Complex climate file faces new Assembly of First Nations Chief
By Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter First Nations leadership from across the country will be descending on Ottawa to elect a new national chief, with questions remaining about how the new Assembly of First Nations leader will balance climate action with resource development. The Assembly of First Nations, AFN for short, recently released its national climate strategy, which centres on new ways of thinking about the climate crisis with an emphasis on relationality and responsibility towards Mother Earth. The strategy also de-emphasizes “technological’’ and “market-based’’ solutions. The AFN is more concerned about addressing the root cause of the climate crisis, which is an extractive mentality centred on taking without giving back to the world around us, Graeme Reed, a strategic adviser to the AFN, told Canada’s National Observer in...
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Local First Nations benefit from Jays Care Foundation food security funding
By Sam Laskaris Writer For the third straight year Indigenous communities from across Canada are benefitting from food security initiatives thanks to the Toronto Blue Jays. More than $300,000 is being invested this year into partnerships with Indigenous communities through the Jays Care Foundation, the charitable arm of the Major League Baseball franchise. Among those who will benefit from this year’s funding are members of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and Six Nations. “Everybody is doing something a little bit different,” Julia Ursini, the Jays Care Foundation program manager said of this year’s funding recipients. The varying projects include short-term initiatives such as providing funds for holiday food hampers or school food programs. And longer-term projects include starting community food banks or greenhouses. Ursini said 23 communities applied...
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Players wear Indigenous names on jerseys
By Julia Archelene Magsombol, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter This year, four junior hockey players from Golden Rockets are wearing orange jerseys with their Indigenous names on the back. The idea came from Nathan Andrew, an 18-year-old junior player and former graduate of Mount Baker Secondary School. “I took the chance. I was inspired by what Ethan Bear 1/8a Cree-Canadian professional hockey defenceman 3/8 did with his last name. I thought it’d be pretty cool. I never had the chance to express or show people that I’m proud to be Indigenous,’’ said Andrew. He explained that the idea started when he played in the Okanagan Hockey Club last year when he had the chance to have his Indigenous name on his jersey. This year he heard that his team would be...
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Miller and Monture to help lead Haudenosaunee squad at 2024 world championships
By Sam Laskaris Writer A pair of Six Nations members will be among those leading the Haudenosaunee Nationals men’s squad at the 2024 world box lacrosse championships. It was announced this past week that Landon Miller will serve as the general manager of the team. And Stew Monture has been named as an assistant coach for the team. The world tourney will be staged Sept. 20-29 in Utica, N.Y. Also announced last week was that Roger Chrysler, a member of Tuscarora Nation in the state of New York, will serve as the head coach of the club. Chrysler is currently working as an assistant coach for Halifax Thunderbirds of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The Haudenosaunee coaching staff will also include Mike Accursi and Bruce Codd, who are not Indigenous....
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Biden, White House support Indigenous lacrosse team for 2028 Olympics
By Eddie Pells THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Joe Biden is pushing to allow the Indigenous nation that invented lacrosse to play under its own flag when the sport returns to the Olympics in 2028. Biden’s position, being announced Wednesday at the White House Tribal Nations Summit, is a request for the International Olympic Committee to allow the Haudenosaunee Nationals to compete as its own team at the Los Angeles Games. That would require the IOC to make an exception to a rule that permits teams playing only as part of an official national Olympic committee to compete in the Olympics. The Haudenosaunee have competed as their own team at a number of international events since 1990. “We’re hopeful the IOC will see it our way, as well,’’ Tom Perez, the...
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Mixed results for Six Nations-based squads during Arena Lacrosse League’s opening weekend
By Sam Laskaris, Writer Two of the three Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) clubs that play their home contests in Six Nations managed to register victories in the first week of regular season action. For starters, the Paris RiverWolves hit the road this past Saturday and downed the host Peterborough Timbermen 14-12. That match was held at the Millbrook Arena. The Ohsweken Bears also emerged with a W, downing the visiting Oshawa Outlaws 17-10 in a match held on Sunday at Six Nations’ Iroquois Lacrosse Arena (ILA). As for the Six Nations Snipers, they were defeated 13-10 by the Whitby Steelhawks, in another contest held on Sunday at the ILA. The RiverWolves, Bears and Snipers all play their home matches at the ILA. The eight-team ALL’s East (Ontario) division also includes...
