A First Nation in Alberta will be in court today seeking to shut down a petition urging the province to quit Confederation. The Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is in Edmonton asking a Court of King's Bench judge to suspend the petition campaign on the grounds First Nations' consent is required first. It is alleging a failure by Alberta, Canada and...
A leaked transcript of a meeting between Indigenous leaders and British Columbia Premier David Eby, about his plan to suspend the province's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, or DRIPA, shows them accusing him of "absolute betrayal" and colonialism. Speaker after speaker in the 17,000-word transcript of Thursday's meeting, obtained by The Canadian Press, criticize Eby's handling of...
The prime minister said there should be a public apology for a spying operation targeting hundreds of Indigenous people that had the support of the federal government. "Yes, there should be an apology," Mark Carney said during a press conference in Halifax on Thursday. "It’s a reprehensible practice. Never should’ve happened." Carney was responding to reporting from CBC Indigenous, which...
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty announced on Thursday a $738.9-million funding package for First Nations health care, governance and emergency management. She is earmarking $55.6 million to build up community preparedness and emergency management co-ordination. The funds are not directly related to fire management but could help with operations such as wildfire support. Gull-Masty's department is under heavy pressure from...
Indigenous Services Canada and other departments are failing to uphold their own Indigenous procurement strategy and may be allowing contractors to use shell companies to access contracts reserved for Indigenous businesses, says the federal procurement ombudsman. In a scathing new report released Thursday, Alexander Jeglic says Indigenous Services Canada failed to provide timely answers to procurement officers' questions in some...
Secret files reveal Mounties penetrated Assembly of First Nations’ predecessor, spied on Indigenous leaders. The Mounties called it the "Native extremism program." Today, it sounds like a spy novel. Intelligence dossiers stuffed with documents. Wiretaps. Paid informants. Covert operatives with code numbers like "A-828." A Red Power dissident photo album. Surreptitious surveillance at homes, offices, airports and bars.
Indigenous Services Canada is promising stricter enforcement against businesses falsely claiming to be Indigenous-owned in order to gain preferential access to billions worth of federal government contracts, according to a document reviewed by Global News. In a letter sent late last month to the House of Commons’ Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee, Mandy Gull-Masty, the minister responsible for the Procurement...
One of Canada’s largest Indigenous groups says it won’t participate in consultations with Ottawa on potential changes to the second-generation cutoff, accusing the government of working to delay ending the controversial law that designates who can be awarded Indian status. In an email sent last week and shared with iPolitics, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs called the justification for...
Neepawa, a rural Prairie community of just over 6,000 people west of Winnipeg, has long been shaped by its agricultural roots. It is a place made famous by author Margaret Laurence, whose Manawaka novels drew inspiration from Neepawa and its landmarks, including the stone angel monument in the Riverside Cemetery. But today’s Neepawa is no longer the small, homogeneous town...
Days after former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney slammed prominent right-wing platform Juno News for hosting a white nationalist, it has now walked back plans to release a feature-length documentary-style film denying the atrocities of Canada's residential school system. The film, entitled DIG, was announced publicly in a Feb. 10 email sent to Juno News subscribers and was going to focus...
On Jan. 9 in Saskatoon, Trevor Dubois died after an altercation with security at the Royal University Hospital. Dubois was receiving chemotherapy, and a security guard thought he had an imitation gun and so Dubois was restrained to the point of unconsciousness. He died. The 36-year-old was from Muskoday First Nation. His friends talked about his infectious laugh, and his...
The federal government has updated its travel advice for the United States, urging First Nations people to carry a passport in addition to a status card when crossing the border. Before this week, the government website said First Nations people could "freely" enter the United States for the purposes of employment, study, retirement, investing or immigration. As of Thursday, the...
The Metlakatla First Nation has withdrawn its support for an energy export project under construction on Ridley Island in British Columbia, escalating tensions after the Prince Rupert Port Authority’s decision to block the Indigenous group’s diversification plans.
Several First Nations are warning their members to be wary of crossing the border into the United States in response to immigration enforcement raids and the detention of some U.S. tribal citizens. The Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario -- which was forced to evacuate earlier this month when local water and sewage systems failed -- posted on social media...
Some First Nations chiefs are demanding answers from Ottawa after the federal government signed a pipeline agreement with Alberta that failed to make any mention of fresh water. The memorandum of understanding -- which opens a door to building a pipeline to transport bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast -- does not touch on the high level of water...
Coastal First Nations president Marilyn Slett says she called on Prime Minister Mark Carney in a meeting Tuesday to maintain and protect the oil tanker moratorium in his government's pipeline talks with Alberta. The meeting between Carney and Coastal First Nations in Prince Rupert, B.C. was held to restart relations with the advocacy group, which works to protect the B.C...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Prince Rupert today to meet with Coastal First Nations to discuss major projects in northern B.C. A unnamed government official told CBC News Monday the meeting is intended to address projects underway and potential partnerships between the federal government and Indigenous communities in the region.
The federal government is not revealing whether it will act on calls to pass a law that would criminalize denying that Indigenous children suffered abuses in Canada’s residential school system. The issue has bubbled in the background of Canadian politics for several years and gained prominence after several First Nations announced they had located potential unmarked graves at former school...
With her government under pressure to finally eliminate boil-water advisories in First Nations communities, the federal minister responsible for Indigenous services isn't committing to bringing back a defunct clean water bill in the new year as written -- after two provinces objected to it. That bill, which died when the last federal election was called, was drafted with input from...
When Mandy Gull-Masty took up the role of Indigenous services minister last spring, one question loomed over her appointment: why would a Cree woman want to administer the Indian Act, when another First Nations woman before her turned down the role? Gull-Masty was named to the cabinet job in May after being elected as a member of Parliament for the...
