The Indigenous commitment to democracy is at stake in the controversy surrounding the recent memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the Wet’suwet’en, British Columbia and Canada. A majority of the elected Wet’suwet’en chiefs were incensed about the...
“Reconciliation is dead”, according to a Globe and Mail article penned by two Indigenous academics. That was also the message on signs carried by protestors blocking rail lines in support of some Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. These people say that by announcing that...
Improved technology may be the key to improving Indigenous communities in remote regions. Perhaps the next stage in Indigenous reconciliation is a form of digital reconciliation that helps bring these communities much closer to the mainstream economy and society...
Governments need to get their acts together before Indigenous communities in northern Saskatchewan experience a serious COVID-19 outbreak. This new development also places northern Saskatchewan as a unique phenomenon among northern regions in Western Canada; thus, the...
There are many natural and geo-political phenomena that will affect the next several decades; climate change, COVID-19 and its variants, social unrest, and rising tensions between China and the United States amongst them. As governments and societies learn to...
When I audited an economics class in the Rice University School of Business, the lecturer compared inflation to slow-growing cancer and deflation to a heart attack. The implication was that deflation, which is the declining prices, is fatal and worse than inflation....
The federal implementation of the federal Species of Risk Act is being questioned by environmental activist organizations. They are in federal court alleging the government is not doing enough to protect endangered species. The groups allege that Ottawa is delaying...
PERC Reports, a publication of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Montana, has released a new issue that highlights Native American economic empowerment. In particular, the issue looks at the effects of economic growth on indigenous...
Manitoba First Nations should pay attention to what is going on in northwestern British Columbia. The Nisga'a Nation is embarking on a revolution in property ownership. Just recently, three Nisga'a residents announced their intent to obtain their property in fee...
A recent news report from the Winnipeg Free Press shows that 40 per cent of bands in Manitoba have outside managers to help with their finances. This is a record among Canadian provinces and territories. Saskatchewan also has a high number of First Nations...
Ottawa has introduced Bill C-9, the First Nations Elections Act. It comes in response to concerns expressed by First Nations in Manitoba and Atlantic Canada about rules governing the election of chiefs and band councils. Among other things C-9 will allow...
Who would have known that this is a busy week on aboriginal policy in Canada with the sideshow going on in Toronto that has dominated the news headlines? This week has seen heightened aboriginal engagement not through the protests we typically see covered by the news...
Canada has a unique opportunity to promote school choice among Aboriginal families. Unique because the federal government will soon table a First Nations Education Act. This law will create the first indigenous educational system in Canada. The federal...
Source: Tristin Hopper, The National Post, 8 Nov 2013 This month, in a remote corner of northern B.C., just a few kilometres from the Alaskan border, three modest houses entered Canadian First Nations history. The residences, all located on the self-governed lands of...
The federal government has reintroduced its First Nations Elections Act, now known as Bill C-9. Previously known as Bill S-6, that bill died on the order paper when Parliament recently prorogued. Let’s hope Derek Nepinak, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs...