Media.Knet.Ca

Sioux Mountain Public School students are fundraising this school year to raise money for their annual Toronto trip to be held in June 2007.

A spaghetti dinner organized by the Grade 7/8 students of Sioux Mountain Public School will be held on Friday, November 24th at the KC Hall.  Two sittings at 5 pm and 6 pm will be served by students and parents.  Menu includes spaghetti, salad, roll, refreshments and dessert.  Cost is $8.00 for adults, youth and children $6.00 and kids eat free. 

The draw for the Weekend Getaway in Thunder Bay will be drawn that night as well as a silent auction and light entertainment. 

This is the start of many fundraising ventures for the school to raise their goal of $50,000. 

Community support is greatly appreciated.  For more information please contact Debbie Michaud at 737-0045 or Rhonda Konrad

From Make Poverty History (http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/e): A message from the AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine ...

The First Nations Plan for Creating Opportunity

Dear Make Poverty History supporter:

In Canada, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) recently launched Make Poverty History: The First Nations Plan for Creating Opportunity. We are asking all members of the public to sign our on-line petition to ensure that the Government of Canada sees that First Nations poverty is a truly shared issue for all Canadians.

First Nations poverty is the single greatest social justice issue in Canada.

There are more than 750,000 First Nations people living in Canada, on reserves, in urban areas and in Northern Territories. Compared to Canadians:

• one in four First Nations children live in poverty versus one in six;
• life expectancy is 7.4 years less for First Nations men and 5.2 years less for First Nations women;
• overcrowding in First Nations homes is almost double;
  mold contaminates almost half of homes;
• socioeconomic conditions has been compared to developing countries with health status well below the national average. First Nations people simply cannot afford the means to good health.

November 21, 2006 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples' (RCAP) final report. Our report card on RCAP implementation shows that Canada has failed to act on most of the recommendations.

One year ago, First Ministers of all federal, provincial and territorial governments, and leaders of First Nations and other Aboriginal organizations unanimously agreed to adopt the Kelowna Accord. Unfortunately, the commitments made in the 10-year Plan for closing the gap in poverty between First Nations and other Canadians have not yet been honored by the new federal government, although the Conservative party platform agreed with the targets to be achieved.

Yet, it costs more to keep First Nations in poverty than creating opportunity.

You can help to create pressure for long overdue action on First Nations poverty by signing the on-line petition at http://www.afn.ca/webcast/petition/wcr.htm. More information is also provided on the website.

Please join us in the struggle to Make Poverty History for First Nations and Create Opportunity for First Nations.

Thank you.

Phil Fontaine
National Chief

From http://66.244.236.251/article_9668.php

Ontario delaying mining legal battle: First Nation
By Angela Pacienza, The Canadian Press - Nov 18, 2006
 
TORONTO — Ontario’s refusal to sign off on an agreement that would kick-start negotiations between aboriginals and a mining company is hampering any resolution of the contentious dispute, a native spokesman says.

The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation claims the provincial government is refusing to sign a basic consultation agreement would allow them to begin court-ordered talks with Toronto-based Platinex Inc.

The junior exploration company wants to drill in the Big Trout Lake area, some 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. While the proposed site is not on reserve land, it is within the aboriginal band’s traditional territory.

Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci’s signature would prove the government is sincere about wanting to resolve whether Platinex can drill on the remote, fly-in-only property, said band spokesman John Cutfeet.

“It is absolutely essential to demonstrate good faith and that they are actually trying to meet the standards by the decision of the judge,” he said.

While some preliminary talks have been held, the aboriginal band says meaningful negotiation can’t begin until the agreement is signed.

Bartolucci maintains that the document is still being written and that’s why he won’t sign.

“I am ensuring that our ministry is involving themselves in a very proactive way with ensuring that the protocol is in place,” said Bartolucci.

He added that the ministry has offered up a “considerable amount of money to help with those consultations.”

The case could have wider implications for exploration in the province’s mineral-rich north because the band is also challenging the Ontario Mining Act on constitutional grounds.

