On Tuesday, Mr. Trudeau was opening a meeting of mayors, smiling, giving shout-outs to retiring big-city leaders, before he switched – “First and foremost,” he said – to a 2½-minute statement about the failure of residential schools, and the national need for reconciliation. And then he went back to the urban agenda.
The mayors of Canada’s biggest cities are pressing the federal government to lay out a path to help house urban Indigenous people as part of a larger push to address homelessness in this country.
The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement has identified 139 residential schools across Canada — 25 of which were in Alberta. However, that number excludes schools that operated without federal support, such as those run by religious orders or provincial governments. Some schools also underwent name changes, or were relocated.
“North West stands with Indigenous Peoples in Canada who lost their loved ones within the Residential School system and we extend our caring thoughts to those directly impacted by the Kamloops discovery. This discovery is jarring and traumatic for Indigenous Peoples, and for all Canadians it starkly speaks to the physical conditions and racism that were forcibly endured under the Residential School system and the continuing pain created by it.
In a letter to the Speaker on Monday, Singh said questions need to be asked about the Kamloops residential school and other schools, and immediate concrete measures need to be taken.
“This discovery of these children last week is a sad reminder of Canada’s genocidal actions against Indigenous peoples,” Singh wrote to the Speaker of the House in a letter on Monday.
🚨BREAKING NEWS: Jagmeet Singh breaks down and gets emotional on National TV today
*Thoughts?#FirstNations #ResidentialSchool pic.twitter.com/LHiZ6j3gAe
— 🍁🇨🇦CanAditude🇨🇦🍁 (@CanAditude) May 31, 2021
The legislation would establish a new statutory holiday to commemorate the victims and survivors of Indigenous residential schools.
The trial of three members of an outspoken First Nations protest group is a case about “suppression of Indigenous voices” and “over-policing” of Canada’s First Nations people, a judge has been told.
Nicole Manuel, Chantel Manuel and Isha Jules, members of the Tiny House Warriors, are facing charges of mischief, causing a disturbance and assault stemming from an altercation with security and police outside a December 2018 meeting about the ongoing Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
The proposed Bill C-15, which harmonizes the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into Canadian law, has been trumpeted by the Liberal government as a significant step forward on the path to reconciliation, one developed in consultation with First Nations, Inuit and Metis leaders.
McMaster and Brock U study shows online voting could boost democracy in some Indigenous communities.
If the legislation passes, the Canadian government will be required to obtain “free, prior and informed consent” from First Nations groups before “the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources” in accordance with the UN directive.
Proposed legislation would ensure Indigenous rights are respected but concerns about consent clause remain.
The designation – a first in Canada – aims to give the Indigenous community an added tool to defend the river, known as Muteshekau Shipu in the Innu language, from potential environmental harms.
Hundreds of Indigenous patients in B.C. have been using a new online tool to anonymously report the racism they’ve experienced within the health-care system. The initial demand for the tool has been so high that creators are aiming to expand the platform across the country next year.
Anne Kang, B.C.’s minister of advanced education and skills training, says the new bachelor’s degree of Nsyilxcn language fluency will boost the number of speakers at a time when Indigenous languages in B.C. are endangered.
She says the degree is the first of its kind in the province and will be offered by UBC Okanagan in partnership with the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in Merritt and the En’owkin Centre in Penticton.
