard pleaded...
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Memoir gives voice to Sixties Scoop experience of being raised outside of Indigenous culture
By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Children Like Us: A Métis Woman’s Memoir of Family, Identity and Walking Herself Home is Brittany Penner’s account of being adopted as a baby by a Mennonite family in Manitoba and searching for her birth parents. Such an adoption practise—having white families raise Indigenous children—continues, points out Penner, who is now 36 years old. “I really keep thinking about…how many children and teenagers are still facing realities like this where…they have been cut off from their first families, where they’re being raised outside of their culture, and how it’s not something that’s in the past. It is something that is still very present across our country today,” said Penner, who has Anishinaabe, Cree and European settler lineage. When Penner started writing her...
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‘We send strength’: James Smith Cree Nation offers condolences to Hollow Water
-CP-Messages of condolences and support poured in for a Manitoba First Nation after a mass stabbing on Thursday, including from a First Nation in Saskatchewan that experienced one of its own exactly three years earlier. Police say eight people were found severely injured in two homes on Hollow Water First Nation, northeast of Winnipeg. An 18-year-old woman died while the suspect, her 26-year-old brother, died after the stolen vehicle he was driving collided with a vehicle driven by a police officer responding to the attack. Police are continuing to investigate the violence that shook the community of about 500 people on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg. The attack took place exactly three years after a mass stabbing on the James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan and the nearby community...
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