AFN Renewal to be discussed at the upcoming AFN Special Chiefs' Assembly
March 2, 2006 - 9:54pm | by AnonymousIn announcing the upcoming AFN Special Chiefs' Assembly, National Chief Phil Fontaine invited the chiefs "to look at some of the options and recommendations that stem from the Renewal report and to discuss how we can make our strong organization even stronger." Click here to learn more about the AFN Renewal report
Click here for AFN Special Chiefs Assembly registration and meeting information
Message from the AFN National Chief on the Special Chiefs Assembly
Greetings!
The Assembly of First Nations is convening a Special Chiefs Assembly on March 27-29 to engage in a discussion on AFN Renewal. The AFN Renewal Commission issued its report - “A Treaty Among Ourselves” - on December 7, 2005. It is now time for Chiefs and First Nations representatives to look at some of the options and recommendations that stem from the Renewal report and to discuss how we can make our strong organization even stronger.
Some central themes emerged during the Renewal Commission’s public hearings. Our people want to ensure the AFN is rooted in First Nations values, principles, customs and traditions; representative of the First Nations and their citizens; responsive to the diverse circumstances, needs and priorities of First Nations; and respected and effective in Confederation and in the international community.
The purpose of the SCA is to focus discussion and dialogue around five key areas based on the Renewal Commission’s report. Those areas are: accountability; universal vote; structures; relationship; and administrative efficiencies. We will be providing you with brief discussion papers for each of these areas. As well, the Special Chiefs Assembly will also be an opportunity to discuss some of the other matters that require attention prior to the upcoming AGA, including our agenda and approach with the new federal government.
I look forward to your participation in this important and exciting discussion about our national organization. As First Nations grow and evolve, so too will the AFN. Your ideas and your input will be essential in these efforts.
Meegwetch/Thank you!
Phil Fontaine
National Chief
NAN defends treaty rights to health services in rejection of provincial LHINs
March 1, 2006 - 10:01pm | by AnonymousNAN Rejects Health Regionalization Scheme
Posted by: Communications and Media jyoung@nan.on.ca 3/1/2006
In a news release distributed Wednesday March 1, 2006 NAN Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler is demanding the provincial government withdraw its plan to impose Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) on the 49 First Nation communities within NAN territory and begin government to government negotiations regarding the Province’s treaty obligations for health care delivery.
NEWS RELEASE
NAN REJECTS HEALTH REGIONALIZATION SCHEME
THUNDER BAY, ON Wednesday March 1, 2006: Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler is demanding the provincial government withdraw its plan to impose Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) on the 49 First Nation communities within NAN territory and begin government to government negotiations regarding the Province’s treaty obligations for health care delivery.
“By negotiating health care delivery on a government to government basis with NAN, the Province will show they are interested in fulfilling their obligations as a treaty partner,” said Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler who’s responsible for the health portfolio at NAN. “First Nations health care must be First Nations designed and controlled.”
Fiddler’s comments come after a year of futile discussions that led to no real changes and ignored Health Minister George Smitherman’s own proposed amendments to Bill 36 (LHINS) that passed at the provincial legislature in Toronto this afternoon.
Fiddler is also demanding health care and health care funding reflect the demographic and geographic realities of remote First Nation communities in Ontario and hopes by fulfilling treaty obligations the people of Nishnawbe Aski can maintain control over existing First Nations health authorities.
“The regional health scheme of LHINS ignores the First Nation treaty partnership with Ontario which threatens remote First Nations with more travel to access medical treatment,” said Fiddler. “LHINS reduces local control of health delivery by existing First Nation health authorities, making the system even more ‘centralized’ and culturally insensitive than it already is.”
NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy is concerned the implementation of LHINs reflects a larger constitutional issue whereby Ontario has failed to consult and accommodate First Nations.
“The bigger issue is that although Ontario is legally bound to consult and accommodate First Nations, the Province has failed to do so before implementing changes to health care delivery,” said NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy.
