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SPEAKING NOTES for the Honourable Jim Prentice Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians at the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations/ Saskatoon Tribal Council Housing Conference Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

May 24, 2007

Good morning/afternoon Elders, Chiefs, ladies and gentlemen. I’m grateful for this opportunity to talk to you today.

The subject of your conference speaks to a crucial need in First Nation communities. We all agree that safe, affordable, appropriate housing is a basic human requirement, and one of the contributing factors to sound, healthy communities. It is a key element in such quality of life issues as good health, positive educational outcomes, and stable family environments. But unfortunately we can also agree that there are many challenges around housing in First Nations communities that need to be addressed.

I appreciate the work of gatherings such as this one -- gatherings that bring together thoughtful, experienced and dedicated individuals to discuss ways and means to meet these various housing challenges and to devise sustainable solutions.

I want to commend you all on the work you are doing here, and to assure you that Canada’s New Government is eager to work with all partners to implement solutions to these challenges.

I strongly believe that it is essential that we work together to come up with new, innovative, and long term solutions to address housing challenges on reserve. There is no question as to the extent and degree of the housing issues that must be dealt with – we must modernize social housing and renovate existing stock, and it is also vital that we look to the future, and that we use housing as a means for First Nations to build equity and generate wealth.

To that end on April 20th of this year, I was very pleased to announce, along with my Cabinet colleague responsible for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Minister Solberg, the First Nations Market Housing Fund. Fulfilling a Budget 2007 commitment of $300 million, this fund will allow First Nations people living on reserve to build equity in their homes, while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the reserve land base.

We are proud of this fund. We feel it represents a fundamental shift in how Canada’s New Government supports housing on reserve, and is an example of the type of innovative thinking we will need to bring about a long term and sustainable solution to housing issues.

By facilitating access to private sector financing, the First Nations Market Housing Fund will help increase housing production. It will also expand the range of housing options for First Nations families to include home ownership and market rental housing.

The great thing about the First Nations Housing Market Fund is that it builds on the best practices of First Nations themselves. This is an approach that is already being successfully implemented by First Nations communities across Canada, including the Lac La Ronge Band, right here in Saskatchewan.

Perhaps you know the Lac La Ronge story, but I think it bears repeating here because it is a great example of a First Nation thinking proactively, grasping an opportunity, and successfully meeting a real challenge in the community.

In 2004, after much research to determine the best approach to addressing the housing issues in the community, the Band launched its own home-ownership strategy. Lac La Ronge Band worked with private sector organizations such as the Bank of Montreal, as well as Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, to secure funding for mortgages in the community, thereby enabling residents to own their own homes.

This program is a great model that holds great potential for success. Band members have not only applied for funds to renovate their homes, but some have applied to build new homes as well. Some families who had left are moving back to the reserve, and Band revenues have increased — that money is going back into housing and other programs.

Consider also Whitecap Dakota First Nation. As part of its long-term economic development strategy, this First Nation is developing a residential/condominium project based on individual home ownership.

My department has supported this plan through a $2.1 million community economic infrastructure investment. We are also supporting the development of a rural subdivision for future home ownership expansion at Whitecap Dakota, with an $800,000 commitment this fiscal year.

It is essential that we learn from the example set by Whitecap Dakota, Lac La Ronge, and other innovative First Nations. You don’t need me to tell you that housing is a real and immediate issue in First Nation communities. We must absolutely address problems with existing stock, but we must also all work together to implement solutions that will effect sustainable, long term change.

Communities such as Lac La Ronge and Whitecap Dakota have shown us that the approach offered by the First Nations Market Housing Fund is a means to achieve this change. But I encourage you to work with us, with each other, and with all partners to continue to find ways to achieve a better quality of life for First Nations.

Together we are making progress – we must continue down this road.

Thank you.

United Nations Forum Calls For ‘Free, Prior And Informed Consent’ By Indigenous Peoples For Projects On Their Lands, As Two-Week Session Ends

Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Sixth Session
16th & 17th Meetings (AM & PM)

Urges General Assembly Adoption of Indigenous Rights Declaration; Approves Texts on Anti-Poverty Goals, Human Rights, Urban Migration

Expressing the strong belief that indigenous peoples’ right to access and manage communal lands and natural resources was central to their collective survival, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues recommended today that Governments adopt, in relevant national legislation, the principle of “free, prior and informed consent” of indigenous peoples regarding potential development projects or other activities carried out on their lands.

