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Brian Walmark, Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute Coordinator and Brian Beaton, K-Net Coordinator are in Ottawa to participate in this year's Connecting Aboriginal Canadians conference.

The background papers that have been posted on the conference agenda web site at http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/cac/2006forum/site.nsf/en/si00005.html are addressing some very important issues and questions. The four panel discussions are about determining appropriate policies and identifying effective strategies for the Aboriginal connectivity agenda that will be moving forward.

 Some of the questions and reference material that INAC officials are presenting as the options are included below. There are many other approaches to this work that has been demonstrated over the past few years. Hopefully the people who have been invited to this gathering will sound the alarm about this centralized approached to “taking care of the problem”.

 2006 National Aboriginal Connectivity and E-Services Forum - March 13, 14, 2006, Ottawa, ON

"Sustainable Aboriginal Connectivity as an engine for Social and Economic Growth”

from http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/cac/2006forum/site.nsf/vGraphics/Agenda/$file/CEDOL_Presentation_en.pdf 

Community Economic Development On-Line Year in Review - Framework for Progress

“The multiplying number of Aboriginal dedicated databases is creating confusion among users and a reduction in ease of use and efficient navigation. This may be resolved by developing a single location registry point for all Indigenous dedicated databases” - 2004 e-strategy blueprint

CEDOL Next Steps

• Seek approval from Aboriginal stakeholders to proceed.
• Establish an Aboriginal Canada Portal and Connectivity Working Group – Community Ec Dev Sub-Committee and develop work plan to:
  • Facilitate process to support collaboration and exchange of information that will engage multiple stakeholders. E.g. 2010 Olympic Games
  • Oversee development of on-line tools, models.
  • Identify connectivity solutions that work.
  • Initiate policy development processes and initiatives to identify and address gaps.
  • Share work plan and develop Internal/External stakeholder partnerships
  • Secure Resources for CEDOL

 From Aboriginal E-Government and Services “Draft” Overview at http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/cac/2006forum/site.nsf/vGraphics/Agenda/$file/Aboriginal_egov_presentation.pdf 

Key Aboriginal Connectivity and e-services Investment questions

• Do you agree with key Aboriginal Connectivity and e-services priorities (ie infrastructure, operating costs, community capacity and coordination/partnerships)

Aboriginal e-government and services questions/next steps

1.  Were you reasonably comfortable with overview presentation. Should a more detailed paper be developed. Would you help?
2. Should we elevate/enhance Aboriginal single window to the first level of the Canada Site (with business, international, and Canadians)
3. Should we formalize and strengthen a horizontal federal-aboriginal connectivity and e-services governance framework and how do we link regional efforts
4. How do we enable communities to keep and make full use of data (interoperability).
5. Do Aboriginal communities and organizations require information management capacity
6. How do we include and forge linkages between communities and Urban Aboriginal residents
7. How do we ensure FN, Inuit and Metis specific strategies and functionality.

From  Sustainable Broadband Connectivity in Aboriginal Communities at http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/cac/2006forum/site.nsf/vGraphics/Agenda/$file/Sustainability_Summary_Presentation.pdf 

 Federal-Aboriginal Coordination:

•  National, regional and community connectivity and e-service coordination
• Integrated Aboriginal single window e-services and partnership e-tools

 Questions/Guidance

• Are the primary element of the sustainability solution:
  • Broadband operating expenses
  • Technical capacity
  • Others?
• Is there a need for special Aboriginal measures for broadband operating expenses and technical capacity
• Should Federal Departments and Aboriginal Stakeholders work together to better coordinate Aboriginal connectivity and e-services?
• Is there a need for full or fractional time technical support knowledge in Aboriginal communities?
• At what level should technical support be provided? (1 or 2 people per community, 2 people per 6 communities)
• Are there other elements broadband sustainability that need to be addressed?

George Ferreira was contracted to video tape and produce a short production about that documented how the folks involved with the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telehealth initiative feel about the evaluation process for this project. Cal Kenny, KO's Multi-media Producer, created a web page for some of the video material that was recorded by George.

Visit http://telehealth.knet.ca/perspectives.html to see George's initial draft production along with several clips from Dr. Joe Dooley and Garnet Angeconeb as they talk about telehealth and what they think it means to themselves as well as the folks in the north.

