Liberals pledge $18B for Indigenous communities in 2021 federal budget
April 19, 2021
The federal Liberal government plans to spend more than $18 billion over the next five years to try to narrow the socio-economic gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and to help these communities fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ontario reports 3,469 new COVID-19 cases, 22 deaths
April 20, 2021
Ontario is reporting 3,469 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. The provincial total now stands at 424,911. Tuesday’s case count is lower than Monday’s which saw 4,447 new infections. On Sunday, 4,250 new cases were recorded. It is the first day in a week that cases were not above 4,000.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7773042/covid-19-ontario-cases-april-20-coronavirus/
Urban Indigenous population vaccinated
April 19, 2021
Beaverhouse First Nation along with many organizations in the province is filling the gap in vaccinating the urban Indigenous population against Covid19. The vaccine roll out has been moving ahead in Northeastern Ontario Indigenous First Nations through the efforts of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Chiefs of Ontario (COO), Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN), Mushkegowuk Council, Wabun Tribal Council and other Tribal Councils in association with the government of Canada, government of Ontario and local public health agencies.
https://www.thesudburystar.com/news/urban-indigenous-population-vaccinated
First Nations leaders with Nokiiwin Tribal Council encourage people to get their COVID-19 vaccines
April 20, 2021
As the COVID-19 vaccination campaign continues for the Indigenous population in northwestern Ontario, a group of First Nations leaders have issued a video on Friday encouraging people to get their shot as soon as they can.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/nokiiwin-vaccine-video-1.5993804
More provinces announce plans to lower age of eligibility for AstraZeneca vaccine
April 19, 2021
The race between vaccines and surging COVID-19 variants hit a new gear on Monday as more provinces announced they would expand access to the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot, and Ontario and Quebec partially closed their borders to slow the spread.
Circle of History made with Niijaansinaanik Child and Family Services
April 20, 2021
A small ceremony was held in Parry Sound on April 1, celebrating the historical achievement of Niijaansinaanik Child and Family Services receiving a children’s aid society designation. “We are now a recognized child welfare authority in the province of Ontario,” says Niijaansinaanik Child and Family Services Executive Director Joanne Koehler.
Pic Mobert First Nation gains over 1,000 hectares of land
April 19, 2021
Pic Mobert First Nation, 35 kilometres west of White River, has enlarged its territory by 1,038 hectares.
The addition to the reserve was announced last week by Joanna Desmoulin, Chief of Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg, federal Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, and Ontario Minister of Indigenous Affairs Greg Rickford.
Wiikwemkoong’s Autumn Peltier one of two northerners recognized for efforts in sustainability
April 20, 2021
AJ Esquega of Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek (Gull Bay First Nation), north of Thunder Bay, and Autumn Peltier of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island have been named to the national Clean50 list, which recognizes “outstanding contributions to clean capitalism.”
Sol Mamakwa Continues To Push For Paid Sick Leave
April 19, 2021
Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa says recent provincial decisions have clearly been driven by politics and not public health. Mamakwa notes Doug Ford has opted for carding instead of paid sick days and chose to shut down outdoor activity instead of shutting down non-essential workplaces.
https://www.ckdr.net/2021/04/20/sol-mamakwa-continues-to-push-for-paid-sick-leave/
Fort William First Nation woman named Law Society of Ontario’s 2nd-ever Indigenous lay bencher
April 19, 2021
For just the second time in it’s 224-year history, the Law Society of Ontario will have an Indigenous lay bencher. Catherine Banning of Fort William First Nation said she looks forward to bringing the Indigenous perspective to the boards and committees that she sits on within the law society.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/fwfn-woman-appointed-lay-bencher-1.5993176
Opponents of nuclear waste disposal join forces
April 19, 2021
We the Nuclear Free North calls itself an alliance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous volunteers and organizations who believe the risks of transporting and burying nuclear waste are too high. It’s delivering information cards outlining its concerns to residents living between Upsala and the Manitoba border.