“It is […] clear that most local and national indigenous peoples’ movements have emerged from struggles against policies and actions that have undermined and discriminated against their customary land tenure and resource-management systems, expropriated their lands, extracted their resources without their consent and led to their displacement and dispossession from their territories,” the Forum stated in one of eight sets of draft recommendations and three draft decisions approved by consensus at the close of its sixth session.

The Permanent Forum, a 16-member subcommittee of the Economic and Social Council, is mandated chiefly to provide expert advice on indigenous issues to the Council and the United Nations system; raise awareness and promote the integration and coordination of activities relating to indigenous issues with the United Nations system; and prepare and disseminate information on indigenous issues.

Permanent Forum Chairperson Victoria Tauli-Corpuz from the Philippines acknowledged that, while the issues associated with indigenous lands and natural resources were complex, representatives of tribal and native peoples and their groups during the past two weeks had shown they were not victims; they had not come to new York to complain; rather, they could come together and had presented sound advice to Governments and intergovernmental organizations about how to meet their needs for survival.

In the text focusing on the session’s theme, “territories, lands and natural resources” (document E/C.19/2007/L.2), approved as orally amended, the Permanent Forum strongly urged the General Assembly adopt during its sixty-first session the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the fate of which remains unclear some six months after it was approved by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. Talks on the Declaration have sputtered in New York, in the wake of initial opposition from Australia, Canada and New Zealand. A package of amendments floated earlier this week by the Africa Group was roundly rejected by indigenous groups as “unacceptable and inconsistent with international human rights law”.

Reiterating relevant articles of the Declaration, the Forum recognized the fundamental importance of indigenous peoples’ security of land use and access, and the importance of land rights for broader processes of poverty reduction, good governance and conflict prevention and resolution, stressing that indigenous peoples are entitled to effectively participate in drafting policies and laws related to resources management and development processes (article 14). Further, indigenous peoples have a central role in decision-making and implementation of lands and resources-related projects, [and] such projects shall not be implemented without [their] free, prior and informed consent (article 28).

In that same vein, the Permanent Forum recommended that the Human Rights Council and the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights investigate the possibility of the development and acceptance of general recommendations relating to the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination by securing their access to their ancestral lands, territories and natural resources.

By its text on the status of implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and other targets for economic and social development, environment, health, education, culture and human rights (documents E/C.19/2007/L.3 and Add.1), the Permanent Forum expressed its concern that relevant reports presented during the session by many States, as well as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers still did not adequately include and address indigenous peoples, nor did they include the participation of native and tribal peoples. The experts called on States “to rectify this weakness and on United Nations agencies to support their efforts”

In a related measure, while recognizing that the Millennium Goals provided an important international framework for addressing extreme poverty and health and social outcomes, the Permanent Forum, nevertheless, recommended that it was vital that further work be undertaken to ensue that plans and programmes related to implementation of the Goals fully appreciated and respected the rights and aspirations of indigenous peoples.

That text also recognized the “deep spiritual relationship indigenous peoples have with water and the great respect they have for the natural laws governing the health and sanctity of water”, and recommended that States review, with the direct participation of indigenous people, their laws on water regulation and the treaties, land claims and self-government agreements they have with indigenous peoples, and present those reviews to the Forum in 2009.

Many of the recommendations underlined the Forum’s concerns about the human rights situation of the world’s indigenous peoples. To that end, it welcomed increased cooperation with the Special Rapporteur on indigenous peoples’ human rights and fundamental freedoms, and strongly recommended that the Human Rights Council maintain the mandate of that top expert. It also decided to invite the Special Rapporteur, along with the Special Rapporteurs on the right to education and the right to health, to participate in its seventh session (document E/C.19/2007/L.4).

Further, the Permanent Forum expressed concern at allegations brought to its attention on continuing violations of human rights of indigenous peoples in various parts of the world, and called upon all States to fully implement their obligations under the international human rights and humanitarian instruments. The Forum reiterated its call on States to strengthen their institutions for the promotion and protection of the human rights of indigenous peoples and to enhance efforts of awareness-raising and capacity-building for Government officials (document E/C.19/2007/L.3/Add.1)

In a text on recommendations that emerged from its half-day discussion on Asia (document E/C.19.2007/L.5), the Permanent Forum stressed that, irrespective of their legal status or the different terminologies used for them, Asian indigenous peoples experienced non-recognition of their cultural identity, exclusion and marginalization. With that in mind, the Forum recommended that, among other things, Asian States recognize indigenous peoples constitutionally and legally as peoples, and promote legal reform, particularly regarding their land rights and recognition of their customary laws and institutions, which promoted diversity and plurality.

