Ontario reports 826 new COVID-19 cases, 9 more deaths
October 23, 2020
Ontario reported an additional 826 cases of COVID-19 on Friday and nine more deaths connected to the illness.
The new deaths mean that 49 people with infections of the novel coronavirus have died in the last eight days.
The seven-day average of new daily cases, a measure that helps limits noise in the data, continued its upward trend to 778, the second-highest it’s been since the resurgence of COVID-19 in Ontario began in early August.
First Nations reserves avoided first-wave crisis, but officials warn of troubling new surge
October 22, 2020
First Nations communities largely avoided deadly outbreaks in the pandemic’s first wave and only account for a tiny fraction of Canada’s total COVID-19 caseload, but officials warn that a recent trend of large, mask-free gatherings could change that.
Neskantaga Leadership Identifies Minimum Demands before Considering Returning Members to Community
October 22, 2020
Neskantaga First Nation Chief Chris Moonias and members of Council have identified the minimum conditions they will accept before considering a return of their members who were forced to evacuate this week due to the immediate health threats from the remote community’s water system.
First Nation says running water must be restored 24/7 before evacuees can return
October 22, 2020
The chief and council of a First Nation in a remote part of northwestern Ontario say they won’t be sending evacuees home until the community has access to running water 24/7. The condition is among a list of “minimum demands” that leadership of Neskantaga First Nation sent to Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller.
Over 200 evacuated from Neskantaga First Nation as chief calls for permanent fix to end water crisis
October 22, 2020
The Chief of Neskantaga First Nation, which has been under a boil-water advisory for 25 years, is calling for a complete “overhaul” of its water distribution system after more than 200 residents were evacuated from the community over another water crisis.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7414221/evacuations-neskantaga-first-nation-water-crisis/
Indigenous Services moves to end water crisis in Neskantaga First Nation ‘as quickly as possible’
October 22, 2020
The federal government is moving to support people displaced by a water crisis in a remote First Nation in northwestern Ontario and is working to end the 25-year boil water advisory “as quickly as possible,” says Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/neskantaga-no-water-1.5772313
Ontario receives first shipment of 100,000 rapid coronavirus tests: Ford
October 22, 2020
Premier Doug Ford said that Ontario has received 100,000 rapid COVID-19 tests, which are part of the first shipment for the province. On Thursday, the premier said that the tests will be prioritized in rural and Northern Ontario as well as vulnerable populations in long-term care and congregate care settings.
https://dailyhive.com/toronto/rapid-coronavirus-tests-ontario-ford
Indigenous mobile health unit combines traditional and modern medicine for treatment
October 22, 2020
A mobile health unit in Toronto is combining traditional Indigenous treatments and modern medicine to help care for the city’s homeless and most vulnerable people. Anishnawbe Health Toronto developed its mobile health unit after witnessing a rise in homelessness and overdoses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The nurses, doctors and social workers tour the city’s homeless encampments and other areas to test and treat people in need of medical attention.
Indigenous women entrepreneurs provide advice and speak about success at Cando conference
October 22, 2020
They have diverse careers and live in different parts of the country.
But Beverley O’Neil, Joella Hogan and Cezin Nottaway were brought together this week to offer their thoughts about being Indigenous women entrepreneurs.
The three women were on Wednesday’s Women In Business panel, part of this year’s Cando Conference, which for the first time in its 27-year history was held virtually because of the pandemic.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/indigenous-women-entrepreneurs-advice-speak-211732663.html
Online Indigenous Engagement Survey for Ottawa Public Library-Library and Archives Canada Joint Facility
October 22, 2020
The Ottawa Public Library-Library and Archives Canada Joint Facility’s project team is offering a new way for Indigenous peoples in the Ottawa-Gatineau area and across Canada to provide ideas, suggestions and input into the joint facility.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/online-indigenous-engagement-survey-ottawa-203200358.html
Proportional funding essential for homeless Indigenous people in North Bay
October 23, 2020
Services for people who are homeless are needed now more than ever. And this is why Suswin Housing Navigator Workers are important and very much needed in the community. The North Bay and Nipissing area received almost $1.2 million over five years under the new federal homelessness strategy, called Reaching Home. Of this, the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre received $32,500 towards salaries of the Suswin Housing Navigator Workers.
