Reconciliation without accountability is just talk — especially when it comes to Indigenous health
By Jamaica Cass Canada’s latest auditor general’s report reveals an uncomfortable truth: billions of dollars and countless commitments later, the federal government still cannot demonstrate meaningful improvement in health services for First Nations. As a family physician working in my First Nation, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in southern Ontario, I see the evidence of this failure not in spreadsheets but in people — patients navigating a health system that remains structurally unequal. Nearly 10 years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Calls to Action, it is clear that reconciliation without accountability delivers only rhetoric, not care. The report states: “Increasing First Nations’ capacity to deliver programs and services within their communities is critical to improving outcomes for First Nations people and supporting reconciliation.” Yet the same report concludes that the...
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B.C. Coastal First Nations vow oil pipeline to coast ‘will never happen’
By Nick Murray The president of the Coastal First Nations in British Columbia says an oil pipeline linking Alberta to the province’s north coast “will never happen.” In a news release issued Wednesday morning, Marilyn Slett says her group — which represents nearly a dozen First Nation groups along the B.C. coast — has faced a “wall of silence” from the federal government on a possible pipeline deal with Alberta. The group is not the only voice in B.C. to raise concerns this week about a pipeline agreement between Ottawa and Alberta, which is expected to be announced Thursday when Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Calgary. B.C. Premier David Eby says he told Carney on Monday that it was “unacceptable” for Ottawa and Alberta to negotiate a possible pipeline...
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New book provides answers for day school survivors
By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Students by Day: Colonialism and Resistance at the Curve Lake Indian Day School, written by settler-Anishinaabe historian Dr. Jackson Pind, is a powerful offering of Two-Eyed Seeing, a methodology that mixes Indigenous knowledge with Western practices. Pind uses oral Indigenous history and western archival analysis to chronicle the lesser-known story of Indian day schools, centering life at the Curve Lake Indian Day School, which operated from 1899 to 1978. Almost 1,400 Indian day schools were located on First Nations reserves throughout Canada from the mid-1800s until 2000 with approximately 200,000 Indigenous children forced to attend. “Adding in the oral history after you’ve looked at the archive, I think, is a good route to go,” said Pind, currently an assistant professor, Indigenous methodologies...
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B.C. Coastal First Nations vow oil pipeline to coast ‘will never happen’
By Nick Murray The president of the Coastal First Nations in British Columbia says an oil pipeline linking Alberta to the province’s north coast “will never happen.” In a news release issued Wednesday morning, Marilyn Slett says her group — which represents nearly a dozen First Nation groups along the B.C. coast — has faced a “wall of silence” from the federal government on a possible pipeline deal with Alberta. The group is not the only voice in B.C. to raise concerns this week about a pipeline agreement between Ottawa and Alberta, which is expected to be announced Thursday when Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Calgary. B.C. Premier David Eby says he told Carney on Monday that it was “unacceptable” for Ottawa and Alberta to negotiate a possible pipeline...
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Brantford backs $450K primary care pilot program
By Kimberly De Jong, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Brant Beacon City of Brantford Council supported a two-year $450,000 pilot program to bring more healthcare professionals to the city during a Committee of the Whole, planning and administration meeting on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. The City has funded the Community Physician Recruitment Committee since 2002 to help recruit and retain family doctors, but the committee announced back in October 2024 that it would be disbanding in December 2025. City Council asked that staff develop a program to replace it, and a report has now come forward with the two-year Primary Care Access Program. “The proposed plan would continue the hands-on recruitment of family physicians and expand the focus to include recruitment of nurse practitioners and healthcare students,” stated the report from...
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New book provides answers for day school survivors
By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com Students by Day: Colonialism and Resistance at the Curve Lake Indian Day School, written by settler-Anishinaabe historian Dr. Jackson Pind, is a powerful offering of Two-Eyed Seeing, a methodology that mixes Indigenous knowledge with Western practices. Pind uses oral Indigenous history and western archival analysis to chronicle the lesser-known story of Indian day schools, centering life at the Curve Lake Indian Day School, which operated from 1899 to 1978. Almost 1,400 Indian day schools were located on First Nations reserves throughout Canada from the mid-1800s until 2000 with approximately 200,000 Indigenous children forced to attend. “Adding in the oral history after you’ve looked at the archive, I think, is a good route to go,” said Pind, currently an assistant professor, Indigenous methodologies...
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Six Nations Firefighters responded to a blaze at a house at 1621 Fifth Line
Six Nations Firefighters responded to a blaze at a house at 1621 Fifth Line Saturday Nov. 22. The fire started on the deck. Damage estimates were not available at press time. There were no injuries and Six Nations Fire Chief Mike Seth said the cause is under investigation. (Photo by Jim C Powless)...
