Current Problems:
Exploring Stakeholder: "Government of Newfoundland and Labrador"
Updates on this page: 211
November 7, 2024
Systemic Racism in Canadian Healthcare: The Tragedy of Brian Sinclair and Joyce Echaquan | NDN POV
NationTalk: Credit: TVO Today This episode of NDN POV delves into the systemic racism faced by Indigenous peoples in the Canadian healthcare system, as well as the longstanding inequities caused by colonization. Indigenous peoples in Canada suffer disproportionately from poor health outcomes, including higher rates of chronic disease, mental health challenges, and lower life expectancy compared...
November 1, 2024
Exoneree supports miscarriage of justice law for ‘other innocent people across Canada’
New wrongful conviction process would rely on commission instead of minister Clarence Woodhouse (right) speaks with Sen. Kim Pate in Ottawa on Oct. 24 as Brian Anderson looks on. Photo: Mark Blackburn/APTN News APTN News: Clarence Woodhouse was barely an adult when homicide detectives accused him of killing a man in 1973. The false confession...
November 1, 2024
Indigenous advocates hope a new national registry can help prevent more women from being forcibly sterilized
Senator Yvonne Boyer, a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario, said coerced sterilization is not only a historic problem in Canada but a current concern. Boyer arrives for a news conference on July 14, 2022 in Ottawa.ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS The Globe and Mail: Ottawa – A non-profit group is compiling a new registry...
November 1, 2024
Canada needs urgent action on health and climate change: Lancet report
NationTalk: In the latest report on Canada for the Lancet’s Countdown on health and climate change, authors call for urgent investment, increased infrastructure and additional personnel to meet current and future climate adaptation needs. Since 2015, the federal government has spent $6.6 billion on 70 climate change adaptation Opens in a new window actions. The...
November 1, 2024
Canada needs urgent action on health and climate change: Lancet report
NationTalk: In the latest report on Canada for the Lancet’s Countdown on health and climate change, authors call for urgent investment, increased infrastructure and additional personnel to meet current and future climate adaptation needs. Since 2015, the federal government has spent $6.6 billion on 70 climate change adaptation Opens in a new window actions. The report...
November 1, 2024
New registry seeks to determine the national scope of forced sterilization of Indigenous people
Survivors Circle for Reproductive Justice hopes to of chronicle the history of First Nation, Inuit and Metis women and girls being forcefully sterilized and getting a better idea of how many people it affected. Toronto Star: newly-formed group is launching a national registry of Indigenous Peoples who were forced or coerced into sterilization, and is...
October 31, 2024
Survivors call on Canada to criminalize residential school denialism
NDP member of Parliament Leah Gazan, second from right, is joined by Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray, right, and Indian Residential School survivors during a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2024. They are calling on the Government of Canada to recognize residential school denialism as inciting hate in the Criminal...
October 31, 2024
Indigenous youth skeptical of government’s commitment to reconciliation, says survey
85 per cent of Indigenous youth said reconciliation was important to them CBC Indigenous: More than 1,100 Indigenous youth shared their thoughts on reconciliation, community and their own futures in a report released Wednesday by Indigenous Youth Roots (IYR). The national non-profit surveyed Indigenous youth ages 18 to 29 across the country for the Indigenous Youth Reconciliation Barometer 2024: Building Connected Futures report. Megan Lewis,...
October 30, 2024
Special interlocutor says she received abuse, threats during work on residential schools
Canada’s special interlocutor for unmarked graves at former residential schools, Kimberly Murray says hate directed her way is what Indigenous communities and survivors of residential schools face when attempting to publicy discuss the devastating legacy of the system. JUSTIN TANG/THE CANADIAN PRESS The Globe and Mail: Ottawa and Thunder Bay – Canada’s special interlocutor tasked...
October 29, 2024
Canada must provide reparations to families of children missing at residential schools, says Kimberly Murray
Special interlocutor’s office holds final national gathering in Gatineau, Que. CBC Indigenous: Many Indigenous children who died and were buried at Indian residential schools are not missing but are “victims of enforced disappearance,” says Kimberly Murray. Murray, who is Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools, released her...
October 22, 2024
CMHA analysis reveals 2023 bilateral investments in mental health care are half of what the federal government claims
by ahnationtalk on October 22, 2024 NationTalk: Toronto, ON (October 21, 2024) — Last year the federal government committed $25 billion in new health funding for provinces and territories through bilaterally negotiated agreements. The government says that, on average, 30 percent of bilateral dollars are going to mental health, addictions, and substance use health care. New research from the Canadian...
October 20, 2024
CMA apology a first step toward healing medical harms against Indigenous people, advocates say
Canadian Medical Association apologized last month for its role in the health-care system’s historic harms Unreserved – 52:20 Healing 150 years of healthcare harm Click on the following link to, listen to Unreserved: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/medical-harms-indigenous-people-cma-apology-1.7355104 CBC Indigenous: Advocates are optimistic about a historic apology for harms experienced by Indigenous people in health care — but they say...
October 16, 2024
Canada must act now to be prepared for the next health emergency, new pandemic report warns
A future pandemic could be swifter and more severe than COVID-19, experts say in independent report CBC News: The Canadian Press – Canada needs to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and take action before the next health emergency strikes, an expert panel of doctors and researchers say in a new independent report. “Most scientists feel that...
October 11, 2024
Minister says not enough beds for compulsory care for addictions across the country
Several provinces are discussing introducing or expanding compulsory treatment Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks listens to questions at a news conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, on Friday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang APTN News: The Canadian Press – Provinces and territories need to do more to expand and improve their treatment...
October 9, 2024
An investigation into anti-Indigenous racism in healthcare: Why the CMA’s apology is only the beginning
By Martha Troian – Opinion #6 of 6 articles from the Special Report: Surviving Hate “Juliette was a dying little woman. She was only 88 pounds,” Joyce Tapaquon says of her daughter, a cervical cancer patient who was escorted out by the police during a stay at Pasqua Hospital. Juliette died in 2014. Photo courtesy of...
October 4, 2024
The health of Indigenous people’s isn’t an Indigenous problem, it’s Canada’s responsibility
IMAGE BY: ELLA THOMAS NationTalk: The Queen’s University Journal – The declining life spans of the Indigenous community is a cry for Canadian healthcare systems to change their ways. However, their solution is a bit too simplistic for an issue that runs generations deep. The British Columbia First Nations Health Authority recently reported a six-year drop in life...
September 30, 2024
Over 30 years of Indigenous resistance with Mohawk land defender Ellen Gabriel
‘Colonial-rooted poverty will not be solved by more colonial solutions’ Ellen Gabriel speaks during a march on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Montreal, Saturday, September 30, 2023. Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press The Narwhal: Thirty-four years ago, Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel was thrust into the spotlight when she was chosen as the spokesperson for...
September 27, 2024
Why is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation NOT a statutory holiday where most Indigenous people live and work?
NationTalk: The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30 provides an opportunity for ALL Canadians to honour Indigenous survivors, their families and communities and to commemorate the ongoing legacy – and tragedy – of residential schools that were specifically designed to “kill the Indian in the child”. Seven generations of Indigenous people have...
September 12, 2024
Pauktuutit leader calls for Inuit voices to be heard in fight against violence
Nancy Etok shares experience from meeting with Indigenous women from U.S., Mexico earlier this month in Mexico City Pauktuutit president Nancy Etok, left, speaks at the Sixth Convening of the Trilateral Working Group on Violence Against Women and Girls in Mexico City, which ran Sept. 3 and 4. (Photo courtesy of Pauktuutit Inuit Women of...
September 5, 2024
From Risk to Resilience: Indigenous Alternatives to Climate Risk Assessment in Canada
NationTalk: Canada’s current provincial and national risk assessment frameworks focus predominantly on the built environment and infrastructure, neglecting the more extensive social-ecological system. This narrow focus fails to capture the full extent of climate risks or contexts, particularly those affecting Indigenous communities, and excludes the social and political structures that compound risk within Indigenous communities....
August 29, 2024
Statement – Decision not to participate in Northern Lights difficult, but necessary.
NationTalk: Following is a statement issued today by Nunatsiavut President Johannes Lampe: The Nunatsiavut Government stands in unity with Canada’s other Inuit treaty organizations, as well as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, in the decision not to participate in the 2025 Northern Lights Conference. This decision was not made lightly, but was deemed necessary in order to...
August 26, 2024
Regardless of numbers, Indigenous residential schools were a decades-long tragedy
Reconciliation, the quest to repair the relationship with Indigenous peoples, isn’t a “woke” fantasy. By Paul Racher NationTalk: The Hamilton Spectator – Recent articles in some corners of the Canadian media landscape have made much of the fact that the number of suspected graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School has been revised downward. Indeed,...
August 14, 2024
Is Canada’s critical-minerals strategy a green shift or greenwashing?
Indigenous and remote communities will bear the long-lasting ecological, social and cultural impacts of mining. This cannot be ignored. NationTalk: Policy Options – Canada has followed the lead of many countries recently by adopting policies and measures to promote rapid development of its value chain for domestic critical minerals essential in clean energy technology. Climate change, geopolitical and economic turmoil are...
August 6, 2024
Reflecting on the Status of Indigenous Child Welfare in Canada on the 10th Anniversary of Tina Fontaine’s Death
by Alexandra Champagne More posts by Alexandra » NationTalk: SLAW – On August 17, 2014, fifteen-year-old Tina Fontaine was found dead in Winnipeg’s Red River. It had been over two weeks since Tina was reported missing. Among the more disturbing details of Tina’s death was the fact that in the twenty-four hours prior to her disappearance,...
August 1, 2024
Water is Sacred conference discusses growing concerns with the water crisis in Canada
The event is being held on Kátł’odeeche First Nation until Saturday CBC Indigenous: The Water is Sacred conference is being held until Saturday on the Kátł’odeeche First Nation at the Chief Lamalice Complex, bringing together a diverse group of Indigenous leaders, environmental advocates, environmental experts and concerned citizens to address the growing water crisis in Canada. The...
