Aboriginal Issues

Jamie Sarkonak: This is what reconciliation looks like — the end of property right

Indian Money Dance

On Thursday, a B.C. superior court judge gave at least half a billion dollars’ worth of government land in an 800-acre zone in southeast Richmond to the Cowichan First Nation, and lit a fuse that could lead to the obliteration of private landowners’ legal title in the area.

This case of “land back” in action (Cowichan Tribes v. Canada) casts a shadow over the country’s property system. It jeopardizes the default means of owning land in Canada — the estate in fee simple, where owners have exclusive rights to sell land — wherever Aboriginal title is found to exist.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"extremists", Aboriginal Issues

Adam Pankratz: B.C.’s shameful race to give up public land

Shame. There used to be more of it and that was a good thing. Nowadays, a lack of shame runs rampant as people gaslight the world in the hopes no one will check up on them. In British Columbia, our current gaslighter-in-chief is Randene Neill, the minister of water, land and resource stewardship.

In a lengthy Aug. 1 Facebook post, Neill addressed recent changes to land use planning in B.C., which she claimed had been “misunderstood.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Peak Woke", "White Guilt", Aboriginal Issues

Chances of national projects going ahead without Indigenous participation is almost ‘zero’ says Gull Masty

The minister of Indigenous Services says major projects that arise under the federal government’s One Economy Act that don’t have the support of Indigenous communities will have almost a “zero” chance of being approved.

“The outcome of these projects is for Indigenous interest to be there, so it requires Indigenous participation,” said Mandy Gull Masty during a scrum with reporters after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s summit with First Nations leaders.

“The likelihood of these projects advancing or being completed without Indigenous people at the table, we heard the prime minister in this session, it is, oh, I want to say, almost, sounded to me, sounded like zero.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Mark Carney’s ‘build, baby, build’ aspirations face a challenge from Indigenous leaders

The Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., can make you feel small.

It’s a soaring, glass-walled space that stretches across the belly of the museum, facing the Ottawa River and Parliament Hill on the opposite shore.

The Grand Hall is set up like a Pacific Northwest coastal village from the 19th century, with the undulating shape of the massive space emulating a shoreline. A boardwalk runs along the “waterfront,” before the facades of houses from six different First Nations along the coast of British Columbia, from the Coast Salish in the south to the Haida and North Coast communities further up.

We lose.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Carney promises First Nations leaders prosperity for ‘generations to come’ with your money at summit on major projects

Prime Minister Mark Carney promised First Nations rights-holders wealth and prosperity for “generations to come” at a summit Thursday designed to allay leaders’ concerns about the government’s major projects law, which has ignited criticism because it allows for fast-tracked approvals.

Carney said the law, known as Bill C-5 before its passage through Parliament in June, is designed to “connect and transform our national economy” at a time when the country is facing threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

He said the potential benefits that come from building new railways, ports and energy “corridors” will flow to First Nations because “Indigenous economic growth is at the centre” of this new framework.

Oh c’mon it’s always the tax payer who picks up the tab.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues, Canada

Canada’s PM wants to fast-track ‘nation building’ – but can he convince indigenous First Nations?

Indian Money Dance

Jeronimo Kataquapit, a member of Ontario’s Attawapiskat First Nation, is camped outside The Ring of Fire, a mineral-rich region located in remote northern Ontario. With just a canoe and a tent, the 20-year-old and his family have travelled more than 400 kilometres to protest a provincial law that designated the area a “special economic zone” for mining.

Now, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “nation-building” law – his first major piece of legislation – is poised to put even more of a spotlight on the region. Dubbed the One Canadian Economy Act, the law was passed at a time when the country is involved in a costly trade war with the United States.

A billion or so oughta do it.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Think tank warns indigenous claims are “out-of-control”

Indian Money Dance

A new report from the Fraser Institute has raised alarms about the escalating costs and inefficiencies of Canada’s specific claims process.

Specific Claims: An Out-of-Control Program, penned by Tom Flanagan, Professor Emeritus at the University of Calgary, details how the federal government’s handling of Indigenous claims has led to a surge in settlements, with $7.1 billion paid out in fiscal year 2024/25 alone.

Flanagan argues that the process has become a “perpetual motion machine” generating ever-larger claims with little transparency.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues, Canada

It’s Automatic

Doug Ford accused of ‘racist’ comments ahead of meeting with First Nations chiefs

Premier Doug Ford is being accused of making “deeply offensive and racist” remarks about First Nations on the eve of a key meeting with Indigenous chiefs.

Amid controversy about fast-tracked mining projects, Ford is sitting down with dozens of Anishinabek Nation chiefs Thursday at Queen’s Park to address their concerns over Bill 5.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues

Ford says he treats First Nations ’like gold,’ but they ’keep coming hat in hand’

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he is willing to give First Nations what they want for their support in developing mines, but they cannot “keep coming hat in hand all the time to the government” for more money.

Ford is set to meet Thursday with several dozen chiefs who are part of Anishinabek Nation, which represents 39 First Nations in the province.

Doug has done 2 “conservative” things in less than a month, his internal polling must have issued a warning.

h/t Mauser

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues

Carney’s Bill C-5 is a naked power grab that tramples our democracy

Perhaps Mark Carney has no desire to be re-elected as prime minister and doesn’t care if the federal Liberals fail to win another mandate.

Why else would he bring in legislation that runs roughshod over democratic norms in this country, sidelines experts testimony, opens the door to corruption and to lawsuits that could stymie projects, never mind hand the Grits’ political opponents an issue with which to hit them over the head, and upon which they can fundraise?

Why else would he send his cabinet ministers out to misrepresent controversial legislation to the public that could easily affect their rights to their land, to a clean and healthy environment?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues, Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

First Nations are mired in ‘soft communism.’ This leader has the fix

Stephen Buffalo is a very constructive guy. He’s a man who seeks solutions, and he’s open to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s ambitious nation-building campaign. He also wants Carney and all Canadians to understand, though: Indigenous consent to these projects has a price tag.

“Give us a chance to make our own wealth,” says Stephen, long-time advocate for First Nations’ economic development and member of the Samson Cree Nation from Maskwacis, Alta.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues

Canadians reject that they live on ‘stolen’ Indigenous land, although new poll reveals a generational divide

A majority of Canadians reject the idea they live on stolen Indigenous land, and the older people are, the more likely they are to say they don’t, according to a new public opinion poll.

Among all respondents across Canada, 52 per cent said they did not live on stolen Indigenous land, with 27 per cent saying they do. The remaining 21 per cent said they didn’t know or declined to answer.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues