Indigenous

Indigenous


Solutions are slow to come for water crisis plaguing Quebec’s Nunavik region

Most Quebecers have only to twist a tap to get a seemingly endless source of clean water. The reality is completely different in the northern region of Nunavik, where the water supply system faces a host of problems, from bad weather to outdated equipment and labour shortages.  Some would be inclined to blame a lack […]

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Health Canada’s struggles with procurement an ‘old story’ for Indigenous leaders

Internal federal documents reveal that Health Canada is seeking exemptions from the federal government’s mandatory 5 per cent Indigenous procurement target, citing Indigenous capacity gap in scientific and mental health services.  Since 2021, federal departments have been obligated to award at least 5 per cent of their annual contracts to Indigenous businesses to support economic […]

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Electronics dropoff planned next week

Fort William First Nation residents will have three days next week to unload unwanted electronic equipment at a special depot. The depot at the community’s youth centre parking lot will accept computers, printers, mobile phones, light bulbs and electric cables, a FWFN community event bulletin says. It’s going be available Monday to Wednesday, the bulletin […]

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Alberta’s ban on police ‘carding’ expires, but province says practice still outlawed

The Alberta government has chosen not to renew a regulation banning the practice of “carding” by police officers, but the province says the practice is still prohibited under other laws. The provincial regulation enforcing the ban was due for renewal this past summer, but a government letter to the Alberta Association of Police Governance and […]

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Atikokan Native Friendship Centre terminates executive director

ATIKOKAN — After months of controversy and investigation, the Atikokan Native Friendship Centre (ANFC) has fired its executive director. The centre’s personnel committee posted a brief statement on the ANFC’s Facebook page this week confirming Sarah Laurich’s dismissal. “On review of the report on the investigation into the allegations made against our executive director, we […]

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Siksika celebrates student success in IT foundations program

Despite a series of weather-related delays, Phase Siksika Nation High School students have completed the first CompTIA Tech, IT foundations training program to be offered at a First Nations high school in Canada.  The inaugural cohort saw 13 of the 15 students who had started the program seeing it through to completion. “It is so […]

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Federal departments fall short of Ottawa’s 5% Indigenous procurement target

Several of Canada’s federal departments didn’t meet the mandated target for Indigenous procurement in 2023-2024, according to government documents obtained by Canada’s National Observer through an Access to Information request. The policy, introduced in 2021, requires that at least five per cent of all federal spending must go to Indigenous businesses to address economic gaps […]

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Peru’s Indigenous leaders raise concerns over oil and gas projects at a human rights hearing

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Indigenous leaders from the Peruvian Amazon who are calling for the government to stop oil and gas projects in their territory took their case to an international human rights body on Tuesday. The leaders presented evidence of the impact of oil and gas exploration at a hearing before the Inter-American Commission […]

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Land For Homes discusses importance of knowledge and community context

Nunavut is taking another small step in addressing the housing crisis.  Land for Homes (L4H) brought together representatives from several  groups including Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), Nunavut Housing  Corporation (NHC), Nunavut Association of Municipalities (NAM), regional  Inuit associations, development corporations, and all levels of  government to talk about challenges and collaborations to remove  barriers to […]

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Internet a gateway to child luring and exploitation: Nunavut RCMP

Living in an isolated Northern community does not offer a child protection from online predators waiting to lure and abuse innocent children, according to a Statistics Canada report on online child sexual exploitation.  With the world at one’s fingertips, the Internet has become a nefarious playground for those wanting to manipulate and harm a child […]

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Innu survivor wants former Labrador residential school building turned into a museum

To get to the post office in North West River, for years Joanna Michel would pass the residential school where she spent eight years in  the 1970s. “It’s a bad reminder of what happened, what took place there,” she  says, sitting in an empty conference room at the Innu Round Table  Secretariat office in Sheshatshiu. […]

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‘Who profits on hunger?’ Inuit send pleading emails to minister about food costs

People in Nunavut and northern Labrador have been writing to Canadian government officials this year to say grocers were charging exorbitant prices despite receiving a federal subsidy. The emails about the Nutrition North subsidy program ranged from desperate pleas to do something to lower food costs, to angry demands that retailers receiving subsidies be investigated. […]

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