In this age of Indigenous reconciliation, it is important to remember the Indigenous movers and shakers who have gone before and cleared the path for others. James Gladstone (1887-1971) was such an Indigenous person. In the Blackfoot language, he was known as...
“You see, you hear proposals these days; let them be like everybody else or turn all the funding of Indian Affairs over to the individual. That kind of total change would bring chaos and would eventually strengthen the hands of the system as it exists today, because...
“Some people want to make an absolute solution, to close down the reserves. The whole thing is ridiculous. The best solution is that which, going in the right direction, makes as few changes as possible. Change is difficult. Make as few changes as possible gives you...
The new year is an excellent opportunity to resolve ongoing problems surrounding Indigenous access to the lobster fisheries in Atlantic Canada. Near the latter part of last year, rising tensions between Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous commercial lobster...
There’s no doubt that summer 2021 was a scorcher. The United Kingdom’s Met Office revealed how temperatures exceeded 30°C in September for only the seventh time in history. In Vancouver, Canada, 2021 was the second hottest summer ever recorded, with daily average...
Coercion and vandalism have become commonplace tactics to force insurers off mining and oil development projects throughout the world. Ironically, that clears the way for companies with deep pockets and petrostates whose goal is geopolitical supremacy, not...
The “60s’ Scoop” has been much in the news recently, and I expect that we will hear much more about it in the coming weeks and years. In fact, I am guessing that there are already plans to make it the subject of the next national inquiry, soon after the Missing...
Teachers in more than 40,000 classrooms across Canada are providing their students with false information about the tragic death of young Chanie Wenjack whose frozen body was found curled up beside a railway track in northwestern Ontario on October 23, 1966. The...
Canada’s sad Indian Residential School history is by now very familiar to Canadians, and it is increasingly being taught to our children in school. This is both necessary and proper. A caring and compassionate society should know its history, warts and all. But the...
The federal government has reached an agreement in principle to settle outstanding class-action lawsuits relating to what has come to be called the “60’s Scoop”. Eight hundred million dollars will be set aside to settle claims of First Nations and Inuit children who...
Stuffed between the sections of the Globe and Mail last week was a fairly thick, glossy publication entitled Our Kids: Canada’s Private School Guide, an annual digest that I’ve browsed through occasionally, primarily out of an educator’s interest in the schools that...
The dust has still not settled after Wab Kinew was elected as the new leader of Manitoba’s New Democratic Party. He has admitted to past indiscretions, but revelations of a domestic violence charge from some years ago gave rise to a flurry of negative comments from...
With the expected government legalization of marijuana in Canada by July 2018, Ottawa has an opportunity – if done right – to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities into this lucrative sector in a big way. For example, the Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) in...
Senator Lynn Beyak says in a letter that status Indians should give up their status cards and become true Canadians. The reaction to the letter has been fast and furious. She has been denounced by a host of worthies. As I write this, I am listening to a CBC radio...
Recent changes at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) are causing consternation across Indigenous communities, as well as with other Canadians. The decision to split the department into two parts, one overseeing Crown-Indigenous relations and the other...