Among the total 14 LHINs in Ontario, LHIN 13 and 14 include communities within NAN territory. Northeastern LHIN 13 has a total of 41 First Nation communities, 19 of which belong to NAN. LHIN 14 in the Northwest has a total of 66 First Nation communities, 30 of which belong to NAN. 33 First Nations in the two Northern LHINs are remote fly-in communities.
***
For more information please contact:
Jenna Young NAN Communications Officer (807) 625 4952 OR (807) 628 3953 (mobile)
Grassy Narrows fights to protect their homeland and resources
March 1, 2006 - 12:13pm | by AnonymousFrom MacLeans Online - February 28, 2006
Grassy Narrows warns Weyerhaeuser, Abitibi against 'destruction of homeland?
GRASSY NARROWS, Ont. (CP) - Frustrated by what they see as an industrial invasion of their territory, aboriginal people in northwestern Ontario are warning two forestry giants to stop logging the area or face an international protest.
In a letter sent to Weyerhaeuser Co. Ltd. and Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. on Tuesday, the Grassy Narrows First Nation accused the companies of cultural and environmental devastation.
"This letter is your final official notice that you are taking part in the destruction of our homeland," the letter states.
"Know that you face a fierce campaign against you on all fronts - in the woods, in the streets, in the marketplace, in your boardrooms and in the media."
The 700-member community of Grassy Narrows has long complained that decades of unsustainable logging have poisoned area waters with mercury and other toxins and all but destroyed their aboriginal way of life.
Negotiations, lawsuits, requests for environmental assessments, public protests and a three-year blockade in the forest have all failed to win an improvement in the situation, the letter states.
"The Earth is suffering and we as human beings are suffering," said Judy Da Silva, a member of the Grassy Narrows environmental committee.
"The water is really polluted, there's a lot of erosion on the land, and . . . we're still finding high levels of mercury in animals."
Denis Leclerc, Abitibi's director of corporate affairs, said Grassy Narrow's demands recently changed to include recognition of their traditional land-use area, something the company has no control over.
"It's almost impossible for a forest and paper company to contribute concretely to a resolution when the demands from Grassy Narrows are directly related to government decisions," Leclerc said.
Bonny Skene, Ontario public affairs manager for Weyerhaeuser Canada, said Montreal-based Abitibi-Consolidated is responsible for managing the forest and does so according to plans sanctioned by the provincial government.
Weyerhaeuser, which uses hardwood from forests in the area to feed its mill in nearby Kenora, Ont., takes the concerns stated in the letter seriously, she said.
"Weyerhaeuser is committed to building mutually beneficial relationships with aboriginal communities," Skene said from the company's regional offices in Dryden, Ont.
"We understand the demands on forests today and meeting the demands requires all of us to work together."
David Sone, an organizer with the Rainforest Action Network based in San Francisco, said the forest companies have "run amok" in Grassy Narrows and need to be stopped.
"This letter signals the beginning of a serious escalation of the struggle to protect Grassy Narrows," Sone said.
"It makes very clear their wishes and interests aren't being respected and they don't intend to sit back and watch that happen."
Last fall, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society issued a report that denounced Abitibi for clear cutting huge tracts land in the region and replanting it with ecologically barren tree plantations.
"The clear cutting of the land and the destruction of the forest is an attack on our people," said Roberta Kessik, a Grassy Narrows grandmother and trapper.
"The land is the basis of who we are."
The First Nations also worry that irreversible damage will be done to eco-tourism in the area, further damaging the longer-term economic prospects in the region.
C.D. Howe Institute Study on Aboriginal Policy Reforms in Education and Health
March 1, 2006 - 5:23am | by AnonymousMore "solutions" to the "barriers" that create the problems for Aboriginal people from the CD Howe Institute. Be sure to read a response to this lobbying effort at the bottom.