https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/opponents-of-nuclear-waste-disposal-join-forces-3644864
City of Thunder Bay opposes NOSM independence
April 19, 2021
The City of Thunder Bay is formally backing Lakehead University in its fight to be heard in decisions over the future of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Council unanimously passed a resolution put forward by Mauro, endorsing an April 15 letter from McPherson expressing concerns to the province over plans to make NOSM an independent institution. Council took the step without hearing from the medical school itself, the dean of which had contacted the mayor just prior to the meeting, Mauro said.
https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/city-of-thunder-bay-opposes-nosm-independence-3647404
Rapid Housing Initiative aims to build 85 homes in seven northwestern Ontario Indigenous communities
April 19, 2021
In Eagle Lake, 10 modular housing units will be built, while five modular homes and 10 regular homes will be constructed in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug. The funding will allow Mishkeegogamang First Nation to build five houses, while Webequie will see 14 new housing units — two four-plexes and one six-plex — constructed. Webequie Chief Cornelius Wabasse said his community is receiving $3.7 million from the government, and is also contributing $415,000 of its own to the new housing units.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/rapid-housing-northwestern-ontario-1.5992392
Indigenous youth are playing a key role in solving urgent water issues
April 19, 2021
Unsolved environmental problems, a national mandate to uphold treaty responsibilities and a new appreciation for positive treaty relationships are leading some water researchers to consider new approaches to their work. They are examining how water monitoring practices that are conventionally considered strong, can be improved.
Indigenous Toronto book launch
April 18, 2021
With contributions by Indigenous Elders, scholars, journalists, artists, and historians, this unique anthology, Indigenous Toronto: Stories that Carry This Place, explores the poles of cultural continuity and settler colonialism that have come to define Toronto as a significant cultural hub and intersection that was also known as a Meeting Place long before European settlers arrived. his event will be hosted in Zoom Webinars on April 20, 2021, from 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT. The event link will be sent over email one hour before the start of the event.
https://anishinabeknews.ca/2021/04/17/indigenous-toronto-book-launch/
Working from home on-reserve due to COVID-19? You may qualify for an income tax exemption
April 19, 2021
First Nations people who live on a reserve and have been working from home for an off-reserve employer may qualify for tax-free income. Pelletier-Demerah is a member of Fort Williams First Nation and works as an administrative assistant at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/on-reserve-work-from-home-tax-exemption-1.5991120
Statement from Ontario’s Finance Minister on Canada’s Budget 2021
April 19, 2021
Peter Bethlenfalvy, Ontario’s Minister of Finance and President of the Treasury Board, issued the following statement in response to the release of the federal budget: “Over the past year, we have valued the level of partnership between Ontario and the federal government in order to support the people of Ontario during this unprecedented time.”
Budget 2021: The Liberal path out of the pandemic and back to work
April 19, 2021
A modern Liberal budget is typically replete with self-congratulatory blurbs that describe how an appropriately diverse cross-section of Canadians, with bolded first names like Sam and Natasha, are flourishing because of the federal government’s policies. In the 2021 document released Monday, those blurbs are fewer and farther between. And they look a little different.
With one budget, Freeland overturned 3 decades of political orthodoxy
April 20, 2021
Nearly seven years ago, a rookie politician surveyed the political landscape across the democratic world and saw the outlines of a new era. “What we are seeing, in both Western Europe and North America, is the end of the Reagan/Thatcher era and of the political ideas that created it,” Chrystia Freeland wrote at the time.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/chrystia-freeland-budget-2021-pandemic-1.5993901
5 things in the Trudeau government’s budget that have nothing to do with spending
April 20, 2021
Changes to Canada’s elections act. New rules for judges’ pensions. Retroactive authorization for First Nations to postpone elections during the pandemic. New powers for the immigration minister to issue instructions on express entry for permanent resident applicants.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/budget-2021-liberal-thompson-1.5991217?cmp=rss
Conservatives, Bloc Quebecois to propose budget rewrites as debate starts
April 20, 0221
Opposition parties will get a chance today to propose a rewrite to the federal government’s massive pandemic budget. Debate on Monday’s budget begins today in the House of Commons.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/budget-debate-begins-1.5994282
The dark history of Canada’s Food Guide: How experiments on Indigenous children shaped nutrition policy
April 19, 2021
When historian Ian Mosby published evidence that the Canadian government had conducted nutritional experiments on Indigenous children in residential schools, his findings made headlines across the country.
