MCFN Chief delivers welcome at Maple Leafs’ Indigenous Celebration Game
By Sam Laskaris Writer It’s not unusual to see Margaret Sault hanging out in a hockey arena. But the recently elected chief of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) does not have much time to attend National Hockey League (NHL) contests. This past Saturday, however, was an exception. Sault was in the spotlight as she delivered the opening welcome during the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Indigenous Celebration Game. The Leafs blanked the visiting Vancouver Canucks 5-0 in the match, which was held at Scotiabank Arena in front of more than 19,000 fans. Sault said it is a rarity for her to attend a Leafs’ game or any NHL contests. “I’m travelling too much and doing other things,” she said. “I have three sons that played hockey. Now I have four...
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SPORTS BRIEFS: Ironmen return to action
By Sam Laskaris Writer Ironmen return to action The Six Nations Ironmen will finally return to action this Sunday following a lengthy 16-day break. The Ironmen, who are in their inaugural season of the Northern Premier Hockey League (NPHL), are on a four-game winning streak. But the Six Nations club has not played a match since it registered a 9-5 victory over the host Woodstock Lakers on Jan. 2. The Lakers will host the same Lakers this Sunday (Jan. 18) in a contest that will be held at the Six Nations Sports & Cultural Memorial Centre. The opening faceoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Thanks to their recent winning streak, the Ironmen have jumped into top spot in the North Division of the NPHL’s Metropolitan Conference. Six Nations is sporting...
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2025 Six Nations sporting headline makers
By Sam Laskaris Writer The three-time national Mann Cup champion Six Nations Chiefs were among those profiled in the first half of The Turtle Island News’ 2025 sports headline makers last week. That list also included championship golfer John Monture Jr., former Six Nation chief Ava Hill who has been named to Hockey Canada’s Indigenous Advisory Circle, Cory Bomberry who was inducted into Canada’s lacrosse hall of fame and the Six Nations Ironmen hockey squad. Several other local athletes also had their share of accomplishments during the past 12 months. A closer look at five others who made headlines follows. RATO’RATSERIIO HILL The Six Nations youngster was a member of the silver-medal winning squad in the ball hockey competition at an international event. Hill suited up for the Canadian boys’...
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Photojournalist Amber Bracken takes the stand in press freedom trial
By Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer A succession of loud bangs and the sounds of a chainsaw and barking dogs filled the courtroom, punctuated by calls of “get your gun off of me,” as photojournalist Amber Bracken took the witness stand in her Supreme Court trial against the RCMP on Tuesday. Bracken and The Narwhal are suing the RCMP for wrongfully arresting and detaining her while on assignment and violating both her and the publication’s Charter rights in a high-stakes press freedom case set to unfold over the course of five weeks. To kick off Bracken’s testimony, The Narwhal’s lawyer, Sean Hern, played a video captured by CBC documentarian Michael Toledano showing the moments during and leading up to the arrest of Bracken, Toledano and four...
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2025 was the third warmest year on record. What does that mean in Canada?
By Jordan Omstead This past year was the third warmest on record and stood on the cusp of surpassing a major climate threshold globally, according to new data from the European climate agency. The Copernicus data indicates 2025 was about 1.47 degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels, following the previous year’s record-setting 1.6 degrees. When 2023 is added to the mix, it’s the first three-year period on record to exceed 1.5 degrees, the data suggests. At the current rate, the 2015 Paris Agreement’s long-term global warming limit of 1.5 degrees could be reached by the end of this decade, about a decade earlier than predicted when the climate pact was signed, the agency said in a press release. Canada is warming even faster than the global average. The loss of snow...
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No date set as judge reserves decision in RCMP officer’s sentencing
By Bob Mackin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince George Citizen The Provincial Court judge who will sentence an RCMP officer found guilty of obstruction of justice reserved decision on Tuesday, Jan. 13 but did not set a date. “I’ll need about an hour,” Judge Michael Fortino said. “I can be personally ready within the next two weeks to deliver a decision.” The Crown wants Fortino to send Arthur Dalman, 33, to jail for six months. But Dalman’s defence lawyer proposed a conditional discharge. Lawyers for both sides will go to court schedulers on Jan. 16. “I know that this matter has been extant for some time, and there’s a high interest in seeing a conclusion on all parts, and so I’d like to be able to give a decision in...
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Oglala Sioux Tribe says three tribal members arrested in Minneapolis are in ICE detention
By Graham Lee Brewer The president of Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota on Tuesday called for the immediate release of tribal members who were detained at a homeless encampment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota last week. Three of the four Oglala Sioux Tribe members who were arrested in Minneapolis on Friday have been transferred to an ICE facility at Fort Snelling, President Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement released with a memorandum sent to federal immigration authorities. “The Oglala Sioux Tribe’s memorandum makes clear that ‘tribal citizens are not aliens’ and are ‘categorically outside immigration jurisdiction,’” Star Comes Out said. “Enrolled tribal members are citizens of the United States by statute and citizens of the Oglala Sioux Nation by treaty.” Details about the circumstances...