July 15, 2024
National Indigenous leaders to meet premiers amid deteriorating relationship
Focus of meeting is health care, but Indigenous leaders plan to raise issue of respect CBC News: Indigenous leaders will attend a meeting with Canada’s premiers on Monday, with health care on the agenda — but also a deteriorating relationship. This is the first time Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed will meet provincial and territorial...
July 11, 2024
Degrowth offers a path to a truly just global energy transition
Rio Tinto – Kennecott open pit copper mine. Salt Lake County, Utah. How do we balance the needs of an energy transition with the harsh realities of mining critical minerals like copper? Photo by arbyreed/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Canada’s National Observer: As the world inevitably transitions away from fossil fuel extraction, there’s a growing international consensus that mining...
July 4, 2024
Growing Residential School Denialism Is an Attack on Truth
How to identify it, and how to push back against dangerous false claims. The Tyee: The Conversation – In 2021, three short years ago, #CancelCanadaDay was trending on social media following announcements about thousands of unmarked graves at the former sites of Indian Residential Schools across Canada. Today, research is expanding on the history of child institutionalization...
July 3, 2024
Indian residential school survivors and families deserve an easy-to-use database of names and records
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Tanya Talaga The Globe and Mail: A parting commitment to reconciliation from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – regardless if he remains as Leader and/or the Liberals win the next election – would be to commit to real Indigenous data sovereignty. Two terms ago, Mr. Trudeau vowed to fulfill all...
July 1, 2024
5th Anniversary of National Inquiry: UBCIC Calls for Government Collaboration to Implement Calls for Justice
NationTalk: (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh)/ Vancouver, B.C. – June 30, 2024) Today marks the 5th anniversary of the conclusion of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (the National Inquiry). The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) is deeply concerned that independent progress reports by the CBC...
June 21, 2024
A new law aims to crack down on environmental racism in Canada
Legislation will track how communities are affected and ‘hold government’s feet to the fire,’ professor says CBC News: For years, researchers, activists, community leaders have shown how Indigenous, Black and other racialized groups have been disproportionately affected by polluting industries. Now, a new law will require the federal government to better track this injustice, and...
June 13, 2024
Why are Indigenous people over-incarcerated in Canada?
On TVO Today’s “NDN POV,” Indigenous experts discuss the causes of the problem — and what can be done to make change Written by Chris Beaver Indigenous people represent just 5 per cent of Canada’s population, yet 32 per cent of those incarcerated in federal prisons are Indigenous. (Jasmine El Kurd) NationTalk: TVO – Indigenous people...
June 3, 2024
After five years, ‘calls for justice’ on MMIWG2S+ issues still not complete
Indigenous communities remember and demand action APTN News: It was a quiet morning as Parliament Hill prepared for a day of remembrance for the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people (2SMMIWG). Sunshade tents popped up on the Hill early, solemn community partners hung red dresses along the barricade fences, drummers and signers...
June 3, 2024
NWAC’s annual scorecard to assess federal response to the genocide against Indigenous women finds lack of urgency and transparency
NationTalk: GATINEAU, Que. – A statement from Carol McBride, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), on the release of NWAC’s annual scorecard of the federal government’s efforts to address the tragedy of the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people. “Do Canadians truly understand that Indigenous women in...
May 23, 2024
MUN has to weed out false Indigenous claims, report says — but the path forward is unclear
First Peoples Group report on Indigenous verification draws ire of NunatuKavut community council CBC News: An independent consultant has given Memorial University its final report on Indigenous verification. Now it’s up to the university to decide who is Indigenous and who is not, and in Newfoundland and Labrador, that’s no easy question. The university hired First Peoples...
May 22, 2024
Food Banks Canada’s annual Poverty Report Cards show most of the country on edge of failure as struggles with poverty continue to climb
NationTalk: TORONTO- Canada has reached a critical turning point as poverty and food insecurity worsen in every corner of the country, but despite the scale of the crisis, most governments are not responding with the urgency that is needed, according to Food Banks Canada’s newly-released 2024 Poverty Report Cards. Food Banks Canada’s 2024 Poverty Report Cards...
May 15, 2024
A mother’s fight against food insecurity spotlights struggle in the North
Isabelle Chapadeau breaks down the price of a small grocery trip in Pangnirtung, Nunavut to her TikTok followers. APTN News: In the town of Pangnirtung, where the cost of living is well above the national average, Isabelle Chapadeau, a mother of two, is using social media to make her voice heard in the struggle against...
May 11, 2024
Imitation art is everywhere – and it’s hurting the livelihoods of Inuit artists who make the real thing
The Globe and Mail: In his sun-drenched workshop in Ottawa, July Papatsie chips away at a carving of an inukshuk,the well-known stone formations used by Inuit as landmarks and guideposts. Around here, he’s known for always having a story to tell, and can often be found chatting with fellow Inuit carvers who share the workshop located inside...
May 6, 2024
This mom took her 14-year-old daughter off life support. She says her suicide was preventable
WARNING: This story contains disturbing content and details of suicide CBC News: Darcel Lidd didn’t want to die. Her mother says she is certain of that. What she wanted, says Miriam Lidd, was help. The scars on her arms — too numerous to count and in various stages of healing — spoke for themselves. On April...
May 6, 2024
Red Dress Day must result in more than just awareness, says mother of murdered Indigenous woman
CBC News: After her daughter was murdered, Charlotte Wolfrey spent decades fighting for better services to help women fleeing violence in coastal Labrador. She was successful in advocating for RCMP presence in their communities. She’s done interviews, formed advocacy councils and testified at the national inquiry for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. When...
May 2, 2024
The true cost of critical minerals
By Emilie Cameron, Rosemary Collard & Jessica Dempsey | Opinion | Canada’s National Observer: OPINION – Canada is positioning itself as a global destination for critical mineral extraction. Are we willing to destroy caribou herds and trample on Indigenous rights to do it? Barnabas Davoti/Pexels Listen to article The 2024 federal budget bolsters Canada’s ambitions to be a global supplier of critical minerals....
April 30, 2024
How Workplace Diversity Fails Indigenous Employees
What began with optimism and enthusiasm has curdled into exploitation BY MICHELLE CYCAILLUSTRATION BY MARIAH MEAWASIGE / MAKOOSE NationTalk: the Walrus – IN FEBRUARY 2022, a twenty-one-year-old Ojibwe and Métis woman named Christine Paquette was job-hunting online. She clicked on a posting for an entry-level position in customer service at CIBC. The call for applications, which was...
April 19, 2024
UN puts spotlight on attacks against Indigenous land defenders, journalists
Indigenous peoples around the world are harassed and killed at alarming rates. Will the world act? Tear gas is deployed by police during a Maasai rights demonstration outside the Tanzanian High Commission in Nairobi in 2022. Ben Curtis / AP Photo APTN News: When around 70,000 Indigenous Maasai were expelled from their lands in northern Tanzania in 2022,...
April 12, 2024
Cree lawyer says cows and plows settlements don’t reflect spirit of treaty clause
‘It didn’t just mean cows, plows, agriculture. It meant livelihood,’ says Deanne Kasokeo CBC Indigenous: A Saskatchewan-based lawyer says “cows and plows” settlements do not reflect the spirit and intent of treaties from an Indigenous perspective. Under treaties 4,5,6 and 10, the Crown promised agricultural benefits — livestock and farming equipment — to the First Nations that signed. That promise...
April 1, 2024
Confederation anniversary is no cause to celebrate, says Mi’kmaw elder
Mi’kmaq of Newfoundland were not recognized nor acknowledged in Terms of Union with Canada CBC Indigenous: As Newfoundland and Labrador marks 75 years since it joined Canada, a Mi’kmaw elder who led the struggle for the recognition of Mi’kmaw people in the province says he won’t be celebrating the anniversary of Confederation. “There’s nothing really for me to...
March 18, 2024
Inuit leaders, MPs urge action on TB elimination as federal budget nears
TB rate among Inuit 676 times higher than among non-Indigenous, Canadian-born people CBC Indigenous: With the federal budget approaching, Inuit leaders and New Democrat MPs are urging the Trudeau government to tackle tuberculosis in Indigenous communities. Inuit in particular face a “staggering and unacceptable reality” of tuberculosis rates more than 300 times higher than Canadian-born non-Indigenous people,...
March 13, 2024
B.C. judge warns of ‘tsunami’ of Indigenous identity fraud cases
Baptist pastor charged with possessing child pornography claimed Métis status based on great-great-grandparent WARNING: This story contains details of child sexual exploitation and pornography. CBC News: After he was charged with possessing child pornography, Nathan Allen Joseph Legault discovered a figure from his past he hoped might help with his future. The Prince Rupert, B.C., man...
March 9, 2024
Brian Mulroney’s complicated relationship with Indigenous peoples in Canada
From laying the foundations of Nunavut to the Oka crisis, the former PM’s legacy was one of contradictions CBC News: The late Brian Mulroney’s legacy with Indigenous peoples in Canada is marked by its contradictions — failures remembered for their good intentions, successes accompanied by catastrophic disappointments. The former prime minister is praised by some Indigenous leaders for creating a...
February 29, 2024
Senate committee hears from information commissioner on residential schools records access
Guidance on information disclosure ‘comes from the top,’ says Caroline Maynard CBC Indigenous: A Senate committee examining barriers to the release of records of deaths at residential schools heard Tuesday that federal departments and agencies should make information disclosure processes more accessible and informal. “We heard that the privacy and information regimes cannot work if the government itself does not believe...
February 29, 2024
The protection of wetlands is tied to Indigenous and human rights
Despite their ecological, social, cultural and economic importance, over the past two centuries wetlands have been systematically destroyed for industrial, commercial and residential development. First Peoples Law Report: Rabble.ca, David Suzuki – In his 1972 non-fiction book No Name in the Street, James Baldwin asked, “Does the law exist for the purpose of furthering the ambitions...
