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...
On this the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, we must look both back and forward. It is ten years now since the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission‘s report and its 94 Calls to Action. The TRC was established after intense negotiation and as a legal requirement of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement. For six years, starting...
On this national Truth and Reconciliation Day, the federal government is facing the prospect of a meltdown in its relations with two B.C. First Nations that could bring the development of the Prince Rupert Trade Corridor to a grinding halt.
TWO THINGS are true about Indigenous girls, women, and gender-diverse people in Canada. First, as Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson notes, they “reproduce and amplify” Indigeneity, the definitive characteristics of Indigenous peoples and culture, diverse as they are. Second, she writes, it is this quality that has made them targets of violence in a country that seeks to...
In a time of fiscal restraint, why is it that inclusion and reconciliation are so easily dropped? Is it because it costs, and the inclusion of minorities is not worth the money? Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke after the recent United Nations meetings, and it was a speech for the history books, one of the best that Canada has done...
It may surprise you, citizen reader, that there are Americans out there who hold deeper constitutional rights in Canada than you. It’s because they’re Indigenous, and because the Supreme Court decided in 2021 that they should receive special privileges. Now, despite being foreign, they’re using their newfound esteem in Canadian courts to intervene in what kids are taught in school...
A person was killed and the suspect is dead after multiple people were stabbed in Hollow Water First Nation on Thursday, RCMP say. There were at least six people taken to hospital, police said in a news release. Police had warned the public about a heavy police presence in the First Nation, on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg about...
Two former Indigenous leaders on both sides of the debate over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion say the federal government can't ignore First Nations on future infrastructure projects it seeks to approve. Their comments come as Prime Minister Mark Carney aims to fast-track major projects, such as pipelines and mines, through his government's newly adopted "Building Canada Act." Following years...
The Carney government’s promise to speedily build infrastructure and other projects in the “national interest” per the provisions of the One Canadian Economy Act is running into the predictable opposition and potential delays. The government’s fast-track infrastructure program combines the nationalist appeal of bolstering Canada’s economic and trade infrastructure — ports, transportation, pipelines, hydro, clean energy, critical minerals among others...
FROM THE MOMENT he took office, Prime Minister Mark Carney made moves to show his commitment to Indigenous peoples. In March, he met with the leaders of the three main Indigenous organizations: the Assembly of First Nations, Métis National Council, and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. In May, amid US president Donald Trump’s threats to Canadian sovereignty, King Charles III delivered a...
Métis leaders left a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday saying they're confident they will be included in talks about major projects Ottawa hopes to use to bolster the economy in the face of a trade war with the United States. "When things really matter, Métis governments come together and we get the work done," said Métis Nation...
The Manitoba Metis Federation is turning down Prime Minister Mark Carney's invitation to discuss his government's controversial major projects legislation, saying it won't attend the meeting alongside another Metis group it says has no reason to exist. The federation, which represents Red River Metis, says Carney's decision to include the Metis Nation of Ontario in Thursday's meeting undermines the integrity...
The president of the national Inuit organization says he's been given reassurances that Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan to fast-track major nation-building projects won't violate modern treaties and there will be "full partnership of the Inuit within these processes." The prime minister is meeting with Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and other Inuit leaders in Inuvik, NW.T., as...
On July 8, the Carney government announced sweeping budget cuts across all departments, totaling 15 per cent over three years. These cuts are also expected to hit Indigenous Services Canada, the federal department responsible for funding essential services for First Nations peoples. In this time of economic uncertainty, marked by increased defense spending, tariffs, and growing housing and climate crises...
Every May as red dresses and moose-hide pins appear, and families walk in memory of lost loved ones, a question hangs in the air. Why does the change they demand to end gender-based violence move so painfully slow? Statistics on abuse and murders of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people remain staggering.