The Forum, in its text on its half-day session on urban indigenous peoples and migration (document E/C.19/2007/L.6), recommended, among other things, that relevant States provide mechanisms for forcibly, legally or involuntary displaced indigenous people to be able to return to their original communities, including appropriate forms of compensation and restitution and provision for sustainable livelihoods of displaced indigenous people.

The Permanent Forum noted that 2008 had been designated the International Year of Languages and, among the draft decisions approved and forwarded to the Economic and Social Council for adoption, was a text by which the Council would decide to convene a three-day international expert group meeting on indigenous languages and request the results of that meeting be submitted to the Forum at its next session (document E/C.19/2007/L.8).

Another text recommended that that the Economic and Social Council would decide that the seventh session of the Permanent Forum shall be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 21 April to 2 May 2008 (document E/C.19/2007/L.9). It also adopted the draft report of its current session (document E/C.19.2007/L.12).

By the final draft decision forwarded to the Economic and Social Council for adoption, the Permanent Forum approved the draft provisional agenda for its seventh session and decided that its special theme would be on “climate change, bio-cultural diversity and livelihoods; the stewardship role of indigenous peoples and new challenges”. It also decided that its traditional half-day session would next year be devoted to respective discussion on the Pacific region and on indigenous languages (document E/C.19/2007/L.11).

The Forum’s reports and recommendations, including oral amendments, were presented by Rapporteur Michael Dodson of Australia, and Wilton A. Littlechild of Canada.

Summing up the Permanent Forum’s work this year, Johan Schölvinck, Director of the Division for Social Policy in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs called the Forum a “celebration of the world’s cultural diversity”, in that it had seen extremely rich participation from some 1,500 representatives from indigenous peoples’ organizations, non-governmental organizations and academia, some 30 United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations, about 70 Member States and some 30 indigenous parliaments. The Permanent Forum was not just an event; rather “a tribute to our human efforts of partnership” that offered the opportunity for inspiration, he said.

The meeting was opened sombrely this morning by Liam Ridgeway, who, on behalf of all Australian Aboriginal delegations that had participated in the Forum’s work, called for a moment of silence to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Australia’s 27 May 1967 national referendum affecting the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.

While that referendum had been a “fantastic win” for the Aboriginal movement, it had not delivered all that was hoped to Australia’s indigenous peoples. Most importantly, it had not given them Australian citizenship and neither had it given them the right to vote in federal elections. Australia’s indigenous people “still have a long way to walk in our struggles to be treated as equal”, he said, calling for a moment of silence to honour the anniversary, as well as all indigenous people who suffered from the adverse impacts of colonization and Government policy.

In closing remarks, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz said she was happy to finish the sixth session without any major crises. “Because we trust each other and have worked well together”, the Forum had shown that it could resolve any problem, no matter how difficult, she said.

The Forum had gathered at an historic moment of the imminent adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, she continued. Despite difficulties, the energies brought to bear on the Forum’s topics by indigenous peoples had shown that they would do whatever it took to create success. She hoped the Human Rights Council version of the Declaration would be adopted. The number of participants present was an indication that problems at home remained.

She expressed deep appreciation to all Forum members and other colleagues for their tireless efforts in ensuring that the session ended in a successful manner, and urgently appealed to Governments to pass the Declaration before the end of the sixty-first session. She closed her remarks with a traditional Igorot chant.

Adelard Blackman, the Special Emissary for the Buffalo River Dene Nation, ended the session with a prayer for unity and a song.

Press release ...

Indigenous Commission Launched to Focus on Information Communications Technologies

NEW YORK, May 23 - An Indigenous Commission for Development of Communications Technologies (ICT's) in the Americas was launched today at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues meeting in New York. The Commission's goals are to bring Indigenous peoples together with industry and relevant agencies to promote and support the use of ICT's for legal, political, social, educational, cultural, spiritual and economic development.

The Indigenous Commission is based in Ottawa, Canada and is headed by Tony Belcourt, President of the Métis Nation of Ontario and the Métis National Council's Minister for International Issues. Vice-President is Jayariyu Farias Montiel, Director of Periodico Wayuunaiki of Venezula. Secretary-Treasurer is Pedro Victoriano Cruz, Director of Xiranhua Comunicaciones of Mexico.

The current 15-member Board of Directors is made up of one representative of participating countries of the Americas to date. A process is under way to name representatives of the remaining 20 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Voting membership is available to Indigenous people, organizations, businesses and Nations. Non-voting membership is open to non-Indigenous organizations and businesses.