February 15, 2024
What does the duty to consult First Nations, Inuit and Métis mean?
And why some advocates say Canada needs to move from consultation to consent CBC Indigenous: You’ve probably heard the phrase duty to consult, or failure to consult, when it comes to governments and their relationships with First Nations, Inuit and Métis. But what does it actually mean? Stemming from three Supreme Court of Canada decisions in 2004...
February 15, 2024
Joint APTN and CBC News investigation examines the impact of rising food prices in Canada
NationTalk:TREATY 1 TERRITORY, WINNIPEG, Man. — In a joint investigation, APTN Investigates and CBC’s The Fifth Estate are speaking with industry leaders and Canadian families, farmers and food producers to understand the reasons behind soaring food prices. In March 2022, APTN and CBC/Radio-Canada signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the creation of more Indigenous content. The agreement emphasizes the need for the...
February 1, 2024
What charges against journalist Brandi Morin mean for Canadian democracy
Trends show a clear sign that Canada is allowing tendencies of an oppressive state where law enforcement’s action cannot be documented by independent journalists and instead they are slapped with bogus charges. The Toronto Star: The arrest, detention and bogus charges against journalist Brandi Morin launched by the Edmonton police should concern everyone. On Jan. 10, Morin...
January 30, 2024
Inquiry examining treatment of Innu in provincial child welfare system wraps up formal hearings in Sheshatshiu
APTN News: The public inquiry focusing on the history of Labrador’s child protection system and the health and well-being of the Innu children and families has wrapped up in Sheshatshiu, Labrador, for now. The inquiry, looking into the treatment, experiences, and outcomes of those children, is being held after years of lobbying by the Innu...
January 27, 2024
Next-generation leaders must stay in the Arctic
A new generation of Arctic leaders, from left Ashley Rae Carvill, Kristen Tanche and Megan Dicker Nochasak Toronto Star: “The Arctic affects us all,” explained Gov. Gen. Mary Simon in Finland last year, “and what happens here has far-reaching consequences for the world.” The Arctic is changing. Challenges — including climate change — require emerging...
January 22, 2024
Innu inquiry to hold 1st formal hearings, focusing on history of child welfare in Innu communities
Inquiry will hear from experts and institutional representatives CBC Indigenous: The Inquiry Respecting the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System is set to begin formal hearings in Sheshatshiu on Monday after months of informal community sessions. The five days of hearings will focus on the history of child welfare in Labrador’s...
January 8, 2024
Survey: Over Half of Indigenous Canadians Polled have Experienced Workplace Discrimination
62.4% HAVE EXPERIENCED BIAS WHEN APPLYING FOR JOBS NationTalk: TORONTO – ComIT.org, a registered charity that believes the democratization of education and opportunity is Canada’s best path forward, recently uncovered several startling statistics in a survey to 500 Canadians who identify as Indigenous Canadians. ComIT.org created the survey to take a pulse check of current...
January 1, 2024
Consulting Indigenous communities on critical minerals is key to net zero ambitions
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 31, 2023 UPDATED JANUARY 1, 2024 The Globe and Mail: Two years ago, First Nations leaders made clear what Canada must take to heart if it wants to be a global player in critical minerals and the energy transition: The only road to net zero runs through Indigenous lands. That is, any efforts to develop...
December 13, 2023
Desperate and near starvation, his wife drove him 1,000 kilometres for the care that saved him
Scott Russell waited 6 weeks to hear from a surgeon who says he didn’t get any calls CBC News: Labrador resident Scott Russell had been in such intense pain and near starvation — he had lost about 90 pounds, or nearly half of his weight — that his wife drove more than 1,000 kilometres to Corner...
December 5, 2023
AFN national chief candidates would back inquiry into Sixties Scoop
National inquiry into removal of Indigenous children could become a key task for next AFN leader CBC Indigenous: Some First Nations chiefs say the next national chief of the Assembly of First Nations should push for a national inquiry into the “Sixties Scoop” and the continued removal of Indigenous children from their families. About 22,000 Indigenous children were...
November 30, 2023
Are Canada’s museums honouring their promises to Indigenize and decolonize?
Aylan Couchie explains why she drafted a statement of concern, co-signed by Indigenous artists worldwide CBC Indigenous: Following reports of Anishinaabe curator Wanda Nanibush’s departure from the Art Gallery of Ontario, more than 50 artists have signed an open letter expressing concern that Canadian cultural institutions are failing to deliver on their promises to Indigenize and decolonize...
November 29, 2023
Balancing Indigenous perspectives and international policies at COP28
There are a wide range of perspectives from Canada headed to the UN climate conversation People walk near a logo for the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) APTN News: A major annual international climate meeting kicks off tomorrow in Dubai, in the United Arab...
November 21, 2023
Nunatsiavut government withdraws from Furey’s Indigenous roundtable
Qalipu chief hopes group will return but defends NunatKavut’s place in roundtable The president of the Nunatsiavut government has decided to decline an invitation to Premier Andrew Furey’s Indigenous roundtable over his decision to include the NunatuKavut community council in discussions. Nunatsiavut announced its decision ahead of a meeting of the roundtable in Conne River on Tuesday. In a...
November 15, 2023
Proof Point: Closing Canada’s infrastructure gap could boost Indigenous output by up to 17%
NationTalk: RBC Proof Point Stubborn employment gap between Indigenous & non-Indigenous population persists Unemployment rate, %, prime age population; off-reserve Source: Statistics Canada, RBC Economics Canada’s Indigenous populations grapple with a huge infrastructure gap It is well-known that Canada is one of the most educated countries in the world, with the second highest share of...
October 27, 2023
Inquiry community meetings end with optimism in Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation
Commissioners will be in Natuashish before holding formal hearings early in 2024 WARNING: This story contains distressing details. All stories were shared with consent of participants. NationTalk: CBC News – The Inquiry Respecting the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu children in care has concluded its community meetings in Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation. For two weeks, Innu...
October 26, 2023
Senate Committee shocked by difficulties faced gathering residential school records from Catholic Church
“Who specifically asks for a 21-year NDA? Who within their organization needs to die within that 21 years that is being protected?” — Saskatchewan Treaty Commissioner Mary Musqua-Culbertson Saskatchewan Treaty Commissioner Mary Musqua-Culbertson Windspeaker.com: Saskatchewan Treaty Commissioner Mary Musqua-Culbertson didn’t mince words when she spoke to members of the Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples Oct....
October 18, 2023
Climate change solutions need to keep Indigenous knowledge at centre of approach
“It all comes down to resources…Resources are very important to be able to do what we need to do to work together.” —interim National Chief Joanna Bernard AFN Quebec-Labrador Regional Chief Ghislain Picard Windspeaker.com:The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has released its National Climate Strategy and is calling on all levels of government to “make...
October 12, 2023
A need for action on reconciliation
NationTalk: Winnipeg Free Press – Each year, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation prompts us to take stock of the progress we are making, as a country, on the journey towards reconciliation. Often this progress — or the lack of it — is measured by counting how many of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s...
October 6, 2023
People accused of killing Indigenous women less likely to be charged with first-degree murder: study
Several factors from funding to distrust of colonial systems may contribute to the sentencing decisions APTN News: A report from Statistics Canada shows that there’s a disparity in the way homicide cases involving Indigenous women and girls are handled in the Canadian legal system. Data between 2009 and 2021 indicated that first-degree murder charges, the...
October 5, 2023
Canada and the Culture Wars: Majority say legacy of colonialism still a problem, two-in-five disagree
Deep divisions over continued challenges from residential schools, special status for Indigenous Peoples Angus Reid Institute Poll Survey Results October 5, 2023 – Canada was officially proclaimed a dominion by the British in 1867, but this land’s history extends thousands of years prior. For most in this country, the legacy of first contact between Indigenous Peoples and early...
September 30, 2023
Orange Shirt Day: Canada faces rise in residential school denialism
Hate speech and confrontations are growing over the truth about missing children, graves and genocide People attend the second annual Orange Shirt Day Survivors Walk and Pow Wow on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Sept. 30, 2022. With Orange Shirt Day approaching Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, a surge in residential...
September 30, 2023
This should be a day when Canada rededicates itself to seeking justice
Toronto Star: “Hubert O’Connor: Child Molester.” That’s how the Victoria Times Colonist headlined the obituary for Catholic bishop Hubert O’Connor. He worked at the St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in Williams Lake, B.C., where he began a career as a serial rapist of young Indigenous girls. In 1996, he became the highest ranking Catholic official...
September 30, 2023
Is corporate sector listening to Indigenous business leaders?
Toronto Star: Businesses aren’t exempt from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to address the ongoing, centuries-long oppression of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. The 94 calls to action cover everything from the constant removal of Indigenous children to non-Indigenous households, medical racism and the multi-generational damage done to survivors of the Canadian government’s genocidal residential...
September 21, 2023
Centre for Truth and Reconciliation still waiting for residential school records to be submitted, hears Senate
“It sounds to me like this might take quite considerable time, some number of years for this (documents advisory) committee to do its work,” —Senator David M. Arnot. Chair of the Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples Mi’kmaw Senator Brian Francis. Windspeaker.com: It took referencing a dozen different sources to identify children who died at St....
September 12, 2023
Racism partly to blame for unequal health care provided to Indigenous women: PHAC study
Indigenous communities are still deeply affected by the 2020 death of Atikamekw woman Joyce Echaquan in a Quebec hospital, where she filmed staff insulting her as she lay dying, Lee Clark said. The Canadian Press/Paul Chiasson NationTalk: Racism and the lack of primary care providers mean off-reserve First Nations, Metis and Inuit women and girls...
