Montreal metro constable charged with armed assault against Indigenous person
A special constable working in Montreal’s metro system is facing assault charges against an Indigenous person. Quebec’s police watchdog says the 39-year-old constable has been charged with armed assault and assault, with the case returning to court in May. Charging documents filed in Quebec court say the alleged offences occurred in the Berri-UQAM metro station on Jan. 13, 2025. The alleged victim was a member of the Cree Nation and was not badly injured. The watchdog — Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes — is mandated to investigate criminal allegations targeting police officers, including all cases where the alleged victim or complainant is Indigenous. In 2021 inspectors with the transit agency became special constables — the status of peace officer subject to Quebec’s Police Act. This report by The Canadian Press was...
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Brantford Police Make Arrest in two decade old Baby Parker Investigation
BRANTFORD,ONT- After 21-years the Brantford Police Service (BPS) have arrested and charged a woman in the death of Baby Parker. A 39-year-old woman, who was from Brantford at the tme of the incident, is a facing a series of charges The charges come after a citizen discovered the deceased body of a full-term newborn baby boy July 28, 2005, in the area of the walking trails near Dufferin Avenue and Parkside Drive in Brantford. BPS launched an extensive investigation into the identity of the unknown infant who became known as Baby Parker. Until now, neither the child’s mother nor father had been identified. Police have been able to identify the mother of Baby Parker with the assistance of the Toronto Police Service, and the use of new DNA technologies and...
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Judge says he will order Greenpeace to pay an expected $345 million in oil pipeline protest case
By Jack Dura BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota judge has said he will order Greenpeace to pay damages expected to total $345 million in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline from nearly a decade ago, a figure the environmental group contends it cannot pay. In court papers filed Tuesday, Judge James Gion said he would sign an order requiring several Greenpeace entities to pay the judgment to pipeline company Energy Transfer. He set that amount at $345 million last year in a decision that reduced a jury’s damages by about half, but his latest filing didn’t specify a final amount. The long-awaited order is expected to launch an appeal process in the North Dakota Supreme Court from both sides. Last year, a nine-person jury found...
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Overcrowded housing in First Nations ‘nothing new’: Regional Chief
By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, NWOnewswatch.com THUNDER BAY — Ontario First Nations leaders continue to push for resources to improve housing. That’s according to Ontario Regional Chief Abram Benedict, who helped open the 23rd edition of the First Nations Housing Conference on Tuesday. “Before the tariff war that has impacted … the economy in different ways, the Government of Canada was grappling with a housing shortage,” he said. “And, sadly, for many of our communities, the housing shortage, inadequate housing, overcrowded housing is nothing new.” “We’ve had a crisis in our communities for a very long time.” The conference brings together community leaders, housing managers, government funding agencies, builders and maintenance people, industry representatives and more to work to improve housing in First Nations through an Indigenous-led lens....
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Feds decide against impact assessment on Ring of Fire mine
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, SNnewswatch.com NESKANTAGA — The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) has decided not to conduct an assessment of the Eagle’s Nest mine project in the Ring of Fire, and at least one First Nation chief in the region is unhappy with the decision. A thorough impact assessment must be done because Eagle’s Nest “is not an overnight project, it’s pretty much a lifetime project,” Neskantaga Chief Gary Quisess said Wednesday. Quisess said an impact assessment for the proposed mega-mine “should be done properly — you know, it should not be rushed.” “The Ring of Fire is a very historical area,” he added. “That’s our culture, our ancestors, where we survived from.” Quisess said he was too busy dealing with a recent death in...
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Mi’kmaq treaty rights organization Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn gets new director
By Rosemary Godin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cape Breton Post The long-time executive director of the Mi’kmaq treaty advocacy group known as Kwilmu’kw Maw‑klusuaqn (KMK), Janice Maloney, is stepping down and taking on a new position after 20 years. She is being followed in the position by Mi’kmaq rights advocate Nathan W. Sack of Sipekne’katik. The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs (Assembly) made the announcement this week. Janice Maloney served as executive director for 21 years. She is moving on to a new role as senior strategic negotiator for KMK and the Made-In-Nova Scotia Process. The Made-in-Nova Scotia Process is the forum for Mi’kmaq, Nova Scotia and Canada to resolve issues related to Mi’kmaq treaty rights and Aboriginal rights, including Aboriginal title and Mi’kmaq governance. The process involves the...
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After years of legal wrangling, Enbridge begins rerouting pipeline around Wisconsin reservation
By Todd Richmond MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Energy company Enbridge has finally started work on rerouting an aging oil pipeline around a tribal reservation in northern Wisconsin after seven years of legal wrangling, moving ahead despite two new lawsuits that still could delay the project indefinitely. About 12 miles (19 kilometers) of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline runs across the Bad River Band of Lake Superior’s reservation along the shores of Lake Superior. The tribe sued Enbridge in 2019 to force the company to remove the section from its land, arguing land easements allowing operation expired six years earlier and the 73-year-old pipeline was prone to a catastrophic spill. A judge in 2023 gave the company until this June to remove the segment from the reservation. The Bad River and conservation...