For Immediate Release, Feb 28, 2006
Aboriginal Policy Reforms Required, Starting with Education and Health Care: C.D. Howe Institute Study
Toronto, Feb. 28 --- Aboriginal policy reforms should focus on improving the quality of education and health care Aboriginals receive, says a study released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. Reforms should also include holding band councils accountable for the billions of dollars they spend, and recognizing the needs of the seven out of 10 Aboriginals who live off-reserve, according to the study.
The policy study, Creating Choices: Rethinking Aboriginal Policy, was written by John Richards, a professor in Simon Fraser University’s Public Policy Program and the Roger Phillips Scholar in Social Policy at the C.D. Howe Institute.
The main reason for poverty among Aboriginals today, Richards argues, is the low level of Aboriginal education. Low education leads to low employment rates and the intergenerational perpetuation of poverty. Moreover, low education levels, low employment rates, and many Aboriginal health problems, such as diabetes, are closely interrelated.
The goal of reforms is to place Aboriginals in a better position to support and maintain their culture wherever they may live: on-reserve, off-reserve in rural communities or, as fully half do, in cities.
*****
The Study, Creating Choices: Rethinking Aboriginal Policy, is available at www.cdhowe.org.
For further information contact:
John Richards,
Public Policy Program
Simon Fraser University and
Roger Phillips Scholar in Social Policy,
C.D. Howe Institute,
Tel. (604) 291-5250
email: jrichard@sfu.ca
Finn Poschmann,
Associate Director of Research,
C.D. Howe Institute,
Tel. (416) 865-1904 ext:238
email: cdhowe@cdhowe.org
March/April 2004 Issue
As I have had occasion to remark before, “God save me from intellectuals!” especially right-wing Canadian intellectuals, when they take unto themselves the impulse to discourse on Aboriginal policy.
In recent years, these people have perpetrated some real howlers, whose only use has been to indicate how deep the gap remains between the beliefs and posture of Aboriginal people in Canada, and what could at a pinch be described as the thinking of many influential, fuzzy-minded, well- intentioned, ill-informed Canadians of European background.
From Thomas Flanagon to John Richards
A couple of years ago the leader of the right-wing pack was Thomas Flanagan, the intellectual powerhouse of the Reform, aka the Alliance, aka the Conservative, party. Mr. Flanagan wrote a book, highly regarded and widely reviewed in the media, apparently before he had ever set foot in an Aboriginal community. I never read the book, but so far as I remember, it was stern stuff, calling on the Aboriginals to shape up, and espousing the line that the cure to all problems was for them to assimilate in Canadian society. This was welcomed by the press as a bold new policy.
At around the same time Jonathan Kay, the neanderthal right-wing editor of the editorial page of the National Post, (incidentally, he’s a favourite commentator for CBC television), took an active interest in Aboriginal policy, recommending the same bold policy.
And now John Richards, professor at Simon Fraser University, who has turned dramatically right and become an acolyte of the C.D. Howe Institute, has been getting a lot of attention for an article that recently appeared in the magazine Policy Options in which he recommends that Paul Martin must “rethink Aboriginal policy independently of the premises of tribal chiefs and their organizations such as the Assembly of First Nations.”
In other words, Aboriginal policy should ignore what the Indians and their leaders say they want, and instead hand over delivery of most Indian services to the provinces, which are, for the most part, regarded by Aboriginal people as unfriendly to Indians.
What alarms Richards the most, apparently, is the insistence of Aboriginal leaders that their people should be governed by the treaties signed with them as Europeans marched westward to take over their lands. There is a great deal of emphasis in Richards’ article on the $7 billion paid to (or for) Indians every year: but no recognition that this is a bargain price for what Europeans have gained from the exchange. The most recent of these exchanges, for example, that between the Crees of James Bay and the Quebec and Canadian governments, saw the Crees initially paid $139 million for privileges which now allow the governments and their corporate hangers-on to take $5 billion worth of electrical, mineral and forestry production every year from the lands they “bought” from the Indians.