On Dec. 15, 2015, I stood in a hotel in downtown Ottawa as the commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shared the 94 Calls to Action. I remember the room with auras of super-bright colour as if the children who were lost had travelled from the stars to share in the moment. We stood in awe of these leaders...
On the heels of adopting a resolution against Ottawa’s new energy deal with Alberta at an annual meeting of First Nations chiefs, a Manitoba grand chief says engagement with the government is “very limited” on a major project proposed in that province. “There’s a lot more work that needs to be done in terms of consultation; duty to consult; free...
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal set Dec. 22 as deadline for long-term proposals. Ottawa is staring down a court-ordered deadline to submit a new plan to reform the on-reserve child welfare system, as a group of First Nations leaders and children’s advocates prepare a competing proposal. The federal government has until Dec. 22 to make its submission to the Canadian Human...
Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty will address hundreds of chiefs gathered in Ottawa today for a special meeting of the Assembly of First Nations. She's expected to discuss proposed changes to the Indian Act after Senators made sweeping amendments to a bill that would see an unknown number of new people eligible for status.
Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to meet with Coastal First Nations after chiefs voted unanimously Tuesday to press the government to uphold the oil tanker ban off the northern British Columbia coast and withdraw an agreement signed with Alberta last week that clears a path for a new oil pipeline. B.C. Regional Chief Terry Teegee, speaking to Carney during the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will introduce clean drinking water legislation in the spring, delaying a bill that had been promised to come this fall. Carney promised to revive the legislation during an address to the Assembly of First Nations gathering in Ottawa today, saying he will host a joint meeting with federal, provincial, territorial and First Nations...
Heritage Minister Marc Miller says his government needs to "sit down and start working now" on consultation with Indigenous people and stakeholders about a potential pipeline in B.C. On his way into a cabinet meeting this morning, the former minister of Crown-Indigenous relations told reporters he expects a difficult road ahead for any pipeline project.
First Nations chiefs voted unanimously Tuesday to press the government to uphold the oil tanker ban off the northern British Columbia coast and withdraw an agreement signed last week that clears a path for a new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed a memorandum of understanding on Nov. 27 to...
Metis Settlements of Alberta president says project could help Metis communities achieve full sustainability. The Metis Settlements of Alberta say they’re interested in purchasing a stake in a proposed oil pipeline to the West Coast and want to work with First Nations in British Columbia who oppose the project and plan to bring forward an emergency resolution at the Assembly...
The political strategy of “flooding the zone” is designed to disassemble people’s ability to react effectively to change. It was coined by Stephen Bannon and implemented by U.S. President Donald Trump when he came to office in January. But it is a strategy that has also landed in Canada with a dull thud. Prime Minister Mark Carney tipped his hat...
Billions of dollars in federal contracts meant to support Indigenous businesses across the country are flowing to two dozen firms in the Ottawa region, a joint IJF investigation has found. Over the last few years, more than 60 per cent of roughly $1 billion in contracts annually intended to boost Indigenous entrepreneurs and their communities have stayed in the capital...
This week, over 100 homeowners in Richmond, B.C., got a notice no one wants to receive: Mayor Malcolm Brodie warned that due to a recent court decision, the title to their homes may be worthless.
Much has been said about this year’s budget, and its coming in a time of austerity, a time of economic pressures. But there’s the issue. This federal government maintains and moves money for First Nations health care, but doesn’t pay nearly the amount per person that all other Canadians receive. This federal government also moves this money with a shocking...
Canadians know that the over-incarceration of Indigenous peoples is a national shame. About 30 per cent of federal inmates are First Nations, Métis and Inuit, according to the most recent data available. A staggering half of all female federal inmates are Indigenous. We are a country that loves reports. Canadian governments love to measure people and trends – and, too...
In Canadian resource development, the concept of “consent” has become a litmus test for ideological and philosophical divides. While such debates may be intellectually stimulating, they pose a serious obstacle to project development. Proponents seek clear expectations and standards when committing capital and building things. The Canadian legal and political systems have plodded along inelegantly on the question of Indigenous...
FOR ALL HIS TALK OF RECONCILIATION, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s push to accelerate the next wave of nation building has exposed a familiar fault line in Canadian politics: when economic ambition collides with Indigenous consent, ambition usually wins.
The federal government will "match remembrance with responsibility," Prime Minister Mark Carney promised on Tuesday, as he addressed the crowd assembled on Parliament Hill to mark the fifth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Sept. 30, known as Orange Shirt Day or the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, is meant to honour survivors of the residential school system...
While progress has been made since the federal government enshrined its commitment in law in 2021, observers say there’s still some way to go to have respectful, meaningful consultation and shared decision-making
Today is the fifth National Day for Truth and Reconciliation -- a day where Canadians reflect on the legacy of residential schools and remember the survivors and those who never made it home. The residential school era refers to a period between 1857 and 1996 where 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded schools where they were barred...
A decade after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued 94 calls to action, Canada still has a long way to go to address the impacts of the residential school system on Indigenous people. “Think about it, 150 years it took for us to get here to this very dysfunctional, toxic relationship that is highly problematic,” University of Manitoba Indigenous studies...
How many more Indigenous children have to die because they are living away from their families, languages and cultures, before we collectively act? How many more will take their own lives, or be denied medical care, or be neglected and even abused by those appointed to take care of them, before courts, governments, federal agencies and First Nations leaders stop...
Canadians think about residential schools as if they were a creature of the past, an ancient moral failing from which we have since evolved. But around the world new residential schools are still in use, showing the truth of what residential schools are: a tool of colonialism. Many Canadians are not aware of the existence of residential schools abroad, but...