The Indigenous Commission was formed following the 1st Indigenous Workshop on ICT's in the Americas that was co-hosted by the International Telecommunications Union and the Government of Mexico in Mexico City in December 2005. Approximately 250 delegates from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean were in attendance who selected an Interim Commission which finalized its formation recently.

All information on the priorities, goals and structure of the organization can be found on the Commission's website at: www.iccta-citca.org.

For further information: Leticia Larsen: (613) 791-5056,
Leticial@iccta-citca.org

AFN press release ...

First Nations Call on All Canadians to Stand With Us on June 29th, 2007

Issued at Gatineau, Quebec

May 23, 2007

The Assembly of First Nations calls on First Nations, Canadian citizens and corporations, to stand together to insist that the Government of Canada respond to the crisis in First Nations communities.

Since Confederation in 1867, First Nations have been subject to repeated attempts by the Government of Canada to forcibly assimilate us and erase our identities. Still, we survive today as distinct peoples.

It is time for action.

First Nations have put forward a reasonable plan that provides for reconciliation and begins to close the gaps between First Nations and Canadians. Working in collaboration, this plan will contribute to a more productive, prosperous and harmonious Canada.

First Nations call on the Parliament of Canada to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to respect the decision by the UN Human Rights Council that the Declaration establishes the essential standards for respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

First Nations call on the Government of Canada to respond in a manner that respects First Nations jurisdiction and responsibility over our lands and our peoples, and our right to govern ourselves as Nations, including:

1. Reconciliation of First Nations rights with the Federal Crown through the recognition and implementation of First Nations governments;
    
2. Investment in the development and implementation of First Nation governments by removing the current cap on core funding, allocation of funds as agreed to at the First Ministers Meeting on Aboriginal Issues (2005), and to establish a new formula for sustainable funding transfers based on population and inflation; and,
    
3. Implementation of structural changes including policy renewal to expedite resolution of First Nations land rights and Treaty implementation.

ADDENDUM

First Nations are the original inhabitants of this land, who helped the newcomers survive and build the country called Canada.

Since before 1867, the engines of assimilation have included federal policies, programs, laws and legislation. The most painful manifestation is the residential schools era, which plagues us to this day through its lasting and devastating cultural, social and economic impacts.

First Nations poverty is the single greatest social injustice facing Canada. Canada is one of the wealthiest nations, all because of the generosity and land of our ancestors. Yet First Nations endure poverty and third world conditions in their own homeland.

This injustice is met with silence. The unacceptable is accepted.

The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs admits it knows that First Nations face serious funding shortfalls because of a decade-long cap that has frozen funding growth at only two percent a year. This is causing serious health and safety risks to our families and children. Yet the Government of Canada fails to fix this fiscal discrimination.

First Nations poverty is creating crisis and conflict. First Nations are denied basic rights like access to safe drinking water. First Nations suffer from chronic housing shortages and overcrowding, see their children apprehended and placed in child welfare at alarming rates, and grieve as their youth kill themselves in epidemic proportions. These statistics are well-known, yet the Government fails to respond decisively with a real plan for action.

Instead, the Government of Canada fuels frustration by taking a unilateral, piecemeal and scattered approach which lacks vision and ignores fundamental issues. The Government is not engaging meaningfully with First Nations, is not listening to its own recommendations and solutions as agreed to by First Nations and the Government in documents like the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996), the agreement reached at the First Ministers Meeting on Aboriginal Issues and the AFN-Crown Political Accord for the Recognition and Implementation of First Nation Governments(2005).

The Government of Canada opposes Aboriginal rights internationally and domestically. The Government is working to defeat passage of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms Indigenous peoples’ collective right to self determination. The Government is undermining collective rights in Canada by trying to force First Nations to adopt legislation that prioritizes individual rights at the expense of collective rights. The Government is actively denying First Nations the processes, resources and timelines required to foster First Nations solutions.

First Nations assert the right to full and effective enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms – both collective and individual – including the right to self determination, without hindrance or adverse discrimination, as recognized in international law and in section 35 of Canada’s own Constitution Act, 1982. First Nations assert their right to land, life and justice.

The Government of Canada is morally and legally obligated to undertake processes of reconciliation and to properly resource the rebuilding of our sacred languages, culture and history. This includes atonement for past wrongs and collaborative work to navigate the way forward.

The latest ruling handed down by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice is now providing all the parties involved with the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation (KI), IFNA, Platinex and the Ontario Government with a court imposed Consultation Process,  Memorandum of Understanding and Timetable.

Click here to read the latest ruling (1.5M PDF document)

It is interesting to see who lives in their comfortable urban environments and who is living in the small remote community as one reads this latest ruling that basically once lays out a plan for another corporation and the provincial government to do whatever they want in First Nation traditional territory.

For a list of different events being planned for the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation (May 26) can be found at http://www.ndhr.ca/ ... Register your community event ... the following event is planned for Sioux Lookout ...

SLFNHA and SLARC Joint Press Release ...

Sioux Lookout organizations mark National Day of Healing and Reconciliation

Sioux Lookout, May 22, 2007 – The Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee (SLARC) and the  Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority have partnered to organize an event to mark the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation this Friday May 25th in Sioux Lookout.

The event scheduled for lunchtime on Friday, May 25th at the Nishnawbe-Gamik Friendship Centre will feature a traditional feast for thirty community leaders from Sioux Lookout and Lac Seul. Guest speaker Garnet Angeconeb, a Director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation of Canada and a survivor of Pelican Falls Residential School, will discuss the meaning and purpose of the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation.

“This is an important day to honour and celebrate,” said SLARC Co-Chair Bertha Jacques. “SLARC looks forward to working with both Sioux Lookout and Lac Seul to make the day a special day in our communities.”

“We are very happy to partner with SLARC in bringing community leaders and elders together to mark this special occasion,” said SLFNHA Executive Director James Morris.

The National Day of Healing and Reconciliation is observed May 26 of each year. Its objectives are:

• To celebrate a positive, collective healing and reconciliation movement within our families, communities, churches, and government on May 26th each year.
• To educate ourselves and other Canadians about our collective history of government policies that has affected Aboriginal Communities and Canadians.
• To develop commemoration sites and encourage communities to join in the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation.

For further information, please contact:

Jennifer Morrow, Business Manager, Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee, (807) 737-1135 x1550 or (807) 737-4901

James Morris, Executive Director, Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority, (807) 737-1802

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Press Release ...

Aboriginal Peoples Given Stronger Voice in Health Research

OTTAWA, May 22 - Aboriginal Peoples will now have greater involvement in the planning, execution and sharing of research outcomes conducted with their communities, as a result of new research ethics guidelines recently released by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

The focus of the new CIHR Guidelines for Health Research Involving Aboriginal Peoples is on conducting ethical and culturally competent research that balances the pursuit of scientific excellence with Aboriginal values and traditions.

"CIHR understands that research involving Aboriginal Peoples has to be conducted in true partnership with aboriginal communities," said Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. "This is a Canadian first, and CIHR is pleased to have spearheaded this important initiative."

The Guidelines will serve as an essential tool to promote research that seeks to improve the health, well being and health care needs of Aboriginal Peoples and promote partnerships. Without Guidelines, researchers run the risk of not thoroughly taking Aboriginal traditions, culture and spiritual values into account.

The Guidelines are the end product of an extensive consultation process with Aboriginal communities, researchers and institutions drawing on the CIHR funded ACADRE network - a unique university-based resource with links to academic research communities in research partnerships with regional First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities.

"The ethical considerations associated with research involving Aboriginal Peoples required careful thought and input from the aboriginal community, health researchers and leading aboriginal and non-aboriginal theorists," said Dr. Jeff Reading, Scientific Director of the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health. "The new Guidelines hold the promise of enabling the conduct of research that aims to improve health for Aboriginal Peoples and all Canadians."

"Canada has integrated the ethical issues of concern to Indigenous communities in other countries such as Australia, the United States, New Zealand, northern circumpolar nations and with the World Health Organization perspective on global indigenous health," added Burleigh Trevor-Deutsch, Director, CIHR Ethics Office. "Thus, these guildelines are on the international vanguard of ethics for research involving indigenous peoples."

The Guidelines will be an important contribution to the ongoing process established to revise Section 6 of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, which addresses research involving Aboriginal Peoples. The Tri-Council consists of Canada's three federal granting agencies: CIHR, NSRC and SSHRC

The Guidelines are available online at

http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/29134.html

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada's agency for health research. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to catalyze its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 10,000 health researchers and trainees across Canada. http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/

For further information: For more information on the Guidelines, or if you are interested in doing an interview on this subject please contact: David Coulombe, CIHR Media Relations, (613) 941-4563

Greetings,

Could you please forward or post the Train the Trainer AD to others who may be interested in this evidence based training opportunity taking place in Kenora. The training is FREE

Reaching In Reaching Out (RIRO) is an evidence based resiliency skills training program designed to help adults help children (0-6 years of age) develop a resilient approach to handling life’s stresses and challenges.  Both small and large organizations are welcome to identify a staff member to be trained as their trainer, who would then in turn spread the information to their larger organization  

The 0-6 Children’s Mental Health Northern Network will host a ‘Reaching In, Reaching Out’ Train the Trainer event from June 11th – 15th in Kenora.  Please see the following program information and feel free to visit the website at www.reachinginreachingout.com as well.  

