Six Nations holds traditional games day
By Carly McHugh, Writer Traditional Games Day teaches youth about culture, community It was all fun and games when local youth gathered at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena (ILA) on Sept. 12. Presented by Ganohkwasra Family Assault Support Services and the Six Nations Police, the sixth-annual Traditional Games Day introduced participants to Haudenosaunee games and related teachings they would traditionally receive in the longhouse. Seventeen youth aged 14 to 18, along with two youth mentors, came together to play lacrosse, peach pit, bone and toggle and tug of war, as well as show off their archery skills. Participants were treated to a free catered lunch and had a chance to win giveaway prizes, including a recurve bow and arrow. They also heard from a guest speaker, community lacrosse coach Wayne Hill....
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Wildfire evacuation orders lifted in Cariboo region in B.C. Interior
Several evacuation orders prompted by wildfires in British Columbia’s Interior have been rescinded, although residents in a portion of the area will remain on alert. The Cariboo Regional District and the Ulkatcho First Nation say in a joint statement that the order issued on Sept. 5 because of the Dusty Lake and Beef Creek Trail wildfires may still be reissued if the fires threaten properties again. The statement says part of the previous Dusty Lake order area is still on evacuation alert for nearby Holtry Creek, which covers 65 parcels of land and about 268 square kilometres. Alerts have also been lifted in the Smokey Lake fire area that has been under caution since Sept. 14. The BC Wildfire Service said this week that fall-like weather has aided the fight...
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LeBlanc, MacKinnon take over for Freeland as she leaves Carney’s cabinet
By Kyle Duggan and Dylan Robertson Chrystia Freeland abruptly left Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet on Tuesday to take on a new role as Canada’s special envoy for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Freeland’s decision to step down from Carney’s front bench prompted a hastily organized mini-cabinet shuffle late in the day at Rideau Hall, where Freeland’s two roles were divided up among other cabinet ministers. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc was sworn in as internal trade minister, while government House leader Steven MacKinnon took over the transport portfolio. Freeland announced her resignation from cabinet on Tuesday following media reports that cited anonymous sources saying she was expected to leave. She left Tuesday’s regular cabinet meeting smiling and talking with Carney as they walked past TV cameras, but neither stopped to...
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Colchester council refers event funding to tourism committee
By Sam McBain, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Advocate The Municipality of Colchester County unanimously voted to refer a request from the Central Nova Civic Society for $150,000 to a yet-to-be operational tourism committee. The funding request, dealt with at a recent council meeting, was for two separate events: The Nova Scotia Stampede and the World Under 17 Hockey Challenge. Both are events that are hosted by the Nova Scotia CCS with the Stampede being held on the Sept 18-21 at the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition Grounds and the World Hockey Challenge being hosted on Oct. 31-Nov. 8 at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre. They’ve also asked for an equal contribution of $150,000 from the Town of Truro. However there hasn’t been a committed contribution from them yet. “Council does...
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Nisga’a Nation can help convince other nations for LNG export site off coast: Eby
By Wolfgang Depner British Columbia Premier David Eby says his government is “counting” on the Nisga’a First Nation to help “increase the level of support” among other nations that opposed a massive liquefied natural gas export facility soon to float off the northwestern coast. Eby says his government will support the Nisga’a, while acknowledging “there is still work ahead” to get other area First Nations on board that opposed the Ksi Lisims LNG project, which has a limited window to get off the ground. Both the provincial and federal government have signed off on the facility that is an agreement with the Nisga’a, Rockies LNG Limited Partnership and Western LNG, but four of six other First Nations asked to provide consent did not grant it, and numerous environmental groups are...
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Richmond, B.C, mayor won’t seek re-election after 25 years in the role
By Nono Shen The mayor of Richmond, B.C., says he has decided not to seek re-election next year, wrapping up what will be a 25-year tenure in the role. Malcolm Brodie says it has been an honour and privilege to serve the city through “times of growth, opportunity and challenge.” Brodie points to the recent Cowichan Tribes ruling by British Columbia Supreme Court as one of the challenges his successor will need to tackle. The ruling last month granted the Cowichan Tribes Aboriginal title over a portion of almost 7 1/2 square kilometres of land they claimed in Richmond, as well as fishing rights along a stretch of the south arm of the Fraser River. The City of Richmond has since filed a notice of appeal in the case, with...
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Freeland resigns from cabinet as she takes on new role as special envoy to Ukraine
By Kyle Duggan and Dylan Robertson Chrystia Freeland is quitting Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet and taking on a new role as Canada’s special envoy for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Freeland announced her resignation as transport minister on Tuesday. She said she will remain in the House of Commons as an MP for her Toronto riding of University-Rosedale but will not seek re-election. She left Tuesday’s regular cabinet meeting smiling and talking with Carney as they walked past TV cameras. Neither stopped to answer questions from reporters stationed outside the room. Instead, the news came out through media leaks before the cabinet meeting, and social media posts about an hour afterward. “A great strength of democracy is that no one holds political office in perpetuity. After twelve fulfilling years in...
