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Aboriginal and Inuit Non-Mining Issues

Native leaders ponder the path of most resistance – by John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2012)

The 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.

The Assembly of First Nations, in conclave, inhabits a world not easily recognized by those outside the native community: one of occupation, sovereign rights and resistance. Native leaders passionately embrace that world, which informs the campaigns of the seven challengers seeking to unseat Shawn Atleo as national chief.
 
But the odds appear to favour Mr. Atleo nonetheless, for the reason expressed by one chief from a Prairie province who was listening at the back of the room. “We have to live with what we’ve got,” he said.

Chiefs speaking candidly in exchange for not being on the record criticized Mr. Atleo for acting as though the AFN were a government and he its first minister, able to speak on behalf of the first nations in negotiations with Ottawa.

He has too often co-operated with the Harper government, they said, when the national chief should be asserting the treaty rights of first nations and their rightful claim to a share of any natural resource wealth.

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Shawn Atleo will defend post as national chief – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – July 17, 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.

At any given moment, there are nearly 500 government lawyers challenging aboriginal treaty rights in Canada. There are 100 First Nations communities just like Attawapiskat — places of abject poverty with no adequate housing or hydro and almost as many reserves are without clean drinking water.
 
On some days, Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, the 45-year-old national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, admits it is like he is knocking his head against the wall in trying to make real progress for indigenous people. But he is running for re-election Wednesday because he feels the “moment of reckoning” is now.

Canada is moving to develop precious resources in Alberta’s oilsands and Ontario’s Ring of Fire — where one of the world’s largest chromite finds in the James Bay lowlands is said to exceed $30 billion — but they have to deal with the First Nations living adjacent to these riches in order to do so.
 
“Canada will not be whole until it addresses its relationship with First Nations through a rights-based viewpoint,” says Atleo, emphatically. “We are not just stakeholders.”

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Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo Speech – THE ECONOMICS OF RECONCILIATION – April 23, 2012

This speech was given at the Canadian Club of Toronto on April 23, 2012

Check Against Delivery

THE ECONOMICS OF RECONCILIATION

I am honoured to be with you here again. I remember well being here last year speaking about the enduring relationship between First Nations and the rest of Canada.

I spoke of the proud heritage of indigenous nations and the Treaties made between our nations and the newcomers. The relationships set in Treaty are important to Canada and represent the way forward. As we discussed, the stark and tragic inequities First Nations face today reveal that this relationship has been denied too long. We shared views of the possibility of a new story – a story of hope and opportunity for First Nations.

Today, I want to continue this conversation but turn our focus sharply to the economic side of the story. Reconciliation is a complex concept but we can all agree it compels action – right now.

I will suggest that reconciliation can be best approached as the building of a re-newed foundation with four cornerstones: rights recognition, healing and education, capacity and a fourth which will be my principal focus today – seizing economic potential.

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CEOs urge governments to promote native input in natural resource projects – by Heather Scoffield (Globe and Mail/The Canadian Press – July 15, 2012)

The 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 Canadian Press – Canada’s aboriginal communities have found a powerful ally in their bid to be treated as equal partners in the discussion about tapping the country’s natural-resource wealth.

Big business wants them at the negotiating table, and is urging the federal and provincial governments to lend a helping hand.

A new report due Monday from the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, prepared for Canada’s premiers in advance of their meeting later this month, urges governments to make aboriginal communities full partners in developing energy and mining projects.

Governments should help train a growing aboriginal workforce and develop new ways to support aboriginal communities so that they can participate vigorously in business initiatives and negotiations to share the wealth, says the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press.

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The fight for the soul of the AFN [First Nations resource issues] – by John Ivison (National Post – July 14, 2012)

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

Only in native politics could securing the Prime Minister’s undivided attention for a day, and hooking hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding at a time of austerity, be considered a sellout. Shawn Atleo, the AFN’s National Chief, persuaded Stephen Harper to attend a Crown-First Nations gathering earlier this year, aimed at making progress toward a goal both men covet — self-sufficient, self-governing native communities.
 
For his troubles, Mr. Atleo, who is facing a tough re-election fight next week, has been accused of “selling our souls to the devil” by one of his rivals, Pam Palmater.

“There is a sense that if you’re not intransigent and fighting the federal government, then you’re not doing it right,” said Joseph Quesnel, an analyst with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. “After the gathering, the whole ‘Atleo sell-out’ narrative started to take shape, which in my view was bizarre and unfortunate.”
 
Ms. Palmater, an aboriginal lawyer and academic, is one seven candidates running against Mr. Atleo to become National Chief – a line-up that includes an unprecedented four women.

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Natural resources to define first nations leader’s next term – by Gloria Galloway and Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – July 14, 2012)

The 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 and VANCOUVER – Two months ago, 23-year-old Brendon Grant left his northern British Columbia hometown for San Diego, where he now lives a 10-minute jog from La Jolla beach. He moved south to start work as a junior analyst with RA Capital Advisors LLC, a private investment bank that has worked on more than $60-billion in financial transactions. Next month, he intends to start training toward becoming an investment banker.

