Aboriginal and Inuit Non-Mining Issues – Page 16

To understand how we got to Attawapiskat, go back to the 1905 James Bay Treaty – by Jonathan Kay (National Post – January 4, 2013)

January 4, 2013

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Attawapiskat First Nation chief Teresa Spence is not engaged in “terrorism,” as one Postmedia writer notoriously suggested last week. Terrorists blow themselves up. Ms. Spence, by contrast, is sitting in a snow-covered teepee on Victoria Island in the Ottawa River. Let’s not play the game of using the T-word to describe everyone we simply don’t like.

On the other hand, Ms. Spence isn’t a true “hunger striker” either, since she reportedly is drinking fish broth and various herbal potions. We don’t know how many calories she’s taking in on a daily basis, so we can’t discount the possibility that she really will starve herself to death. But she is not a true Bobby Sands-style hunger striker. Terminology is important, whether you’re talking about death by Semtex, or starvation.

Finally, Ms. Spence is not an icon of “grass roots” native rage — as some suggest. She is a band chief, with an office and salary paid for by regular Canadian taxpayers. Attawapiskat may be tiny and poor, but it has its own development corporation, airport, local services and homegrown management scandals. The band takes in millions from a local diamond mine. True “grass roots” organizations can only dream of such resources.

But even if Ms. Spence is not a terrorist, nor a true hunger striker, nor a genuine grass roots activist, I would argue that we still need to pay attention: The very real plight of Attawapiskat First Nation encapsulates everything that has gone wrong with aboriginal policy for generations.

Misguided hunger strike is manufacturing dissent – by Peter Foster (National Post – January 4, 2013)

January 4, 2013

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The aboriginal plight is the legacy of failed policies past, and of resistance from native leaders to changes in accountability, transparency, education and property rights that would inevitably undermine their own power

Nobody would deny the desperate conditions on many native reserves. Most Canadians are genuinely concerned and frustrated at how little improvement has been brought by the billions spent. However, to imagine that problems of poverty, ill health and poor education are best addressed — let alone solved — by histrionic threats, social-mediated mob scenes or blocked roads or rail lines is dangerous delusion.

Chief Theresa Spence, who was previously best known for declaring states of emergency — arguably rooted in her own mismanagement — at her Attawapiskat reserve, is suddenly being treated as some combination of Martin Luther King and Aung San Suu Kyi. Celebrity moths, bleeding hearts and clamberers up the greasy political pole have sought to invest her “hunger strike,” which is now into its fourth week, with noble purpose.

In fact, her initial threat to starve herself to death failing a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor General David Johnston suggested either a bizarre degree of narcissism, or revealed her as a witless puppet. Perhaps both.

The way to break the Northern Gateway logjam: aboriginal equity – by Brian Lee Crowley and Ken Coates (Globe and Mail – January 3, 2013)

January 3, 2013

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Brian Lee Crowley and Ken Coates are co-leaders of the Aboriginal Canada and the Natural Resource Economy project at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa-based public policy think tank.

The bitter debate over the Northern Gateway oil pipeline project shows Canadian policy-making at its worst.

A piece of nationally significant infrastructure, the project is currently mired in a toxic mess, assailed by environmentalists, targeted by vote-hungry B.C. politicians and publicly challenged by many first nations. You could be forgiven for feeling a dreadful sense of déjà vu.

In the 1970s, an ambitious plan was mooted for a natural gas pipeline down the Mackenzie Valley. Aboriginal people and environmentalists protested. Justice Thomas Berger was named to head an inquiry that galvanized opposition to the pipeline, recommending that it be delayed until aboriginal people were ready to participate fully.

Eventually, companies created new aboriginal partnership models. Aboriginal communities and governments grew more familiar with the project and innovated by becoming equity partners. While some opposition remained, most in the region supported a pipeline that promised jobs for the North and revenue for aboriginal governments.