Kahnawake vaccinates teens as community’s mass vaccination campaign comes to an end
April 19, 2021
While only about 0.2 per cent of teens have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Canada, a First Nation in Quebec included them in its mass vaccination campaign. Gracie Diabo from Kahnawake, Que., received her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine a few days before her 18th birthday last week as the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) community wrapped up its month-long mass vaccination clinic.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/kahnawake-teen-vaccine-clinic-1.5993369
In her latest poetry collection, Cree author Louise B. Halfe invites laughter
April 18, 2021
Louise B. Halfe, whose Cree name is Sky Dancer, describes awâsis, the character who animates the exuberant poems in her fifth collection, “awâsis — kinky and dishevelled,” as “ê-pimohtêt,” which means “walking with life in her heart.” It’s a fitting description of the book itself.
Elsipogtog First Nation’s win in the Kraft Hockeyville competition is ‘an unbelievable feeling’
April 19, 2021
Elsipogtog First Nation member Jaime Carpenter said her hands were shaking with anxiety as she waited for the verdict in the Kraft Hockeyville competition. On Saturday, the Mi’kmaq community in New Brunswick became the first First Nation community to win the annual competition, in which communities across Canada compete to show their commitment to the sport of ice hockey.
Pimicikamak uses extra doses to vaccinate 180 teachers against COVID-19 in Thompson
April 19, 2021
In Thompson, Man., almost every teacher is now at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 after a nearby First Nation shared hundreds of extra doses with people outside the community last week.
Listuguj First Nation signs 5-year fisheries agreement with Ottawa
April 19, 2021
An Indigenous community in eastern Quebec has signed a five-year agreement with Ottawa to develop a collaborative approach to governing the band’s fisheries.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7769746/listuguj-quebec-fishing-deal-feds/
Treaty 8 Grand Chief pushing for First Nations police service
April 19, 2021
The Grand Chief of Treaty 8 is lobbying the provincial government for an Indigenous police service for First Nations covered by the treaty. Treaty 8 includes all First Nations in the Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo area.
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/treaty-8-grand-chief-pushing-for-first-nations-police-service-1.5394008
Theland sees TikTok as a family effort- with video
April 19, 2021
Theland Kicknosway is joined by his mother Elaine to talk about how he got into TikTok and how he has been using his platform to educate on Indigenous practices.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/theland-sees-tiktok-family-effort-182718485.html
Tree-range chickens: How raising poultry in the woods of B.C. could improve food security for some communities
April 18, 2021
Raising chickens in the woods is being touted as a way to help improve the food security of First Nation communities by providing an alternative to dwindling supplies of traditional foods such as moose and salmon.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tree-range-chickens-1.5989923
First Nations on Vancouver Island celebrate B.C. Court of Appeal fisheries ruling
April 19, 2021
The British Columbia Court of Appeal says it expects Canada to remedy problems in commercial fishery regulations arising from a legal battle that was first launched in 2003 by a group of Vancouver Island First Nations.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ahousaht-fisheries-appeal-decision-1.5993931
B.C. court overturns limits on Indigenous commercial fishery
April 19, 2021
A B.C. appeal court overturned a limit on commercial fishing imposed on Indigenous fishers by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in a ruling released Monday. “You can’t help but feel a little bit of emotion,” said Cliff Atleo, a spokesperson for the Ahousaht Nation – one of five Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations on the west coast of Vancouver Island that launched the legal challenge.
https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/bc-indigenous-fishing/
Pilot projects aim to find appropriate cervical screening process in B.C.