The Ontario Aboriginal Health Advocacy Initiative is a free information and training resource for front line and community service worker. Workshops can be tailored for your audience. All we ask of you is to set up participants, and arrange for suitable space.

TWO DAY WORKSHOP

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)

• Participants will examine their attitudes about suicide, learn how to effectively recognize and review the risk of suicide and develop intervention skills.

ONE DAY WORKSHOPS

Communications and Conflict

• Presents the elements of effective communication and resolution of conflicts through participant based case studies.

Cultural Sensitivity

• Provides cultural sensitivity training for front line/community workers and mainstream service providers.

Hepatitis C

• Provides information about Hepatitis C and it’s prevalence within Aboriginal communities with a focus on prevention and harm reduction.

Report and Proposal Writing

• Presents the complete proposal writing process from planning to evaluation.

Traditional Health: A Guided Discussion on Access and Issues

• Presents Aboriginal traditional concepts of health, the development of traditional health programs and client access issues.

Youth Healthy Sexuality

• Designed to educate front line workers/community members about healthy sexuality and to foster improved sexual health education to Aboriginal youth.

HALF DAY WORKSHOPS

Advocacy for Front Line Workers

• Identifies types of advocacy and the skills and attitudes necessary to be an effective advocate.

Complaints Process: College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario

• Provides basic information about the Regulated Health Professions Act and the formal complaints process for the C.P.S.O. including appeals and alternative complaint routes.

SuicideTALK (can be tailored to a one hour presentation)

• Is aimed for most community members to help make it easier to have open and honest talk about suicide.

PRESENTATIONS

MADD Awareness Training

• MADD Canada (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) PowerPoint presentation reviews MADD services and how to access MADD for community development.

Vicarious and Intergenerational Trauma

• A PowerPoint presentation designed to facilitate discussion.

There are three other Health Advocacy Developers located throughout Ontario.

www.anishnawbe-mushkiki.org 

For Further Information, please call the North West Health Advocacy Developer at Anishnawbe Mushkiki Aboriginal Health Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario at 807.343.4843 or email at healthadvo@anishnawbe-mushkiki.org. Her name is Michelle Richmond-Saravia. Feel free to drop in at Anishnawbe Mushkiki as well. The address is 29 Royston Court, Thunder Bay, Ontario. We are locatted in Port Arthur off Camelot Street and Algoma Street.

NOTE: The funds provided through the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy are intended to provide an Aboriginal Health Advocacy Developers initiative. The purpose of the Health Advocate initiative is to address issues and concerns with regard to the equitable access to and quality of health services for Aboriginal, First Nations and Metis people throughout the province of Ontario. The Aboriginal Health Advocacy Developers focus on facilitating awareness, training and education of Aboriginal health service providers, front-line workers and organization representatives about various systems, protocols and approaches for dealing with various barriers to access to health services. The Initiative does not provide direct advocacy services. It is anticipated that Aboriginal cultural approaches will be reflected or used as a part of the activities and services proposed.

Unity is the common theme for this year's race relations week long event starting March 20th.

A new online Aboriginal Youth & Media initiative is being coordinated by the Women in Media Foundation and K-Net. Everyone is invited to visit http://meeting.knet.ca and click on “Media and Youth” to become part of our online learning and discussion environment.

Each student who registers will have a chance to win an iPod Nano! More importantly, youth will have access to the discussion environments as well as to exercises that will help them learn how to create their own media.

As part of the launch of this new initiative, we are asking everyone to forward this information about the new site to young Aboriginal students who might be interested in learning more about making their own media.   

It’s very easy to take part in this e-learning environment. Young people are encouraged and supported within this monitored environment to share their media stories and experiences with others. 

Again, just by creating an account will enter youth in our draw for an iPod Nano. We hope everyone will explore the information available, download some of the media tools or chat about media issues such as music and advertising.

Click here to see the poster promoting this new online resource.

This initiative is being funded in partnership with Industry Canada's First Nations SchoolNet program and Keewaytinook Okimakanak's Regional Management Organization project.

First Nations across northern Ontario have been connecting all their buildings to broadband services over the past several years using wireless or cable infrastructure. Now that Toronto has finally caught onto this work, it is making the news in a big way.

From the Toronto Star ... http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1141643034143&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

T.O. to become wireless hotspot
Mar. 6, 2006.
TYLER HAMILTON -TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Toronto Hydro Corp. will announce Tuesday that it plans to turn Canada's largest city into one giant wireless hotspot, directly challenging the country's major mobile phone carriers for a chunk of the $8 billion a year wireless market.

