Exploring Theme: "Legislative and Institutional Barriers"

Amidst Fairy Creek and CGL conflicts, the province quietly re-evaluated how it manages civil disobedience. A Tyee exclusive. The Tyee: On the heels of the last significant police action on Wet’suwet’en territory, B.C. quietly embarked on a process to “streamline” its response to what it saw as a rising wave of protests across the province....

The Inuit organization calls the council ‘a melting pot of Indigenous voices’ CBC News: Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed says he’s considering pulling his organization out of its role with the new National Council for Reconciliation, calling the oversight body a “melting pot of Indigenous voices” he doesn’t want it to be a part of. The council...

NationTalk: Winnipeg, Treaty One Territory – May 1:The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) says the exclusion of First Nations representation from the development of Bill C-29 is a continuation of the federal government’s suppression of legitimate First Nations involvement in legislation that is intended to hold the government accountable for the implementation of the Truth...

NationTalk: (Kahnawake – 1 Onerahtohkó:wa/May 2024) – The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke wishes to inform the community that Nitsénhaienhs Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer and Cody Diabo traveled to Ottawa today along with Chief Political Advisor Winona Polson-Lahache and Director of Legal Services Marylee Armstrong, to meet with Federal Senators Scott Tannas, Michelle Audette, and Paul Prosper. The...

APTN News: A report released by Amautiit Nunavut Inuit Women’s Association, (NIWA), in cooperation with Campaign 2000, an organization out of Toronto whose mission is to end family poverty,  identifies the harsh realities of child poverty within Nunavut. With over 35.8 per cent of Inuit children living in low-income families—more than double Canada’s national rate of...

Indigenous people are hopeful that changes will respect their rights to move freely on traditional lands that cross international borders. Toronto Star: The territory where Tim Argetsinger’s ancestors once moved freely and hunted in the Arctic spanned 2.5 million square kilometres of land — about a quarter of the size of Canada. Today, that same...

NationTalk: Slaw – Businesses are deeply implicated in abuses of human rights defenders worldwide. In 2021 more than “a quarter of lethal attacks were linked to resource exploitation,” according to Global Witness. Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately attacked. Over 40 percent of fatal attacks targeted Indigenous people who make up only 5 percent of the world’s population....

“The Liberals’ interpretation of Nicholas v. Canada is about status. Bill C-38 must not just be about status. It must be about addressing discrimination and violations of basic human rights.” — Nunavut MP Lori Idlout Nunavut MP Lori Idlout (NDP) and Fredericton MP Jenica Atwin (Liberal). Windspeaker.com: Bill C-38, containing the latest amendments to the Indian...

Inuit leader calling on spy agency to share more information with region’s leaders CBC Indigenous: The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has warned Inuit leaders that foreign adversaries could gain a foothold in Canada by offering to fill infrastructure gaps in the North. But Natan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) — the nonprofit organization that represents more...

Ottawa considering amendments to immigration law, ministerial directive CBC News: Immigration Minister Marc Miller says he wants to make it easier for Indigenous people to cross the international borders that have divided their homelands and families for generations. In an interview with CBC News, Miller said Canada should recognize Indigenous people have an inherent right to move...

The Globe and Mail: A deputy minister’s recent departure from the federal public service occurred just weeks after a national Indigenous organization privately called for his resignation over an e-mail dismissing their description of colonialism as “a gross misreading of history.” Timothy Sargent’s nearly three-decade career in the federal public service – which included representing...

Committee chair says situation ‘yet another example of how Indigenous Peoples are being let down by Canada’ CBC News: The federal health minister should amend the 2018 Cannabis Act to recognize First Nations’ right to govern the possession, sale and distribution of cannabis on their lands, a Senate committee says. In a report tabled Wednesday...

NationTalk: On October 21, 2022, the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs (Assembly) was made aware that the Government of Canada is intending to make changes to the Indian Act.  This information was brought to their attention by a third-party, not by the Department of Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). The Assembly is frustrated and angered,...