{"id":92586,"date":"2025-05-19T17:02:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T21:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=92586"},"modified":"2025-05-19T17:02:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T21:02:04","slug":"atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"Atikokan Native Friendship Centre under scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source ATIKOKAN \u2013 The local Native Friendship Centre needs a new board as an alleged misuse of funds is investigated, an online petition asserts. The petition says the friendship centre was once \u201ca thriving hub of community activity\u201d but misuse of funds \u201chas led to a drastic reduction\u201d in services. \u201cWe see the impact of the lack of programs on our kids and the strain it\u2019s putting on families and individuals already facing challenges,\u201d states the petition. The petition at change.org asks people to support the appointment of new board members and a new executive director for the Atikokan Native Friendship Centre. It follows the public disclosure of a confidential whistleblower package, prepared by a bookkeeper, containing evidence of alleged \u201cethical&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F05%2F19%2Fatikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source ATIKOKAN \u2013 The local Native Friendship Centre needs a new board as an alleged misuse of funds is investigated, an online petition asserts. The petition says the friendship centre was once \u201ca thriving hub of community activity\u201d but misuse of funds \u201chas led to a drastic reduction\u201d in services. \u201cWe see the impact of the lack of programs on our kids and the strain it\u2019s putting on families and individuals already facing challenges,\u201d states the petition. The petition at change.org asks people to support the appointment of new board members and a new executive director for the Atikokan Native Friendship Centre. It follows the public disclosure of a confidential whistleblower package, prepared by a bookkeeper, containing evidence of alleged \u201cethical... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F05%2F19%2Fatikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Atikokan Native Friendship Centre under scrutiny - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atikokan Native Friendship Centre under scrutiny - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source ATIKOKAN \u2013 The local Native Friendship Centre needs a new board as an alleged misuse of funds is investigated, an online petition asserts. The petition says the friendship centre was once \u201ca thriving hub of community activity\u201d but misuse of funds \u201chas led to a drastic reduction\u201d in services. \u201cWe see the impact of the lack of programs on our kids and the strain it\u2019s putting on families and individuals already facing challenges,\u201d states the petition. The petition at change.org asks people to support the appointment of new board members and a new executive director for the Atikokan Native Friendship Centre. It follows the public disclosure of a confidential whistleblower package, prepared by a bookkeeper, containing evidence of alleged \u201cethical\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-19T21:02:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/19\\\/atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/19\\\/atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Atikokan Native Friendship Centre under scrutiny\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-19T21:02:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/19\\\/atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":309,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/19\\\/atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/19\\\/atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/19\\\/atikokan-native-friendship-centre-under-scrutiny\\\/\",\"name\":\"Atikokan Native Friendship Centre under scrutiny - 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