Media veterans tell inquiry of pervasive influence wielded by China, India in Canada
Canadian Press The Chinese community in Canada has long been caught in the crosshairs of political discourse, disinformation and propaganda originating from the Communist Party in Beijing, a media industry veteran told a public inquiry Tuesday. If Beijing seeks to influence or interfere in Canada’s democratic processes, one of its most effective tools is the Chinese-language media, said Hong Kong-born Victor Ho, who came to Canada in 1997 and worked in newspaper and radio journalism over the years. From Toronto to Vancouver, much of the Chinese-language media operates “under the immense influence” of the Communist Party, Ho said. The ongoing commission of inquiry’s latest hearings are focusing on detecting and countering foreign meddling. A final report from the inquiry is due by the end of the year. Ho was part...
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B.C. father and daughter accuse Canadian Tire, security company of racism, profiling Slugline: Canadian-Tire-Racism
(CP) COQUITLAM BC-An Indigenous father and daughter in British Columbia are accusing Canadian Tire and its third-party security company of racial profiling and racism after they say he was singled out at a store in Coquitlam and an employee responded with a racist comment. Dawn Wilson is speaking publicly about the human rights complaint she and her father, Richard Wilson, filed after years of trying to settle the dispute herself, saying she hopes it will lead to systemic change at the retail giant. The complaint alleges that on Jan. 17, 2020, the pair purchased new tires for installation and shopped in-store while they waited. At the checkout, Wilson says a guard with the company Blackbird Security asked to search her father’s backpack, despite other customers also having similar bags. Wilson,...
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N.B. election: Conservative candidate compares LGBTQ policy to residential schools
(CP)-A Progressive Conservative candidate in New Brunswick’s election is facing calls to withdraw after she compared the province’s former policy on gender identity in schools with the residential school system. Sherry Wilson, Tory candidate in the Albert-Riverview riding, was referencing the policy allowing teachers to use the preferred first names and pronouns of trans and non-binary students. Claiming “parents rights,” the Progressive Conservative government under Premier Blaine Higgs modified that guidance in 2023, requiring that teachers get parental consent before they can use the preferred names of students under 16. Wilson, in a Facebook post on Monday marking National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, said the residential school system isolated Indigenous children from their parents, traditional values and family culture. She says isolating children from parents “must never be allowed...
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Montana US Senate candidate says derogatory comments about Native Americans were ‘insensitive’
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Montana Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy acknowledged Monday that derogatory remarks he made last year about Native Americans were “insensitive.” But Sheehy rejected his opponent’s call to apologize, during a contentious debate in a race that’s emerged as pivotal for control of the Senate. Three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Jon Tester had challenged Sheehy over remarks last year in which the Republican told a group of laughing supporters about bonding “with all the Indians … while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.,” while working cattle at a ranch on the Crow Indian Reservation. “Yeah, insensitive,” responded Sheehy, a former U.S. Navy SEAL. “I come from the military as many of our tribal members do. You know, we make insensitive jokes and probably off color-jokes sometimes.” Sheehy then...
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As many forests fail to recover from wildfires, replanting efforts face huge odds – and obstacles
BELLVUE, Colo. (AP) — Camille Stevens-Rumann crouched in the dirt and leaned over evergreen seedlings, measuring how much each had grown in seven months. “That’s two to three inches of growth on the spruce,” said Stevens-Rumann, interim director at the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute. Her research team is monitoring several species planted two years ago on a slope burned during the devastating 2020 Cameron Peak fire, which charred 326 square miles (844 square kilometers) in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. They want to determine which species are likely to survive at various elevations, because climate change makes it difficult or impossible for many forests to regrow even decades after wildfires. As the gap between burned areas and replanting widens year after year, scientists see big challenges beyond where to put...
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Seminole Hard Rock Tampa evacuated twice after suspicious devices found at the casino
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Seminole Hard Rock Tampa was evacuated Sunday night and again on Monday after the discovery of two suspicious devices at the Florida hotel and casino, officials said. Tribal police described the crude concealed devices as having fireworks components, but it wasn’t immediately clear how dangerous they were or who left them. The first device was discovered shortly before midnight Sunday in a men’s restroom near the Casino, police said in a news release. Part of the casino was immediately evacuated, and the device was removed by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Disposal Team, officials said. The casino reopened around 3 a.m. As part of the investigation into the first device, a second device was discovered in another men’s restroom in the casino just after...
