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Keewaytinook Okimakanak (K-Net Services) is working with Attawapiskat, Peawanuck and Marten Falls First Nations to construct a C-Band satellite earthstation for the community's broadband connection. FedNor is providing the funding to Keewaytinook Okimakanak to coordinate this construction project with the three remote First Nations.

On May 2, Carl Seibel (FedNor Telecom Project Officer), Blair Electronics (the contractors for installing the C-Band earthstation and cable plant), Cal Kenny and myself flew to Attawapiskat (on the James Bay coast) and then Peawanuck (on the Hudson's Bay coast) the next day. Cal took along the video camera to capture a short story about the community and the work being done in preparation for their new broadband satellite connection that is being installed over this summer.

The links to his 3:30 minute video are ...

           Chief Shepherd Ministries

Presnts

Holy Ghost Meeting 2005

Guest Ministers:

Evangelist Steve Williams- Oklahoma

Chief Arnold Ouskan - Winnipeg, Mb

When:    May 20, 21, 22

Where:  Oliver Community Center - Thunder Bay, On 

Time:    7:00 p.m. Nightly 

Info:     Bruce 1-807-473-8516 

Everyone Welcome!                                                                

Slate Falls residents are finally getting telephones installed throughout their community.

Working with Windigo First Nations Council and Keewaytinook Okimakanak's K-Net Services, Slate Falls recently completed construction of their local cable plant that includes the cable connections to every building in their community. Funding for this construction project was obtained from Industry Canada's FedNor and BRAND programs, INAC and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund. Blair Electronics did the construction work. The connection outside the community is completed through a satellite link to Sioux Lookout which is made possible through Industry Canada's National Satellite Initiative, Keewaytinook Okimakanak's earthstation in Sioux Lookout and the partners involved with the Northern Indigenous Community Satellite Network (NICSN).

This past week, working with their K-Net partners, the Asterick IP phone management system was successfully installed in the community and training of a local technician took place to manage their own phone system. This week, new phones are now being installed in some of the buildings and further training is taking place.

Along with the IP phone system, high speed data connections are available for each of the buildings in the community. Video conferencing services that also includes telehealth applications are also now in place in Slate Falls.

Grades 5 and 6 students from Pic River First Nation bid their new friends from Qikiqtarjuaq on Baffin Island farewell on Monday morning. Click here to read the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal news story entitled "Student exchange a hit"

The student exchange between these two Aboriginal communities is an important component of the Kids From Kanata program that both school classes are participating in and where they were first paired and introduced. Keewaytinook Okimakanak sponsored Pic River School's participation in this year's Kids from Kanata program through Industry Canada's First Nations SchoolNet program.

KO Telehealth was invited to attend a Joint Management Committee for the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy specifically around Mental Health Planning for the Province of Ontario. Robert Thomas, KO Health Director, Donna Williams, KOTH Regional Coordinator and Kevin Houghton, KOTH Program Manager attended the meeting in order to present their Tele-psychiatry model.

This special meeting focused around mental health and was identified as a priority to review the projects province wide in order to review the pilot projects in place.

Highlights from the discusions, including the KO Telehealth powerpoint presentation, are posted on the KO Telehealth web site news items. Click here to see the news item about this meeting.

Some of the other meeting participants that gave presentations included:

• Carrie Hayward, Director, Mental Health and Addiction Branch, MOHLTC,
• Miriam Johnston, Coordinator, Aboriginal Health Unit, MOHLTC,
• Kate Andrew, Director, Ministry of Children and Youth Services,
• Janet Binks, Manager, Mental Health Services, Ontario Region, Health Canada
• Elizabeth Manson, Director Tele-psychiatry, Hospital for Sick Children,
• Tom Chisel, Director, Treatment Services, Nodin Child and Family Intervention

The CRACIN team made up of Andrew Clement (prof at UofT), Adam Fiser (PhD candidate at UofT), Prabir Neogi (Industry Canada) and Brian Walmark (KO Research Coordinator) were successful at having their proposed paper entitled "The K-Net model of First Nations broadband community networking" accepted for presentation at the 33rd international research conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy.

This annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) is being held at the National Center for Technology & Law, George Mason University School of Law, Arlington, Virginia on Friday, September 23, 2005 through Sunday, September 25, 2005

This annual TPRC forum is for scholars, industry  and government engaged in publishable research on policy-relevant telecommunications and information issues, and for public- and private-sector decision makers engaged in telecommunications and information policy. The purpose of the conference is to acquaint policy makers with the best of recent research and to familiarize researchers with the knowledge needs of policy makers.

Keewaytinook Okimakanak representatives (Chief Raymond Mason, Keewaywin First Nation, Dan Pellerin, K-Net's Network Manager and Brian Beaton, K-Net Coordinator) shared the K-Net Story with conference participants at the Canadian Commission for UNESCO's Paving the Road to Tunis - WSIS II: The Views of Canada's Civil Society on the Geneva Plan of Action and the Prospects for Phase II gathering in Winnipeg.

Representatives of civil society, academia and the private sector of all provinces and territories gathered over the week-end to discuss issues related to building information societies in Canada in preparation for the second phase of the United Nations' World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) that is planned for Tunis in the November, 2005. 

The K-Net Story was shared during the Sunday morning session entitled Community Networking in Canada: from Research to Grassroots Experience  which was chaired by Sharon Hackett with the  Rapporteur: Darlene Thompson, Secretary-Treasurer, N-CAP in Nunavut 

• Communities at the Centre of the Information Society, Michael Gurstein, Co-investigator, Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN) and Chair, Community Informatics Research Network
• Grassroots Experience
  • Monique Chartrand, Director-General, Communautique
  • Brian Beaton, Coordinator, K-Net Services
  • Gwen Friedrich, Executive Director, Community Outreach Group Inc.

Hand outs included ...

• The Keewaytinook Okimakanak's position paper entitled "Turning the Corner with First Nations' Telehealth"
• Keewaytinook Okimakanak's e-Community Concept Paper
• Keewaytinook Okimakanak's Community Broadband Aggregation Networking Model
• Kukenah Network community network diagram

Urban native mothers picket MP’s office By Chen Chekki - The Chronicle-Journal May 13, 2005

Native people accusing Canada Revenue of using their child tax credits to pay off taxes vented their anger Thursday in protests in several Canadian cities, including Thunder Bay.

Almost 100 urban native mothers and their families marched in front of the office of MP Joe Comuzzi (L-Thunder Bay-Superior North) to inform him that the tax dispute has made it more difficult for low-income families to buy food and clothing for their children.

They held placards that read “CRA holding working mothers and children hostage” and “We gave our land, you gave us poverty.” Tammy Bobyk, a mother of two children, said her child tax benefits have fallen from $220 to $50 a month.

“By taking away child tax benefits, Revenue Canada is directly causing us to sink further into poverty,” the Thunder Bay resident said. “It’s a move that’s hurting the most vulnerable in our communities — our children.”

It all stems from an agreement reached between the Canada Revenue Agency and the O.I. Group of Companies in 1995. The O.I. is a native-owned company based at Six Nations First Nation near Brantford, employing about 1,000 natives across Canada to help native non-profit groups.

The O.I. said changes in tax guidelines in 1995 threatened the tax-exempt status of those with First Nation treaty rights.

Four of O.I.’s launched a court challenge of the changes and the O.I. struck the deal with the CRA that set up a system for handling native tax returns until the four court cases were finished.

O.I. members, nearly three-quarters of them mothers earning about $32,000 a year, are supposed to be able to file tax returns and objections to their tax reassessments. The CRA is required to freeze the processing of their taxes at that point, without charging taxes or taking away benefits until the court cases are done.

Natives claim the CRA has been taking some or all of their child tax benefits to cover reassessed tax bills.

In some cases, members were given benefits and then had them taken away, charged O.I. president Roger Obonsawin.

He alleged that the CRA is targeting his members because his company is the only one helping to fight the 1995 tax revisions in court.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Comuzzi said Thursday that the protesters did not try to make contact with the MP before they picketed. A meeting is being scheduled.