Mr. Grant is Haisla, and his is not a traditional career path for a young person whose grandfather taught him to fish salmon and halibut.

But there is a seismic change shaking the economic foundations of the Haisla – and indeed, first nations across Canada. It’s a change that will have ripple effects all over the country and profound implications on whether the large-scale resource projects that provinces are looking at as an economic panacea move ahead.

For the Haisla, it is natural gas, and a rush to build tens of billions of dollars in new export terminals near Kitimat, B.C., to connect western gas fields with Asian consumers.

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Ontario Regional Chief Beardy – His way is quiet, but solid steady and forward – by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – June 27, 2012)

http://netnewsledger.com/

THUNDER BAY – His way is quiet, but solid steady and forward. Once again, Stan Beardy has likely surprised many with his election to the position of Ontario Chief for the Assembly of First Nations. Likely many people thought that the (now) former Grand Chief at the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN) would have a tough time being selected as the Ontario Chief. Likely many of those were also the people who thought that Stan Beardy would not win a fourth term as Grand Chief of NAN.

However, Chief Beardy has steel behind his sometimes quiet ways. However his goal is bringing a louder voice from the North to Queen’s Park and Ottawa. In seeking to run for Ontario Chief, Beardy stated that “As a leader, I have been shaped by the direction of the Chiefs, the advice of the Elders, conversations with women and youth in our communities; and by the wisdom of leaders of First nations and indigenous people, in Ontario, across Canada and as far away as New Zealand”.

“As Regional Chief, I will fight for each First Nation and for all First Nations while respecting their autonomy and assisting them to build the protocols that will make their joint streghth greater”.

Chief Beardy was born and raised on a trap line at Bearskin Lake First Nation. He attended high school and college in Thunder Bay where he also worked as a welder-fitter for several years.

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Enbridge AGM: Pipeline protest drums pits pipelines against land, water – by VAnessa Lu (Toronto Star – May 10, 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.

The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline appears locked on a collision course, as First Nations chiefs put Enbridge officials on notice again that they won’t budge from their opposition.

“We are a very patient people,” warned Chief Na’moks of the Wet-suwet’en nation, near Smithers, B.C., at Enbridge’s annual general meeting in Toronto on Wednesday.

“We don’t base the wellbeing of life on money,” said April Churchill, vice-president of the Haida Nation. “Money will not change our minds. “There is no compensation that is acceptable that will kill off cultures and kill off people.”

First Nations leaders have repeatedly sent their message to Enbridge officials, and they travelled thousands of kilometres from British Columbia by train, to make their point again in Toronto.

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‘Corporate Canada’ should embrace First Nations as full partners in resource development: Chief Shawn Atleo – by Adrian Humphreys (National Post – April 23, 2012)

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

“We are not opposed to development, but we must be involved at the outset.
First Nation rights and responsibilities demand that we are full partners
in discussions about exploration, ownership, participation in production,
and long-term sustainability of our environment, our communities and our
futures.” (Shawn Atleo, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations)

TORONTO — The National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations brought a metaphorical carrot and stick to deliver his message of reconciliation to corporate Canada, saying the country faces “an aboriginal tsunami” and mending its relationship with the “newcomers” can only be achieved if they “smashed the status quo.”
 
But if any of the evocative language by Shawn Atleo caused concern among the audience of what he called “the suits of Toronto,” it seemed to be mollified by the entreaty he offered in return.

Co-operation with First Nations will avoid intractable disputes over hugely valuable resource development projects across the country, he said.
 
“Currently, First Nations are often the last to know about major resource development. This relegates our communities to few options, usually resulting in confrontation.

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First Nations children send distressing letter to addicted parents – by Heather Scoffield (Toronto Star – April 16, 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.

The Canadian Press

CAT LAKE, ONT.—Item 9 in the letter to members of the Cat Lake reserve from the children in Grade 6 is as blunt as it is painful.
 
“It hurts us and shoomis and kokum (grandpa and grandma) when you’re doing drugs and you’re not at home.” Cat Lake is the epicentre of prescription drug addiction in Canada. Community leaders believe between 70 and 80 per cent of the adults are hooked on oxycodone-based pain killers like OxyContin or Percocets.
 
Governments and local health authorities are slowly gearing up to deal with the runaway addiction that has slammed communities across the country, but especially First Nations. But the help can’t come quickly enough for the children of Cat Lake.
 
“We feel that we don’t know what to do to help you stop doing Drug,” the children wrote as “Point Number Five.” “We want you to stop because it hurts our family and we don’t like it when we’re angry,” according to their fourth item.
 
The children in this corner of northwestern Ontario, 400 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, put together the list over a few days in a workshop with the help of a local band member.

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Canada, home to the suicide capital of the world [Pikangikum FN] – by Martin Patriquin (Maclean’s Magazine – March 30, 2012)

Maclean’s is the largest circulation weekly news magazine in Canada, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.

In Pikangikum, gas sniffing is rampant and young people are taking their own lives at a shocking rate.

Randy Keeper is sick of building coffins. A wiry fellow who looks younger than his 49 years, Keeper is proud of his job as a carpenter and crew leader, saying he’s built 25 houses from scratch over 17 years in Pikangikum, the reserve in northwestern Ontario where he has lived his whole life. But when it comes to the wooden boxes he builds for Pikangikum’s dead, he draws a blank. “I don’t count them,” he says from his daughter’s dining room table. He remembers the last ones, though. They were in December. “I had to make two in one day, one for an elder and one for a younger person.”
 
The dreams started a couple of weeks after that. In one, he’s lying face up in a freshly dug grave, watching as a coffin is slowly lowered toward him. He doesn’t know if there’s anyone inside, but he recognizes his handiwork: 100 lb. of plywood, treated pine and nails, a simple enough thing that takes him no more than 90 minutes to build. In the dream he’s alive but can’t move as it comes down on his chest, smothering him. Then he wakes up. “The elders told me to stop making them,” he says, “but I have no choice because I work for the band. I get nervous, shaky. Once the dreams happened I’d say yes out of respect for chief and council, but sometimes I don’t show up.”

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Andrée Cazabon: A street kid turned filmmaker on a mission [Third World Canada – KI First Nation] – by Sarah Hampson (Globe and Mail – December 9, 2010)

The 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— “It’s annoying,” Andrée Cazabon says as she screws up her pretty face. “It happened almost 25 years ago. Isn’t someone allowed to move on?”

Her new, heart-wrenching film, Third World Canada, tells the story of eight children who are orphaned when three parents commit suicide in the fly-in native community of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, or K.I. for short, in Northern Ontario. Such is the disturbing portrayal of the social and psychological fabric in the community that all the Canadian broadcasters Ms. Cazabon has approached have turned it down. One of the boys in the film regularly acts out his father’s hanging because he was locked in the room with him when he committed suicide. But she refuses to consider changing it.

Despite her fierce commitment to bringing awareness to the plight of aboriginal children – the film was screened at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa last week as a fundraising event that coincided with a meeting of the Assembly of First Nations – her own story as a former street kid is the one she is often asked about.

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[Northern Ontario] English River logging suspended during court battle – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – March 23, 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.

The Ontario government has agreed to suspend logging north of the English River in a territory five times the size of Toronto as an 11-year legal fight winds its way through the courts.

Last August, the Ontario Superior Court ruled the province does not have the power to take away treaty rights negotiated over 150 years ago by allowing industrial activity without the consent of Grassy Narrows First Nation. The decision is being appealed and is expected to be heard this fall.

But while all commercial logging cannot occur in the Grassy Narrows traditional area north of the river without the community’s consent, it can south of the river, said David Sone, a spokesperson for the environmental organization Earthroots.

“The people of Grassy Narrows and First Nations across the province have suffered for decades for decisions imposed on them and their land without their agreement,” Sone said.

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Manitoba starts $3-billion permanent road network (Canadian Consulting Engineer – February 27, 2012)

http://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/

First Nations communities along the east side of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba are being connected by permanent roads to the provincial road system for the first time.

The Government of Manitoba’s East Side Road Authority has started construction of roads and bridges along the all-season network, which altogether is estimated to cost approximately $3 billion and once completed will cover 1,028 kilometres. The overall project will take up to 30 years to complete.

SNC-Lavalin established the routes in a two-year long study, known as the Large Area Transportation Network Study, which was officially released in June 2011. Now, AECOM is the prime consulting engineering firm implementing the project, and Dillon Consulting is the contract administrator. Both companies are working on the road and bridge works.

Last week, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger visited Manto Sipi Cree Nation near Gods River to see first-hand how work is progressing. A series of new permanent and some temporary bridges is under way and Chief Michael Yellowback said the communities are already benefiting, since warming temperatures had put the current winter roads in jeopardy.

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Private ownership helps First Nation fix housing problems – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – February 6, 2012)

This article came from Wawatay News: http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Chief Franklin Paibomgai of Whitefish River First Nation is happy to talk housing. Despite the prevalence of housing woes all across northern Ontario First Nations, the days of housing concerns in Whitefish River – just north of Manitoulin Island – are a thing of the past.

Paibomgai laughs when asked about the last time housing has come up at a band meeting. Housing has not been on the agenda for years, he says. It used to be a constant thing – someone wanting a new home, or needing renovations on a current house. But now, thanks to a dramatic shift in how the community looks at housing, there are subdivisions going up and a community-owned construction company doing the work.

In 2003 Whitefish River’s housing situation was similar to many First Nations across northern Ontario. Existing houses were in poor condition. There was a long list of people wanting new homes. And the housing money provided by the federal government was barely enough to complete upkeep on existing houses, never mind build anything new.

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