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Native Americans in Montana ask court for more in-person voting sites
bILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Native Americans living on a remote Montana reservation filed a lawsuit against state and county officials Monday saying they don’t have enough places to vote in person — the latest chapter in a decades-long struggle by tribes in the United States over equal voting opportunities. The six members of the Fort Peck Reservation want satellite voting offices in their communities for late registration and to vote before Election Day without making long drives to a county courthouse. The legal challenge, filed in state court, comes five weeks before the presidential election in a state with a a pivotal U.S. Senate race where the Republican candidate has made derogatory comments about Native Americans. Native Americans were granted U.S. citizenship a century ago. Advocates say the right still...
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Survivors call for reversal of Canada’s ‘cut’ to residential school search spending
Canadian Press-Residential school survivors say the federal government is keeping the truth about those institutions in the dark by cutting back on funding for records and ground searches looking for unmarked graves of children who died at the schools. More than 150,000 children were forced to attend residential schools, and many survivors detailed the horrific abuse they suffered to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. An estimated 6,000 children died while attending the schools, although experts say the actual number could be much higher. In 2021, after numerous First Nations reported locating what appeared to be human remains on the sites of former residential schools, Ottawa stepped in with more than $116 million to search for unmarked graves and to memorialize the children who died. As of March 2024, the government...
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B.C. Conservative Leader Rustad vows to ‘unleash potential’ for Indigenous prosperity
(CP)-The federal government has been “absent” and failing to live up to commitments to First Nations on housing and clean water, and a B.C. Conservative government would fix the problems, then send Ottawa the bill, Leader John Rustad said Monday. Rustad said if his party wins the Oct. 19 provincial election, B.C. would partner with First Nations and “unleash the potential” for prosperity through mining, forestry and other resource projects. He has previously pledged to repeal B.C. legislation adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and his party said in a release it would instead honour the declaration “as it was intended,” with laws advancing economic reconciliation and Indigenous autonomy. All three party leaders turned their attention to First Nations on Monday on the National Day...
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National ceremony in Ottawa marks Truth and Reconciliation Day
(CP)-OTTAWA-The smell of sage and sweetgrass floated in the air Monday over a mostly sombre ceremony to reflect on the legacy of residential schools and remember those who survived — and the thousands who didn’t. But amid the more difficult moments at the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremony on Parliament Hill Monday came a few moments of levity and celebration. “We’ve got tomorrow, we’ll live for a brighter day,” sang Diyet & the Love Soldiers performing their song We’re Still Here, while dignitaries and children alike got up on their feet and started dancing. Ribbon skirts twirled and orange shirts blazed through the crowd under the heat of a late September sun and a nearly clear blue sky. Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, her orange T-shirt clearly visible under...
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Indigenous-related capital markets activity set to grow significantly: Morningstar
(CP)-International credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS is predicting significant growth in Indigenous-related project finance transactions in Canada. The agency says Indigenous-related capital markets activity is on a steady upward trend with considerable potential for more. It says lack of access to capital at reasonable rates has been a key barrier to Indigenous peoples’ ability to participate in the economy, but government financing programs are starting to move the needle. Morningstar DBRS pegs the value of Indigenous financing activity, including government loan guarantees, at almost $800 million annually over the past five years. It also points out there are several high-profile transactions involving Indigenous communities on the horizon, including Ottawa’s planned sale of the Trans Mountain pipeline to Indigenous groups, TC Energy Corp.’s planned sale of its NGTL pipeline system to...
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Statement by Canada’s Prime Minister on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
September 30, 2024 Ottawa, Ontario The 24-hour safe and confidential National Residential School Crisis Line, available at 1-866-925-4419, provides crisis referral services to Survivors and their families and explains how to obtain other health supports from the Government of Canada. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis seeking immediate emotional support can also contact the Hope for Wellness Help Line toll-free at 1-855-242-3310, or by online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca. The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: “On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, we confront the lasting and painful impact of the residential school system on First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in our country. We remember the children who never returned home. We honour the Survivors, who suffered...
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‘This actually happened in our country’: Nipissing First Nation marks National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
By Rocco Frangione, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter WARNING: This article contains details of residential schools and may be upsetting to some readers. Julie Dalgliesh organized a sunrise ceremony to begin the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which acknowledges and recognizes the impact residential schools had on First Nations people across Canada. Like many people, Dalgliesh was unaware young First Nation boys and girls were put in residential schools and often abused both physically and sexually. Her mom left the Nipissing First Nation as a teenager and as a result, Dalgliesh was born in Toronto. She visited Nipissing regularly while growing up and during that time she had no idea that quite a few of the adults she engaged with, including her grandfather George Couchie, were survivors of the Spanish...