Since many of the provisions of the original agreement were not fulfilled (for example, those covering economic development, under which the Crees were supposed to benefit in training and jobs), the Crees have recently made a new agreement which pays them $70 million a year — still a great bargain for the $5 billion wealth exchange. To get even this, the Crees have had to sell to Hydro-Quebec their central river, the Rupert, which they had spent 25 years defending, and agree that it should become part of the huge James Bay hydro scheme, a humiliation which is leading to increasing anger in the Cree communities, and has sullied the Cree reputation outside Quebec.
Richards also worries that under current policies, which provide free health care to Aboriginals, including dental care, a second tier of health insurance is created in Canada that “invites resentment among non-Aboriginals who pay taxes and yet receive fewer insured health services.”
There are a number of wonders about all these learned prescriptions for Indians by Canadian intellectuals. First, I suppose, is the naked assumption that Indians have proven themselves incapable of making decisions about their own lives: what else is to be assumed from Richards’ prescription, that the very bases of Aboriginal policy must be rethought by government without any reference to Indian chiefs or organizations? Second, and perhaps more important, is the blind ignorance of these people, who apparently have never heard that it has been Canadian policy since before the nation was founded to assimilate Indians into “the body politic,” and that pursuit of this policy led to monstrous legislation whose aim was to strip Indians of everything that might mean anything to them ‹- their languages, their beliefs, their religions, their rituals, their economies ‹- you name it, and Canadian policy in the past has tried to abolish or forbid or destroy it.
What are they teaching these professors? (Leaving aside that these guys are themselves actually teaching this stuff to people!)
Casual reference to diseases like diabetes omit to mention that the epidemic of this disease among Canada’s Aboriginals can be directly traced to the Euro success in destroying the Indian economies, leaving the native people bereft and at a loss to know what to do. In hardly any part of the country was a serious effort ever made to build a viable life around the remarkable skills of the native occupants of the land. More likely, they were just swept aside ruthlessly to make way for roads, railways, airports, farms, mines and all the paraphernalia of modern, industrialized life, including even parks and protected areas.
Establishment of Canada’s first National Park at Banff resulted in bands of Indians wandering the countryside in a desperate effort to find enough food to live on. They were unwanted either in the reserves that were set up for them (where they quickly became dependent on government food handouts), or in the countryside where they normally operated, because there they were constantly getting in the way of Western development. Anyone who arrived from Europe with any money-making scheme was given priority in land use over the original occupants of the land. I’m not making this up. That is a fact.
In the most recent such takeover, which I am familiar with, the Crees of James Bay were not even consulted before the Quebec government announced its plan to inundate their hunting territories and build one of the continent’s biggest hydro-electric generating schemes. The ignorance of the proponents of this scheme was so vast that when the natives protested the likely effects on the moose and caribou on which they depended for food, the engineers on the other side of the table said this was of no concern, because the Manitoba port of Churchill was open in the summer, and cattle could be shipped across Hudson’s Bay to the hungry Crees. (Remember, I am not making this up).
If Mr. Richards has any doubt about any of this having happened, he could consult Sarah Carter’s remarkable book, Lost Harvests, in which she proves without a doubt that even when Indians accepted the bases of Euro policy, and tried to become farmers, as they were intended to do, suddenly, in response to pressure from neighbouring white farmers, measures were taken by government to prevent the Indian farmers from selling their produce. In other words, successful Indians were never part of the Euro plan (an assertion supported by the fact that any Indian who attained a university degree was “deemed to be no longer an Indian”.)
Is this relevant to John Richards’ prescriptions for the Aboriginal future? One would think that any intellectual would be able to grasp the fact that the policy of integrating Aboriginals into the Canadian society has been the main determinant of their present desperate conditions. And that, the policy having failed, a more promising policy might rest in the rebuilding of Aboriginal confidence and pride in their heritage, the transfer to them of the resources on which alone they can build a promising economic future, and the establishment of mechanisms by which they can govern themselves, make their own decisions, within the Canadian polity.