With the deployment, which sources say could be available in the downtown core as early as this fall, Toronto joins a growing list of North American cities, including Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco, that have announced plans to bring low-cost, broadband wireless access to their citizens and businesses.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you see it in September or October of this year," said a source close to the project.

Mayor David Miller will join Toronto Hydro executives on Tuesday to officially announce the initiative, which will be the largest of its kind ever undertaken in Canada and could undermine commercial product offerings from Rogers Wireless, Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility.

"I've heard that Ted Rogers is not very happy," said the source, referring to the founder of Toronto-based Rogers Communications Inc., parent company of Rogers Wireless, the country's largest mobile phone provider.

So-called municipal Wi-Fi, which blankets entire cities with the same wireless network technology found in many homes and small businesses, makes broadband access virtually ubiquitous and gives municipalities a way of generating revenue while offering affordable high-speed Internet access to low-income persons and neighbourhoods.

It also gives cities a way to attract tourists and business professionals, provides local police with better access to law enforcement databases while on the road, and helps city officials remotely monitor parking meters and other automated services. Toronto Hydro might also choose to sell a wholesale version of the service to other service providers.

In Ontario, where smart meters have been mandated, electrical utilities are looking at various telecommunications technologies for retrieving data from people's homes and businesses for time-of-day billing purposes.

Sources say Toronto Hydro has decided to support its smart meter plan using Wi-Fi technology, which can be accessed by any properly equipped laptop or handheld computing device.

Brian Sharwood, a telecom analyst with the Seaboard Group in Toronto, said it makes sense for a utility to recoup the cost of supporting smart meters by also selling wireless broadband services. "In a way that's the excuse to do all of this," he said. "You're going to run it past a lot of people anyway."

He said Canada's largest municipal electrical utility, which last year purchased Toronto's street light system for $60 million, will likely install the necessary wireless transmitters and receivers atop every fourth or fifth lamp post as a way to blanket the city with coverage -- what the industry describes as "wireless mesh networking."

Several companies offer the technology, including Kanata, Ont.-based BelAir Networks and Brampton-based Nortel Networks. Utilities in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie are pursuing similar Wi-Fi strategies for their respective smart meter programs.

Municipal Wi-Fi projects aren't without controversy. In the United States, major wireless carriers say municipalities have no experience selling consumer services and are abusing their monopoly over taxpayers' funds. They also fear that their own Wi-Fi services, increasingly offered in airports, restaurants, coffee shops and hotels, will be undercut when it comes to price.

But municipalities argue that competition is healthy and that blanketing communities with low-cost broadband access helps bridge the digital divide.

The announcement Tuesday by Toronto Hydro will follow VIA Rail Canada's decision to begin offering Wi-Fi service on all its trains between Windsor and Quebec City over the course of the year.

From the Acknowledgement and Introductions sections of the Manifesto (available at the Chiefs of Ontario web site at http://www.chiefs-of-ontario.org/education/manifesto.html)

The Manifesto was envisioned by the Ontario First Nations Chiefs-in-Assembly as a means of providing a foundation for change in First Nations education. The Chiefs expressed a vision of future negotiations based on a broad agenda, one that draws from a readily accessible and complete menu, including the history of relations, sovereignty and jurisdiction, Treaties, Aboriginal rights, unique philosophies and world views, Crown obligations, western and First Nations techniques and standards of education and the access and control of a fair share of First Nations’ own resources.

The Manifesto project is unique in ensuring that the primary writers and researchers are all First Nations peoples, and comprise the finest leaders, visionaries and practitioners in First Nations education.

The Manifesto was developed according to a well developed and logical methodology. Parent and educator focus groups were held in four regions of Ontario. Twenty-four writers produced distinct papers according to research framework designed to give Chiefs and their negotiators easy access to an orderly and complete picture of every aspect of education. The chapters of the Manifesto range from philosophy and history, to early childhood education and funding formulas, and every other aspect of education. There is an attempt to be as positive and forward-looking as possible. However, it also condemns the Federal Government for its failure on a grand scale to provide the minimum education to First Nations that others in Ontario have enjoyed for generations. It calls upon the Crown, once again, to live up to its obligations.