The registration form must be directed to Tammy Ross at Algoma Family Services (see registration form) by Monday, May 28th.  Space is limited and preference will be given to those with training backgrounds and ready access to a group of professionals and paraprofessionals who work with young children and their families.

Resiliency Promotion – TRAIN-the-TRAINER opportunity

Reaching IN…Reaching OUT (RIRO) is an evidence-based resiliency skills training program for professionals / paraprofessionals. It helps adults help children develop a resilient approach to handling life’s inevitable stresses and challenges. More information about RIRO can be found at:

www.reachinginreachingout.com.

RIRO has received funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to pilot its “Train-the-Trainers” program aimed at Ontario’s Early Learning & Child Care training professionals. This five-day train-the-trainers program and training materials are provided at no charge; a $10.00 fee will be charged for food per day. For more details about the training program, please contact us at the email address below.

The 0-6 Children's Mental Health Northern Network will host the next RIRO “TRAIN-the-TRAINER” event on:

June 11-15, 2007

240 Lakeview Drive
Super 8 Convention Centre

Kenora, Ontario
8:30am to 4pm

(Trainers working in NORTHERN Ontario are given priority)

Who should apply?

Experienced trainers in the ELCC community with access to a ready network should apply. While we are targeting trainers from larger ELCC provider organizations and umbrella groups, trainers from smaller organizations are also eligible.

In exchange for the free training, participants will be asked to commit to offer RIRO skills training at least once in their institution/ready network in the six-month period after the training. Because this is a pilot event, participants will be asked to take part in the evaluation of the training.

Organizations sponsoring participants are asked to commit to offering ongoing RIRO skills training within their organizations at least once a year after the initial six-month period.

How will the training be taken out to the communities?

After the 5-day trainers’ event, participants will be prepared to deliver both parts of the RIRO Resiliency Skills Training (Adult Skills and Child Applications) as well as the Community and Parent Information Sessions. Ongoing support through email, telephone and website will be provided to participants.

RIRO’s evidence-based model has been modularized providing trainers with the flexibility to adapt the delivery format to meet their community’s needs. Both RIRO’s adult skills and child applications training can be delivered in full-day, 2-half-day or shorter formats (for “lunch-time” or “after work” series).

Registration:

Contact Tammy Ross at tross@algomafamilyservices.org or 705-945-5058 ext. 2422 for a registration form and further information about the trainers’ program. Space is limited, so please register early.    

Reaching IN – Reaching OUT “Train-the-Trainer” Program
Registration Form

To register for the Reaching IN – Reaching OUT (RIRO) Train-the-Trainer Program at Lake of the Woods Child Development Centre in Kenora (June 11-15th, 2007) please complete the following and return by May 28, 2007(see below).

Name:      _________________________

Workplace: _________________________
 
Address:

 Street:     _______________________

 City:       _______________________

 Prov.:      _______________________

 Postal Code: ______________________

Phone: _____________________________

Fax:   _____________________________

Email: _____________________________

Describe your experience in offering professional development training and why you want to be able to deliver this training.

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

Explain briefly how you will use your current networks to bring this training into your own community.

____________________________________

____________________________________

If I am accepted, I will commit to offer RIRO skills training at least once in my institution/ready network in the six month period after the training.                        YES ____

There are limited spaces, so please register early.  Please EMAIL your completed form to:

Tammy Ross at tross@algomafamilyservices.org or fax it to (705) 942-9273.

***If you have food allergies or special needs please indicate this below***

________________________________________________________________

Note:  The RIRO program is currently only available in English.

From Monday's Globe and Mail ...

'Historic' land-claim shakeup in the works - Facing threat of blockades, Indian Affairs Minister suggests Ottawa will hand settlement process to an independent group
GLORIA GALLOWAY - May 21, 2007

OTTAWA — Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice is contemplating fundamental changes to the way aboriginal land claims are settled and suggests the federal government will hand the job to an independent body.

Aboriginal groups have been threatening a summer of protest to highlight the slow process of settling land disputes. A backlog of 800 claims remains unresolved.