What Richards is proposing.
- Government should adopt new policies without bothering about Aboriginal perceptions.
- Aboriginals should not be treated as separate from other Canadians, either in payments for welfare (social assistance), or for health and education benefits.
- Possibly, payments to Aboriginals should be cut in half by the payment of $2,500 a year to every adult Aboriginal, which would then be taxed by their local reserve authorities, putting Aboriginals on a par with other Canadians.
- Aboriginals should be subject, as other Canadians have been, to the modern trend towards making welfare dependent on “more meaningful work or training obligations for those seeking benefits.” This is standard right-wing stuff, designed to cut to the minimum payments to those who have been left behind in this competitive society.
- Aboriginals have apparently failed as administrators of social assistance. “Arguably the rules for government access to social assistance should be equal among all, independent of race.” Social assistance could be integrated with provincial social assistance programs, which “would entail professional social workers, most of them non-Aboriginal, determining eligibility for social assistance.”
- A compromise would be to withdraw from individual bands the authority to distribute welfare and entrust the function and budget to an intertribal social assistance agency for each province.
- Government should work to improve conditions for off-reserve Indians, which in turn would improve education.
- Finally, Paul Martin should insist that Aboriginal problems cannot be solved by “an exaggerated stress of otherness.” Concentration on treaties “is no substitute for better social policy.” These Indians! They can’t govern themselves! They are savages! Everything they touch, they create a mess! And they are, these days, demanding too much! This seems to be the thinking lying behind the prescriptions of this professor, which, so the media says, are now being treated with the greatest respect by thinkers in the government.
One gets a feeling that Mr. Richards is not familiar with reserves or Aboriginal communities. If he had spent 25 years, as I have, wandering the country from one Aboriginal community to the next, he would have gathered a sense of the really impressive effort that Aboriginal people are making all across the country to pull themselves out of their desperate situation by their boot-straps.
Everywhere, they are trying to build a viable economy (although hampered in that by the miserable resources left to them); trying to overcome the many pathologies with which their communities have been saddled after their 200 years of history as whipping boys for Euro arrogance; trying to re-establish the importance of their own languages, beliefs, and rituals, their profound understanding of the relationship between people and the Earth.
In my view, the future of Aboriginals in Canada depends on generous recognition by both government and public opinion of Aboriginal rights and title as the bedrock of relationship between our two peoples. And we not only need to recognize these rights, but to fulfil the deals we have made with them.
Surely our intellectuals can come up with something better, as a prescription for the future, than this melancholy right-wing stuff.
Boyce Richardson is a former journalist and filmmaker and a Member of the Order of Canada. This article and many others of interest may be found on BR’s website at www.boycespaper.com.
Agreements reached in Kelowna in question by new government
February 28, 2006 - 11:11pm | by AnonymousGroundwork needed on Kelowna Accord: Prentice
Mon. Feb. 27 2006 - Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice says "overwhelming'' groundwork must be laid before $5 billion promised for native people can be well spent.
Until that's achieved, survival of the landmark Kelowna accord reached just before the Liberals were toppled last fall is in doubt.
Conservatives want to help ease crippling rates of aboriginal poverty, Prentice stressed in an interview.
But throwing money at dilapidated housing and dysfunctional education systems isn't enough, he said.
"It's not just about someone writing a cheque.
"We take Kelowna seriously. We'll be moving forward on some sort of a rational, sustainable finance plan built around it. But I've also discovered in the time since I've become the minister that there's an awful lot of implementation -- an overwhelming amount -- that needs to be addressed to make this all work.
"And a lot of that stuff needs to be done ... before the money flows. Otherwise, we'll just be doing business the way we used to do business. And everyone has agreed that doesn't work.''
Prentice wouldn't say whether Kelowna funding will be withheld from the first Tory budget expected this spring.
