Aboriginal and Inuit Non-Mining Issues

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/

‘To heal is to address it,’ says chief, urging governments to help build new health and treatment centre

Always smiling, always joking, always asking curious questions. This is how Jenayah Skunk’s family described her at her funeral earlier this month in Mishkeegogamang First Nation. Jenayah died by suicide late last month, according to her family and community. She was 10 years old.

The Ojibway community in northwestern Ontario has never experienced a suicide of someone so young, said Mishkeegogamang Chief Merle Loon, who is related to Jenayah. “We’re still in shock,” he said. Jenayah’s mother, Jamie Skunk, told Loon she doesn’t want any other child to experience this, which is why she consented to him speaking with CBC News about her daughter’s death.

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https://nationalpost.com/

We reject using the words ‘colonizer,’ ‘settler’ and ‘decolonize’ to justify terror, violence, kidnapping and rape

As Anishinaabe, we strive to adhere to our traditional values. The Creator placed the distinct races of humankind upon Mother Earth and gifted each with unique knowledge to be used for their benefit and to be shared for the benefit of all humankind. The Seven Sacred Teachings were given to us so that we may learn how to live and move forward together in a good way.

Indigenous peoples welcomed the settlers to Turtle Island. Our original relationship was based upon mutual respect, honour, equality, peaceful coexistence, and the sharing of the land; its resources and wisdom. Treaties of Peace and Friendship were signed that codified these intentions and stressed peaceful and equal coexistence.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Federal government says meeting 2029 target for move ‘would be a challenge… but still stands’

The new chief of Kashechewan First Nation says he ran for office to make sure the flood-prone northern Ontario community can finally move to higher ground.

Hosea Wesley previously served six years as deputy chief of the Cree community on the James Bay Coast and was in that position in 2019 when an agreement was reached with the federal government to move Kashechewan within 10 years.

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https://nationalpost.com/

Our nation’s history is not only fascinating — it’s key to reconciliation

The surest way to make me treasure something is to take it away. So it was with Canada Day, whose annual appearance I’d once greeted with scarcely more excitement than the Ontario Civic Holiday and Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week.

Then came 2021, when the high priests of social justice demanded that we cancel Canada’s birthday celebrations, so that we might spend July 1 in morbid contemplation of our original sin. Not being one for rituals of confession and penitence, I instead began to think harder about why I love this country, despite its flaws — even if expressing such sentiments in public was now viewed as hate speech.

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https://www.thestar.com/

In Cat Lake First Nation, there’s only ever enough money to build three new houses a year. For the community of 680 people northwest of Sioux Lookout, Ont., the level of federal infrastructure funding doesn’t come close to addressing the community’s long-standing struggles with housing disrepair, overcrowding and mould, says chief Russell Wesley.

New housing applications to Ottawa just keep piling up, Wesley says. Meanwhile, multiple families live together in some of the reserve’s already dilapidated homes. “We can’t catch up. We can never catch up.”

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https://www.thestar.com/

The virtual elimination of TB in most of Canada reveals we can end the epidemic — if we want to. We just haven’t wanted to with it comes to Inuit communities.

In the 1940s, tuberculosis among the Inuit became a literal stigma: People infected were stamped with “TB” on their hands, a “scarlet letter” signifying that they needed to be separated from society.

They were therefore packed up, and, in a measure reminiscent of the residential schools, were forcibly removed from their homes and families and shipped south, to sanitoria and hospitals.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ask any Canadian politician about the housing crisis these days and, no matter their political stripe, they will recite party lines about what is being done, or ought to be done, to ensure that everyone has access to affordable and safe housing that is appropriate to their needs.

Then, just for fun, say, no, you meant the housing crisis on First Nations reserves – the one where Indigenous people are four times more likely than non-Indigenous people to live in overcrowded housing, and six times more likely to live in homes that don’t meet basic standards.

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https://www.thestar.com/

Treaty 4 First Nations suing Ottawa over annuities

REGINA – Chief Lynn Acoose says she’s taking a step elders and past Indigenous leaders in her community have long been reluctant to.

The chief of Zagime Anishinabek, home to several First Nations in southeastern Saskatchewan, has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the federal government. The suit alleges Ottawa has not kept its end of the bargain over annuity payments after signing Treaty 4 nearly 150 years ago.

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