That queue will not go away overnight, Mr. Prentice told CTV's Question Period Sunday. But “I have indicated that this spring I intend to bring forward really very significant historic reforms to the specific claims process in this country.”

Part of the solution, said Mr. Prentice, is to introduce a system that citizens of Canada's native bands deem to be legitimate.

“There has been a complaint in this country for 60 years that the government of Canada serves as the defendant and the judge and the jury and the research body. And that it's too much. And the government of Canada is in conflicting roles. And that's something that we are trying to get to the heart of.”

The Globe and Mail reported last week that Mr. Prentice was working on a plan to give the Indian Claims Commission the right to make legal rulings with regard to violations of treaties that have already been settled. At the moment, the ICC can only recommend to government how those disputes should be resolved.

But bestowing on the ICC – or any other independent body – the ability to settle actual claims would mark a seismic shift in the way land-claims treaties have been negotiated for the past 60 years.

Mr. Prentice, a former ICC co-commissioner, said no decisions have been made regarding the settlement mechanism. “We are in the approval process. It still requires discussion.”

And he indicated that there would be no announcement until the release of the findings of the commission looking into the death of Dudley George, who was shot in 1995 during a protest by aboriginals at Ipperwash Provincial Park in Southwestern Ontario. That report is expected May 31.

But the minister said he is determined to make significant changes to the system this spring.

“I see an initiative that will reduce the backlog of claims very quickly over a five-year period,” he said.

As for the threats by aboriginals to disrupt rail lines and cause other disturbances, Mr. Prentice said he has asked native leaders to convince the agitators to stand down.

“I take the entire situation very seriously,” he said. “Blockades are not in anyone's interest. They harm innocent people and they do damage to aboriginal people … The worst thing, I think, is that they erode the goodwill that exists toward aboriginal people and the resolution of claims.”

The Assembly of First Nations has called for peaceful actions on June 29 to highlight their grievances. Those protests will be discussed at a special meeting of chiefs that will be held in Gatineau, across the river from Ottawa, this week.

“I have called on National Chief [Phil] Fontaine and the other chiefs who are in positions of leadership to speak up and to ensure that there is no illegal activity, there are no blockades, on June 29 or any other day for that matter,” the minister said.

He suggested that if the blockades go ahead, the protesters will be dealt with harshly.

“We've indicated that blockades are illegal under the Criminal Code and they are not acceptable and frankly they are unnecessary,” Mr. Prentice said.

But some recent protests by aboriginals have been allowed to continue for extended periods. One such action by the Six Nations in Caledonia, Ont., has been going on for 16 months. That situation prompted Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to say last month that the federal government is in an “untenable situation” when it comes to settling land claims and must create an independent body to clear the backlog.

And one aboriginal leader urged Canadians to support his people in their protests.

“Hopefully, the Canadian population doesn't think that this is confrontational because it's the only way that's left now for people to be able to show how they feel,” Guillaume Carle, the chief of the Confederation of Aboriginal People of Canada, which represents off-reserve aboriginals, told Question Period.

“What we're trying to say to the Canadian population is, please help us because our kids are dying, they are uneducated, they are unhealthy and they have no future to look at…The Canadian government can't fix the problem, they are part of the problem, therefore, they are in a conflict of interest.”

From Sault Star ...

Independence of native claims commission is key, cautions AFN Chief Phil Fontaine

By Brian Kelly
Algoma - Friday, May 18, 2007

A beefed-up Indian Claims Commission won't be a miraculous cure-all to solve hundreds of outstanding land claims, warns Phil Fontain, Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

The Globe and Mail reported earlier this week that Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice plans to give the ICC the power to make legally binding rulings. Now, the ICC can only investigate complaints about treaty violations and make recommendations to government.

"If it's independent, if it has the ability to make binding decisions and it has the resources to give effective decisions it will make a real difference," Fontaine told reporters Friday in Sault Ste. Marie.

"But we're talking about a significant backlog."

There are about 800 outstanding land claims. An average claim takes about 13 years to resolve.

"It would be wrong to leave people with the impression that if we establish this independent body that it's going to solve all the problems," Fontaine said, referring to numerous other concerns such as access to clean water.

"It's not a total answer."

Some First Nations chiefs, such as Chief Terry Nelson of Roseau River First Nation, supports stepped-up actions such as blocking railway lines to get the federal government to act more quickly on First Nations issues.

Speaking in the Sault Thursday, Grand Chief Denise Stonefish of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians warned such disruptions may be the only way to accelerate federal land claims issues.