"All I can say is, stay tuned. I'm working on it.''
Financial details were never worked out or approved for Kelowna, he added.
It's not the first time a Conservative has pointed that out. Indeed, former finance critic Monte Solberg -- now immigration minister -- made headlines during the election campaign in January when he accused the Liberals of crafting the Kelowna deal "on the back of a napkin on the eve of an election. We're not going to honour that.''
Prentice later tried to backpedal, but his latest comments are "astounding,'' says Liberal native affairs critic Anita Neville.
"Kelowna was the result of 18 months of meetings between the government of Canada and all the aboriginal stakeholders.
"It was signed by (Ottawa), the first ministers and aboriginal leaders with a 19-page implementation plan of clear targets and accountability measures.''
Its dilution or loss would be a tragic step in the wrong direction, Neville said.
Kelowna promises include:
- $1.8 billion to close the education gap by 2016 so that native high school and post-secondary graduation rates are closer to the non-native norm.
- $1.6 billion for housing and infrastructure, including a new focus on native home ownership and $400 million to improve water quality on reserves.
- $1.3 billion to help reduce infant mortality rates, youth suicide, childhood obesity and diabetes while doubling the number of health workers by 2016.
While Prentice stressed Tory commitment to such goals, the Conservative election platform was virtually silent on related funding commitments.
Instead, it promises "opportunity and respect for aboriginals'' through an ambitious plan to revamp legislation and settle land claims. Conservatives also hope to scrap the Indian Act -- a dicey prospect that has stymied successive governments who've retreated from widespread native protest.
Some native leaders were outspoken during the election about their fears for Kelowna.
Metis National Council president Clement Chartier said Solberg's comments were proof "that the Conservatives have little to no respect or appreciation for aboriginal peoples.''
But Patrick Brazeau, the new head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, says his group had lingering concerns about the Kelowna deal. The congress officially endorsed the Tories and has long battled with the national Assembly of First Nations (AFN) for influence in Ottawa.
"There was a lot of hard work going into the process,'' Brazeau said. "But our issue was: Where will the money be taken from to support these commitments and where will it go?''
Phil Fontaine, national chief of the AFN, met Monday for two hours with Prentice.
He emerged optimistic that the minister will support the goals of Kelowna, but he urged Prentice to take action.
"The minister stated in the media recently that `aboriginal Canadians are not going to live with risk' as long as (he) is minister.'''
Prentice can prove his resolve "by working immediately to implement the commitments from the (Kelowna agreement),'' Fontaine said.
First Nations propose more specific wellness approach to Ontario's AHWS
February 27, 2006 - 7:56pm | by AnonymousFrom Union of Ontario Indians web site at http://www.anishinabek.ca/uoi/
February 24, 2006
TORONTO - The Anishinabek Nation is supporting a First Nations-specific approach to health-care programs being delivered to its citizens in Ontario.
Grand Council Chief John Beaucage joined a delegation of First Nations leaders who presented the First Nations-Ontario Health Accord at Queens Park Thursday.
“A jointly agreed upon Health Accord is consistent with both the government-to-government relationship, the government’s policy of a New Approach to Aboriginal Affairs and ensures the continued protection of our aboriginal and treaty rights,” he said.
The proposed Health Accord concept was endorsed by all First Nations in Ontario on February 10, 2006, and offers the province a “single-window” approach to dealing with First Nations governments in the areas of health and healing. It addresses First Nations concerns that the pan-aboriginal approach to administering First Nations and Métis programs is no longer acceptable.
Beaucage expressed disappointment that, since the McGuinty government instituted its New Approach to Aboriginal Affairs policy in June 2005, First Nations, Métis and even non-governmental service providers have been dealt with in a "homogenous" way.
“The use of the term ‘aboriginal’ has concerned all First Nations people,” he said. “This new government policy and this homogenous term have been used as a “catch-all” to deal with First Nations and Métis issues. To group all aboriginal people in Ontario together, and refuse to deal with First Nations on a government-to-government basis is to show disrespect to our people."