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Survivor’s Secretariat says it will take millions to find and search Mohawk Institute records and find the truth
By Lisa Iesse Writer SIX NATIONS OF THE GRAND – The Survivors’ Secretariat says it’s on Canada to provide the resources needed to search millions of Mohawk Institute linked documents waiting in archives and the price tag could hit over $39 million to find out what happened at the notorious school. Laura Arndt, Survivors’ Secretariat Lead, spoke at Six Nations organization’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) Tuesday (Dec. 5) at the Six Nations community hall and virtually. Arndt was joined by board members and Mohawk Institute Survivors Sherlene Bomberry, Roberta Hill, and Diane Hill. In 2021 they helped form the Secretariat to organize and support efforts to uncover, document and share the truth about what happened at the residential school in its over 140 years of operation. So far their research...
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Coastal First Nations get $60M boost from B.C. to protect Great Bear Sea
By Rochelle Baker Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A $60-million surge in provincial funding will protect the “extraordinary beauty” of B.C.’s Great Bear Sea, said Premier David Eby. The Indigenous-led funding allows coastal First Nations to push forward with a vast marine conservation network in their traditional territories to protect marine ecosystems, create new jobs and economic opportunities, and foster sustainable fisheries and tourism, the premier said at a funding announcement Tuesday. Also known as the Northern Shelf Bioregion, the area spans the coast from Quadra Island north to the Alaska border and includes Haida Gwaii and B.C.’s central coast. Often referred to as the “Galapagos of the North,” the region’s waters and lands have been stewarded by First Nations for millennia, Eby noted. “This grant will provide stable funding for...
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Police chief, who faced calls to resign after refusing to search landfill, to retire
Chief Danny Smyth told the police board he plans to retire on Sept. 3, 2024, after nearly four decades with the force, seven of those as chief. Smyth also serves as the president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. The police board says in a news release it has formed a recruitment committee to help choose Smyth’s replacement. Smyth told the police board during today’s meeting it has been an honour and a privilege to serve Winnipeg, and that he will help ensure there is a smooth transition for his successor. Smyth elicited calls for resignation last year after he said police would not search a Winnipeg-area landfill for the remains of two First Nations women believed to be the victims of an alleged serial killer. First Nations...
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Torys stage marathon vote pushing Liberals to axe carbon tax on home heating, for farmers and First Nations
OTTAW- Members of Parliament have now lost an entire day of work in the House of Commons as they continue with a voting marathon forced by the Conservatives, after sneaking in bites of burgers and Christmas card-writing overnight. The non-stop voting on 135 spending measures, which is happening both in person and online, began at 6 p.m. on Thursday and has pushed other agenda items off the table until next week. Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer says his party will not let up unless the government removes federal carbon pricing from all home heating, farmers’ activities and First Nations. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sat in the House overnight for the votes, and when asked today whether he’d “axe the tax,” as Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre puts it, he said he...
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AMC calls for criminalization of residential school denialism
By Miranda Leybourne Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is lobbying Ottawa to make denying the history of residential schools in Canada a criminal offence. Late last month, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) put out a call to Justice Minister Arif Virani and the federal government to move forward on a recommendation made by special interlocutor Kimberly Murray to make residential school denialism punishable under Canadian law. According to a press release sent out by the AMC on Nov. 28, the legislation would provide a legal mechanism to address the denial of the existence of and harm caused by residential schools, which the association says undermines the experience of First Nations Canadians who went to such institutions. “This is an opportunity for Canada to demonstrate an...
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Indigenous lawsuit ‘unprecedented in this country,’ says lawyer
By John Chilibeck Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Hugh Cameron raised a big white binder several inches thick with both hands in the air and let it drop to the courtroom table in front of him with a thud. The lawyer representing Acadian Timber wanted to emphasize to the judge in front of him on Wednesday that it would be absurd to force the company and several other tree-cutting firms to provide a Wolastoqey Nation lawsuit to prospective buyers of their land or lenders who need property as collateral. The Wolastoqey Nation wants its traditional Indigenous territory back that encompasses all western New Brunswick and has filed legal proceedings against the big tree-cutting firms, seeking certificates of pending litigation. Such certificates would provide official court notice to the public that a...
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N.L. university hires consultants on Indigenous heritage after president removed
ST. JOHN’S, N.L.- Memorial University has hired consultants to advise the school on Indigenous verification eight months after it was embroiled in a controversy over First Nations ancestry. On April 6 the university in Newfoundland and Labrador removed president Vianne Timmons from her role after she faced weeks of scrutiny about her claims of Indigenous heritage. The move came after CBC News raised questions about Timmons’s claims that her father’s great-great-grandmother was Mi’kmaq, which prompted Timmons to issue an apology. Memorial has since confirmed it has hired First Peoples Group to prepare and plan for consultations with Indigenous leaders, Indigenous organizations, faculty, staff and students. The Ottawa-based company describes itself as a certified Aboriginal business that offers training, facilitation and relationship-building services. The university says the consultations will take place...