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Six Nations Councillor concerned after Senate passes amendments to First Nations status bill; MPs still need to vote
Senators have passed sweeping amendments to a bill that would simplify the transfer of First Nations status between generations. Bill S-2, introduced in the Senate and supported by the Liberal government, was drafted to eliminate some gender inequities in the Indian Act and allow some 6,000 people to become eligible for First Nations status, but some senators and community leaders said it didn’t go far enough. Senators have changed the legislation to remove what is known as the second-generation cutoff, opting instead for a one-parent rule for the transmission of status. The second-generation cutoff, which came from a 1985 amendment to the Indian Act, prevents individuals from registering for status under the Indian Act if they have a parent and a grandparent who did not have status. The bill does...
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OPP lays three fraud-related charges in Glenn Page investigation
ORILLIA, ONT. – Three fraud-related charges have officially been laid against former president of Original Traders Energy (OTE) and founder of Gen7 Fuels, Glenn Page, following an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation into some “financial irregularities.” The Anti-Rackets Branch (ARB) launched the investigation at the request of Six Nations Police. As a result, Page, who currently lives in Waterdown, was arrested and charged under the Criminal Code on Nov. 5, with two counts of uttering a forged document and one count of fraud over $5,000. These charges relate to a forged chattel mortgage application he used to obtain financing from Essex Lease Financial Corporation for an Italian yacht in July 2021, as well as a fabricated, unaudited OTE financial statement he sent to the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in...
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New DEI-B Roadmap aims to promote culturally consistent care at BCHS facilities
By Carly McHugh Writer The Brant Community Healthcare System (BCHS) has launched their first-ever, multi-year plan aimed at improving diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI-B) in their daily operations and building stronger, more inclusive local hospitals. The DEI-B Roadmap was built on more than 100 hours of staff and community input, through surveys, focus groups and leadership initiatives over the last 18 months. It expands on BCHS’s 2024 Current State Report on their DEI-B practices, outlines the progress they have already made in increasing health care equality and identifies how they will shift their efforts from awareness to accountability. Dr. Ruby Latif, director of inclusivity, diversity and community outreach, led the preparation of BCHS’s Current State Report and continued these efforts in establishing the framework for the DEI-B Roadmap. The...
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Six Nations Elected Council to host seniors’ Christmas dinner next month
Six Nations Elected Council has approved more than $31,000 to host a dedicated seniors’ Christmas dinner next month. Debra Jonathan, Chief Operations Officer said the decision came as a response to community concerns about access to holiday hampers and the isolation many Elders face during the winter season. She presented the plan at the November 17 Six Nations Elected Council’s (SNEC) General Finance meeting and outlined plans for a full sit-down celebration. The event is scheduled for Monday, December 15 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mont Hill Golf and Country Club. Jonathan told council the initiative is a coordinated effort among SNEC programs after feedback showed seniors struggled last year with applying for Christmas baskets, arranging pickup, storing frozen turkeys and preparing large meals. She said community members...
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Six Nations Elected Council upgrades fire fleet
Six Nations Elected Council has approved three fire services purchases, clearing the way for new radios, lighting and vehicle branding as part of a broader upgrade to the community’s fire fleet. The more than $225,000 purchase approvals were made at Six Nations Elected Council’s (SNEC) November 17 General Finance meeting, where Councillors passed a series of motions tied to funding that was reallocated earlier this year. The purchases draw from reserve funds previously redirected by SNEC, an allocation of $1,026,737.12 that was set aside for Fire and Emergency Services. The motion said Fire Services submitted a list of priority projects to be funded from that reserve, focused on equipping their new vehicles and modernizing safety systems. Councillors moved through the three items consecutively, approving each unanimously. SNEC approved the purchase...
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Raising harm reduction awareness one bowl of soup at a time
By Carly McHugh Writer Despite a chilly start to the day, the warm sunshine greeted community members who stopped by the Six Nations Department of Well-Being’s harm reduction outreach soup share. The outreach team took advantage of the lunchtime rush at Iroquois Village Plaza on Nov. 19, handing out hearty, homemade corn soup and spreading the word about National Addictions Awareness Week, which ran from Nov. 16 to 22. The initiative began about five years ago, but back then, it ran sporadically, whenever someone had the availability to supervise the booth. However, more recently, the team has grown, and the four staff members who participate have been trying more to get out into the community. In recent weeks, they have also seen an increasing number of visitors. “It’s just reaching...