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Ontario MPP seeks paid provincial holiday for Truth and Reconciliation day
(CP)-Ontario’s only First Nation representative at Queen’s Park plans to soon table proposed legislation, in his own Indigenous language, to have the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation declared a paid provincial holiday. The day is a federal statutory holiday, but not a provincial one in Ontario. New Democrat deputy leader Sol Mamakwa, who represents the northwestern riding of Kiiwetinoong, wants Ontario to follow the federal government’s lead and said he hopes Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives will support the idea. “It’s always First Nations who take the day off and do their thing and go reconcile, but I think it’s important for other Ontarians to have that day off to acknowledge, to reflect, to mourn, to learn of the real history of residential school,” Mamakwa said in an interview....
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One dead, large police presence at B.C. First Nation on Vancouver Island
(CP)-Police on Vancouver Island say emergency response officers had to be called in to make an arrest after a man was found dead at a British Columbia First Nations community. The RCMP say police were called to Ditidaht First Nations some 150 kilometres northwest of Victoria on Saturday morning, where officers found the victim as well as a “situation at hand” requiring multiple support units to be called in. Police say the support units included the Emergency Response Team consisting of tactical officers trained in “penetrating blockades and strongholds,” as well as “responding to barricaded armed subjects.” Officers then successfully arrested one male suspect in what police are calling an isolated incident and a case of suspicious death without releasing further details. Ditidaht First Nation chief councillor Judi Thomas says...
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Labrador residents say “inhumane” food prices force families to go hungry
(CP)- A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are “inhumane” and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food. Rosie Harris lives in a blended family with seven children in Nain, the northernmost community in Labrador. She and her husband have three jobs between them — it’s the only way they can afford enough food to feed the entire family, she said. Last winter, when they had just two sources of income, they regularly skipped meals so their children could eat, Harris said. She still feels anxious some mornings when she reaches for a slice of toast, like she’s taking something from her family. “It was hard getting back into a routine of,...
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Haudenosaunee Confederacy women earn world box lacrosse bronze medal
(CP)–The Haudenosaunee Confederacy earned the first bronze medal awarded in a women’s world box lacrosse championship Saturday in Utica, N.Y. A women’s championship was included for the first time in the sixth edition of the world box championship. The Haudenosaunee, whose territory includes the Six Nations in southern Ontario, defeated Australia 21-4 for bronze. Canada will face the United States for gold medals in both the men’s and women’s finals on Sunday. Box lacrosse will return to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 after the sport’s previous appearances in 1904 in St. Louis and 1908 in London. The Haudenosaunee men were to play for bronze later Saturday against England. After a run of five straight silver medals, the Haudenosaunee men were toppled 12-11 in the semifinals by the...
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Dozen First Nations oppose bringing nuclear waste to region
By Carl Clutchey, Local Journalism Initiative reporter Fort William First Nation and Gull Bay First Nation are among a dozen regional Indigenous communities that are formally opposing a plan to transport spent nuclear-fuel rods to a potential underground storage facility near Ignace. In a letter to Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) president Laurie Swami that was made public on Friday, the chiefs of the 12 communities collectively “cite the potential for spills or leaks that could happen on site, or while the waste is being transported through their communities, watersheds, air sheds, and lands they rely on for their way of life.” “They note that the waste will remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years, far longer than any human structure ever built.” The other 10 First Nations whose...
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First Nations, Inuit and Metis leaders say work lays ahead on road to reconciliation
(CP)-The Liberal party of today is not quite the same as the one elected in 2015 promising to foster new paths and nation-to-nation relationships with Indigenous Peoples, the leaders of the three national Indigenous organizations said as they look ahead to the fourth National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Monday. “Our reconciliation moment that started in 2015 really had, in the beginning, this blue-sky hope of a changed Canada,” said Natan Obed, the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, an organization that serves as the national voice for 70,000 Inuit in Canada. “Now, in many cases, we’re trying to figure out how to implement our clear positions — the things that we hope to do to implement our rights or to build a better relationship with this country. But we’re...
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Sioux Valley moving ahead with highway project
By Connor McDowell, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Brandon Sun The Trans-Canada Highway will have a new sight for travellers in Westman next spring — a structure to house the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation gaming centre and food and hospitality businesses. Sioux Valley Chief Vince Tacan told the Sun the self-governing nation has put down a $1-million deposit for development at the corner of Highway 21 and the Trans-Canada. A building is set to be delivered to the site in early 2025, paving the way for growth near the Sioux Valley Petro gas station. “By the spring, we’ll have the building in place,” said Tacan. “The objective is to build that site. We want it to be a commercial as well as a tourism location.” Tacan said the nation is moving...
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