Simplistic arguments from Theresa Spence, Idle No More could have tragic consequences for natives – by John Ivison (National Post – January 3, 2013)

January 3, 2013

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

“De Beers is investing $1-billion in the Victor mine near Attawapiskat. It agreed to pay
the band about $30-million over the 12-year life span of the mine. A further $325-million
in contracts has been funnelled through companies owned by the band, to supply catering,
helicopters, dynamite and the like. One wonders how Attawapiskat Resources Inc. has only
made profits of $100,000 on that level of revenue, but that’s for another day.” (John Ivison)

I made the observation on Twitter the other day that certain native leaders seem intent on conflict, and that they want the “hapless” Theresa Spence, the hunger-striking Attawapiskat First Nation chief, to become a martyr.

The reaction was venomous. One of the more considered respondents, Gerald Taiaiake Alfred, called me a “racist p—k” and threatened to kick my “immigrant ass” back to Scotland. And he’s a political science professor at the University of Victoria.

It brought home the power of what psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls “the righteous mind” — the righteous certainty that those who see things differently are wrong, while being completely blind to our own biases.

The prospect of rational debate on this subject is slipping away — and may be lost entirely if Ms. Spence dies. Canada is facing a tumultuous moment in its history with its native people, such as we haven’t seen since the Oka crisis.

Idle No More protests beyond control of chiefs – by James Bradshaw and Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – January 2, 2013)

January 2, 2013

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

TORONTO and OTTAWA – The Idle No More movement is broadening into a call to shake off apathy, absorbing a range of issues from aboriginal rights and environmental safeguards to the democratic process. And as it swells, organizers are warning first nations leaders that the movement will not be corralled by aboriginal politicians even as the country’s chiefs look to use the protests’ momentum to press Ottawa on treaty rights and improved living standards.

Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday afternoon in Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square, many of aboriginal heritage but nearly as many not, joining hands in round dances and lighting candles to honour Chief Theresa Spence, who was on day 22 of her hunger strike demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper meet with aboriginal leaders.

The gathering attracted aboriginal peoples calling for greater consultation on changes to reservation land management and the Indian Act, but also environmentalists and government critics charging that the federal omnibus budget bill is bypassing vital public debate.

Started by four Saskatchewan women, the grassroots Idle No More movement has gone viral, with supporters across Canada and internationally holding protests, blocking rail lines and launching hunger strikes. While national chiefs support the effort, organizers are resisting any effort to hand over leadership to their elected representatives.

Attawapiskat: Why don’t they just leave? – by Raveena Aulakh (Toronto Star – December 30, 2012)

December 31, 2012

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

ATTAWAPISKAT, ONT.—If she had a magic wand, Rosie Koostachin would change many things in her community. There would be better housing, health care and education. There would be more jobs and there would be no drug and alcohol abuse. Oh, and the reserve would be better run.

But there is no magic wand. Neither is one on its way. Koostachin, the wise 42-year-old mother of four and grandmother of one, knows that.

“Attawapiskat hasn’t changed in decades … I don’t think it ever will. It can’t. I was born here, I was raised here and I have raised all my kids here. The problems I saw four decades ago … they are problems we still face.”

Health care and education will always be a challenge. The dropout rate at the local high school will stay at more than 50 per cent. So will poverty. There will be no employment opportunities. Entertainment will at best be non-existent except around Christmas. The local cost of living will always be expensive (a single red pepper costs $3.99 and half dozen bananas $2.89).

It is the truth. Koostachin is not the only one who says so. She may be brave enough to talk openly about it but others say the same thing privately: Attawapiskat, home to about 1,900 people, can likely never be fixed. In the long run it is unsustainable.

Attawapiskat: No end in sight to problems of inadequate housing, unemployment, drug addiction – by Raveena Aulakh (Toronto Star – December 29, 2012)

December 29, 2012

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

ATTAWAPISKAT, ONT. — Many years ago, Helen Kataquapit lived in a house. A real house that was warm, had a bedroom, a kitchen with a stove and a washroom with running water. That memory is fast fading.

The 52-year-old grandmother — who lives in a room not much larger than a walk-in closet in two trailers shared by dozens of others in one forlorn corner of Attawapiskat — knows she may never live in a house again.

“I submitted my name years ago and they kept saying there will be a house, but I am single and at the bottom of their list,” Kataquapit says with a sigh. “This place has gotten worse over the years, don’t know if anything will change it. It makes me sad, what’s happening here.”

