Aboriginal and Inuit Non-Mining Issues – Page 4

Canadians have known about unmarked residential school graves for years. They just kept forgetting – by Terry Glavin (National Post – June 3, 2021)

June 4, 2021

It’s a gut-wrenching and dreadful way to begin the month of June, which was designated Indigenous History Month by Justin Trudeau’s government in 2017, from the Aboriginal History Month declared by Stephen Harper’s government in 2009, which arose from the June 21 Aboriginal History Day declared by Jean Chrétien in 1996, deriving from a proposal from the Assembly of First Nations’ forerunner, the National Indian Brotherhood, in 1982.

The first headlines appeared last week in a local news report in British Columbia’s southern interior, then quickly spread across Canada, and then around the world: “Mass grave of Indigenous children discovered in Kamloops.”

“‘Horrible History’: Mass Grave of Indigenous Children Reported in Canada.” “Memorials spread for 215 First Nations children found buried in mass grave in B.C.”

Murray Sinclair says more remains will be found at residential school sites – by Kristy Kirkup and Mike Hager (Globe and Mail – June 2, 2021)

June 2, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into Canada’s residential schools says the country is beginning to see evidence of how many children died at the institutions and that more sites will likely come to light.

Murray Sinclair released a video message on Tuesday evening, his first public remarks since the remains of children were discovered at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School last week.

He said survivors of the schools need to understand that it is important to make this evidence public so Canadians can see the magnitude of what happened and the extent of responsibility. This includes what he described as the need to force churches that have documents related to residential schools to disclose them.

Indigenous leaders say discovery of children’s remains at Kamloops residential school is beginning of national reckoning – by Jana G. Pruden and Kristy Kirkup (Globe and Mail – June 1, 2021)

June 1, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

As the discovery of the remains of 215 children at one of Canada’s largest residential schools continues to reverberate around the country, Indigenous leaders and community members say it is only the beginning of an important – but painful – national reckoning.

“Kamloops is one school,” said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde, referencing the more than 130 residential schools that once operated across the country.

“I’ve said before that the residential school system was a genocide against First Nations people, Indigenous peoples. Here is the evidence. Nobody can deny that.”

The discovery of a mass grave at a former residential school is just the tip of the iceberg – by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (Globe and Mail – May 30, 2021)

May 31, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (Aki-Kwe) is the director of the Residential School History and Dialogue Centre and a professor of law at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, at the University of British Columbia.

Many Canadians have expressed their horror, shock and sadness at the announcement that the unmarked buried remains of 215 children were discovered in preliminary radar findings last weekend at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.

And we should be sad; it is horrific. But it is not shocking. In fact, it is the opposite – a too-common unearthing of the legacy, and enduring reality, of colonialism in Canada. To the degree it is shocking, it is evidence of how much learning there is still to do.

Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir, the chief of Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation, said it best: She called the discovery of the mass grave an “unthinkable loss.” But as she importantly made clear, it was also a known loss – that is, the deaths were undocumented, but the community “had knowledge” of them.

Nornickel has changed positively, says Taimyr indigenous group – by Thomas Nilsen (The Barents Observer – May 16, 2021)

May 18, 2021

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/

After the oil spill, we see positive changes in policy and approaches to interaction with the indigenous minorities, says Grigory Dyukarev, head of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North on the Taimyr Peninsula.

A year has passed since a fuel tank owned by a subsidiary of Nornickel ruptured, causing more than 20 thousand tons of diesel to leak into soil and waterways near Norilsk in the Russian Arctic.

The ecological disaster made worldwide headlines and the mining metallurgical giant had to pay a record 146 billion rubles (€1,62 billion) fine to cover environmental damages caused by the spill.

For Nornickel, a company controlled by some of Russia’s richest oligarchs, the spill became a serious wake-up call. They have entered agreements with associations of indigenous peoples of Russia, says Grigory Dyukarev to the Barents Observer.

Website launches for marine conservation project in James Bay – by Dariya Baiguzhiyeva (Timmins Today – March 9, 2021)

March 11, 2021

https://www.timminstoday.com/

Wildlands League has launched a website that provides more information about the Mushkegowuk Marine Project.

Last October, Mushkegowuk chiefs approved a motion to have nation-to-nation talks with the federal government about establishing a National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) to protect the marine ecosystem in western James Bay and southern Hudson Bay.

The website shows infographics, information about establishing the NMCA and a promotional video featuring Adrian Sutherland’s James Bay track.

A year after Wet’suwet’en crisis, First Nations’ questions about self-governance have only grown louder in a pandemic – by Wendy Stueck and Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – February 23, 2021)

February 23, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Three small cabins stand next to Lamprey Creek in northern British Columbia, built by Wet’suwet’en Nation members and their supporters over the past year.

The structures occupy the site of a former Indigenous village site where Wet’suwet’en people lived and fished for centuries before the area became a recreation site for campers and anglers, according to Molly Wickham, a member of the nation whose hereditary name is Sleydo’.

But the site is also close to spots where, one year ago, RCMP officers arrested protesters challenging the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Mary River mine needs a railway to survive, new economic report says – by Jim Bell (Nunatsiaq News – February 8, 2021)

February 9, 2021

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Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s Mary River mine is unlikely to survive without a railway to carry greater quantities of ore to Milne Inlet, says a report commissioned by the company.

The report, titled Mary River Project Economics Explained, was submitted to the Nunavut Impact Review Board this month during its public hearing on Baffinland’s expansion proposal for the Mary River mine, which adjourned Feb. 6 and is to resume in March.

The company filed the economic report in response to an earlier economic analysis done for the Oceans North conservation group by a firm called OpenOil, which said Baffinland’s existing truck route is capable of making a profit for the company.

After evacuating twice over tainted water, Neskantaga residents plan their return home – by Olivia Stefanovich (CBC News Politics – December 17, 2020)

December 17, 2020

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

Members of a First Nation that has been under a boil-water advisory for longer than any other in Canada are hoping to return home before Christmas to clean running water for the first time in 25 years.

Neskantaga, accessible only by air and an ice road in winter, sits about 450 km north of Thunder Bay, Ont. — where nearly 300 of its members have been living in a hotel since an oily sheen in the reserve’s reservoir on Oct. 19 triggered their evacuation.

Now, final tests are taking place to determine whether Neskantaga’s water is safe enough for the community to use, weeks after members originally were scheduled to fly back and two years after the reserve’s water treatment plant was supposed to start producing clean drinking water.

OPINION: Canada needs to dig deep and find the national will to fix the water crisis – by Tanya Talaga (Globe and Mail – December 4, 2020)

December 4, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The last time I saw Neskantaga First Nation Chief Chris Moonias was during a visit to his community, 430 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. I had just toured Neskantaga’s broken-down water filtration plant, which was in need of a new 600-pound pump.

Engineers and work crews were busy all along the shores of Attawapiskat Lake, installing the pump in an effort to resolve the longest boil-water advisory of any reserve in Canada.

Almost the entire community, meanwhile, had been evacuated to Thunder Bay. A few kind souls stayed behind to look after the dogs.

Thunder Bay Indigenous Population Far Larger Than Thought? – by James Murray (NetNewsLedger.com – November 30, 2020)

December 2, 2020

http://www.netnewsledger.com/

Thunder Bay – Data released from a survey focused on Indigenous adults’ and children’s experiences with the health care system in Thunder Bay show communities deeply rooted in their cultural traditions and identities, while facing several systemic barriers that adversely impact their health and wellbeing.

The survey found that the size of the Indigenous population in the Thunder Bay CMA is far larger than the previous figures released by Census Canada. The survey results summarized in a set fact sheets, calculated the size of the FNIM adult population of Thunder Bay to be 29,778 (estimated range is 23,080-42,641).

These survey number are more than three times higher than the FNIM population size estimate of 9,780 reported by the 2016 census, which most FNIM in Thunder Bay reported they did not complete. Also highlighted are the strong ties that FNIM peoples in Thunder Bay have to their histories, traditions, and cultural identities.

Stuck in a hotel during a Christmas pandemic, Neskantaga members wait for water crisis to end – by Olivia Stefanovich (CBC New Politics – December 2, 2020)

December 2, 2020

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Nine-year-old Bedahbun ‘Bee’ Moonias can’t bring herself to drink the running water in her Thunder Bay, Ont., hotel room. “Since we can’t drink the tap water back in Neskantaga, I’m scared to use the tap water here to drink it,” Moonias said. “So I use water bottles.”

Moonias has spent her whole life worrying about the water flowing from her faucets back home in Neskantaga First Nation, a remote fly-in Ontario community about 450 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

Neskantaga has the longest-duration boil water advisory of any reserve in the country — 25 years and counting. “Sometimes, I feel like we don’t exist,” Moonias said. “Like, nobody knows that we don’t have no clean water. Like, we’re just ghosts and we’re just put in a drawer, in a box.”

Ottawa replaces federal bureaucrat working with Neskantaga First Nation during state of emergency – by Olivia Stefanovich (CBC News – November 23, 2020)

November 24, 2020

https://www.cbc.ca/

Indigenous Services Canada has replaced the top federal bureaucrat working with Neskantaga First Nation, which has the longest boil water advisory in the country, during its current state of emergency at the community’s request.

Assistant deputy minister Joanne Wilkinson has taken over from Ontario regional director general Anne Scotton as the liaison between department officials and Neskantaga, a fly-in community about 450 km north of Thunder Bay, Ont.

“Joanne has significant experience in regional operations and is well placed to leverage the resources necessary to complete this work,” senior assistant deputy minister Lynda Clairmont wrote in an email to Chief Chris Moonias late Monday.

Feds invest $841k to support climate change adaptation in northern Indigenous communities – by Colleen Romaniuk (Sudbury Star – November 13, 2020)

November 13, 2020

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

The federal government will invest more than $841,000 in a project that will help Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario deal with climate change.

Co-led by Laurentian University, Grand Council Treaty 3, and the Tribal Councils of Mushkegowuk, Matawa, Nokiiwin, Shibogama, and Keewaytinook Okimakanak, the project aims to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration in Far North communities.

Partners have been engaging in knowledge-sharing workshops, sharing tools, and establishing an Indigenous regional knowledge exchange network as part of the project.

Left behind in Neskantaga and exiled in Thunder Bay, a nation still waits for clean water at home – by Willow Fiddler (Globe and Mail – November 12, 2020)

November 13, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

On a table in the corner of the banquet room of a Thunder Bay hotel sits a collection of posters with hand-written messages like “Shame on you #Trudeau” and “We deserve clean water.” They were drawn by children from Neskantaga First Nation, pleading for safe, clean tap water to drink – a basic human right no one under the age of 25 has had in the remote Northern Ontario community.

Neskantaga Chief Chris Moonias says if it weren’t for the COVID-19 pandemic, he’d be on his way to Parliament Hill and Queen’s Park with the posters to show the governments how living under the longest-standing boil water advisory in the country has affected his community.

Residents have to rely on bottled water for drinking. For cooking and bathing, they have to fill up jugs and pails at an outdoor reverse-osmosis system that sits in a shed up a hill.