Fontaine chooses diplomacy and negotiations over confrontation, but said Ottawa needs to demonstrate it is bargaining in good faith. "It's always about treating others with respect and dignity, but we expect that we will be treated the same way," he said.

Canada's aboriginal people, he added, are weary of waiting for action from the federal government on a range of issues such as housing, education and health care.

"I hope that people don't resort to violence. Of course, that's not something that we'd advocate. Never," he said.

"But people are desperate. There's a lot of frustration in our community. The anger is building. We need to do something to deal with the anger and the frustration."

He hopes an Assembly of First Nations resolution approving June 29 as a day of action will help Canadians learn more about conditions faced on reserves.

"Canadians don't know the true story," said Fontaine.

"What we need to do is sit down with the federal government and proceed on a basis of a plan — a plan that both sides agree with."

Garden River First Nation Chief Lyle Sayers backs Fontaine's stance on education, not confrontation. His community's members won't block roads or rail lines on June 29.

"We need to get the message out that we're not looking for handouts," he told reporters. "We're looking for proper dollars to run our communities the way they should be run. All we want is a fair share of the resources that are ours."

Fontaine participated in an announcement that the Three Fires Confederacy will meet in Garden River from Aug. 20 to 26.

The week-long event is expected to draw about 5,000 aboriginals from Canada and the United States.

The confederacy is made up of the Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi First Nations.

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AFN press release ...

Assembly of First Nations, Anishinabek Nations to Host Historic Three Fires Confederacy Gathering, August 20-26, 2007 at Garden River First Nation, Ontario

     OTTAWA, May 18 /CNW Telbec/ - The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) in partnership with Garden River Ojibway Nation, Three Fires Society, Shingwauk Education Trust, the Union of Ontario Indians, and Algoma University College (Algoma U) today announced that an historic gathering of the Three Fires Confederacy will take place on the traditional lands in Garden River, just east of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario on August 20-26, 2007. As many as five thousand Anishinabek citizens, from both sides of the US-Canada border, are expected to attend the gathering.

     "It is time we gather as a Nation," said AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine, an Anishinabe from Sakgeeng, Manitoba. "The Three Fires is a part of our traditional form of government that will allow us to determine our own future and contribute to a better life for our people. We will set the agenda for ourselves as a nation."

     The Anishinabek is the nation and people known also as the Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi who together form the Three Fires Confederacy. Historically, the tribes met regularly for social, spiritual, military and political purposes.

     "The Three Fires Confederacy gathering will be a significant step towards re-asserting our nationhood as Anishinabek people," said Grand Council Chief John Beaucage, leader of 43 member First Nations of the Union of Ontario Indians. "We will come together to share and learn from one another and rekindle those fires of that long lost brotherhood we've had among our own people from across Turtle Island."

     The last meeting of the Three Fires Confederacy gathering was held in Garden River in 1991.

     "As a direct descendant of Chief Shingwauk, signatory to the 1850 Robinson-Huron Treaty and traditional leader of the Three Fires Confederacy, I am truly honoured to be hosting this momentous gathering once again in our traditional territory of Ketegaunseebee," said Chief Lyle Sayers. "We extend a warm welcome to all to come and visit our community this summer."

     According to Grand Chief Eddie Benton-Banai of the Three Fires Confederacy Mide Society (USA/Canada) the Three Fires gathering comes from the seven prophesies of the Anishinabe peoples, the original people of this part of the world.

     "Someday we will look back and search for the teachings and way of life that prevailed for thousands of years, before discovery", said Benton-Banai. "The time and opportunity to hear, and learn from those teachings is now."

     Today's announcement is an example of the shared commitment among all partners involved in the Three Fires Confederacy gathering.

     "Our students," said Dr. Celia Ross, President of Algoma University College, "Are the reason why we are a part of this wonderful partnership. Recently, a group of 25 students attended the Midewiwin Lodge in Bad River, Wisconsin, and brought back a true sense of the spirit and intent of Chief Shingwauk's vision. We are honoured to be part of this historic gathering."

     The first two days of the gathering will bring together leadership and citizens and will be devoted to sharing the history and the protocol of the Three Fires Confederacy. It will provide leadership an opportunity to discuss important issues such as relationships with governments, border crossing issues, water and Great Lakes management.

     The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada.

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/For further information: Media contact: Nancy Pine, Communications Advisor, Office of the National Chief, Assembly of First Nations, (613) 298-6382 cell, npine@afn.ca; Donna Woldanski, Divisional Director of External Relations, Algoma University College, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, (705) 949-2301 ext. 4120, communications@algomau.ca/