September 6, 2023
More than 500 Indigenous classes won’t have a teacher this week: here’s what we should do
Amid national teacher shortages, Indigenous communities are struggling enormously to recruit and retain teachers. The Toronto Star: Students start school this week in Eabametoong First Nation, a community 360 km northeast of Thunder Bay, where seven teaching positions remain unfilled; this includes two all-important kindergarten teachers for students who are starting school for the very...
August 28, 2023
Barriers like racism, distrust may be main cause of health-care disparities for Indigenous women, study says
National study quantifying health-care inequities is 1st of its kind, lead author says Brishti Basu · CBC News · Posted: Aug 28, 2023 4:27 PM EDT | Last Updated: August 29 CBC News: Just before Tina Campbell had a minor medical procedure recently, she remembered the discrimination she says she felt while trying to access health care nearly two decades...
August 27, 2023
Indigenous females face more hurdles in health care access, study finds
The Globe and Mail: New research confirms what many Indigenous women have known all along: First Nations, Inuit and Métis females face many disparities in accessing health care. A study, led by the Public Health Agency of Canada and published in the CMAJ on Monday, found that First Nations, Inuit and Métis females have less access...
August 24, 2023
Power struggle: History grapples with electricity at Beothuk Lake, where the last remnants of a lost culture are washing away
An overhead view of Beothuk Lake reveals a circular clearing where a Beothuk mamateek once stood. The site is surrounded by fallen trees, where water has eroded the banks. Dan Arsenault/CBC CBC News: Fiona Humber walked in a circle, stomping her hiking boots down on tall grass to reveal a structure hidden in the tangle. With...
August 10, 2023
‘Pretendian’ conference delves into how to deal with false claims of Indigenous identity
APTN News: More than 30 people attended a conference in Tsuut’ina, just outside of Calgary, to talk about the issues of people falsely claiming Indigenous identity. They have come to colloquially be called “Pretendians. ”Participants came from as far as Halifax to hear about how to deal with increasing false claims of Indigenous identity.“ You...
July 19, 2023
Senate committee to question groups that have not released residential school records
Governments and churches ‘standing between Indigenous Peoples and the truth,’ committee member says CBC News: A Senate committee is pledging to hold a hearing this fall to demand answers from organizations that have not released records tied to Canada’s residential school system. In a news release Wednesday, P.E.I. Sen. Brian Francis called it “disheartening” that so many governments and...
July 14, 2023
Wildfires are disproportionately harming Indigenous communities
CTV News: Canadian wildfires are disproportionately affecting Indigenous people at a greater rate than non-Indigenous Canadians, a recent report finds. The audit published in June by Indigenous Services Canada and authored by a Metis fire researcher, found that in the past 13 years, Indigenous communities had more than 1,300 wildfire-related emergencies leading to more than...
July 6, 2023
National Inuit leader skipping premiers’ meeting over matter of respect
Natan Obed says relationship with premiers still a ‘long ways away’ from one needed for true reconciliation CBC News: The leader of the national organization representing Inuit turned down an invitation to meet with Canada’s premiers next week over the inclusion of non-rights-holding Indigenous groups. Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapirit Kanatami (ITK), told...
June 26, 2023
Considerations for collecting data on race and Indigenous identity during health card renewal across Canadian jurisdictions
Andrew D. Pinto, Azza Eissa, Tara Kiran, Angela Mashford-Pringle, Allison Needham and Irfan DhallaCMAJ June 26, 2023 195 (25) E880-E882; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.221587 KEY POINTS Canada’s health care systems do not routinely collect self-reported race and Indigenous identity data and often lack a standardized and consistent approach to data collection that would permit comparisons between organizations or jurisdictions. Collecting racial and Indigenous identity data is necessary for...
June 20, 2023
Residential School Denialism Is on the Rise. What to Know
And how to confront it. Because without the truth, there can be no reconciliation. The Tyee: May 27, 2023 marked the two-year anniversary of the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc’s announcement about the location of 215 potential unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in the Interior of British Columbia. In recognition of the anniversary,...
June 19, 2023
Is A Genocide Taking Place in Canada? Short Answer: Yes.
NationTalk: (OTTAWA, ON) – A genocide is being perpetuated against Indigenous peoples in Canada. That was the unambiguous declaration of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. But, despite a death toll that climbs year after year, many Canadians have difficulty understanding how the Inquiry reached its finding, or accepting that...
June 14, 2023
During the worst wildfire season this century, Indigenous communities need to consider their participation in resource extraction: says researcher
37 per cent of the total burned forest area in Western Canada and the United States between 1986 and 2021 can be traced back to 88 major fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers. ‘These fires are a culmination of ongoing resource extraction projects’ says climate researcher APTN News: In light of increasing extreme weather and...
June 7, 2023
Every Canadian has a role in ending the MMIWG crisis, advocate says
Empathy ‘must stay in Canadians’ hearts past the evening’s news broadcast’: Hilda Anderson-Pyrz This column is an opinion written by Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, chair of the National Family and Survivors Circle, as part of CBC’s “Mother. Sister. Daughter,” a project that tracked progress on the 231 calls to justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered...
June 6, 2023
RNC chief publicly acknowledges force’s systemic racism during announcement of Indigenous advisory committee
‘I’d be remiss if I said it didn’t exist,’ says Chief Pat Roche, after previously denying problem CBC News: After a year of avoidance and outright denial, the chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has publicly acknowledged systemic racism exists within the force. Chief Pat Roche has in the past said he didn’t believe the...
June 5, 2023
Search for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls hampered by police apathy: Researchers
‘The problem of Indigenous women being overpoliced and underprotected is all across Canada’ Participants walk in the Women’s Memorial March in Vancouver to remember missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (photo by Liang Sen/Xinhua via Getty Images) Content warning: the following contains disturbing subject matter. NationTalk: University of Toronto – In Canada, research shows...
June 5, 2023
Indigenous coalition urges Canada’s healthcare system to ‘Rise Above Racism’
NationTalk: themessage. Who: A coalition of Indigenous health organizations (First Nations Health Managers Association, First Peoples Wellness Circle and Thunderbird Partnership Foundation); with NationTalk for strategy, creative and media (supported by Cleansheet Communications). What: “Rise Above Racism,” a new government-funded awareness campaign highlighting the issue of anti-Indigenous racism within the Canadian healthcare system. This is the second...
June 1, 2023
They say Canada’s health system is broken. But can First Nations leaders create a new one in the shadow of colonialism?
“We’ve been very clear with Canada that any federal health legislation that moves forward must recognize the Treaty and Inherent Right to health,” says Vice Chief David Pratt Toronto Star: First Nations leaders are wrestling with what the future of Indigenous health care should look like as they piece together legislation meant to deal with...
May 30, 2023
Fireside Chats on Indigenous Health – Improving the health of Indigenous Peoples
Credit: Canadian Medical Association NationTalk: Canadian Medical Association President Dr. Alika Lafontaine joins Dr. Paula Cashin, Canada’s first Indigenous radiologist and a member of CMA’s board of directors, and Dr. Sarah Williams, CMA’s strategic advisor for Indigenous health, to discuss improving the health of Indigenous Peoples. This is the second event in a CMA series on...
May 27, 2023
‘We were anything but primitive’: How Indigenous-led archaeology is challenging colonial preconceptions
The field of archaeology changing. So are the ways some young Indigenous people see themselves CBC News: When she was about eight years old, Jennifer Tenasco moved from her home community of Kitigan Zibi, Que., to Ottawa. Changing schools meant she’d lost an important place to learn about her culture: her classroom on reserve. “It...
May 25, 2023
Sexual assault organizations struggling to help victims post-pandemic: study
APTN News: The preliminary findings of a new national survey is highlighting how frontline sexual assault organizations are struggling to provide timely services to victims and survivors post-pandemic. The report, which was conducted by national organization Ending Violence Association of Canada, surveyed more than 100 sexual violence organizations (SVOs) across Canada on how the pandemic impacted...
May 23, 2023
The Treaty Right to Health and the Legacy of the Indian Health Policy (1979)
Contemporary Legislative and Policy Considerations EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This document provides a succinct overview of the health-related legal and policy frameworks that frame and limit the potential for self-determination and self-government of First Nations people. This review is informed by recent developments such as the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the associated Calls...
May 19, 2023
‘It needs to be a day of reckoning:’ Parliamentary committee studying land back
‘I think this study will really explore the connection of Indigenous people to land in a way that people don’t naturally equate to property.’ A school bus rests on the road at 1492 Land Back Lane Blockade in Caledonia, Ont. Photo: APTN file APTN News: The standing committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs is undertaking...
May 11, 2023
Opinion: To get Indigenous murder and suicide rates down, first face facts
Canadians need to agree on the hard fact of modern life that education is a prerequisite for economic success NationTalk: Financial Post – From 2017 through 2021, 1.45 non-Indigenous Canadians in 100,000 died from homicide. Among Indigenous Canadians the rate was six times that: 8.88 in 100,000. That average masks a stark regional difference, however....
May 2, 2023
MPs call for national emergency declaration on violence against Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit people
Motion was presented by NDP MP Leah Gazan of Winnipeg Centre CBC News: The House of Commons adopted a motion on unanimous consent Tuesday calling on the federal government to declare ongoing violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people a national emergency. The motion was presented by Winnipeg Centre NDP MP Leah Gazan. It also...
May 1, 2023
Remote dialysis program launched in Sheshatshiu and Natuashish
The program has dialysis machines in each community for treatments CBC News: For the first time in 20 years, Robert Piwas was able to return home to Natuashish for two months while still receiving dialysis. Piwas’ daughter said it was the happiest she’s seen him to be back home with his children and grandchildren. “It was very...
April 18, 2023
Advocates call on Canada to establish multi-year funding for Indigenous youth organizations
New report launched at side-event for United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues CBC News: Indigenous youth advocates are turning to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to put pressure on the federal government to better fund Indigenous-led youth groups. Representatives from five Indigenous youth groups travelled to New York City this week...