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First nation leads effort to monitor orca-threatening ship noise
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer Underwater noise is a serious threat to endangered Southern Resident killer whales, as ship and ferry traffic intensifies through some of the busiest waters off Vancouver Island. With ship traffic surging following the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline — and set to grow even more following a port expansion at Roberts Bank, south of Vancouver — Indigenous-led efforts are underway to track vessel noise and protect whale habitat, according to government documents obtained by Canada’s National Observer. Snuneywuxw First Nation, whose traditional territory includes the Gulf Islands and key fishing grounds along major shipping routes to Nanaimo and Vancouver, is now in its second year of actively monitoring underwater noise. John White, member of the nation and director of...
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One woman’s gift aims to protect forest land forever
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer In the foothills of Quebec’s Appalachian Mountains, a woman with Métis heritage is working to return a parcel of land to a nearby First Nation, marking a step toward restoring Indigenous stewardship over ancestral territory. Since 2006, Françoise de Montigny-Pelletier has owned the land at the border of Sainte-Perpétue and Tourville in southern Quebec. She bought it to protect its ecosystems as a tribute to her Indigenous heritage and the former owner who protected the land with the same concern for biodiversity. She doesn’t see it as private property. “We don’t own the land. It’s our mother,” said Montigny-Pelletier, who considers herself a guardian of “Mother Earth.” “I am here to protect it.” For almost two decades, the forested land...
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First Nation sues feds, saying they were ripped off in land claim settlement
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer An Indigenous band in BC wants a 2002 land claim settlement overturned and is demanding $150 million in compensation from the federal government. Central to the dispute is the Tsimpsean Indian Reserve No. 2, historically shared between the Lax Kwalaams and the neighbouring Metlakatla Nation. According to the statement of claim, government officials unlawfully divided the reserve in 1888, granting approximately 47,000 acres of its southern portion exclusively to the Metlakatla — without the consent of the Lax Kwalaams. “Our people have lived in the Prince Rupert area since time immemorial,” Garry Reece, mayor of the Lax Kwalaams, stated Monday in a press release announcing the band has filed a court challenge. “Canada’s actions in the late 19th and early...
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First Nations partner with the University of British Columbia to design homes that reflect their cultures, save energy — and resist wildfire, too
By Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood Since wildfires tore through his Yunesit’in community in 2017, Russell Myers Ross has been pursuing a dream: building a fire-resistant house that will survive everything climate change can throw at it. “I sometimes joke that we could make this good enough to have a grandmother stay in here and live through the apocalypse,” Ross says with a laugh. His community, one of six in the Tsilhqot’in Nation, was severely damaged in the 2017 wildfire season. Afterward, Ross, who was elected chief at the time, began envisioning a housing solution. The design includes a white, highly reflective metal roof that deflects heat and is fire-resistant, gravel lining the house and sprinklers facing the walls — using easily accessible technologies for a resilient home that makes sense for...
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Northern Ontario’s EMS crisis, where even the ambulance is dangerous
By Jon Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Ricochet Roy Cutfeet’s pager flickered an address into the dark. It was the middle of the night, in the middle of the winter in his fly-in hometown of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, and he was the only volunteer on duty to drive the vehicle they called an “ambulance.” He arrived on the scene to find a woman without a pulse. “I was caught in a puzzle,” he recalls. “I had to ask the daughter to drive so I could do CPR on her mom in the back, who died on the way to the clinic. Since then, nobody ever reached out to me to see if I needed debriefing. These are issues that happen. They just throw you on a bus with no...
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Secwépemc play seeks to answer the question: ‘What do we do to heal our communities?’
By Macarena Mantilla, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Wren Editor’s note: As a member of Discourse Community Publishing, The Wren uses quotation marks around the word “school” because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found residential “schools” were “an education system in name only for much of its existence.” How is a language reclaimed? And what comes after? These are the main questions at the centre of Laura Michel’s Echoes of the Homesick Heart. What began as a research project funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through the Community University Research Alliance (CURA), Echoes of the Homesick Heart is a verbatim theatre project, a type of documentary theatre created from words of real people. Based on over 40 in-person interviews across the Secwépemc Nation, the story focuses on...