Superior Court decides to move Island jury trials to Sudbury
October 21, 2020
Manitoulin Island’s legal community is abuzz with concern following the revelation that the Superior Court has decided to not hold any jury trials on Manitoulin Island, but to instead require accused people and their defence staff to attend jury trials to be held at the Laurentian University hub centre.
https://www.manitoulin.com/superior-court-decides-to-move-island-jury-trials-to-sudbury/
Elder on hunger strike pushes for child welfare changes
October 21, 2020
Eagle Lake Elder Brenda Morison is in the 12th day of her hunger strike, as she advocates for change in the child welfare system. Brenda Morison stopped eating, because she says she was tired of trying to work within a provincial child welfare system that just doesn’t work on First Nations. An agreement to transfer jurisdiction between Queen’s Park and Ottawa last summer, but Morison says there’s still more work to be done.
https://www.drydennow.com/local/elder-on-hunger-strike-pushes-for-child-welfare-changes
Remembering Native Veterans
October 22, 2020
My old Ojibway elder Wilmer Nadjiwon told me that when he returned home from World War 2, he walked into the local bar and the bartender refused to sell him a beer, because Wilmer was a full-blooded Indian from Cape Croker, Ontario, and it was against the law to sell a native a beer in 1946. Later Wilmer would become chief of his tribe, the Chippewas of Nawash, for fourteen years.
http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/2020/10/remembering-native-veterans/
Today’s coronavirus news: Sunnybrook declares outbreak; Le Chateau says it will go out of business, closing 123 stores; Ontario hospitals, long-term-care homes warn they’re nearly at capacity
October 23, 2020
Hospitals and long-term care homes are nearly at capacity and won’t be able to handle a surge in COVID-19 patients during the second wave of the pandemic, an independent commission has heard.
While there are plenty of physical spaces set to handle an influx in patients, which include many field hospitals ready to go, there is no one to staff them, the Ontario Hospital Association told the Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission earlier this month.
Ontario Introduces New Bill To Provide COVID-19 Liability Protection
October 23, 2020
COVID-19 has placed an unprecedented strain on the health care system and has resulted in challenges for certain health service providers in service delivery and maintaining the health and safety of the patients and clients that they serve.
COVID-19: The week in review (October 19-23)
October 23, 2020
Per yesterday’s government report, there are 841 new cases in Ontario, for a total of 67,527 since the pandemic began; 270 people are in hospital, 74 of them in intensive care and 48 on ventilators. To date, 3,071 people have died. According to data from the Ministry of Long-Term Care, there are 80 outbreaks in long-term-care facilities, 203 confirmed active cases of positive residents, and 243 confirmed active cases of positive staff. To date, there have been 1,910 confirmed resident deaths and eight confirmed staff deaths.
https://www.tvo.org/article/covid-19-the-week-in-review-october-19-23
It’s Ottawa’s job to settle bitter lobster dispute
October 23, 2020
The hatred and violence that have shaken an Indigenous fishery in southern Nova Scotia this month should have no place in Canada, and the federal government is right to say so. The people who ransacked and torched a lobster pound, burned a van, set a boat ablaze and assaulted a local First Nations chief are vigilantes, not protesters.
Company willing to buy Sipekne’katik lobster from open fishing area
October 23, 2020
A lobster processor in southwest Nova Scotia says he’s willing to buy lobster harvested under commercial licences held by the Sipekne’katik First Nation in part of the Bay of Fundy where the commercial season is open.
Treaty 8 Grand Chief calls for federal intervention to end Mi’kmaw fishery dispute
October 22, 2020
The Grand Chief of Treaty 8 says the ongoing fishing dispute in Nova Scotia could be a turning point for Canada’s relationship with Indigenous communities as he called on the federal government to end the conflict.
Mississauga and Serpent River First Nations Chiefs standing firm with the Mi’kmaw Nation
October 22, 2020
The chiefs of the Mississauga and Serpent River First Nations are standing firm with the Mi’kmaw Nation in defending inherent Indigenous rights. Yesterday, members of the two First Nations communities gathered on Highway 17 in a showing of support for Mi’kmaw fishers in their struggle to protect their livelihood.