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‘Regrettable’: Winnipeg officer apologizes for taking photo of body, selling drugs
By Brittany Hobson A former Winnipeg police officer who sold drugs to friends and colleagues and took a photo of a dead woman while on duty apologized for “tarnishing” the reputation of the service at his sentencing hearing Tuesday. Elston Bostock, 49, earlier pleaded guilty to charges including breach of trust, attempting to obstruct justice, drug trafficking and offering an indignity to human remains. Court heard he was responding to a call when he took a photo of the partially clothed woman of Indigenous ancestry, who had died from an overdose, and sent it to two other officers with comments that sexualized and degraded her. “I’d like to deeply apologize to the family and the victim for the hurt and pain I have caused with my most regrettable action,” Bostock...
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First Nations leaders discuss stalled child welfare agreement
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source THUNDER BAY — About 200 delegates from First Nations across northern Ontario gathered in a local hotel Tuesday for three days of discussion on an agreement with the federal government to reform First Nations child and family services in the province. “We haven’t been able to get across the finish line on that agreement,” Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said in his opening remarks. The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society is still “standing in the way” but its appeal to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal could be resolved soon, he said. Representatives of NAN member nations are in Thunder Bay “to talk about the implementation of the Ontario Final Agreement,” he told Newswatch after his...
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‘Spicy’ times call for big increase in Arctic investments, Obed says
By Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News “Spicy” times in the world call for “generational” investments in Canada’s Arctic, says Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed. Obed made the remarks while attending the Ingiulik Nunavut Shipping Summit at the Aqsarniit hotel in Iqaluit Tuesday. The ITK president was keynote speaker on the second day of the four-day Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.-led event, which attracted delegates from across the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and Greenland. “It is an unacceptable reality that our 51 [Inuit Nunangat] communities are so underserviced from a marine infrastructure end,” Obed said in his speech, noting Canadian Rangers require facilities to launch their patrols and sealift companies need better options to unload cargo. “We need to do better, and hopefully, we can work with the Government of...
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Pimicikamak faces long road to repair after havoc-wreaking power outage
By Crystal Greene, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, IndigiNews Paige Paupanekis, a Pimicikamak Cree Nation member and community volunteer, has been working non-stop since a power outage happened in her community over the holidays. One of the 21-year-old’s first tasks was rounding up pizza donations to send to her Cree community — located about 530 kilometres north of “Winnipeg” — to feed people. It was during frigid -20 C temperatures on Dec. 28 that a Manitoba Hydro powerline broke, along a 300-metre crossing between two islands on the Nelson River. It caused a power outage that lasted four days, until electricity was restored. But the outage caused lasting infrastructure damage, such as frozen pipes, backed up sewers, and other problems. On Thursday, about 70 people gathered to drum and round-dance outside...
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N.S. RCMP kill man from First Nation after he allegedly threatened people: watchdog
Nova Scotia’s police watchdog is investigating after the RCMP shot and killed a man from a First Nation along Highway 202 north of Halifax. The Serious Incident Response Team says the RCMP responded to a call Tuesday morning at the Sipekne’katik First Nation about a man with a firearm who had allegedly threatened others before driving off. Police warned residents of Hants and Colchester counties to seek shelter and lock doors and windows because of a man with a firearm driving a blue Honda Civic in the area. The watchdog says officers located the man later in the day and deflated his tires using a spike belt, causing his car to leave the highway. It says police tried non-lethal options before firing multiple shots. The watchdog says the man was...
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Sydney, N.S., selected as the preferred base for new Arctic icebreakers
By Devin Stevens Federal officials say Sydney, N.S., has the inside track on becoming the base for the Canadian Coast Guard’s upcoming polar icebreakers as the country continues the push to assert its sovereignty in the Arctic. The government announced Tuesday that the Cape Breton port is the preferred location as the maintenance base for the two new vessels. Ottawa cited the deep, ice-free harbour, proximity to Sydney’s Canadian Coast Guard Academy and the fact the port has one of the shortest routes to the Arctic from Eastern Canada. It’s also near Halifax, headquarters of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Atlantic fleet. Mike Kelloway, the local member of Parliament and parliamentary secretary to the minister of transport, said Sydney has access to specialized marine trades, year-round transportation links and a harbour...
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Claudette Colvin, who refused to move seats on a bus at start of civil rights movement, dies at 86
By Kimberly Chandler MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died. She was 86. Her death was announced Tuesday by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation. Ashley D. Roseboro of the organization confirmed she died of natural causes in Texas. Colvin, at age 15, was arrested nine months before Rosa Parks gained international fame for also refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus. Colvin had boarded the bus on March 2, 1955, on her way home from high school. The first rows were reserved for white passengers. Colvin sat in the rear with other Black passengers. When the white section became full, the bus driver ordered...
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Coastal First Nations call on Carney to defend the B.C. tanker ban in pipeline talks
By Wolfgang Depner Coastal First Nations president Marilyn Slett said she called on Prime Minister Mark Carney in a meeting Tuesday to maintain and protect the oil tanker moratorium in his government’s pipeline talks with Alberta, saying afterwards that “it would take just one spill to destroy our way of life.” “We reiterated that there is no technology that can clean up an oil spill at sea,” she told a news conference after the meeting in Prince Rupert, B.C. Slett, who is also the elected Chief Councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, said local First Nations “must be in the room” for any discussion about their territories. The meeting was held to restart relations between Carney and the advocacy group, which works to protect the B.C. coastline and the Great...
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Official warns about danger of future Calgary water main breaks as testing proceeds
By Dayne Patterson As Calgary gets closer to lifting water restrictions caused by a broken water main, the city’s head of infrastructure warns two more breaks to the line could bring the water supply to a breaking point. The city is relying heavily on the Glenmore Reservoir to provide treated water to its approximately 1.6 million residents while the Bearspaw South Feeder Main remains out of service. The Bearspaw main supplies 60 per cent of the city’s potable water. It broke late last month – the second time it has ruptured in the past two years. Officials have said the demand from the most recent break is forcing the Glenmore water treatment plant to triple its workload. Michael Thompson, general manager of Calgary’s infrastructure services, said Tuesday the reservoir can’t...
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Carney meets with Coastal First Nations to about major projects, oceans
PRINCE RUPERT B.C.-Prime Minister Mark Carney says his meeting Tuesday with Coastal First Nations in Prince Rupert, B.C. is about “dialogue” and exploring how First Nations can partner with the federal government to build the economy. Speaking just before entering a meeting with Coastal First Nations, an advocacy group that works to works to protect the B.C. coastline and the Great Bear Rainforest, Carney said there’s a “huge responsibility” to protect the environment. “So how do we work together to preserve that, to enhance it while we’re looking for opportunities for development?” he said. “Today is not a day for big announcements. It is a day, as I said, for dialogue, for listening and working.” Carney is being joined at the meeting by a handful of ministers, including Natural Resources...
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Caledonia woman charged with assault
HALDIMAND COUNTY – A 60-year-old Caledonia woman is facing assault and theft charges after the Haldimand County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigated an incident on Argyle Street. OPP responded to a report of an assault on Argyle Street in Caledonia January 9, 2026, at about 12:55 p.m., and found two individuals involved in a verbal altercation that escalated to a physical altercation. Heather Brown, 60-years-old of Caledonia has been charged with the following offences: Assault With a Weapon Theft Under $5000 The accused is scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Cayuga on March 3, 2026....
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Sydney, N.S., selected as the preferred maintenance port for new Arctic icebreakers
Sydney, N.S., has the inside track on becoming the maintenance hub for the Canadian Coast Guard’s upcoming polar icebreakers. The federal government announced today that the Cape Breton port is the preferred location as the maintenance base for the vessels. Ottawa cited the port’s deep water, proximity to Sydney’s Canadian Coast Guard Academy and the fact it has one of the shortest routes to the Arctic from Eastern Canada. It’s also near Halifax, headquarters of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Atlantic fleet. The coast guard is buying two new polar icebreakers, which will be the largest in the fleet, to help bolster Canada’s Arctic presence, with delivery of the new vessels expected in the 2030s. The government says due diligence, planning, consultations with Indigenous groups and talks with local landowners are...
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Brantford police investigation of online “hypnosis study” leads to sexual assault charge
BRANTFORD, ONT- A city man is facing a sexual assault charge after Brantford Police Service (BPS) officers investigated a case of inappropriate actions that involved a 19-year-old woman. The BPS said the accused posted an online advertisement seeking “paid hypnosis study participants.” A woman responded to the advertisement Thursday, Jan, 8, 2026 at about 10:10 a.m. attending the accused’s Grey Street residence, where she believed she was participating in a legitimate research experiment. During the visit at the residence, police said the accused engaged in inappropriate actions toward the victim. The victim left the residence and was not physically injured. The victim and the accused were not known to each other prior to this incident. As a result, on January 9, 2026, a 28-year-old Brantford man was arrested and charged with...
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