First Nations leaders from across the province met with The Hon. Sandra Pupatello, Minister of Community and Social Services, after learning that The Hon. George Smitherman, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, and The Hon. Mary Anne Chambers, Minister of Children and Youth Services both backed out of the scheduled meeting at the last minute.
Discussions centred around concerns of the provincial Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy (AHWS), an initiative that funds various community health and family violence programs across Ontario. First Nations leaders contend that Ontario’s policy in dealing with AHWS is not consistent with a true government-to-government relationship.
"Although there have been some successes, the continuation of the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy in its current form is no longer acceptable," Beaucage told the meeting. " From our perspective, significant change is needed." He agreed with Minister Pupatello about the need for increased accountability for health-care programs serving First Nations citizens and for First Nations to have a greater say on the design, delivery and evaluation of them.
First Nations leaders also used the meeting to raise concerns about the controversial Bill 36, the Local Health Systems Integration Act, designed to establish 14 Local Health Integration Networks across the province to oversee health care delivery. They maintain that First Nations specific needs, interests, and rights have been ignored to date in the legislative process.
The Anishinabek Nation incorporated the Union of Ontario Indians as its secretariat in 1949. The UOI is a political advocate for 42 member First Nations across Ontario. The UOI is the oldest political organization in Ontario and can trace its roots back to the Confederacy of Three Fires, which existed long before European contact.
Matawa Employment & Training Announces Aboriginal Employment Equity Workshop
February 27, 2006 - 7:46pm | by AnonymousAttention Employers - Don't miss this great learning opportunity!
February 27, 2006, Thunder Bay, ON:
Matawa Employment & Training (MET), in collaboration with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), the Aboriginal Employment Resource Committee (AERC), Service Canada and the North of Superior Training Board (NOSTB) announced today they are joining forces to host a workshop aimed at Federal Contractors and Legislated Employment Equity Program employers.
The one and a half day workshop titled: "Creating Networks in the Aboriginal Community through Relationships in the Workplace" is scheduled for the first and second day in March at the Fort William First Nation Community Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Says Larry Spence, Community Development Officer at MET: "This workshop is a great opportunity for employers to gain some practical tools to help them connect with Aboriginal students and graduates from the Thunder Bay region."
Designed to assist organizations in understanding the barriers and solutions to recruiting, retaining and advancing Aboriginal participation in the workforce, participants will learn how to tap in the underused but valuable Aboriginal Labour pool.
"A large part of MET’s goal is to help First Nation people of all ages to achieve their personal career goals through improved access to employment opportunities and training initiatives and this workshop is one more step in the right direction," says Spence.
For more information about the workshop, please contact: Larry Spence, Community Development Officer, Matawa Employment and Training at 807-344-8070
- 30 -
Media Contact: Lisa Kokanie Tel: 807-767-4443, fax: 807-767-4479, email: lisa@firedogpr.com
Mining exploration firm leaves Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug territory
February 27, 2006 - 6:11am | by AnonymousThe mining exploration company that was searching for minerals without the support of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Aski, have pulled up stakes and left the K.I. traditional territory. Click here to check out the pictures of the protest.
The peaceful weekend protest by community members and their supporters from other First Nations proved successful. By Sunday, the mining company had completed taking down their camp and leaving the area.
Chief Donny Morris made the following statement to the supporters of the K.I. traditional territory ...
"The protest at this phase(on site) has ended with success. We thank the support of Chiefs, members from other First Nations and K.I members who supported and reaffirmed our Sovereignty Title to the land we call home. However we will continue to guard the land as custodians of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Aski."
Visit http://bigtroutlake.firstnation.ca for links to the media coverage of this struggle to defend the traditional territory of K.I.