April 12, 2023
Trudeau says premiers’ claims about natural resources power grab have ‘no grounding in truth’
Premiers criticized justice minister for saying Ottawa will look at resource agreement CBC News: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing the premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba of misinterpreting remarks by a federal minister on whether Ottawa might review agreements that give those provinces control of natural resources. “Let me be very clear. The minister of...
April 12, 2023
Trudeau says premiers’ claims about natural resources power grab have ‘no grounding in truth’
Premiers criticized justice minister for saying Ottawa will look at resource agreement CBC News: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing the premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba of misinterpreting remarks by a federal minister on whether Ottawa might review agreements that give those provinces control of natural resources. “Let me be very clear. The minister of...
April 11, 2023
Western premiers blast Lametti for suggesting Ottawa might ‘look at’ provinces’ power over natural resources
Lametti told an AFN meeting he would examine calls to rescind Natural Resources Transfer Act CBC News: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and three western premiers are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to disassociate his government from comments made by his justice minister — who promised last week to “look at” a decades-old law that...
April 11, 2023
Western premiers blast Lametti for suggesting Ottawa might ‘look at’ provinces’ power over natural resources
Lametti told an AFN meeting he would examine calls to rescind Natural Resources Transfer Act CBC News: Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and three western premiers are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to disassociate his government from comments made by his justice minister — who promised last week to “look at” a decades-old law that...
April 11, 2023
Analysis of anti-Indigenous racism in hospitals reveals pattern of harm, no tracking mechanism
Canada’s National Observer: “Sakihitowin means love,” Pearl Gambler says, recalling the day she gave her daughter her name. It was the day Sakihitowin was born — and died. From Bigstone Cree Nation, Gambler entered Edmonton’s Misericordia Hospital on June 11, 2020, and experienced a series of events that she can only characterize as traumatic and...
April 8, 2023
Canada is sitting on a critical minerals motherlode. But is it ready for the new gold rush?
Proponents say Canada must do more to turn aspiration into action CBC News: Drive two hours north of Ottawa, put on a hard hat and bright orange vest, descend into a pit — and you find yourself on the frontline in the fight to be part of the new, green economy. A mining project might not...
April 7, 2023
Vianne Timmons removed as president of Memorial University
Board of regents made announcement Thursday afternoon in MUN’s Gazette CBC News: Memorial University of Newfoundland’s governing body has removed president and vice-chancellor Vianne Timmons from her position. The move comes after Timmons announced on March 13 she was taking a voluntary, six-week paid leave of absence from the president’s office amid public scrutiny following a CBC News investigation into her...
April 7, 2023
Repudiating a racist doctrine
Words don’t just hurt. Some words kill. THE STAR’S VIEW The Toronto Star: Consider, for example, the authorization “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish and subdue” a group of people, and “to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.” Those words aren’t just hurtful; they’re downright deadly. Nonetheless, those are the words of Romanus Pontifex, the...
April 5, 2023
Opposition calling on N.L. to remove statute of limitations for physical abuse victims
Justice minister makes reference to reviewing law, but won’t comment on specifics CBC News: Justice critic Helen Conway Ottenheimer is calling on Justice Minister John Hogan to make changes to the Limitations Act, which would remove the statutes of limitation on physical abuse. The Progressive Conservative member told CBC News she had a meeting with...
March 13, 2023
MUN president Vianne Timmons apologizes, takes temporary leave, as Mi’kmaw claims scrutinized
Board of regents striking Indigenous roundtable to discuss issue CBC News: Memorial University president Vianne Timmons is taking a voluntary, six-week paid leave of absence and is apologizing as the university gathers Indigenous leaders to discuss the issue of her statements of Mi’kmaw heritage. “While I have shared that I am not Mi’kmaw and I do not...
March 10, 2023
Crown stays charges against Innu caribou hunters dating back to 2013
Innu Nation grand chief criticizes decision, says charges should be dropped outright CBC News: A decade-long court battle between the Newfoundland and Labrador government and the Innu Nation ended Monday, when the Crown stayed charges against six men accused of illegally hunting and possessing caribou in 2013. The stay means the trial is halted and, unless the Crown decides...
March 10, 2023
Canada, home to a massive boreal forest, lobbied to limit U.S., EU anti-deforestation bills
Canada’s boreal forest covers 270 million hectares, spanning from Yukon through to N.L. CBC News: Canada is facing international criticism for undermining efforts to protect one of the world’s last primary forests — our own. Jennifer Skene, natural climate solutions policy manager for the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), accuses the Canadian government of...
March 4, 2023
Canadian history was overdue for a rewrite
The Globe and Mail: The Governor-General of Canada usually chooses her words with careful, unsmiling deliberation. But her anger at the way that Canadian history has, until recently, been taught in our schools was unmistakable. “It has been uneven and it is unfair,” Mary Simon said. “This country is so diverse, but for the longest...
March 2, 2023
Indigenous leaders need to be part of Churchill Falls discussions, says Innu Nation grand chief
Grievances on past hydroelectric projects need to be addressed before more development, says Etienne Riche CBC News: When Quebec Premier François Legault met with Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey in St. John’s on Friday to discuss the Churchill Falls agreement, there were no Indigenous leaders from Labrador present — and that has the grand chief...
February 28, 2023
A vanishing world: Winter sea ice is melting away from Labrador. For the Inuit way of life, it’s a death knell
CBC News: Crystal Allen-Webb hangs strips of moose meat to dry above her sink, her infant daughter babbling in a high chair beside her. It’s a frigid January evening in Nain — so cold the wind burns your eyelids raw — but the Allen-Webb house, warmed by a woodstove and a hot dinner, glows with...
February 23, 2023
How missing Indigenous women could be saved with ‘Red Dress Alert’
Nation Talk: CTV News – One Winnipeg MP is calling for a system, similar to the existing Amber Alerts, to be established to notify the public about missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. “We currently have crisis of violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in this country. Something that our current prime...
February 22, 2023
Provinces lag behind Ottawa in offering crucial supports to those who’ve been switched at birth
The Globe and Mail: A man who was the first known switched-at-birth case in Manitoba says if it weren’t for the independent review and mental-health support ordered by the federal government, his life would’ve fallen apart. Luke Monias of Garden Hill First Nation said he would likely be unemployed and struggling with addiction. “I wouldn’t be...
February 17, 2023
Colonial governments continue to destroy Innu land and traditional culture, says longtime activist and elder
Innu are treated badly by police, nurses, and doctors, says Innu elder CBC News: Mistreatment of Innu people by colonial governments continues today, said an elder and activist who has fought for decades to protect the Innu’s traditional culture and land in Labrador. “I will start on how we have been treated by the white man,...
February 12, 2023
After years of delay, the inquiry into treatment of Innu children in care begins hearings
First hearings will take place in Sheshatshiu, focus on Innu history CBC News: Nearly six years after it was announced, the inquiry into the treatment and experiences of Innu children in Newfoundland and Labrador’s child protection system will begin hearings in Sheshatshiu on Monday. The inquiry, led by retired Inuk provincial court judge James Igloliorte,...
February 11, 2023
It’s everyone’s job to help end the MMIWG crisis, advocates say — and here’s how
‘It starts with everybody taking responsibility,’ says author of inquiry’s final report WARNING: This story contains distressing details. CBC News: Lorelei Williams is exhausted. The Coast Salish woman has been on the frontlines of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls crisis in Vancouver since 2012, when she founded Butterflies in Spirit to raise awareness about...
February 7, 2023
Governments Opposed to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Updated Feb. 7, 2023 to move BC to those who have enacted a statutory holiday Those provinces who will not recognize Sept 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, as a statutory holiday: Province/Territory IndigenousPopulation Party in Power Date Comment Alberta 258,640 Conservative – Alberta told CTV Edmonton it won’t legislate the holiday, but...
January 27, 2023
SCO Urges Prime Minister to Include First Nations Leaders in Health Meeting
NationTalk: ANISHINAABE AND DAKOTA TERRITORY, MB — Today, the Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO) is calling on Prime Minister Trudeau and the Government of Canada to ensure that First Nations leaders are included in health discussions on February 7, 2023. “Health care systems are in crisis. They are not meeting the needs of First Nations people, and...
January 26, 2023
Indigenous identity at core of Qalipu membership challenge trial in St. John’s
Final arguments are to be heard next week NationTalk: SaltWire – ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Testimony has wrapped up, but observers across the country are interested to see what comes of a court case in St. John’s involving a group of Mi’kmaw residents whose memberships in the Qalipu First Nation were revoked when a new point system was brought...
January 25, 2023
First Nations groups upset with exclusion from health-care funding talks
‘There is no reconciliation for First Nations when we continue to be excluded from these crucial discussions’ CBC News: First Nations groups are criticizing their exclusion from an upcoming meeting between federal, provincial and territorial governments aiming to reach a funding deal to improve the country’s ailing health-care system. The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations...
January 16, 2023
Qalipu First Nation enrolment controversy reaches ‘pivotal point’ as court challenge begins
Group wants 2013 supplemental agreement abolished CBC News: The long-simmering fight over membership in Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation is entering a new chapter Monday, as a group of people rejected in a controversial enrolment process head to court. The Friends of Qalipu Advocacy Association is challenging a 2013 supplemental agreement between the federal government and...
January 6, 2023
Sixties Scoop survivor reconnects with birth mom, discovers her culture, decades after separation
It took many years for the pair to develop a mother-daughter relationship WARNING: This story contains distressing details CBC News: Tauni Sheldon remembers the first time she saw her biological mom. Sheldon was 23 years old. It was 1993 and she was in the Winnipeg airport, having just flown in with her adoptive parents, Jim...