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Six Nations to continue Indigenous Led early learning
Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) has approved a two-year lease extension that will allow the Indigenous-Led EarlyON program to continue operating out of 120 Colborne Street, Suite 105, in Harmony Place. The decision was made during the General Finance meeting on November 17, chaired by Councillor Dayle Bomberry. The EarlyON program, funded through the City of Brantford, relies on the Colborne Street location as a service hub. The approved extension will secure the space from December 1, 2025, to November 30, 2027, ensuring program stability while Council continues to navigate long-term planning for family and early-years services. Councillors reviewed cost projections, including rent, taxes, and utilities, before passing the motion. Under the agreement, the first term that runs from December 1, 2025, to November 30, 2026 will cost $42,024, plus...
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Educators attend Indigenous land-based learning camp in Akwesasne
By Sam Laskaris Writer Whenever he gets a chance Joel Gamache loves to hype up the advantages of STEM learning. Gamache is the senior manager of national Indigenous youth in STEM programs for Actua, the country’s largest learning organization for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. For the fourth straight year Gamache and his Actua colleagues held a four-day Indigenous land-based learning camp. The August camp, held in Akwesasne, Ont., was aimed at both Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators. A camp goal is to have camp participants incorporate portions of what they learned at the sessions into their own school curriculums. Gamache, a former educator himself who now enjoys instructing teachers about land-based learning, said the majority of the participants at the Akwesasne camp were non-Indigenous. “But we do have Indigenous educators...
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Commentary: Deciding who gets to be “Indian”
Don’t you just love it when people tell you not only who you are, but who our people will be? Last week Canada’s Senate passed amendments to a bill that is aimed at making it easier to transfer First Nations status between generations. Bill S-2 was to eliminate gender inequities in the Indian Act, inequities Canada created, not Indigenous communities. The effect of Bill S-2 is some 6,000 people are expected to become eligible for First Nations status at the outset. What they did was eliminate a section of their own legislation that became known as the “second generation cutoff.” That move stole entire generations of Indigenous people from their culture, their history, their people. The second-generation cutoff wasn’t just limiting status to a second generation it was aimed at...
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Today in History
Nov 24 In 1807, Joseph Brant (1742-1807), Chief of the Six Nations Indians, died at Burlington, Ont. He fought on the British side in the War of American independence and later led his tribe to Ontario’s Grand River Valley. He was a Christian and translated Anglican services and scripture into Mohawk. In 1999, Reform MP Jack Ramsay was found guilty of attempting to rape a native 14-year-old girl at the Pelican Narrows police station where he was an RCMP corporal in command 30 years earlier. In 2005, a $5 billion deal for First Nations was announced at a meeting of first ministers and aboriginal leaders in Kelowna, B.C. In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on behalf of the government of Canada for abuse and cultural losses to former students...
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UNDER THE NORTHERN SKY: Mushkegowuk Council Declares Emergency To Deal With Addictions
By Xavier Kataquapit www.underthenorthernsky.com An epidemic of addictions has led Mushkegowuk Council in north eastern Ontario to declare a state of emergency. A crisis has occurred including issues of homelessness, limited access to shelters, the lack of mental wellness and too few addictions supports in the council’s territory. Myself and our First Nations leaders have been watching as this crisis has been developing over the years to the point where it is killing and severely impacting people in our communities as well as our members living off reserve. Things have gotten to the point where it is making our communities unsafe and resulting in so many tragic endings for my people. I am hopeful these days as I see more of our people with addictions education and experience being involved...
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Ironmen defeated by host Stratford Irish
By Sam Laskaris Writer The Six Nations Ironmen hit the road this past Saturday and managed to outshoot their hosts, the Stratford Irish. But the Ironmen, who held a 29-28 advantage on the shot clock, were downed 5-2 by the Irish in the Northern Premier Hockey League (NPHL) match held at Stratford’s William Allman Memorial Arena. “You can outplay somebody and then dominate the game but that doesn’t necessarily translate to wins,” said Six Nations head coach Ryan Davis. The Ironmen played some of their best hockey on Saturday in the middle frame, outshooting Stratford 15-8. But the Irish scored twice in the middle frame while the Ironmen only managed one goal. “We had some good (offensive zone) time and some good possession,” Davis said. “And we outplayed them in...
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Snipers among those duped by false registrations for Arena Lacrosse League draft
By Sam Laskaris Writer President Paul St. John is considering some changes to the Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) draft process. This comes on the heels of the fact at least two teams, including the Six Nations Snipers, selected players that were falsely registered for this year’s draft held Nov. 15. The Snipers utilized their first-round pick, sixth over-all, on Justin Tavares, the son of John Tavares, the head coach of the three-time defending Mann Cup champion Six Nation Chiefs. As it turned out the younger Tavares never actually registered for the draft. That’s because he’s in Colorado and is a freshman with the University of Denver men’s field lacrosse squad. Thus, some other individual, for whatever reason, decided to pretend that Tavares himself was signing up for the draft. St....
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