Exploring Theme: "Systemic Racism and Discrimination"

The National Aboriginal Veterans War Monument in Ottawa. Photo: Mark Blackburn/APTN.  APTN News: For the past 23 years the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument has stood resolutely in an Ottawa park just blocks from Parliament Hill. It’s where veterans and others gather for National Aboriginal Veterans Day each Nov. 8., in recognition of Indigenous contributions to military service,...

Work to officially change derogatory names a ‘priority’ in 2025 WARNING: This article discusses an offensive slur. The word is included once for context, then otherwise avoided. CBC Indigenous: Years after a push to rename a cluster of islands named with a racial slur in Nunavut, the territorial government says it’s working on it.  The Old...

NationTalk: When so little has changed in the lives of Indigenous peoples, it is hard to believe that Canada is truly on a path to reconciliation. The legacy of colonialism is not something we can leave behind, but an ongoing reality. It is alive in the structural and systemic inequalities that continue to oppress communities....

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,...

NationTalk: Thompson, Manitoba – The Grand Chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Inc. has reiterated MKO’s earlier call for Canada to commence an investigation of the Indian Residential School system as a crime against humanity under the laws of Canada.  MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee presented MKO’s renewed call for action during a meeting...

Social media post on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ‘enraging’: survivor CBC News: The leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia is under fire for a social media post that critics say appeared to compare teaching students about sexual orientation and gender identity to the genocide of Indigenous children in residential schools. John Rustad,...

NationTalk: VAL-D’OR, QC – The homelessness situation in Val-d’Or, with its complexity and Indigenous particularity, combined with the feeling of insecurity expressed by the citizens of the downtown area, made the municipality fall back into a tense social climate that polarizes and rekindled divisions within the population. It is clear that healing and reconciliation, since the...

NationTalk: Toronto, ON The Chiefs of Ontario’s Justice Sector is proud to launch the newly developed Public Education and Awareness Campaign surrounding systemic racism. The campaign is intended to raise awareness about lesser-known systemic issues, the policy decisions that lead to them, and solutions to dismantle and correct them. In pinpointing various precise policy choices that...

Canada is ‘significantly failing’ on multiple fronts, says official with NGO in Canada CBC News: Global non-governmental organization Amnesty International is denouncing Canada’s record on Indigenous rights as it releases its latest annual analysis on the state of human rights worldwide. In the report released on Monday, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization expresses concern that Indigenous people in Canada...

Mary Simon’s office shut down comments on her official social media accounts last month after a wave of abuse WARNING: This story cites racist, sexist and abusive comments directed at the Governor General. CBC News: Nearly a month after turning off comments on her official social media accounts, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon is sharing some of...

NationTalk: Kahnawake – Quebec Native Women (QNW) held a large gathering this afternoon near the Quebec National Assembly to send a clear message to the government of Prime Minister François Legault: systemic racism and discrimination against Indigenous Peoples, particularly Indigenous women, exists in Quebec, and it is time for the government to recognize this and...

CTV News: Indigenous leaders and northern health officials in Manitoba say Indigenous people continue to face racism in the health-care system, and have signed a declaration committing to eliminate it. On Monday morning leaders from Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), Keewatinohk Inniniw Minoayawin (KIM), and the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA), met in Thompson to sign...

Toronto Star – Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, MP for Nunavut criticized the federal government for its ongoing failure to address the worst living conditions in the country in the Inuit homeland: • Highest suicide rates in the world • Housing cots beyond the reach of Inuit • Mouldy and overcrowded public housing • Lack of clean water...

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...

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...