As of now, Indigenous communities have been spared from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, although some health officials cautioned that the next two weeks will be important to see the extent of the outbreak in Indigenous communities. Unless that state of affairs...
With Canada’s rail transportation system at a standstill, and fires being lit under passing trains- while police stand by helplessly and our Prime Minister makes ineffectual speeches about “dialogue” - you might be thinking that things could not get any worse. Well,...
"In the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the problem of economically unsustainable outports, far from medical care and employment has been met by resettling the inhabitants in urban centres where hospitals, schools, and jobs are more readily available. This has...
In his policy paper “Learning from the Nordic Sami Model”, Joseph Quesnel asks whether the current approach to solving the serious problems faced by Canadian Aboriginals is the right one. For the last half-century, courts and governments in this country have...
The COVID-19 crisis led to significant travel restrictions in the world and in Canada. The country has totally or partially closed its national borders to tourists and non-essential travellers. Within Canada, travel between provinces has been restricted. Indeed, some...
Recently, a previously-mooted huge, estimated $55 billion Liquefied Natural Gas, ‘LNG’, project taking natural gas from Northeastern British Columbia to its northwest coast at Pearse Island received the blessing and explicit financial and political backing from the...
Yesterday B.C.’s children’s watchdog, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, released a damning report of the provinces Ministry of Children and Family Development in spending close to $66 million over the last dozen years on “big, blue sky initiatives” for aboriginal youth. Yet...
The Nisga'a are a self-governing First Nation located in northwestern British Columbia. In 2008, the Nisga'a embarked on a revolutionary experiment in property ownership. They passed the Landholding Transiton Act, a piece of legislation that would allow individuals to...
The federal government has re-introduced Bill C-9, the First Nations Elections Act. The bill died on the order paper when the House of Commons prorogued this summer. The bill recognizes that well-run electoral systems are key to First Nations governance reform. Bil...
Some interesting news south of the border. This piece by the Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) tells it all. Apparently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has imposed new regulations on the coal industry that are basically...
Colin Craig, Canadian Taxpayers Federation A man who lives on an aboriginal reserve in Quebec once described how he went out for milk one day, came home and saw a death threat scrawled on his driveway. What did he do to provoke such a hostile act? He told the Canadian...
Communities in British Columbia are raising alarm bells over a proposed change to the federal Additions to Reserve (ATR) policy. The changes will streamline the process for creating reserves away from home reserves. First Nations are able to access additional...
First Nations in northern Manitoba are finally seriously considering another solution to deal with their isolation. The next wave of the future for transporting goods to the north still might be in airships and hybrid air vehicles. A group of northern First Nations...
Little Pine First Nation, a small band located about 90 kilometres from Lloydminster, is aiming to radically reduce its social assistance rates on reserve. This piece explains what they’re doing. According to the news story, the community has reduced its caseload by...
A Manitoba band that recently ratified a Self-government should understand that freedom from the Indian Act is no silver bullet. Leaders need to do much on the ground level.