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Child poverty rose for third consecutive year: Campaign 2000 report
By Nicole Thompson An organization that campaigns to end child poverty says a growing number of children are living in households that struggle to pay bills and buy food. The 2025 report card from Campaign 2000 says 30,000 more kids fell into poverty in 2023, the latest national data available. That means the child poverty rate climbed for the third year in a row, which the advocates say shows that efforts to reverse the trend are not working. The report says 1.4 million kids now live in poverty, with single-parent households particularly at risk, according to family income data. That’s a child poverty rate of 18.3 per cent. It says 45 per cent of children in lone-parent families live in poverty, compared to 10.1% in couple families. The organization says...
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Wikwemikong Police chart new path rooted in culture, prevention and community care
By Jacqueline M. St.Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor WIIKWEMKOONG—On an Island where the roads braid through cedar and lake mist, where ceremonies outlast sirens, the Wikwemikong Tribal Police Service (WTPS) is rewriting what safety looks like. Their 2026–2029 strategic plan is less a bureaucratic ledger than a promise: protection braided with compassion, enforcement tempered by ceremony, and a steady pivot from reaction to prevention. In a community of more than 8,000 citizens, where the weight of colonial policy still echoes through housing shortages, addictions and justice inequities, the plan acknowledges the hard truths — then gets to work. The drumbeat of change does not always sound like thunder. Sometimes it is the steady footfall of officers walking the bush trails at dawn, the murmur of Elders guiding...
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Waste plan concerns including First Nations transportation issues go to NWMO
By Carl Clutchey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle-Journal Potential impacts on ground-water, tourism, mental health, as well as the prospect of truck crashes involving radioactive materials, are among a myriad of concerns being formally raised in response to a proposed underground nuclear waste storage site near Ignace. The concerns are included in the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada’s “summary of issues,” which it compiled from feedback it received on an initial project description document put forward by the waste site’s proponent, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO). The public had until Feb. 4 to submit feedback after the NWMO’s lengthy initial project description was made available for review over a 30-day period. “The proponent is required to provide a response that sets out how it intends to address the...
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New bill increases fines, enforcement powers for illegal cannabis in Nova Scotia
The Nova Scotia government has tabled legislation to strengthen cannabis enforcement amid its crackdown on illegal dispensaries across the province. Justice Minister Scott Armstrong says his bill increases fines and allows peace officers like constables and conservation officers to enforce cannabis rules alongside police. The bill also introduces a new offence for landlords who knowingly allow unregulated cannabis dispensaries to operate on their property. The provincial government issued a directive on Dec. 4 for police to prioritize the enforcement of illegal cannabis and penned a letter to 13 Mi’kmaw chiefs asking for their co-operation. The directive has prompted criticism that Premier Tim Houston’s government may be interfering with law enforcement to target First Nations communities. Provincial law strictly controls the sale of cannabis, which is done through Nova Scotia Liquor...
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Canada pledges $8 million in food aid for Cuba as U.S. fuel blockade continues
By Dylan Robertson Canada is sending $8 million in food aid to Cuba, where a U.S. oil blockade has triggered a humanitarian crisis. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and MP Randeep Sarai, secretary of state for international development, said Wednesday the funding is meant to address urgent needs. The money will be delivered through United Nations agencies instead of the Cuban government. “The humanitarian situation in Cuba is becoming quite grave,” Sarai told reporters Wednesday. Global Affairs Canada has warned travellers for more than a year of “shortages of basic necessities, including food, medicine and fuel,” across most of Cuba. The island lost its main source of fuel in January when the U.S. took control of Venezuela’s oil reserves and Washington has since threatened to impose tariffs on countries sending...
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Federal funding will flow toward addiction recovery on Manitoulin and N. Shore
By Jacqueline M. St.Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor MANITOULIN—The North has learned to count in absences. Empty chairs at kitchen tables. Snowbanks that remember the shape of someone who never came home. Ambulance lights flickering across frozen bays like a warning no one can outrun. Last week, in nearby Sault Ste. Marie, the federal government announced more than $11.4 million through the Emergency Treatment Fund (ETF) for eight projects across Ontario—funding meant to loosen the opioid crisis’ chokehold on communities that have buried too many, too young. For Manitoulin Island and the North Shore of Lake Huron, the announcement lands not as abstract policy, but as a thin, stubborn thread of hope. A region at the epicentre From Manitoulin Island to the North Shore communities stretching east...