January 4, 2023
The Sacred Balance: Learning from Indigenous Peoples
We are no more removed from nature than any other creature, even in the midst of a large city. Our animal nature dictates our essential needs: clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy. NationTalk: Rabble.ca. David Suzikii The following is adapted from the prologue to the 25th anniversary edition of The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our...
January 1, 2023
Denial rates of services and supports for First Nations children varied drastically by region during the pandemic
The Globe and Mail: Marsha McLeod In 2007, just before the House of Commons rose for its Christmas break, parliamentarians voted unanimously to adopt a principle meant to put the needs of First Nations children ahead of bureaucratic government conveniences. Jean Crowder, the then-MP who brought forward the motion to adopt Jordan’s Principle, warned her parliamentary colleagues...
December 15, 2022
At this rate, Canada won’t meet Truth and Reconciliation calls until 2065, report suggests
Seven years after the TRC released its final report, Canada has much work to do, Yellowhead Institute says. The Toronto Star: Canada has completed only 13 of 94 calls to action outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, seven years after its final report, a new update shows. “Survivors (of residential schools) are ageing, and many...
November 24, 2022
The Impact of Inaction – New Publication Reveals Not All of Canada is on Track to Meet Global Hepatitis C Elimination Goal
Timing of elimination of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Canada’s provinces indicates 70% of provinces could reach the World Health Organization’s (WHO) HCV elimination target of 2030, however three of Canada’sprovinces — two of them the most populous in the country — are off track to achieve this hepatitis C elimination goal.1 Timely elimination would save 170...
November 22, 2022
Standing Committee on Public Accounts to Hold Public Hearing on Auditor General Report on Physical Mitigation of Muskrat Falls Reservoir Wetlands
“PHYSICAL MITIGATION…” CONCLUSION: The Department of Municipal Affairs and Environment did not appropriately communicate and monitor the timelines and deadlines of the Independent Expert Advisory Committee recommendation for physical mitigation of the Muskrat Falls reservoir wetlands. However, we did not find any evidence that government intentionally missed the wetland capping deadline. There were numerous missed...
November 22, 2022
Standing Committee on Public Accounts to Hold Public Hearing on Auditor General Report on Physical Mitigation of Muskrat Falls Reservoir Wetlands
“PHYSICAL MITIGATION…” CONCLUSION: The Department of Municipal Affairs and Environment did not appropriately communicate and monitor the timelines and deadlines of the Independent Expert Advisory Committee recommendation for physical mitigation of the Muskrat Falls reservoir wetlands. However, we did not find any evidence that government intentionally missed the wetland capping deadline. There were numerous missed...
October 19, 2022
Newfoundland and Labrador police force admits systemic racism, commits to improving
CityNews: Canadian Press: ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial police force has acknowledged systemic racism within its ranks, as well as the contribution of police to the injustices faced by Indigenous and other racialized people. ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial police force has acknowledged systemic racism within its ranks, as...
October 12, 2022
RNC chief’s refusal to acknowledge systemic racism ‘very troubling,’ says Indigenous group
First Voice calls on Pat Roche to reconsider his assertion that systemic racism isn’t a problem in the RNC CBC News: St. John’s-based Indigenous group says it’s deeply disappointed that Pat Roche, chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, hasn’t responded to repeated requests that he reconsider his position that there is no systemic racism in the RNC. CBC...
October 4, 2022
Put out wildfires before they begin with Indigenous fire stewardship
The Keremeos Creek wildfire southwest of Penticton, British Columbia on July 31, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Don Denton Canadian governments need to better engage with Indigenous fire stewardship to counter increased wildfire occurrence and severity Policy Options: by James Michael Collie, Hannah Verrips After the Keremeos Creek wildfire swept through the southern Interior of British Columbia in August,...
September 30, 2022
‘Why aren’t we talking about it?’ The forgotten cause of missing Indigenous men and boys
Indigenous men are much more likely to be victims of homicide than Indigenous women, but families say they don’t get the same kind of attention. Toronto Star: ENOCH CREE NATION, Alta.—There is no word for goodbye in Cree. Instead people say êkosi mâka, or “That’s it for now.” The belief is that loved ones will always...
September 29, 2022
Canadian Federation of Library Associations Calls for the Release of all outstanding residential school records
First People’s Law: The Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) has sent an open letter to federal Cabinet Ministers calling on their support for the full public release of outstanding residential school records currently being withheld by the Catholic Church and other orders of government. Following calls from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR),...
September 28, 2022
Ministers Honour Joyce Echaquan and Re-Affirm Commitment to Addressing Anti-Indigenous Racism in Canada’s Health Systems
Indigenous Services Canada: Ottawa, Ontario (September 28, 2022) – The Minister of Indigenous Services, Patty Hajdu, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Marc Miller, and the Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, issued the following statement today: “Health care is a human right, and should be free of racism and discrimination. But the systemic discrimination and racism that...
September 21, 2022
‘The bond is broken’: Data shows Indigenous kids overrepresented in foster care
Statistics Canada released data from the 2021 census showing Indigenous children accounted for 53.8 per cent of all children in foster care. Toronto Star: WINNIPEG – A Winnipeg mother says she was scarred for life when her first child was taken away at birth by social workers, who told her she was unfit to parent...
September 19, 2022
Experts warn ending birth alerts not the only solution to keep Indigenous children with their family
Globe and Mail: Canadian Press – The number of newborns taken into care dropped dramatically as birth alerts ended across Canada, but child welfare experts warn ceasing the practice cannot be the only step governments take to keep families together. “(Birth alerts) really risk being kind of a red herring in the real issue of...
September 6, 2022
The beast of addiction in Indigenous communities remains untamed
Globe & Mail: Tanya Talaga – Over the past week, a Thunder Bay hotel’s conference room has become home to a land-based healing and recovery program. There, 17 women from one northern First Nation about two hours down the highway – women who are addicted to opioids, alcohol, crystal methamphetamine (jib) and/or methadone, which is...
June 27, 2022
AFN Regional Chief Presses Urgent Action at Meeting with Federal, Provincial, Territorial Ministers of Housing
(Ottawa, ON) – Assembly of First Nations: AFN Manitoba Regional Chief Cindy Woodhouse participated in a meeting today with Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) Ministers of Housing and National Indigenous Organizations (NIOs), calling for more investments and support for First Nations housing and challenging Provincial and Territorial governments to work in partnership with First Nations. “I believe we...
June 20, 2022
How familiar are Canadians with the history of Indigenous residential schools?
Toronto Star: One year after more than 1,000 unmarked graves were discovered on the grounds of former residential schools — putting a global spotlight on Canada’s horrific history of assimilation and abuse of Indigenous children — Canadians are barely any more familiar with the painful legacy of the institutions, new research shows. According to data...
April 29, 2022
Unacceptable Delay in Establishing Inquiry for Innu Children: Inquiry officially launched
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Innu Nation today announced the launch of the Inquiry into the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System. The Commission of Inquiry has been ordered as a Part II Inquiry under the Public Inquiries Act, 2006. The Provincial Government and the Innu have...
December 14, 2021
Call for a Miscarriage of Justice Commission
APTN – Women and people of colour “urgently” need a commission to review claims of wrongful conviction, say two retired judges. Harry LaForme, the first Indigenous lawyer on an appellate court in Canada, and Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré, the first Black judge in Quebec, were tasked with helping formulate a new Criminal Case Review Commission for Justice Canada....
November 21, 2021
25th Anniversay of the RCAP Final Report
Prime Minister’s Office – “25th anniversary of the final report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples”. The five-volume landmark document outlined 440 recommendations on Indigenous governance, nation rebuilding, lands and resources, treaties, economic development, and social policy, and called for the renewal of the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and all orders of...
November 18, 2021
Arrest of Indigenous journalists at Wet’suwet’en protests
Toronto Star – Two journalists reporting from the Wet’suwet’en territory were among 15 people arrested and detained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia Friday night. Both remain in custody. Since last year, media has covered RCMP raids in the territory, Indigenous rights and police removal of defenders of the land who are...
October 21, 2021
First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study
Assembly of First Nations – Built on collaborative research with 92 First Nations across the country – 7,000 participants over 10 years – the FNFNES highlights that traditional foods remain foundational to First Nations’ health and well-being, and that the quality of traditional food is superior to store bought food. However, due to environmental degradation,...
October 4, 2021
SCO Survey on MMIWG Calls for Justice
Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO) – “Only 53% of murder cases involving [Indigenous] women and girls have led to charges of homicide. This is dramatically different from the national clearance rate for homicides in Canada, which was last reported as 84%” (NWAC, 2011). Governments and Canadian institutions now need to fully implement the Calls for Justice....
September 24, 2021
Muskrat Falls Mitigation Plan lawsuit
NL Government – The Parties have requested the Court defer releasing a decision on the injunction application to provide an opportunity for discussions to take place. The Parties will not be commenting further at this time....
September 14, 2021
Native Women’s Association of Canada Political Party Report Card
Native Women’s Association of Canada – NWAC commissioned Nanos Research to compare the parties’ platforms with the 11 policy issues NWAC determined to be of primary importance. Those policy issues include: human rights self-determination reconciliation environment clean water housing child welfare justice and policing employment and economic development, and health care. The result is a...
September 14, 2021
Native Women’s Association of Canada Political Party Report Card
NDP Liberal Green Conservative Bloc Québecois A B B D D Rights of Indigenous Women & MMIWG2S 4 5 5 2 1 Self Determination & Decision-Making 5 5 5 4 5 Reconciliation & residential Schools 5 3 4 3 3 Environment & Climate Change 5 4 4 1 1 Clean Drinking Water & Public Services...
August 12, 2021
Muskrat Falls Mitigation Plan lawsuit
The Independent – Innu in Labrador are suing Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador over a financial agreement they say violates their rights as Indigenous people. Leaders from Sheshatshiu and Natuashish filed the lawsuit at the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in St. John’s against the settler colonial governments over the recently...