Kenora groups get together to provide support for Aboriginal students
February 26, 2006 - 5:19pm | by Anonymousfrom http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/story.php?id=215194
Sport and recreational council to offer more help to aboriginal students
By Mike Aiken - Miner and News - February 24, 2006
Grade 9 students have enough trouble making it through the year. Imagine if you were a First Nation student from a small community.
Beaver Brae principal Sean Monteith announced Wednesday he will be working with the St. Thomas Aquinas, the city, Treaty 3 and a number of community groups on a new athletic program which will help encourage aboriginal youth to stay in school.
Known as the Kenora Aboriginal Sport and Recreational Council, it’s modeled on its Winnipeg counterpart, and sponsors are hoping to build role models with leadership potential.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a more exciting time,” Monteith said, referring to a number of new initiatives.
They include the province’s Learn to 18 policy, which is meant to help ensure all young people across Ontario graduate, as well as new supports for literacy and skills development.
Locally, there is also the urban aboriginal program operating in partnership with the NeChee Friendship Centre and the Fellowship Centre, where First Nations teens who have dropped out can get a chance to rejoin their peers through independent learning.
As it stands, Monteith remembered speaking with a young woman from Wabaseemoong (Whitedog), who was new to the school.
“She was just thrown in and away she goes,” he said, noting the lack of structured supports for new students.
In an effort to address these issues, the school is hoping to run a course for new Grade 9 and 10 students where they will get help with the organizational skills and coping techniques.
“I would say that we’re probably losing a lot of kids, and that’s unacceptable,” he said.
In an effort to better track their aboriginal students and their progress, both school boards have started asking parents to self-identify. While the numbers and the data are still being collected, some trends are already clear.
In recent years, First Nation students have comprised 30 per cent of Beaver Brae’s population of 950, but less than half were expected to complete their year.
By 2010, the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board is expecting its population to be 50 per cent aboriginal.
Through the added supports in the school’s proposal, Monteith is hoping to see a two per cent increase in graduation rates, as well as a five per cent increase in participation rates in extra-curricular athletics.
COO hosts First Nation youth gathering in Six Nations to discuss education
February 25, 2006 - 7:29am | by AnonymousKeewaytinook Okimakanak, through Industry Canada's First Nations SchoolNet and the Ontario Regional Management Organization, sent a team of youth to this year's Chiefs of Ontario 3rd Annual First Nations Youth Symposium in Six Nations.
The SchoolNet team is made up of participants in this year's Youth Employment initiative that participated in the Cisco Academy of Learning ITE1 program and successfully completed the course. Angie Fiddler, the project coordinator and Angus Miles, the ITE1 Training Coordinator travelled to the gathering along with Cal Kenny and Kanina Terry to present these youth with their certificates and document this event. As well, Angus will be working with those youth who are now working through the Cisco ITE2 course, helping them complete their lessons. Click here to check out the pictures from this event
The Ontario First Nations Young Peoples Council invited youth from across Ontario to attend this gathering that is being held this weekend, February 24-26, 2006. Click here to check out last year's gathering
This event is being jointly hosted in Six Nations of the Grand River and Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation.
This year’s theme is focusing on Education and providing First Nations youth with the opportunity to learn of First Nation approaches to education, balancing traditional values in pursuit of education, the importance of languages, and other relevant topics. In addition there are planned presentations and discussions from youth regarding the challenges and opportunities before them.
All First Nation youth 16-29 years of age were invited to attend this symposium. However, youth under 18 are required to have a chaperone. The Chiefs of Ontario were not covering the cost of travel for participants and therefore the participants were encouraged to seek sponsorship for this event. First Nations were encouraged to support their youth to attend by assisting in costs for travel. Accommodations for out of town participants are being provided.
The symposium is intended to bring together youth, educators, traditional elders, and technical experts for the opportunity to dialogue and share information that will participants and First Nations youth in general. This gathering is intended to provide a framework for the OFNYPC to develop a strategy to lobby on issues pertaining to education.
