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Chiefs of Ontario press release ...
http://www.chiefs-of-ontario.org/news/dec20-06.html

Notice of Ontario Chiefs Forum on Health - December 20, 2006

This is an official Notice to all First Nations in Ontario that the Chiefs Forum on Health will be held at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in Toronto, Ontario on Wednesday, February 28th and Thursday, March 1st, 2007 to commence at 8:30 a.m. each day.

The Chiefs Forum on Health will be formally constituted as a Special Chiefs Assembly (SCA), to permit the passage of binding Resolutions, but only in relation to the health topics discussed at the Chiefs Forum on Health.

The normal Chiefs Assembly Rules of Procedure will apply, with one important modification mandated by Resolution 06/103 (“Quorum for Chiefs in Assembly Gatherings”) passed at the Garden River SCA on November 16, 2006. According to Resolution 06/103, all Chiefs of Ontario Assemblies require “sixty percent (60%) of all membership to be present in order to make decisions on behalf of the region”. The new 60% quorum is required for decision-making by way of Resolution, but is not required for general discussion.

Because of the importance of the Chiefs Forum on Health and the effect of the new quorum rule, all First Nation Chiefs (or Proxies) are respectfully urged to attend in Toronto on February 28 and March 1, 2007.

Further Information will be forthcoming in the New Year.

Lori Jacobs, Executive Director
 
Download Documents

• Health Forum Registration Form
• Health Forum Agenda
• Health Forum Proxy Letter

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CHIEFS FORUM ON HEALTH
February 28 & March 1, 2007
Delta Chelsea, Toronto

DRAFT AGENDA (Dec. 15/06)
DAY I – Wednesday, February 28, 2007 - 8:30 a.m.

1. Registration Call to Order

2. Grand Entry

3. Introduction of Chairperson(s)

4. Welcoming Address
* Chief Bryan LaForme, Mississaugas of New Credit

5. Opening Address
* Ontario Regional Chief (tbc)
* First Nation Inuit Health (tbc)
* Chair, Ontario Chiefs Committee on Health (tbc)

6. Adoption of Rules and Procedure/Draft Agenda
* Chairperson(s)

7. FNIH Budget

8. Upstream Investments
* Panel – Q & A

9. Pandemic Influenza

10. NNADAP

11. Injury Prevention

12. AFN Update

DAY II – Thursday, March 1, 2007 - 8:30 a.m.

1. Registration/Call to Order

2. Opening Prayer - Elder

3. Overview by Chairperson

4. Health Accord

5. Pan-Aboriginal Open Dialogue
* AHWS
* Mental Health

6. Public Health

7. LHINs

8. Closing Prayer – Elder

Resolutions will be dealt with after each issue

First Peoples Child & Family Review 
Volume 3 Number 1 - January 2007

"The latest issue of First Peoples Child & Family Review is now available online. We encourage you to check out our latest articles, as well as our offerings from past issues. If you are interested in contributing to the First Peoples journal, as an author or as a reviewer, information can be found on our website or by contacting the coordinating editor at mbennett@fncfcs.com.. The deadline for the next call for papers is March 31st, 2007."

Excerpts from the Table of Contents of the January 2007 issue:

• Ensuring Knowledge Transmission in the Aboriginal Child Welfare Field
• Keeping First Nations children at home: A few Federal policy changes could make a big difference
• The politics of kith and kin: Observations on the British Columbia government's reaction to the death of Sherry Charlie
• Reflections of a Mi’kmaq social worker on a quarter of a century work in First Nations child welfare
• Promising practice for maintaining identities in First Nation adoption
• Identity lost and found: Lessons from the sixties scoop