A year ago, few could place this remote Cree reserve on Canada’s map. Then, in the middle of a desolate winter, came the news of the housing crisis and the community became the poster child of native neglect. Waves of journalists arrived on the reserve with its deplorable housing, wrote heartbreaking stories and left. So yes, this is an anniversary of sorts.

But an anniversary means nothing here. It is a place where time stands still. Nothing has changed in the past year, except for 22 new trailer-homes that some lucky families moved into. Everything else is the same: poverty and dependence, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, substandard education and health care, inadequate housing and questionable governance.

Northern Ontario chromite mining has first nation worried for water safety- Heather Socffield (The Canadian Press/Globe and Mail – December 27, 2012)

December 29, 2012

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

MARTEN FALLS, ONT. — The Canadian Press – Water has consumed the daily routine of Chief Eli Moonias, and it’s making him visibly agitated. His small, fly-in reserve in Northern Ontario has had a boil-water advisory for seven long years, and there is no end in sight.

Now he feels the long-term quality of the water that surrounds his reserve may well be at risk, too. Mining companies have flooded into the James Bay lowlands, into the area now dubbed the Ring of Fire. They’ve found an enormous expanse of chromite, enough nickel for a mine and other metals that may hold potential in future years.

The mining holds the promise of thousands of jobs over the next decade, if not longer – as long as the proposals can pass environmental muster and garner the support of the region’s first nations. But chromite also poses significant challenges to the environment that can be difficult to manage.

“We know we’re going to get some benefits once they start development. We know that in some ways, we’ll be involved as well. The issue is the environment,” says Mr. Moonias.

He looks at development in the oil sands and hears about the inedible fish and the poisoned Athabaska River. He vows never to let anything like that happen to the Albany and Ogoki rivers that flow through the muskeg and meet at Marten Falls.

[Ring of Fire] Resource development could help peel away ‘layers and layers of trauma’ – by Heather Scoffield (The Canadian Press/Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal – December 27, 2012)

December 27, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

The people at Cliffs Natural Resources have been around, and know the challenges of mining in difficult conditions.
But this is a first: the multinational has had to extend deadlines on its environmental assessment process in Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire because of a suicide crisis.

Another young man took his life a couple of weeks ago, prompting a spiral of despair in Neskantaga First Nation. Twenty young people in the small community of about 300 were put on suicide watch. The chief and council went to ground.
And the chances of them completing their feedback on time for Cliff’s environmental assessment terms of reference faded to zero.

“Neskantaga asked for some extra time on that, and given the circumstances, we figured that was right to do,” Bill Boor, Cliffs’ senior vice-president of global ferroalloys, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve been clear with people that we’re going to be the operator of this project long-term, assuming it goes forward. We plan to be there for a long, long time.”

“We kind of balance our interest in holding to a schedule with a very high level of interest in making sure we’re doing it right. And it’s not to our benefit to be solely schedule driven.”

It’s a small delay, but it comes at a time when Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made it a priority to ramp up the pace of mining and energy extraction.

The challenge of our time [First Nations Poverty] – Thunder Bay Chronicle Editorial (December 23, 2012)

December 27, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

ANOTHER protest by First Nations has led to another round of accusations and counter-accusations. Chiefs and band members say government is ignoring treaty obligations and violating traditional lands. The federal government insists it is acting on a number of fronts to improve the lot of First Nations. Canadians from all walks of life share a variety of opinions, some of them valid while others repeat old misconceptions.

The Idle No More movement follows other native protests rooted in similar claims and counter-claims. Some of these protests have led to violent confrontations; others have simmered for years.

In general, the efforts of reasonable First Nation leaders has led reasonable Canadian and provincial government leaders to act on legitimate grievances and legislate improvements. And yet, conditions on many First Nations remain impoverished and relations with most governments remain strained.

This situation has endured for decades and is both a stain on Canada’s name and a sign that something isn’t working. In this modern country with a solid Charter of Rights and Freedoms, how can there not have been a solution to this by now? Either the First Nations are right and governments are failing them badly, or governments are doing their best but cannot have the conversation that First Nations want to hear.