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Portage la Prairie businesses ‘Paint the Town Orange’ for reconciliation
By Renee Lilley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Portage Graphic Leader For the second consecutive year, storefronts across Portage la Prairie will feature painted orange shirts to honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. The “Paint the Town Orange” initiative is a partnership between the Portage Community Revitalization Corporation (PCRC) and local Saulteaux/Cree artist Annie Beach from Peguis First Nation, along with the Portage & District Chamber of Commerce. “The idea was to unify the community with this orange T-shirt message,” Beach said. “I think art is something people really enjoy and it’s part of the culture here and people seem to be craving it.” Beach, who has been painting murals since 2017, decorated nearly 20 windows last year. This year, she hopes to double that number....
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Robert Redford remembered for his deep legacy in environmental activism and Native American advocacy
Native communities, will remember his greatest legacy as the founder of Sundance Film Festival, where he launched the Sundance Native Lab — elevating and empowering Indigenous filmmakers, storytellers, and cultural sovereignty for generations. He was also an environmental activist, standing with our Native Americans during Standing Rock and speaking out for the protection of sacred lands and water. His voice carried weight, and he used it for justice. By Hillel Italie NEW YORK (AP) — Lorie Lee Sekayumptewa, a former administrator with the Navajo Nation Film Office, remembers seeing Robert Redford at traditional cultural dances at the Hopi village of Hotevilla in New Mexico. It was more than 30 years ago and he was serving as executive producer of the 1991 release “The Dark Wind,” a drama about Navajo life....
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AFN chiefs warn federal budget cuts will hurt First Nations
By Alessia Passafiume First Nations chiefs are warning Ottawa that any cuts to federal funding for their communities will only make it harder for them to move Ottawa’s major projects agenda forward. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak says several outstanding issues in First Nations communities still require federal attention and money, including a lack of infrastructure and clean drinking water. She says that while she wants Prime Minister Mark Carney to prioritize those issues in his upcoming fall budget and in Parliament, she fears they will be sidelined in favour of economic interests. Carney has asked his ministers to find savings in their departments and has said the upcoming fall budget will rein in operational spending while investing more in growing the economy. New Brunswick Regional...
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B.C., federal governments support huge LNG facility, opposed by some FirstNations
-CP-The British Columbia and federal governments have announced their support for a massive LNG export facility floating in waters off the province’s northwest, despite opposition from some First Nations and environmentalists. A B.C. environmental assessment certificate for the Ksi Lisims LNG project that is designed to export Canadian gas to Asia was jointly approved on Monday by B.C. Environment Minister Tamara Davidson and B.C. Energy Minister Adrian Dix. Federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin also issued a news release announcing her decision to greenlight the project to move to the next stage of permits and authorization. The project is being developed in partnership between the Nisga’a Nation, Rockies LNG Limited Partnership and Western LNG, although documents show the project’s assets will be constructed, owned and operated by wholly owned subsidiaries of...
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4.2 magnitude earthquake rattled Haida Gwaii, no tsunami expected
A magnitude 4.2 earthquake has occurred 75 kilometres west of the Village of Daajing Giids on Haida Gwaii. British Columbia emergency officials say in a post online that the quake hit on Monday just after 1:45 p.m. An earthquake of that magnitude is considered light and no tsunami was expected. Officials say the quake was lightly felt in Skidegate, a community of about 700 people on Haida Gwaii. Earthquakes Canada says magnitudes of less than 5.4 rarely cause damage. ...
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Sale of portion of NWT rare earths project to American firm raises ‘serious questions,’ says YKDFN
By Eric Bowling, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, NWT News/North A recent sale of nearly half of an Australian firm’s holdings to an American-owned company, including a portion of a major project in the NWT, raises serious questions about First Nations’ rights over resources, says Yellowknives Dene First Nation. Vital Metals Inc., an Australian-owned mining operation, announced on Aug. 24 it was selling 19.5 per cent of its holdings, including the Nechalacho rare earths project in Chief Drygeese territory, to American-owned Strategic Resources LLC for approximately $2.7 million Canadian dollars. A further $3.4 million Canadian is being raised by selling off over 36 million more shares to “accredited U.S. investors” — approximately another 24.5 per cent of the company. In the announcement, Vital Metals says the funds raised will be put...
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Federal transportation investigators to visit site of fatal Manitoba plane crash
By Brittany Hobson Investigators are heading to the site of a plane crash that killed four people in remote northeastern Manitoba over the weekend. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says investigators should arrive in St. Theresa Point Anisininew Nation by the end of the week to probe the accident that saw a bush plane crash approximately 40 kilometres south of the community while on its way to Makepeace Lake. Two men aged 53 and 49 and two women who were both 50, all from St. Theresa Point, were pronounced dead at the scene in Saturday’s crash. The pilot, a 20-year-old man, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The Transportation Safety Board says it is in its field phase of the investigation, which means the agency will be gathering information on...
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