For years, the people of St. Theresa Point First Nation have complained about their decrepit and overcrowded housing, but felt ignored by the federal government.
Now, they hope outside experts will help them be heard.
As part of their ongoing lawsuit against the federal government, the First Nation in northern Manitoba and another in northern Ontario, Sandy Lake First Nation, recently brought in construction and safety consultants. The firm’s veteran assessors were taken aback by what they saw.
Ottawa commits another $187M to ‘shed colonial habits’ and help more First Nations assume control of land
OTTAWA — The federal government has signed a five-year funding agreement worth more than $187 million to help more First Nations assume governance of reserve lands and their natural resources.
The memorandum of understanding signed Wednesday by Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu and Chief Robert Louie, chair of the Lands Advisory Board and Austin Bear, chair of the First Nations Land Management Resource Centre, will provide additional funding for First Nations land management across the country.
When the government repealed some mandatory minimum prison sentences, it was responding to the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in prisons. Why hasn’t it worked?
When the Liberal government repealed some mandatory minimum prison sentences in 2022, it billed those changes, in part, as a response to the overrepresentation of marginalized communities — including Indigenous people — in Canadian prisons.
However, experts say that hasn’t done anything to reduce the number of incarcerated Indigenous people, which grew under the previous Conservative government and has continued to rise during Justin Trudeau’s tenure as prime minister.
Instead, advocates say what’s needed is a focus on healing in Indigenous communities — both in and outside of the criminal justice system — that recognizes intergenerational impacts of trauma that Indigenous people continue to live with.
The most prominent Indigenous women’s organization in Canada is undergoing a federal financial audit where preliminary evidence of “ineligible expenses” was found, while facing union-busting allegations following a mass round of layoffs, CBC News has learned.
The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), which relies on federal dollars to operate, is battling complaints filed to the Ontario and Quebec labour boards from employees, who allege they were terminated after organizing a union drive.
At the same time, NWAC is letting go of 78 employees — or roughly half its staff — as it blames the federal government for a lack of funding.
What a racket
OTTAWA – A British Columbia judge is warning that what he calls a “tsunami” of Indigenous identity fraud cases is coming to Canadian courts.
Provincial Court Judge David Patterson says that’s driven by the “desire” of non-Indigenous people to access what they deem to be benefits of identifying as Indigenous.
He says judges must be “alive to the issue” and require proof that ensures an offender is entitled to be sentenced as an Indigenous person.
At a group home in eastern Ontario, the owner allegedly called First Nations kids from northern Ontario his “bread and butter.”
Behind the doors of other privately run group homes, former workers say that staff and management referred to Indigenous youth sent there for help as the company’s “cash cows,” “money-makers,” or even “paycheques.”
A year-long Global News investigation has revealed how some private group homes allegedly prey on the vulnerability of Indigenous youth from remote First Nations in order to generate profit.
Members of a First Nation in Canada have launched a lawsuit alleging they were subjected to a secret medical experiment without their consent that left them feeling “violated and humiliated”.
The class-action lawsuit, which was certified by the Nova Scotia supreme court in early February, revives the painful history of Canada conducting medical experiments on Indigenous peoples and the persistent discrimination they continue to face within the country’s healthcare system.
There was a time when you could count on the left to defend science with the sort of zeal that would make a religious fundamentalist blush. Scientific knowledge was once gleefully wielded to expose and mock the magical thinking of creationists, anti-vaxxers, Flat Earthers, astrologers and homoeopaths. However, this staunch commitment to scientific empiricism has recently begun to waver. It is now increasingly coming into conflict with the new tenets of the ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ (DEI) agenda.
“The white people in Canada are subhuman because of what they’ve allowed to happen,” said former Chief Councillor of the Tla’amin First Nation KWAST-en-ayu (Maynard Harry) in a 90 minute phone interview with The New Westminster Times about the City of Powell River’s controversial name change proposal.
… “White people need to acknowledge their culture is lost,” said KWAST-en-ayu bluntly. “White settler culture is a lost culture because nothing good defines white people.”
“If I insult white people, I don’t give a sh-t,” admitted KWAST-en-ayu.
I will vote for the leader who says, “Hey Abo’s you’re on your own, no more cheques.”
h/t
“White people are subhuman” says chief who also runs a seminar called “Colonizer Rehab.”
It warms my heart to see my tax dollars go to someone like him. https://t.co/CRjy4QfJ6O— Jim McMurtry (@JimMcMurtry01) February 13, 2024
Former Justice Minister David Lametti’s departure from government and immediate acceptance into an expensive law firm that makes millions from indigenous issues is a recent example of what has long been called “The Indian Industry” at work.
The fact that a member of the firm, Perry Bellegarde, former Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) greased the wheels to bring Lametti into the expensive firm makes it the perfect example.
Nestled between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout appears to be a typical northern Ontario town.
It’s made up of a few roads and a newly minted roundabout. A hunting shop, a coffee spot and an LCBO fill out its downtown core.
The quiet municipality is home to just under 6,000 people and a railway stop served by the VIA Rail train between Toronto and Vancouver.
Patricia Tangie’s ancestors thought they had a deal.
More than 170 years ago, before Canada confederated in 1867, Indigenous people in what’s now Northern Ontario signed treaties, ceding a vast territory north of Lake Superior and Lake Huron to the Crown in exchange for a promise: that the wealth flowing from the land would be shared with them.
An Oneida Nation of the Thames band councillor who remains suspended while facing criminal charges is accused of defrauding a survivor of Canada’s day school system out of settlement money, according to court documents.
Middlesex OPP arrested Ursula Doxtator, 54, on Nov. 24, two months after launching an investigation into a fraud complaint, and charged her with fraud valued at more than $5,000 and trying to use a forged document.
In northern Ontario, a dozen First Nations have been left struggling. A court’s attempt at compensation could see them getting up to C$126bn
Only 25 miles of road lie between the northern Ontario town of Terrace Bay and Pays Plat First Nation. But when Raymond Goodchild was growing up, that distance spanned entire worlds.
Terrace Bay in the 1960s was often smothered by a thick smoke billowing from pulp mills. As in much of postwar Canada, industry thrived and jobs were plentiful. Roads and sidewalks were paved, and homes glowed at night with electric lighting.
The Canadian government likely owes Indigenous people almost $76 billion for currently filed land claims and lawsuits, recent official reporting says — a sum that’s nearly seven times greater today than when Justin Trudeau became prime minister.
In 2015, Ottawa counted $11 billion in “contingent liabilities,” which are potential legal obligations recorded only in cases where the probability of future payment is considered “likely,” according to the 2023 public accounts of Canada.
This year’s fall economic statement showed the vast majority of these liabilities — 95 per cent — stem from Indigenous claims against the Crown.
They should deduct a Billion for each fake grave.
