A conversation about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with Dr. Rodney Clifton, co-editor and author of the Frontier Centre's recent book, From Truth Comes Reconciliation. We have not written this book for people who think that this Report is too sacred for...
Canada has consistently failed to make progress that is commensurate with so many lofty pronouncements and expectations on the Indigenous file. By statistics alone, it is a national shame that most Indigenous Canadians on reservations live far below acceptable...
There is a concerted effort in Winnipeg to rename Bishop Grandin Boulevard. The Mayor is in support. The Bishop has been convicted of a crime he didn’t know existed when he was alive a century or so ago - thinking like a man of his time. But Grandin would be doubly...
Here is a link to a 1962 CBC documentary about life at a residential school. It shows healthy and happy indigenous schoolchildren going about their day. Nuns and teachers - some of whom are indigenous - are shown interacting with the children in a normal way. The...
Prohibitionists Dig In Heels for Supply Management, Ignore U.S. Success There is a legal way to consume raw milk in Canada: buy it in the United States and bring it home. Of the 13 states bordering Canada, 12 have legal raw milk. More than 40 have it legal in some...
In the Alberta Health Services v. Artur Pawlowski and Dawid Pawlowski decision last September, a Court of Queen’s Bench justice found the two brothers in contempt of court. The Pawlowski brothers openly challenged health ordinances and court orders and did not deny...
Bill C-69, the new proposed federal legislation deals with environmental assessment changes. It requires that “traditional knowledge of the Indigenous peoples of Canada” must be considered when assessing projects. In effect, this legislation will place “traditional...
First Nations populations and on-reserve businesses are growing faster than the Canadian average. This growth should be welcomed by the rest of the Canadian family, save for one problem: unjustified tax exemptions for on-reserve commerce and individuals. The Indian...
In a line at the supermarket checkout, I glanced back at the woman who was placing her purchases on the belt behind my grocery items, and I couldn’t help but wonder what life had done to her to put such an expression of tired crabbiness on her face. That unpleasant...
Many people expected that the end of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation (FFMC) monopoly would lead to a disaster in Manitoba. It has not--fortunately. In fact, this move by the government may re-vitalize the Indigenous commercial fisheries in the northern part...
There has been considerable talk recently about reforming the justice system. The talk has become particularly shrill following the Bushie and Fontaine murder trials in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In fact, the Justice Minister has said that she plans to eliminate...
Frontier Senior Fellow and retired judge Brian Giesbrecht explodes the myth that we are all living on “treaty land” as per fashionable pronouncements prior to hockey games and assorted public events. With Geoff Currier on Winnipeg’s CJOB. (~18 minutes)
I recently attended an event that began with an announcement notifying those present that “you are now on treaty land”. By now, we are all familiar with this new way of commencing public functions. It stems from a recommendation from the Truth and Reconciliation...
Manitobans keep hearing about the negative ways that institutions treat Indigenous people. Think of what has been said during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women, the Sixties Scoop, the Tina Fontaine and the Colton Bushie...
Ian Gladue, 39, is the ideal Indigenous entrepreneur. He saw a need within the Indigenous community and he acted to fill it. Gladue, a native of Bigstone Cree Nation in northern Alberta on Treaty 8 territory, is the co-owner of Native Delights – a restaurant in...