How the Idle No More movement started and where it might go from here – by Tristin Hopper (National Post – December 27, 2012)

December 27, 2012

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

In this occasional feature, the National Post tells you everything you need to know about a complicated issue. Today, Tristin Hopper gets to the bottom of the Aboriginal protest movement Idle No More.

What exactly is Idle No More?

Conceived in November by four Saskatchewan women frustrated with the Tories’ latest omnibus budget bill, Idle No More is a First Nations protest movement looking to obtain renewed government guarantees for treaty agreements and halt what organizers see as a legislative erosion of First Nations rights. The movement’s most visible spokeswoman is Theresa Spence, chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation, the Northern Ontario reserve struck by an emergency housing crisis last year.

Since Dec. 11, Ms. Spence has been on a hunger strike while camped on an Ottawa River island only a few hundred metres from Parliament Hill, vowing not to eat until she has secured a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Since early December, protests spurred by Idle No More have included a 1,000-person demonstration on Parliament Hill last week, a blockade of a CN rail spur near Sarnia that continued for a sixth day on Wednesday and a variety of brief demonstrations and blockades across Canada and parts of the United States.

Although Idle No More trended on social media over the holidays, has there been much non-virtual movement of late?

Read more

As protests swell, Attawapiskat chief stands firm on hunger strike – by Gloria Galloway (Globe and Mail – December 27, 2012)

December 27, 2012

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA — The aboriginal interpretive centre on an island in the middle of the Ottawa River where Theresa Spence is living out her hunger strike is not an unhappy place. There are fires and drumming and even the occasional round of song.

Native leaders have come from disparate parts of Canada to meet with the Attawapiskat chief who has said she will fast until the federal government gives in to her demand for a meeting among first nations, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and a representative of the Crown.

Ms. Spence wants to discuss the treaty that was signed in the first decade of the last century that covered a broad swath of Northern Ontario, including her own impoverished reserve. It promised money, education and health care in exchange for sharing the land.

Ms. Spence, like the descendants of the signatories of similar treaties across the country, says Canada is no longer living up to its part of the bargain.

So, two weeks ago, after listening to other chiefs at a national gathering complain about the problems affecting their people, the 49-year-old mother of five girls embarked on a hunger strike, consuming only water, fish broth and medicinal tea.

First Nations force their way onto Stephen Harper’s 2013 agenda – by Tim Harper (Toronto Star – December 19, 2012)

December 20, 2012

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

OTTAWA—The movement is known as Idle No More. In the next couple of days we will learn whether this is the latest venting of aboriginal frustration in this country or whether it grows to become a sleeper issue in 2013.

Aboriginal discontent could muscle its way onto Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s agenda very early in the new year.

The protests have been surprisingly robust, although Idle No More, born of opposition to the government’s omnibus budget bill, is only days old.

It has moved beyond the angry flare sparked by the bill and has grown, fuelled by young aboriginals deftly using social media, to represent the latest iteration of the festering conflict that has marked the Harper government — its determination to economically exploit resources over the objections of environmentalists and aboriginals who believe this regime is running roughshod over its ancestral lands.

But there is more, something even more fundamental, because movement leaders count 14 pieces of legislation — dealing with everything from education to water quality to financial accountability — that they believe are the laws of an adversary.

The politics of a painkiller – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (December 14, 2012)

December 17, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Leona Aglukkaq has got politics down pat. The federal Health Minister recently approved generic versions of the highly-addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin for sale in Canada. The patent for OxyContin — which is the market name for time-released oxycodone tablets — expired and, in the interest of private-sector initiative, the government opened the door for other companies to step in with their own, no-name versions.

That’s great for the companies; oxycodone painkillers are huge sellers. It’s also good for people in need of those drugs, as well as health care budgets. The generics are much cheaper than the name brand versions and their painkilling abilities are effective.

The issue, though, is one that affects everyone else. Oxycodone is a fiercely addictive painkiller and the introduction of generic versions will cost society far too much to go ahead.

The problem is, those struggling with an oxy addiction — and there are many — pass their struggle on to others. Drug stores are being held up to the point where many pharmacy owners are refusing to stock generic oxy. Convenience stores, homes and vehicles are robbed and whatever taken is quickly flipped to pay for the next pill.