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Last-minute Team Indigenous entry takes part in Super Sixes tournament in B.C.
By Sam Laskaris Writer Thanks in part to a Six Nations member, an Indigenous men’s lacrosse team was able to participate in the 2024 Super Sixes tournament. The three-day event, which concluded on Sunday, was held in the British Columbia city of Coquitlam. This marked the third consecutive year in which Lacrosse Canada has hosted the Super Sixes event. The tournament was co-hosted this year by the British Columbia Lacrosse Association. This year’s tournament featured three men’s teams and three women’s squads. The men’s division was originally scheduled to feature the Haudenosaunee Nationals. But that squad withdrew from the event a week before the tourney was supposed to start. That’s when Kevin Sandy of Six Nations entered the picture and quickly got to work, assembling another team. Along with the...
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Local lacrosse player inks contract with Toronto Rock
By Sam Laskaris Writer There could be even more Six Nations representation on the Toronto Rock this coming lacrosse season. That’s because the Rock, a professional squad that competes in the National Lacrosse League (NLL), inked Six Nations member Owen Hill to a one-year contract this past week. The Rock roster also includes Justin Martin of Six Nations. Martin, who was a rookie with the Toronto franchise last season, ended up being one of the NLL’s top newcomers a year ago. Despite signing a contract with the Rock, Hill is not guaranteed a spot with the NLL club. “Basically, they’re just giving me a shot,” he said. Hill still has to go out and earn himself a position in the team’s lineup. His first opportunity to impress Rock officials will...
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Sports Briefs
By Sam Laskaris Writer Stallions kick off playoffs on Saturday The Six Nations Stallions will commence their playoff action this weekend hoping to earn a spot into their league’s Final Four playdowns. The Stallions, will square off against United LC, a club based in Kitchener/Waterloo, in an Ontario Senior Men’s Field Lacrosse League quarter-final contest on Saturday. That match will be staged at Norton Community Park in Burlington. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday. If they manage to win that contest, the Stallions would advance to the league’s A semi-finals, which will be held on Oct. 26 in Mississauga. The loser of the Stallions/United LC game, however, is relegated to the B Division for the remainder of the league playoffs and have to play another game...
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First Nation Chiefs gather to vote on landmark $47.8B child welfare reform agreement with Canada
The Canadian Press-First Nations chiefs are gathering in Calgary today as they prepare to vote on a landmark $47.8-billion child welfare reform agreement with Ottawa. The deal was struck in July between Canada, the Chiefs of Ontario, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and the Assembly of First Nations after a nearly two-decade legal fight over Canada’s underfunding of on-reserve child welfare services. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal said that was discriminatory, and tasked Canada with coming to an agreement with First Nations to reform the system, along with compensating children who were torn from their families and put in foster care. Chiefs in Ontario voted in support of the agreement last week, but the AFN is set to discuss three resolutions calling for the deal to be struck down or renegotiated. Chiefs...
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Women become ‘blood’ related after stem cell transplant
By Crystal St. Pierre Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Two Indigenous women on separate sides of the country didn’t know how a Canadian Blood Services poster of a child asking for help would change their lives forever. “There was a quote and there was a picture of a little girl and she was sick,” said Veronica Bernard, a Mi’kmaw leader in Potlotek First Nation in Nova Scotia. Bernard said the little girl was wearing an oxygen mask and it said she had a type of cancer. “It caught my attention,” she said. “It said that she needed me to live and to go online to the Canadian Blood Services to find out more. So, I went on my computer at work and then I started reading up all of this stuff...
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Indigenous Families condemn Danger Cats’ humour at Fort St. John Vigil
By Ed Hitchins, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Holding candles within earshot of comedy troupe “The Danger Cats,” participants in Saturday, October 12’s vigil at Treaty 8 Tribal Association in Fort St. John’s message rang loud and clear: Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) is no joke. The controversial Alberta-based trio grew a considerable degree of infamy for making light of late farmer and serial killer Robert Pickton, with a t-shirt showcasing group members holding a slice of bacon, with the tagline “hookery smoked bacon.” Clashes with MMIWG families during performances earlier this year led to removing the t-shirt from their website. During their two shows on Saturday night, the group of 20 stood in a circle and spoke of their loved ones, spewing...