August 9, 2021
Stalled Modern Treaty Negotiations
Canadian Human Rights Commission – This report is the second follow up study after the original 1993 investigation and the 2002 follow-up. The authors were asked to consider the status of the implementation of the 1993 and 2002 Reports and to look at more recent developments and their implications for the human rights of the...
July 22, 2021
Appeal to International Criminal Court
Nunantsiaq News: Nunavut MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq and her fellow NDP MP Charlie Angus held a press conference on Parliament Hill Thursday to ask federal Justice Minister and Attorney General David Lametti to reach out to the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation into a system they said “represents a crime against humanity.” “We need...
July 12, 2021
The Inuit Nunangat Food Security Strategy
Inuit Tapariit Kanatami – The “Inuit Nunangat Food Security Strategy” (INFSS) identifies drivers of food insecurity that are common to all regions of Inuit Nunangat. It sets out the coordinated actions required to address the interrelated drivers of food insecurity, such as: Poverty high living costs climate change, and contaminants. The INFSS calls for actions...
June 24, 2021
Unacceptable Delay in Establishing Inquiry for Innu Children
The Honourable John G. Abbott, Minister of Children, Seniors and Social Development, in collaboration with the Honourable Lisa Dempster, Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation and Labrador Affairs tabled the “Report on Child Welfare Services to Indigenous Children, Youth and Families 2019-20”. This report is in response to Recommendation 33 of the Office of the...
June 15, 2021
AFN/Canada Race Race Relations Foundation poll
Assembly of First Nations – Thirteen years after the Government of Canada offered a formal apology to the survivors of the residential school system and families, 68 percent of Canadians polled still say they were either unaware of the severity of abuses at residential schools or completely shocked by it. A poll conducted by the...
June 10, 2021
Unacceptable Delay in Establishing Inquiry for Innu Children
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Innu Nation today announced the appointment of retired Provincial Court Judge James Igloliorte as Chief Commissioner for the Commission of Inquiry into the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System. The Chief Commissioner will be joined by Anastasia Qupee of Sheshatshiu, former Grand...
June 4, 2021
MMIWG Inquiry – OAS Complaint
The Native Women’s Association of Canada -NWAC is taking immediate steps to file a Human Rights complaint in Canada and to request International intervention and investigation by the Organization of American States (OAS) and United Nations (UN) in forcing the federal government to take the steps necessary to end the genocide against Indigenous women, girls and...
June 3, 2021
MMIWG Inquiry – Government Action Plan Complaints
NationTalk – Ontario Native Women’s Association, Québec Native Women, Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Chair in Indigenous Governance, Feminist Alliance for International Action – A consortia of Indigenous women’s advocacy groups representing 49% of Indigenous women’s voices in Canada finds that the National Action Plan and Federal Pathway on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and...
March 26, 2021
Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act
The AFN, based on direction from the Chiefs-in-Assembly, intervened in this case, as well as court cases in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta, arguing the Government of Canada has a direct legal obligation to recognize Aboriginal and Treaty rights in any legislative efforts to address climate change....
March 25, 2021
Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act
Supreme Court finds that the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act 2018 is constitutional....
March 25, 2021
Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act
Westaway Law Group – The majority judges noted that climate change “has had particularly serious effects on Indigenous peoples, threatening the ability of Indigenous communities in Canada to sustain themselves and maintain their traditional ways of life.” [para 11] They also acknowledged that, “the effects of climate change are and will continue to be experienced...
January 28, 2021
Racism against Indigenous womern
Native Women’s Association of Canada – At a two-day meeting at which the issue of anti-Indigenous racism in Canada’s healthcare systems will be addressed by federal, provincial, and territorial governments as well as representatives of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit, NWAC is not being permitted to give more broadly based opening remarks Wednesday, along...
January 28, 2021
Emergency Meeting on Indigenous Health
Assembly of First Nations – AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde reiterated recommendations and called for urgency in addressing systemic racism in Canada’s health care systems at a two-day virtual meeting with federal, provincial and territorial ministers and Metis and Inuit leaders that ended today. The meeting, convened by Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller, Crown-Indigenous Relations...
December 15, 2020
TRC Commissioners comments about pace of Reconciliation
APTN – The three commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Senator Murray Sinclair, Chief Wilton Littlechild, and Dr. Marie Wilson, are issuing a public statement expressing their concern about the slow and uneven pace of implementation of the Calls to Action released by the TRC five years ago today… While they acknowledge important and...
November 19, 2020
Problems with Indigenous COVID-19 data
Toronto Star – COVID-19 is negatively impacting both on-reserve and off-reserve Indigenous populations. “Hospitalizations and intensive-care rates are sky high for off-reserve populations and testing is low. Both on and off reserves, about 18% of tests come back positive. The issues identified by Janet Smylie, research chair in Indigenous health knowledge and information at Well...
November 12, 2020
Systemic Racism at federal, provincial, territory ministers human rights meeting
NationTalk – 24 civil society groups attending the third ever meeting of Federal, Provincial, Territory Ministers responsible for human rights “condemned the obstructive attitude of some governments” in advancing international human rights obligations. Groups had pressed governments to commit to nation-wide law reform that will legally require governments to adopt a collaborative, accountable, consistent, transparent,...
November 12, 2020
Federal, Provincial, Territory Ministers responsible for human rights
NationTalk – 24 civil society groups attending the third ever meeting of Federal, Provincial, Territory Ministers responsible for human rights “condemned the obstructive attitude of some governments” in advancing international human rights obligations. Groups had pressed governments to commit to nation-wide law reform that will legally require governments to adopt a collaborative, accountable, consistent, transparent,...
November 2, 2020
Canada’s Constitution embeds discrimination
Policy Options – Canada’s history of colonization has laid the foundation for the implementation of racist health policy and the delivery of culturally unsafe health care, resulting in health disparities that are disproportionately experienced by Indigenous Peoples. Since the establishment of the Indian Act in 1867, Canada’s Constitution has continued to support and maintain discriminatory...
October 21, 2020
Food Insecurity
The Narwhal – Human Rights Watch released “My fear is Losing Everything: Climate Crisis and First Nations’ Right to Food” in Canada. The report details how longer and more intense forest fire seasons, permafrost degradation, volatile weather patterns and increased levels of precipitation are all affecting wildlife habitat and, in turn, harvesting efforts. The report...
October 21, 2020
Climate crisis and First Nations Right to Food
The Narwhal – Human Rights Watch released “My fear is Losing Everything: Climate Crisis and First Nations’ Right to Food in Canada“. The report details how longer and more intense forest fire seasons, permafrost degradation, volatile weather patterns and increased levels of precipitation are all affecting wildlife habitat and, in turn, harvesting efforts. The report...
October 20, 2020
Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act
Toronto Star – The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) reserved judgement on whether the federal government’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act 2018 (GGPPA) is constitutional following hearings on September 22 and 23 with the United Chiefs and Councils of Mnidoo Mnising (UCCMM), along with the Anishinabek Nation (AN), granted intervener status. The GGPPA sets minimum...
October 16, 2020
Emergency Meeting on Indigenous Health
Emergency meeting on racism in Canada’s healthcare system. AFN recommendations to all levels of government: Work directly with First Nations to ensure that Indigenous Peoples feel safe accessing health care services. Quebec needs to work with First Nations to fully implement the Viens Commission Report’s recommendations. Canada must conduct an immediate review of the Canada...
October 15, 2020
Canada Health Act fails Inuit
Pauktuutit Women of Canada – President Kudloo calls for additional funding to improve health determinants for Inuit women and girls and a focus on youth to increase Inuit health providers. She will also will highlight how the Canada Health Act is failing Inuit women and girls when she participates in a national meeting to address...
September 29, 2020
Beyond Hunger – The Hidden Impacts of Food Insecurity in Canada”
Community Food Centres (CFC) – Release of “Beyond Hunger – The Hidden Impacts of Food Insecurity in Canada”. Even before COVID-19, food insecurity affected nearly 4.5 million Canadians. In the first two months of the pandemic, that number grew by 39 per cent. Food insecurity now affects one in seven people, disproportionately impacting low-income and...
September 29, 2020
Beyond Hunger
“Community Food Centres (CFC) – Release of “Beyond Hunger.” Even before COVID-19, food insecurity affected nearly 4.5 million Canadians. In the first two months of the pandemic, that number grew by 39 per cent. Food insecurity now affects one in seven people, disproportionately impacting low-income and Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities. “Beyond...
September 10, 2020
Arrest of Indigenous journalists at protests
Toronto Star – Increasing arrests of Indigenous journalists including: Karl Dockstader at Land Back Lane Haudenosaunee occupation regarding a housing development near Caledonia Courtney Skye, Yellowhead Institute researcher and Ryerson Fellow award-winning journalist Justin Brake was arrested and charged with criminal and civil contempt and criminal mischief while covering a protest at Muskrat Falls in...
September 9, 2020
Indigenous Journalists
Toronto Star – Increasing arrests of Indigenous journalists including: Karl Dockstader at 1492 Land Back Lane Haudenosaunee occupation regarding a housing development near Caledonia Courtney Skye, Yellowhead Institute researcher and Ryerson Fellow arrested as well Award-winning journalist Justin Brake was arrested and charged with criminal and civil contempt and criminal mischief while covering a protest...
September 8, 2020
Unicef “Innocenti Report Card 16”
NationTalk – Release of Unicef “Innocenti Report Card 16: Worlds of Influence – Understanding What Shapes Child Well-being in Rich Countries” where Canada placed in the bottom 10 of 38 countries. In fact, all four countries with large Indigenous populations – who all initially opposed The United Nations Declaration the Rights of Indigenous People –...
September 3, 2020
Seeing Red: A History of Natives in Canadian Newspapers
TVO – An updated edition of “Seeing Red: A History of Natives in Canadian Newspapers” by Carmen Robertson, a Scots-Lakota professor who currently holds a Canada Research Chair in North American Indigenous Visual and Material Culture at Carleton University. Her research centres on contemporary Indigenous arts and on constructions of Indigeneity in popular culture. The...