Click here to see the latest issue

Table of Contents, Volume 3, Number 1, 2007

4	Foreword Michael Hart
5	Ensuring Knowledge Transmission in the Aboriginal Child Welfare Field Marlyn Bennett
10	Keeping First Nations children at home: A few Federal policy changes could make a big difference Fred Wien, Cindy Blackstock, John Loxley and Nico Trocmé
15	The politics of kith and kin: Observations on the British Columbia government's reaction to the death of Sherry Charlie Gerald Cradock
34	Reflections of a Mi’kmaq social worker on a quarter of a century work in First Nations child welfare Nancy MacDonald and Judy MacDonald
46	Promising practice for maintaining identities in First Nation adoption Jeannine Carriere
65	Identity lost and found: Lessons from the sixties scoop Raven Sinclair
83	Indigenous knowledge and research: The míkiwáhp as a symbol for reclaiming our knowledge and ways of knowing Michael Hart
91	A way of life: Indigenous perspectives on anti oppressive living Robina Thomas and Jacquie Green
105	Here be dragons! Reconciling Indigenous and Western knowledge to improve Aboriginal child welfare Jean Lafrance and Betty Bastien
127	Are rural American Indian adolescents becoming a race of angels? John Courname
133	(A Literature Review) Re-examining issues behind the loss of family and cultural and the impact on Aboriginal youth suicide rates Kristine Morris

Click here to read the following Edmonton Journal story ...

Ont. reserve looks beyond housing, water crises - Deal may be near for improved services at Pikangikum

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press - Published: Monday, January 08, 2007

PIKANGIKUM, Ont. -- Crammed into a ramshackle 700-square-foot house she shares with eight relatives, Juliette Turtle has resigned herself to a life without a decent roof over her head, a toilet or running water.

"I've just learned to accept it because there's no housing," the 58-year-old says through a translator as she sits on her worn beige sofa beneath a leaky window.

A few steps away, one of Turtle's grandchildren lies in what passes for a bedroom -- a space with three mattresses covering almost every bit of the floor. Clothing is hung on hooks or strings on the wall.

Pikangikum First Nation resident Juliette Turtle sits in an overcrowded bedroom Friday as her grandchildren sleep.

Outside is an outhouse the family members share -- a situation faced by almost every family on the Pikangikum reserve, 300 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

When the pit starts to fill with excrement, the Turtles fill it in, dig a new hole nearby, and move their floorless outhouse shack over it.

Also on the property are the gravesites of relatives, including some of the seven children Turtle has lost to suicide.

She's not sure why most of her 12 kids took their own lives, but it's not shocking in a community that has suffered one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

"After all the things I've gone through, I'm hoping my grandchildren don't have to go through the same things," Turtle says.

The community of 2,200 has a litany of problems that start with basic infrastructure.

Half of the 430 homes are falling apart and unfit to live in, yet continue to be occupied. Ninety per cent don't have running water or indoor toilets. Turtle and many other families haul water in jugs from the community's water treatment plant. Some draw water from a lake and boil it to make it safe.

Still, many in the community believe there is hope for the future.

After years of fighting the federal government over funding, a deal may be close at hand to build water and sewer lines, and more housing.

Federal officials and local leaders formed a working group in November to tackle the priority areas, and will meet again this week. Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice has promised swift action.

"We've made significant progress at the table," Prentice said last month. "In the new year, people will see us moving in a very tangible, concrete way."

Community residents are cautiously hopeful.

"This is something we've heard in the past," said Dean Owen, who served as chief for 18 months until last fall.

"There is hope . . . that all these things will start happening."

The band has received money to build about 10 new homes in each of the last several years, Owen said, but it's not enough to keep up with a growing population and the need to replace dilapidated houses.

Work to connect homes to the water treatment plant has been stalled since 2001, when the former Liberal government took over the band's finances. The books were in order, but the government felt the band was not addressing the community's social problems, including its alarming suicide rate.

Last September, a regional medical officer of health based in Kenora said Pikangikum's water troubles were putting residents at risk of developing disease. The town's electrical supply -- a diesel generating station -- is so overtaxed that residents were told not to put up Christmas lights this season.

Still, there are signs that life has begun to improve.

Mick Staruck, principal of Pikangikum's school, said the youth suicide rate peaked in 1999, when a half-dozen kids in his Grade 7 class alone took their own lives.

Over the last two years, only two children in the entire school have ended theirs.

Staruck credits a new wave of dedicated teachers recruited specifically from northern areas, along with new after-school programs and sports that have kept kids engaged and off the streets.

The school has forgone new supplies in order to hire its first guidance counsellor as well as several teaching assistants.