April 19, 2021
For Marion Erickson, a Dakelh woman from Nak’azdli Whut’en First Nation in north central B.C., cervical screenings – commonly known as a pap test – were just a part of life. That was until a few years ago, when her doctor told her an abnormal pap had found precancerous cells on her cervix and that she would need a colposcopy, a minimally invasive procedure where a magnifying instrument is used to look closely at the cervix for abnormal cell changes.
Former residential school set to be demolished in northern B.C.
April 19, 2021
A former residential school building in northern B.C. is set to be demolished and replaced with a cultural centre. The building operated as a residential school from 1951 to 1975 in the Kaska Dena community of Lower Post. Until last year it acted as a post office and office space, but is a source of trauma for many survivors and their families.
https://www.aptnnews.ca/videos/former-residential-school-set-to-be-demolished-in-northern-b-c/
Federal budget earmarks $25M for housing in Nunavut
April 19, 2021
Twenty five million dollars has been allocated to housing in Nunavut, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced in her budget address on Monday — the Liberal government’s first in two years. Other budget highlights focused on life in the North include $1 billion for the Universal Broadband Fund, and more funding for Inuit women’s shelters, Inuit children’s early education and post-secondary education for Inuit women.
https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/federal-budget-earmarks-25m-for-housing-in-nunavut/
Here are the northern highlights from Monday’s federal budget announcement
April 20, 2021
N.W.T. Premier Caroline Cochrane watched the federal budget announcement Monday, in hopes the spending would address pressings issues including housing, equality, the climate crisis and child care.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/north-leaders-react-federal-budget-1.5993383
Iqaluit schools move to remote learning after more COVID-19 cases reported
April 19, 2021
Schools in Iqaluit have now transitioned to remote learning, Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq announced Monday, following an outbreak of COVID-19 in the city. The closures are expected to last for the rest of this week at least and teachers will be in touch with parents and students today.
Labrador MP demands apology after Nunavut MP says she is ‘not an Inuk’
April 19, 2021
The Liberal member of parliament for Labrador, Yvonne Jones, demanded an apology from Nunavut’s NDP MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq in the House of Commons Monday, after Qaqqaq said Jones was “not an Inuk” in a recent response to a 2019 tweet.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/mumilaaq-qaqqaq-yvonne-jones-inuk-1.5993897
UPCOMING EVENTS
Call for Proposals: Capacity-building funding for An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families for fiscal year 2021-2022
A call for proposals is now open to support capacity-building in relation to An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families for fiscal year 2021-2022. Funding is available to Indigenous Peoples, communities, and groups as they begin work to develop their own legislation and explore Indigenous-led models for child and family services.
Learn more: https://bit.ly/31P9GUe
Save the Date: Chiefs of Ontario 47th All Ontario Chiefs Conference 2021
The Chiefs of Ontario and Grand Council Treaty #3 will be hosting the 47th All Ontario Chiefs Conference 2021 on June 15-17, 2021. For the Chiefs of Ontario All Ontario Chiefs Conference (AOCC), please find the 1st Call for Resolutions attached. Deadline for Resolutions is Wednesday, May 26, 2021. For more information, please visit https://www.chiefsmeeting.com/aocc-2021.
Issue 9 of The Official Chiefs of Ontario Magazine, The Advocate is now online!
To view, please click here: https://www.mediaedgemagazines.com/the-chiefs-of-ontario-coo/oo21c/.
International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) Annual Meeting, May 17-21, 2021
Hosted by Michigan Technological University, the virtual conference will feature four days of scientific sessions and speakers focusing on our theme Bridging: Knowledge, Seven Generations, Land-to-Lake.
For more information and registration, click here: https://bit.ly/3nI8gUh.
Chiefs of Ontario Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates
Find Our Latest Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates Here. This website provides information on emergency planning and preparedness, as well as on the unique programs and services that are available to First Nations in Ontario during times of emergency.