August 31, 2020
McDonald-Laurier Report on Systemic Racism in Policing
MacDonald-Laurier Institute – “Systemic racism in policing in Canada and approaches to fixing it,” argues that the fault for this lies primarily with political leaders who set the framework conditions and constraints for the delivery of police services. This commentary is based on the author’s written submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on...
July 29, 2020
Commission of Inquiry into Muskrat Falls Project
NationTalk – Dwight Ball, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador provided an update on the progress of recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry into the Muskrat Falls Project. The final report was released to the public on March 10, 2020. Government has accepted the goals and objectives of all the recommendations in the commission’s report. Government...
July 23, 2020
McDonald-Laurier Report on Systemic Racism in Policing
The CBC “Deadly Force” database indicates that the RCMP are 3x more likely to use lethal force than other police forces in Canada. The CBC data found that 68 per cent of people killed in police encounters were suffering with some kind of mental illness, addiction or both. “When we get broader statistical information that...
June 15, 2020
Unacceptable Delay in Establishing Inquiry for Innu Children
Office of the Child and Youth Advocate Newfoundland and Labrador – issued a Statement of Concern – “Unacceptable Delay in Establishing Inquiry for Innu Children in the Child Protection System”. The Innu are still waiting three years after the Provincial Government made a commitment to establish a formal Inquiry into the treatment of Innu children in...
May 12, 2020
“Colonialism of the Curve: Indigenous Communities and Bad Covid Data”.
Yellowhead Institute – release of Policy Brief: “Colonialism of the Curve: Indigenous Communities and Bad Covid Data”. There is wide discrepancy on COVID-19 related health data from Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and provincial health authorities: There is no agency or organization in Canada reliably recording and releasing Covid-19 data that indicates whether or not a person...
April 23, 2020
Release of at-risk Indigenous inmates
The Indigenous Bar Association (IBA)– Calls Upon Federal, Provincial and Territorial Justice Ministers and Attorneys General to Immediately Release low-risk Indigenous Inmates over COVID-19.Specifically, we call for the immediate release of incarcerated Indigenous people and the following actions: Immediately and minimally, carry-out the release of Indigenous inmates that are low-risk, non-violent, nearly eligible for parole,...
April 20, 2020
Incarcerated prisoners
First Nations leadership across BC is united in calling for immediate action to protect incarcerated peoples amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 outbreak at the Mission Institution is now the third largest outbreak in the Province of BC, with the first inmate tragically passing away on April 15, 2020. Senior health and corrections officials have...
March 17, 2020
H1N1 and Systemic Racism
Globe and Mail – Despite accounting for just under 5 per cent of the Canadian population, Indigenous people were 25 per cent of those admitted to ICUs during the first wave of H1N1. First Nations children were 21 per cent of the paediatric patients admitted to ICUs during both waves. This led to sad and...
March 6, 2020
Lack of Inuit consultation on Muskrat Falls
Release of the report on the Muskrat Falls Inquiry from the Honourable Justice Richard D. LeBlanc, Commissioner: “Muskrat Falls, A Misguided Project”. The Muskrat Falls project has had a profound impact on ratepayers and the financial situation in Newfoundland and Labrador. The report makes findings and recommendations related to the inquiry’s terms of reference, as...
January 7, 2020
8 Ways to champion Human Rights
Toronto Star – Toronto Star identified eight ways that Canada can champion human rights in the 2020s, including the following: First step is to adopt overdue legislation making the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Canada’s framework for rights and reconciliation. And to show we truly mean it: address mercury poisoning at...
December 11, 2019
Statement on National Urban Indigenous Housing Strategy
In Canada 79.7% of Indigenous Peoples live in urban centres yet an Indigenous Urban Housing strategy has yet to be developed. Aboriginal Housing Manager Association (AMHA) applauds the Federal government efforts in the National Housing Strategy to address the needs of Metis/First Nations/Inuit groups on a distinction basis, it has failed to recognize the majority...
October 29, 2019
Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation
CBC: Failure to approve funding requests over 20 years ago to build infrastructure and capacity in mental health counselling, social work, education etc. in a community whose average age is now 21, less that 50% of the average age of the broader population of 46. Chief Eugene Hart declared a suicide crisis in the Labrador...
September 17, 2019
National Paper on Youth Suicide
The Canadian Council of Child and Youth Advocates (CCCYA) published “A National Paper on Youth Suicide” that calls on governments at the national, provincial and territorial levels to take concrete action to prevent youth suicide in Canada. Failure to address the multi-faceted issues impacting indigenous communities has led to a suicide epidemic. The paper consolidates...
August 12, 2019
Lack of Inuit consultation on Muskrat Falls
The Nunatsiavut Government – The Nunatsiavut Government is extremely disappointed with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador with the way it has handled the whole Muskrat Falls fiasco. The Premier has repeatedly betrayed our trust by neglecting to respond, in writing or publicly, to our concerns and/or questions. (i.e. Ignoring 5 of 7 recommendations from...
July 11, 2019
The Council of The Federation, bi-annual meetings of the Federal, Provincial and Territory Premiers
Refusal to allow leaders of the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council, the Inuit Tapariit Kanatami and the Native Woman’s Association of Canada to participate in the main body of meetings with a primary focus on climate change within each jurisdiction. As has been noted by numerous media, Indigenous peoples are on the...
July 9, 2019
Towards Justice: Tackling Indigenous Child Poverty in Canada
Upstream – Failure to reduce the level of poverty among Indigenous children. Tracking Indigenous child poverty and non-Indigenous child poverty trends between Census 2006 and Census 2016, it’s clear that these differences have not markedly changed over that 10-year period. “Towards Justice: Tackling Indigenous Child Poverty in Canada” co-authored by the Assembly of First Nations...
July 9, 2019
Barriers to Reconciliation
“Youth Reconciliation Barometer 2019, Final Report”, Environics Research Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth identified a number of barriers to reconciliation, notably: myths and stereotypes about what Indigenous Peoples receive from Canada a lack of political leadership to implement real change, and too little understanding among non-Indigenous people The national survey reveals how Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth...
June 3, 2019
MMIWG Inquiry – Final Report
“National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girl Final Report (MMIWG)” states: Indigenous women and girls are 2.7 times more likely to experience violence than non-Indigenous women. ]Homicide rates for Indigenous women were nearly seven times higher than for non- Indigenous women. One quarter of all female homicide victims in Canada in 2015...
May 8, 2019
Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting (Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC)
CBC – For the first time, the final declaration of the Ministers of the 8 countries that make up the ICC did not include the views of the Arctic Council’s permanent Indigenous organizations, Unlike the usual declarations, which are developed with their input, the compromise joint ministerial statement – which did not include any reference...
March 21, 2019
Yellowhead Institue Critique of Bill C-92
“Bill C-92, An Act respecting First Nations, Métis and Inuit children, youth and families” was graded as follows by the Yellowhead Institute of Ryerson University based on analysis by five Indigenous legal scholars. (See also First Nations Child and Family Caring Society Information Brief in C2A # 4) GRADES: National Standards: …………………… C Funding: ……………………………………..F...
December 10, 2018
Forced Sterilizations
72 organizations endorse the joint statement from Amnesty International Canada, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, and Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, calling for government action to #DefendConsent and end #ForcedSterilization of Indigenous women in Canada Canadian Press – All the women interviewed felt that the health system had not served their needs,...
November 22, 2018
Call for national investigation into forced sterilizations
Senator Murray Sinclair, former Chair of the TRC, says Canada needs a national investigation to find out how common coerced sterilizations are among Indigenous women and how they’ve been allowed to continue for so long. http://nationtalk.ca/story/usw-joint-statement-calling-on-canada-to-end-sterilization-without-consent...
February 16, 2018
Native Women’s Association of Canada
Collectively, NWAC represents a multitude of Nations of Indigenous women who are First Nations, Métis, Inuit. These women represent non-status women and girls and rights holders with Treaty rights, inherent rights, Métis rights, human rights and gender-based rights. As a representative of Indigenous women, NWAC will provide the required gender-based perspective. In order to achieve...
November 3, 2017
Canadian Council of Ministers of the Envronment must include Indigenous views
Assembly of First Nations – First Nations must be full participants in all meetings of Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) to ensure their voices are heard in environmental and climate change solutions. “Reconciliation has to include respect for our Elder’s traditional knowledge and our understanding of the lands and waters, the animals...
September 21, 2017
Canada Health Act flaws
Healthy Debates – “Indigenous health services often hampered by legislative confusion“. The federal and provincial governments negotiate health transfers based on the Canada Health Act, which specifies the conditions and criteria required of provincial health insurance programs. It doesn’t mention First Nations and Inuit peoples, Métis and non-status or off-reserve Indigenous peoples who are covered...
July 20, 2017
NWAC excluded from Council of the Federation discussions
Native Woman’s Association of Canada requested the Council of Federation to include NWAC in all Nation-to-Nation discussions, the work of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (National Inquiry) in the scope of improving the socio-economic status of Indigenous women, and the need for a community-based prevention model to drive the...
July 17, 2017
Indigenous leaders boycott Council of Federation meetings
National Chief Perry Bellegarde, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) President Natan Obed and President Clément Chartier of the Métis Nation of Canada (MNC) held a press conference today in a show of unity over their concerns regarding the full and effective participation of Indigenous peoples in intergovernmental forums, including the Council of the Federation meeting taking...
July 14, 2016
Fire protection on reserves
NationTalk – There is no national fire protection code that mandates fire safety standards or enforcement on reserves. All other jurisdictions in Canada including provinces, territories, and other federal jurisdictions (such as military bases, airports, and seaports) have established building and fire codes. The Aboriginal Firefighters Association of Canada (AFAC), NIFSC’s parent organization, supports the...