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Buy Ontario Act risks excluding Indigenous businesses, Northern groups warn
By Jacqueline M. St. Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor NORTHERN ONTARIO — Bill 72, Ontario’s Buy Ontario Act arrives wrapped in the warm language of resilience, its promise simple and seductive: keep supply chains close, keep dollars at home, keep Ontario strong. But in the North, where distance is a fact of life and economies grow along different fault lines, some hear a colder echo beneath the rhetoric. The Anishnawbe Business Professional Association (ABPA) has filed a formal strategic review, warning that the Buy Ontario Act, 2025 risks systematically sidelining First Nations businesses. At issue are definitions that appear neutral on paper yet tilt the field toward southern, urban, non-Indigenous firms. Employee thresholds, permanent headquarters requirements and corporate governance criteria may read like standard procurement language. In...
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Indigenous rights defenders say they’ll ‘not stay silent’ after anti-protest bylaw defeated in ‘Winnipeg’
By Crystal Greene, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews Indigenous activists joined other social movements in “Winnipeg” to help defeat a proposed city bylaw they say would have silenced dissent and free speech — including Indigenous rights advocacy. Last week, residents gathered outside city hall against a draft bylaw that many say would put a chilling effect on their constitutional right to protest. More than 800 people showed up to protest the proposal, in addition to thousands of online submissions against it. Facing widespread outcry, the city councillor behind the motion withdrew his support, shelving the bylaw even as public anger continued. But some opponents fear the attempt could resurface some day and vow to continue raising their voices. One of those decrying the bylaw was Vivian Ketchum, an Anishinaabe grandmother...
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Penguins place Sidney Crosby on injured reserve after missing Olympic final
Sidney Crosby says he felt he was “close” to playing in the men’s hockey gold-medal game at the Milan Cortina Olympics. The injury he sustained in the Olympic tournament quarterfinals, however, will keep the Pittsburgh Penguins captain sidelined at least a month. The Penguins placed Crosby on injured reserve Wednesday with a lower-body injury. Crosby, Canada’s captain at the Olympics, was injured in the quarterfinals when his leg bent awkwardly on a hit from Czechia defenceman Radko Gudas. Canada’s Sidney Crosby (87) heads to the locker room with an injury during the second period of a quarterfinal men’s hockey game against Czechia at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck The 38-year-old hoped to recover in time to play the Americans for...
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Métis leaders unveil 1920s model dog sled repatriated from Vatican
By Alessia Passafiume Métis leaders Wednesday unveiled a model dog sled repatriated to their communities after more than a century in the Vatican collection. The sled, made in the 1920s of leather, wood and glass beads, was one of 62 items repatriated to Indigenous Peoples from the Vatican last year after decades of calls for their return. “We’re not simply opening a box — we’re welcoming something very special home. We’re beginning a new chapter: a chapter that’s grounded in relationship, kinship and connection,” Métis National Council President Victoria Pruden said during the ceremony. “They hold the imprint of the hands that made them, and the communities who once knew them.” Métis dog sleds and teams were used for transporting goods and mail, trapping and carrying passengers from the 18th...
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The Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) marked Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S+) Valentine’s Day Feb.14th
The Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) marked Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S+) Valentine’s Day Feb.14th by hanging red ties as a tribute at the Historic Council House and Three Fires site. MCFN joined a country wide movement to confront violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people, reaffirmed its commitment to awareness, accountability and meaningful change....
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Six Nations holds, administers the funding for the Iroquois Caucus
Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) Councillor Cynthia Jamieson discussed the responsibility during the General Council meeting on February 10. SNEC accepted a recommendation from the Unity Building, External Governance and Justice Committee regarding the Iroquois Caucus hiring of Kimberly Martin as the new Coordinator, ffective February 2, 2026 as information. The Iroquois Caucus is a collaborative alliance of six Haudenosaunee communities in Ontario and Quebec — Kahnawà:ke, Kanehsatà:ke, Akwesasne, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Six Nations of the Grand River and Oneida Nation of the Thames — that meets quarterly to address shared priorities, including jurisdiction, lands, resources and culture. SNEC also reviewed administrative procedures tied to Six Nations’ fiduciary role in the Iroquois Caucus. Jamieson raised questions about contract authorization and payroll processing. “Six Nations has been and currently is, holds...
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Six Nations Elected Council looks to push for an integrated health system
Long-term care transitions, a push for an integrated health system, education reform efforts and cross-border travel concerns were at the forefront of committee updates during the Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) General Council meeting earlier this month. Councillor Amos Key, the Well-Being Committee chair said a long-awaited agreement between the City of Brantford, the Ministry of Long-Term Care and Six Nations is nearing completion, a move that will allow planning to begin for the transition of Six Nations residents from Delhi to the new Fox Ridge facility in Brantford. Key thanked residents and families for their patience, calling the process “a long journey” that is finally nearing resolution. At the same time, SNEC continues to wrestle with broader long-term care restoration efforts, which have faced delays and rising costs. To...
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