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Gwich’in Nation delegation travels to Washington, D.C. to discuss ANWR
By Amy Kenny Local Journalism Initiative Reporter We’ve lost count, that’s what Gwich’in tribal leaders say about the number of times they’ve travelled to Washington, D.C. to discuss the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Seventeen representatives of the Gwich’in Nation from across Canada and the U.S. are in Washington this week to meet with the Biden administration and congress about protecting ANWR from oil and gas drilling. Three of those representatives spoke with the News from D.C. on Dec. 4. Karlas Norman was one of them. “We want to make it as easy to protect that land as it is to open it to development,” said Norman, a council member with the Arctic Village Council. “It should be as easy to protect life as it is to start an oil...
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Manitoba government prepares plan to deal with larger deficit as legislature breaks
By Steve Lambert THE CANADIAN PRESS WINNIPEG- Manitoba’s NDP government plans to review some of the commitments made by the former Progressive Conservative government in order to address a larger-than-expected deficit, Premier Wab Kinew said Thursday. “We are going to be ? pulling back on certain areas where we need to tighten our belt as government,” Kinew told reporters after delivering his annual state of the province speech to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. “Because of vacant positions or initiatives that didn’t get off the ground, we’re able just to hold those initiatives back. In other areas, it has to do with commitments that were made which the leg work was never done to be able to deliver on.” Kinew said details are to be revealed next week as part...
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Cindy Woodhouse paints self portrait of unifying force as AFN’s new national chief
By Alessia Passafiume THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA- After a late night and long morning of voting, deal-making, concession speeches and tense last-minute pleading, Cindy Woodhouse was elected Thursday as the new national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. In her new post, Woodhouse, 40, faces the daunting task of uniting more than 600 chiefs after years of bitter internal strife, punctuated with complaints from chiefs that the assembly often neglects their best interests. That’s why Woodhouse and David Pratt, the challenger whose strong showing throughout 15 hours of voting Wednesday kept him in the race, took to the Ottawa convention centre floor in a hand-in-hand show of unity. “I knew it wasn’t doing our convention any good to prolong it when we’re facing a housing crisis, when we’re facing...
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Bills to commemorate Orange Shirt Day and Louis Riel pass final vote in Manitoba
WINNIPEG-A bill to make Orange Shirt day a statutory holiday in Manitoba has passed its final vote in the legislature. The bill will ensure that workers under provincial jurisdiction get a day off, or holiday pay if they work, every Sept. 30. The day, also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, commemorates Indigenous children who attended residential schools. The day is already a statutory holiday for federally regulated workers and employees in some other provinces such as British Columbia. The legislature also passed a bill to designate Metis leader Louis Riel as Manitoba’s honorary first premier. Both bills are scheduled to come into effect Thursday after receiving royal assent by the lieutenant-governor. The bills were a campaign promise of the New Democrats and Premier Wab Kinew, whose...
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New AFN chief ‘absolutely’ supports Ontario chiefs in push for carbon price review
By Stephanie Taylor THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA- The incoming leader of the Assembly of First Nations says she’ll back demands by chiefs in Ontario for a judicial review of Canada’s carbon price. Cindy Woodhouse, a former regional chief from Manitoba, was elected Thursday as the assembly’s national chief _ leader of the largest First Nations advocacy organization in the country, representing more than 600 communities. The Chiefs of Ontario, which represents 133 First Nations, asked the Federal Court to undertake a judicial review of the federal government’s carbon pricing system. Shortly after taking the oath of office, Woodhouse told a news conference in Ottawa that she’s “absolutely” willing to support the application, and wants the AFN to take a closer look of its own at the carbon regime. “From what...
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‘He’s got a battle, but this group seems pretty good’
By Emily Blake and Aastha Sethi Local Journalism Initiative Reporter “All of the communities in the South Slave will be very excited we have a new premier from the South Slave,” said Chief April Martel of the Kat?’odeeche First Nation. Martel wants the new government to consult Indigenous people and bring Indigenous leaders to Ottawa when advocating for the territory or seeking federal funding. Simpson has said he wants that to happen, too. “They really need to work par with us,” Martel said of the GNWT. “We talk about truth and reconciliation … but it just started, beginning with the last government, so we need to really strongly advocate for all those things.” Premier Caroline Cochrane led that last government. On the last full day before handing over to Simpson,...
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The Assembly of First Nations has a new leader…National Chief Cindy Woodhouse
The Assembly of First Nations new National Chief Cindy Woodhouse...
