A prime-time special in honour of residential school survivors will air on APTN and CBC/Radio-Canada on the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30.
Aboriginal Issues
Maxime Bernier honoured by local chief after Indigenous platform announcement
The PPC Indigenous Policy is available here👇
Indigenous Issues: A New Relationship Based on Mutual Respect #VotePPC https://t.co/j7pX3KIjTL
— Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) September 11, 2021
People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier’s message of freedom was endorsed by an Edmonton First Nations chief.
Papaschase First Nation Chief Calvin Bruneau said the PPC’s Indigenous platform is “on the right track,” particularly with Bernier’s commitment to abolish the Indian Act and address the drinking water crisis on reserves.
Co-chair of Liberals’ Indigenous commission resigns after questions emerge about ancestry
Radio-Canada reported on Wednesday that it could not confirm Kies’s claims to Indigenous ancestry. Kies told Radio-Canada in an interview that her father is of European descent and her mother is of Indigenous descent.
Canadian academic won’t use capital letters – except to acknowledge Indigenous people’s struggle
dr. linda manyguns, associate vice-president of Indigenization and decolonization at Mount Royal University, said she was joining local leaders to reject symbols of hierarchy “wherever they are found,” and will not use capital letters “except to acknowledge the Indigenous struggle for recognition.”
Why is she even speaking English?
Calgary community hosting weekend-long reconciliation event
The Calgary community of Lake Bonavista is hoping its residents will come together to learn more about Indigenous relations and their part in reconciliation this weekend.
Canada turns to satirical Indigenous website to interpret grim news
Days after the statues of two British monarchs were toppled in the province of Manitoba amid growing fury over the legacy of Canada’s residential school system, where Indigenous children were forcibly sent for much of the 20th century, the website Walking Eagle News had its own take – not so much on the grief and outrage, but on the fixation with statues.
“Country was ‘mere seconds’ from reconciliation before the statue toppled: Manitoba premier,” ran the Walking Eagle News headline.
Catholic Church charity set up to pay residential school survivors spent $6.46-million on expenses
A Catholic Church organization formed to compensate residential school survivors spent more than a quarter of its funds on expenses, and returned nearly $600,000 to church organizations after a 2015 court settlement, financial records obtained by The Globe and Mail reveal.
O’Toole government would make “amends for past injustices” to Indigenous community
The Conservative platform says an O’Toole government would implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) calls to action 71-76 as well as finance investigations “at all former residential schools in Canada where unmarked graves may exist, including the sites where children have already been discovered.”
This performance is right up there with his Tik Tok videos
This performance is right up there with his Tik Tok videos. https://t.co/5CgAFbgJMd
— Ms. Donna (@DCTFTW) August 20, 2021
Residential school graves ‘totally pushed to the wayside’ in shadow of election, Indigenous leaders say
Months of reckoning with the colonial genocide that upholds the framework of Canada’s history was sparked with the May discovery of 215 graves at the former Kamloops, B.C. residential school.
O’Kelly: Canada’s pandemic election is unfair to Indigenous communities
Holding an election during a pandemic is unfair to Canadians in remote communities. With Canada entering the fourth wave of COVID-19 thanks to the Delta variant and vaccinations plateauing, this election will not only be risky, but will diminish the voices of those who do not have the luxury of voting in person.
Less than 2% of church destroying criminals arrested in Canada
Local police and the RCMP have made few arrests since domestic terrorists went on a non-stop church burning and vandalism spree throughout Canada earlier this year.
As far as The Counter Signal can tell, fewer people have been arrested for burning down churches in Canada than pastors have been arrested for simply trying to practice their religion during COVID-19.
h/t Marvin
Canada: pressure on Catholic church to compensate victims of residential schools abuses
The Catholic church in Canada has come under growing pressure to compensate victims of the country’s residential school system after the scale of its assets were revealed in a string of media investigations.
As part of a 2007 agreement, the church agreed to pay C$29m in compensation to survivors, but only distributed a fraction of that figure, citing poor fundraising efforts.
Now, reports by CBC News and Globe and Mail have suggested that the church not only controls more than C$4bn in assets, but also pulls in hundreds of millions in charitable donations and constructed gilded cathedrals while claiming it lacks the funds to make good on its promises to pay compensation.
CBC and the Globe have been going hard at the RC Church, now the Guardian chimes in.
First Nations and Ottawa agree to $8-billion settlement on drinking water advisories
A proposed settlement agreement worth nearly $8 billion has been reached in two national class action lawsuits launched against the federal government by First Nations living under drinking water advisories.
The settlement, which is awaiting court approval, would offer $1.5 billion in compensation to individuals deprived of clean drinking water and modernize Canada’s First Nations drinking water legislation.