A spokeswoman for Canada Revenue said the protesters’ concerns have been addressed in writing.

She wouldn’t elaborate further, citing the need to respect confidentiality rights.

This weekend, several Keewaytinook Okimakanak and CRACIN members are planning to attend Canadian Commission for UNESCO's conference:
"Paving the Road to Tunis - WSIS II: Canada's Civil Society Views on the Geneva Plan of Action and the Prospects for Phase II."

The Keewaytinook Okimakanak team is made up of Keewaywin's Chief Raymond Mason, Brian Beaton and Dan Pellerin from K-Net. Among the CRACINites heading to Winnipeg are Andrew Clement, Michael Gurstein, Christie Hurrell, Rob Mastin, Marita Moll, Leslie Shade, Randall Terada and someone from Communautique. 

For those attending, Keewaytinook Okimakanak has a table in the Exhibition area, as does CRACIN.  Drop by to say hello.

For those not attending, you may want to catch the webcasts of  the conference dinner keynote speech by Ann Medina on Friday, as well as the conference plenaries on Saturday and Sunday. This is made possible using the Macromedia Breeze application courtesy of K-Net with CRACIN's Christie Hurrell as the webcaster. The live text chat built into Breeze will
allow for some interaction with the event.

To access the webcast sessions see instructions below or visit the CRACIN home page http://www.cracin.ca and follow the links under the "News" column on the right-hand side of the page.

*Webcasting Schedule for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO's "Paving the Road to Tunis" conference.*

To access the meeting rooms for each event:

1. Go to the "meeting room" (webcasting site) at the URL listed on the webcasting schedule below (each event has its own URL)
2. Login at the "enter as a guest" field. Please use your full name as your login.
3. Be patient! Your machine may take a moment to load the breeze plugin and the breeze presenter plugin.
4. To logout, simply close your browser window.

Breeze Live Troubleshooting FAQ
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_18815

The Road to Tunis Conference Programme
http://www.unesco.ca/en/commission/resources/documents/ProgrammeRoadtoTunisProgrammePaverlavoiedeTunis.pdf

Breeze Webcasting Schedule

*Event for Friday May 13* - Conference Dinner Keynote Speech Summary

Has Canada become a genuine knowledge society? Ethical and social aspects of a knowledge society.
Keynote Speaker Ann Medina, Host of History Television's History on Film and Former Foreign Correspondent CBC's The Journal
URL http://breeze.knet.ca/r70855106/
When 6:30 - 9:30 p.m., Central Time

*Events for Saturday May 14*

*Plenary 1* - Summary Remarks by the President, Canadian Commission for UNESCO Max Wyman
URL http://breeze.knet.ca/r49742995/
When 9 - 9:15 a.m., Central Time

*Plenary 2* - Summary Reports of the Rapporteurs, followed by questions and discussion
Chair Max Wyman
URL http://breeze.knet.ca/r21059126/
When 11:45 a.m.- 12:30 p.m., Central Time

*Plenary 3* - Summary Reports of the Rapporteurs, followed by questions and discussion
Chair Max Wyman
URL http://breeze.knet.ca/r28919912/
When 3:45 - 5:30 p.m., Central Time

*Events for Sunday May 15*

*Plenary 4* - Summary Programme
Chair Max Wyman
URL http://breeze.knet.ca/r80906111/
When 8:45 - 9 a.m., Central Time

*Plenary 5* - Summary 
Reports of the Rapporteurs, followed by questions and discussion

• Presentation and Adoption of the Civil Society's Communiqué
• Adjournment
• Chair Max Wyman
  URL http://breeze.knet.ca/r90227043/
  When 10:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., Central Time

CBC Radio reports that AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine will not cross CAW Local 229 (http://www.caw.ca/ )  picket lines to accept an honourary doctorate degree at Lakehead University.  The strike is in its fourth week. The CAW represents university employees who do custodial, grounds and maintenance work. The main issue is the university's demand to contract out union jobs after those currently holding those positions retire or resign.  Convocation takes place on May 28th.  For more information, click here: http://www.caw.ca/news/newsnow/news.asp?artID=814