Violent opposition to Mi’kmaw fishery ‘nothing new,’ N.L. chief says
October 22, 2020
A weeks-long skirmish between commercial fisherman and Mi’kmaq harvesters in Nova Scotia has the Conne River community sending their support for Indigenous fishing rights from afar. Chief Mi’sel Joe of the Miawpukek First Nation, Newfoundland’s sole Mi’kmaw community, says he’d be at the protests in support of the Nova Scotia harvesters if he could, but COVID-19 has prevented safe travel.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/misel-joe-mikmaq-fishery-1.5769994
First Nation, Metis leaders call on province to consult on Lake Manitoba drainage outlet
October 22, 2020
The Interlake Reserves Tribal Council (IRTC), the Assembly of First Nations Manitoba Region (AFN), and the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) call on the Government of Manitoba to cooperate with Indigenous governments in regards to the Outlet Channels Project.
Point of View: Health Care Has A Problem. As Doctors, It’s On Us To Be Part Of The Solution Too.
October 22, 2020
I am a doctor. I grew up without ever seeing a single Indigenous person in my daily life. I did not see their arts, rarely heard their music or language, I did not play with their children. Yet, I knew there was an “us” that looked like me, and a “them” hanging somewhere in old-fashioned images of longhouses, teepees and feathers. Like many, I watched dozens of news reports on “problems of Aboriginals” (when it wasn’t the “Aboriginal problem”). My sister was born during the Oka Crisis, I paid attention to grown-ups’ conversations, saw the cartoons and listened to Kashtin.
A call to decolonize business schools, including our own
October 22, 2020
We are currently facing a set of overlapping crises in North America, including climate crises, crises of racial and social injustice and of course the COVID-19 pandemic. Those of us in the world’s richer countries bear much responsibility for this moment, having for too long consumed more than our share of resources, produced more than our share of waste and created and perpetuated social systems rooted in inequality and injustice.
https://theconversation.com/a-call-to-decolonize-business-schools-including-our-own-145915
The Cree Nation applauds the Supreme Court of Canada’s refusal to consider Strateco’s appeal
October 22, 2020
The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to consider Strateco Resources’ request to appeal from the Quebec Court of Appeal’s dismissal of the company’s claim against Quebec. Strateco claimed $200M in damages for Quebec’s refusal to authorize its Matoush Project, an advanced uranium exploration project on Cree territory.
‘I trusted them with my son’: Mother of Indigenous teen who died in B.C. group home speaks out for first time
October 22, 2020
Samantha Chalifoux carries a bouquet of fresh flowers and lays them on a memorial in front of the group home where her son Traevon Chalifoux-Desjarlais died. “I’m not dealing with it well at all,” she says. Her 17-year-old Cree son died in a government-run Abbotsford, B.C., group home on Sept. 14, but his body was not found until four days later.
Achieving true consultation
October 23, 2020
Last winter, a series of solidarity protests began to ripple across Canada in support of the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs who had been blockading Coastal GasLink Pipeline construction camps in Wetʼsuwetʼen territory in British Columbia.
https://www.lexpert.ca/article/what-adopting-undrip-may-mean/?p=&sitecode=lex
First Nations to block Victoria highway in solidarity with Nova Scotia Indigenous fishers
October 22, 2020
Vancouver Island First Nations are planning to blockade a major highway north of Victoria in solidarity with the Indigenous lobster fishers of Nova Scotia. The W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations of Tsartlip, Tseycum and Tsawout are supporting a shutdown of the Pat Bay Highway at Mount Newton Cross Road from noon to 1 p.m. Friday. Central Saanich Police say they are aware of the planned blockade and will be on scene to ensure public safety.
Marvel’s Voices Highlights Indigenous Heroes in New Trailer
October 23, 2020
Marvel’s Voices, a special one-shot comic coming from Marvel on November 18th, will highlight Native American and Indigenous characters and creators. Spearheaded by artist and writer Jeffrey Veregge from the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, this landmark issue will feature characters such as Echo, Red Wolf, and Dani Moonstar.
https://screenrant.com/marvel-voices-indigenous-talent-new-trailer/
UPCOMING EVENTS
Notice: Chiefs of Ontario Special Chiefs Assembly
Please see the attached save the date notice for the next Special Chiefs Assembly held online on February 3-4th, 2020. More information will be shared at www.chiefsmeeting.com in the coming weeks.
Chiefs of Ontario Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates
October 15, 2020
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.
Issue 8 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/oo20/