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Navajo leader calls for tribal vice president’s resignation amid political upheaval
The Associated Press The president of one of the largest Native American tribes in the U.S. announced Tuesday he has removed responsibilities from his vice president, saying she no longer represents his administration and should consider resigning from the highest office within the Navajo Nation to ever be held by a woman. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren made the announcement in a news conference that was broadcast on social media. The tribe has been mired by political upheaval since April, when Navajo Vice President Richelle Montoya publicly outlined allegations of intimidation and sexual harassment within the administration. An independent investigation of Montoya’s claims was initiated while other opponents of Nygren began collecting signatures from voters across the reservation — which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah — as...
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Focus on vulnerable communities, improve data sharing before next pandemic: report
An expert panel of doctors and researchers say Canada needs to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and take action before the next health emergency strikes. One of the six experts, Dr. Fahad Razak, says most scientists believe it’s “only a matter of time” before another global health crisis hits. The panel’s report, called “The Time to Act is Now,” says disease surveillance, hospitalization data and research findings need to be communicated much more effectively between the provinces, the territories and the federal government. Razak, an internal medicine specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, says it’s critical to share evolving health information much more quickly with the public to build trust and combat the spread of disinformation. The report says Canada also needs to address inequities among people who are...
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In the news today: PM at foreign interference inquiry, chiefs vote on child welfare
Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed… Trudeau to testify at foreign interference inquiry Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is slated to testify today as a federal inquiry into foreign interference finishes the latest phase of its work. The commission of inquiry is looking at the ability of institutions to detect and fend off the attempts of hostile states to meddle in Canadian affairs. Over the last several weeks it has heard from senior bureaucrats, police and intelligence officials, cabinet ministers and members of diaspora communities. Trudeau returns to the inquiry after appearing in April during its initial phase, which looked at allegations of meddling in the last two general elections. Chiefs gather to vote on $47.8B child welfare deal First...
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Vancouver Island Indigenous Snowboard and Ski Team recruiting new athletes, mentors
Vancouver Island, B.C. – Up Mount Washington, Indigenous youth can ride through the trees or sit and throw snowballs – it’s all about having fun and being free for members of the Vancouver Island Indigenous Snowboard and Ski Team. The recreation-focused, 100 per cent volunteer driven snowboard and ski team is accepting applications from Vancouver Island-based Indigenous youth ages 12 to 17 until Nov. 12. Members receive a pass to Mount Washington Ski Resort for the 2024-2025 season, access to gear if they need, plus holistic training that promotes healthy living and long-term love for the sport. “We’re not drilling kids to go fast, you know all these things that competing brings. We’re like, ‘Just have fun!’,” said coach Steve Recalma, a community archeologist who is Kwakwaka’wakw from the...
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Eby makes late campaign pitch to people who have never voted New Democrat in B.C.
New Democrat Leader David Eby is making a late appeal to voters to support the party even if they never have before, as the British Columbia election campaign enters it final days. Eby said Tuesday there hasn’t been an election as significant “for a generation,” on the day John Rustad’s rival B.C. Conservative Party is poised to release its costed platform and just four days before election day on Saturday. “This is an incredibly close election,” Eby said at a news conference at a housing construction project in Surrey. “Every vote is going to count, right cross the province.” Elections BC says about 597,000 people have already voted in four days of advance polling. Eby stood at the constuction site with a sign in the background parodying anti-NDP political billboards...
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Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond’s surreal new documentary
Local Journalism Initiative Months after the release of Red Fever, award-winning Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond is back with his latest documentary, So Surreal: Behind the Masks. Co-directed by Joanne Robertson, the film explores the fascinating connection between Indigenous ceremonial masks and the Surrealist art movement of the 1930s and 1940s. “The Surrealists were interested in dreams in the act of creation,” Diamond told the Nation. “They would try to recreate dreams they had, considering them important, which is the same in Cree culture. I remember my father talking about certain dreams that were messages from who knows where – your mind, the universe?” In the early stages of filming Red Fever’sdive into pop culture’s stereotypical Indigenous imagery, Diamond heard about a century-old mask selling at a high-end art fair and...
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Nunavik school board redefines its goals by listening to communities
Nunavik’s school board is turning to the community to help improve the success of its students. The first stop was a community consultation in Kuujjuaq on Oct. 9. “We are here to hear the public’s voice on the success of our students,” said Kaudjak Padlayat, strategic co-ordinator at Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, in an interview at the Kuujjuaq forum, where the consultations took place. Instead of creating a strategic plan through video conferences and meetings, the school board opted for a dynamic approach by including teachers, parents and students in a discussion about student success. It’s called Sivumuattiit. Padlayat said the goal is to find a “shared vision” of what student success looks like in Nunavik and settle on ways her team can help reach that goal. Sivumuattiit is split into four...