The Manifesto is a major milestone for First Nations in Ontario. It expresses the fundamental importance - and indeed the urgency – of First Nations to truly control and to have exclusive jurisdiction over the education of each child. Every aspect of First Nations well being and the full enjoyment of basic human rights is linked to a culturally appropriate and complete education. The uniqueness and beauty of the values of First Nations ancestors must not be lost. The future existence of First Nations as distinct peoples on Turtle Island depends upon it.

The New Agenda: A Manifesto For First Nations Education in Ontario

1. Manifesto Cover Page PDF

2. Manifesto Table of Contents  WORD DOC

3. Manifesto Acknowledgements  WORD DOC

4. Manifesto Introduction WORD DOC

5. A History of First Nations Education WORD DOC

6. First Nations Education Philosophy WORD DOC

7. Key Elements of Quality First Nations Education Systems WORD DOC

8. First Nations Affective-Effective Education WORD DOC

9. Manifesto Overview – A Principled Examination of FN Education Renewal WORD DOC

10. Education Governance WORD DOC

11. Review of INAC Funding for FN Schools WORD DOC

12. First Nations Languages Education WORD DOC

13. First Nations Post Secondary Education WORD DOC

14. First Nations Curriculum WORD DOC

15. First Nations Teacher Education WORD DOC

16. First Nations Second Level Services WORD DOC

17. First Nations Alternative Education WORD DOC

18. First Nations Literacy in Ontario WORD DOC

19. First Nations Early Childhood Education WORD DOC

20. Engaging First Nations Parents in Education WORD DOC

21. Parental Engagement Appendix 1 WORD DOC

22. Manifesto Annotated Bibliography WORD DOC

The First Nations SchoolNet program's Quebec Regional Management Organization recently posted its third publication of First Nation schools ICT success stories. Coordinated by the First Nations Education Council out of Wendake First Nation, the Quebec RMO is working with the K-Net team to develop and support innovative ICT applications in First Nation schools across the province. The series of success stories highlight the investments being made by the schools, the communities, regional organizations and Industry Canada in supporting these developments.

Schoolnet Success Stories Volume #3 The FNEC is pleased to present the third publication in a series titled “SchoolNet Success Stories”. The FNEC continues to receive great reviews from First Nations organizations, federal ministries, and other agencies recognizing the efforts of both the communities and the FNEC in producing these publications.   Click here to download the file     Schoolnet Success Stories Volume #2 The FNEC is pleased to present our second publication in a series titled “SchoolNet Success Stories”. The purpose of this publication is to provide a summary from the educational perspective of what First Nations communities are doing with ICT and the support they receive from the First Nations SchoolNet program. We hope readers enjoy learning about the levels of ICT innovation and integration that are occurring in band-managed schools not only in the Quebec region, but across Canada as well.   Click here to download the file

Schoolnet Success Stories Volume #1 The FNEC is delighted to present the first volume of success stories reflecting community accomplishments in Information Communications Technologies (ICT).   Click here to download the file

On Tuesday March 7th at 3pm EST / 2pm CST, Dr. Pirjo Vaittinen from the University of Tampere, Finland will conduct an on-line seminar with teaching professionals across Ontario's far north.

She will provide a thirty minute overview of her research on teaching and learning language and literacy in the Finnish school system.  Following her presentation and responses will be made by Darrin Potter, principal of the Keewaytinook Internet High School in Balmertown. Joining Darrin will be Roy Morris and Sherry Mamakwa of the Kwayaciiwin Educational Resource Centre in Sioux Lookout.

A question and answer period will follow with directors of education, principals andteachers working in First Nations schools in remote and isolated communities in Ontarios's far north.

Workshop participants will discuss whether best practices and lessons learned in Finland have an application in Ontario's far north. The session will be streamed and archived for those unable to participate "live."

The on-line workshop is hosted by the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Research Institute (KORI - http://research.knet.ca), the research arm of Keewaytinook Okimakanak, one of NAN's six tribal councils serving First Nations in Ontario's far north.

Confirmed videoconferencing sites include Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout, Balmertown, Keewaywin and Weagamow First Nation. KO is the leader of First Nations connectivity and telecommications in Canada. K-NET Services, the telecommunications department of KO facilitates IP videoconferencing in over 80 communities in Ontario and across Canada.

For more information or to find out how to participate on-line, email wesleymckay@knet.ca at KORI.