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OPP and Ministry of Finance seize unstamped cigarettes, Alberta resident charged
Haldimand/Norfolk Counties- An Alberta resident is facing charges after the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) West Region Highway Safety Division (HSD), Traffic Incident Management Enforcement (TIME) Team and the Ministry of Finance launched a joint forces’ operation on Thursday, October 10, 2024, in Haldimand and Norfolk Counties seizing 3.6 million unstamped cigarettes. The OPP charged an individual from Alberta with the following Highway Traffic Act charges: No Logbook No Trip Inspection Operate Commercial Motor Vehicle – No Commercial Vehicle Operator Registration (CVOR) The individual also faces separate charges from the Ministry of Finance. The Ontario Provincial Police want to remind the public that if you suspect suspicious or criminal activity to call police. If you want to remain anonymous you can call Crime Stoppers anytime, anywhere at 1-800-222(TIPS) 8477. ...
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Transport Canada withholds health study on Fort Chipewyan contamination
By Natasha Bulowski Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Indigenous leaders and experts are questioning Transport Canada’s claim that contamination at a dock in Fort Chipewyan is unlikely to pose any risks to human health. Last week, Indigenous leaders called out the federal government for not telling them about the contamination, pointing out Transport Canada had many opportunities over the past year, but failed to do so. A 2017 environmental site assessment commissioned by Transport Canada found its dock — known locally as the “Big Dock” and the surrounding soil and waters in Fort Chipewyan had toxic hydrocarbons, metals and compounds. “This dock is in the middle of our community, our kids swim there,” Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam said at a virtual press conference last week. ACFN, Mikisew Cree...
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Federal Indian Day School Settlement update
An update was released for the Federal Indian Day School Settlement, requesting claimants to submit any required information missing from their claim form before June 27, 2025, so that it can be processed and they can receive compensation. “Over 17,000 claim forms remain unprocessed because they were either unsigned, missing school details or other required information,” said Cam Cameron, Class Counsel Lead for the Federal Indian Day School Settlement in the release. “If you’ve submitted a claim for compensation and have not heard back from the Administrator, you should contact them as soon as possible to check the status of your claim.” claims with missing, incomplete, or out-of-date information cannot be processed, and compensation cannot be issued. Examples of missing information are school name or date/years of attendance, missing the...
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Indigenous peoples have complicated relationship with Thanksgiving
By Alexandra Noad Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Since the early 1600s, Thanksgiving has been celebrated by settlers of Canada and the United States, however many Indigenous people have a complicated relationship with the holiday due to its colonial history. Alvin Mills a member of the Blood Reserve, says he wasn’t always aware of the colonial history of Thanksgiving. “I was totally ignorant to the roots of Thanksgiving,” said Mills. Mills added that Indigenous cultures, including Blackfoot, believe they have always had Thanksgiving, even before the settlers arrived. “We would gather, especially after hunting, and have a feast. So, we were probably practicing Thanksgiving without even knowing it,” said Mills. While Thanksgiving may have good intentions, many Indigenous people associate Thanksgiving with the stealing of their lands and the colonization of...
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Report says at least 55 children died or disappeared at B.C. residential school
A British Columbia First Nation says at least 55 children died or disappeared while attending a residential school near Williams Lake, more than triple the number recorded for the institution in the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation memorial register. The higher figure is contained in an interim report into the St. Joseph’s Mission Indian Residential School by the Williams Lake First Nation. It says investigators will finalize ground-penetrating radar surveys this year and hold meetings on potential excavation, exhumation, repatriation, DNA testing, and genealogical mapping before any decision on digging up possible graves is made. There are currently “no definitive processes planned” for excavation, it says. It says no confirmed human remains have been found to date while telling skeptics there is an “overwhelming abundance of evidence” supporting the...
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Mercury found in water near Yukon mine disaster, Yukon government says
The Yukon government says mercury levels that “exceeded the water quality objective” were found in a creek near the site where a mine’s ore containment facility failed, causing a torrent of cyanide-contaminated rock to escape in June. A statement from the government says high levels of cyanide and dissolved metals continue to be detected in the groundwater at testing sites closest to the Eagle Gold mine slide where millions of tonnes of ore was released. The statement Friday says officials aren’t seeing unsafe levels of cyanide in the downstream environment, but on Sept. 24 and 26, “the mercury level exceeded the water quality objective at one monitoring station” south of the site. The statement says the government is gathering more information to understand the data and its impacts on the...
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