The band wants the act to mandate consultation with aboriginal people even before explorers go in search of gold, diamond and nickel deposits so that the mostly impoverished communities can reap some economic benefit from mining.

The dispute escalated earlier this year when protesters blocked an access road and landing strip, arguing the government had no right to grant Platinex a mining permit for their land.

Platinex filed a $10-billion suit and asked for a court order to remove the protesters. The band filed a countersuit and successfully obtained an temporary injunction prohibiting exploration on the land.

Superior Court Justice Patrick Smith gave the band, company and province five months to talk.

They’re all due back in court on Jan. 5.

Given the looming deadline, the government’s explanation that the agreement isn’t ready amounts to nothing more than a stalling tactic, said Cutfeet.

He said other provincial governments have had no qualms about signing similar documents as part of the normal protocol before beginning talks.

He pointed to the Blueberry River First Nations in British Columbia who inked a consultation agreement regarding the oil and gas sector last year.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton said the government needs to start working with First Nations people or all sides will lose out on potentially billions of dollars worth of mineral deposits on native property.

“The far north probably has some of the best mineral resources and mineral reserves in the world,” said Hampton, who represents the Northwestern Ontario riding of Kenora-Rainy River.

“But the First Nations correctly have said they are not prepared to allow any kind of mining development activity to happen unless and until there are real honest and actual consultation with the Ontario government.”

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From http://www.guelphmercury.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=mercury/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1163852288126&call_pageid=1050067726078&col=1050421501457

Aboriginals say Ontario stalling on mining legal battle
 
TORONTO (Nov 18, 2006)

Ontario's refusal to sign off on an agreement that would kick-start negotiations between aboriginals and a mining company is hampering any resolution of the contentious dispute, a native spokesperson says.

The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation claims the provincial government is refusing to sign a basic consultation agreement would allow them to begin court-ordered talks with Toronto-based Platinex Inc.

The junior exploration company wants to drill in the Big Trout Lake area, some 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. The proposed site is within the aboriginal band's traditional territory.

The following online document from 2003 describes a reality faced by all not-for-profit groups across Canada. Understanding these major shifts by government programs and their agents is important for any new or existing organization along with First Nation communities.

Funding Matters: The Impact of Canada's New Funding Regime on Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations

http://www.vsi-isbc.ca/eng/funding/fundingmatters

From the Executive Summary: A Warning and an Opportunity

The capacity of the nonprofit and voluntary sector to fulfill its important role in Canadian society is being undermined and eroded by new funding strategies that are intended to increase accountability, self-sufficiency and competition.

This study describes the emergence of a new funding regime for the nonprofit and voluntary sector and warns of serious challenges for the sustainability of a cross-section of organizations. Instability of this sector threatens the future of a diverse range of social, health, cultural, recreational, environmental, and other not-for-profit community services for millions of Canadians. ...

The study found that on the funding side:

• Funders are adopting an increasingly targeted approach to funding.
   
• There has been a marked shift away from a core funding model, which funds organizations to pursue their mission. The new model is project-based and is characterized by contracts that give funders increased control over what the organization does and how it does it.
   
• Funders are reluctant to fund administrative costs that cannot be directly tied to a project or program.
   
• Funding is being provided for shorter periods of time, and is increasingly unpredictable.
   
• Reporting requirements have increased.

Funders are increasingly requiring organizations to make joint submissions with other project partners and to demonstrate that they have secured funding from other sources – either financial or in-kind contributions – before extending their support.
No one disputes the right of private donors to allocate their money as they see fit, whether it involves individual or corporate giving. This study describes concerns in some quarters about the trend among private corporations to replace donations with sponsorships. But the major, overriding concern is about the new funding strategies of governments, which are the largest funders of the nonprofit and voluntary sector in Canada.

To be clear, the participants in this study were generally supportive of the stated motives of funders to increase accountability, support partnerships, promote diversification of funding sources, and foster efficiency and innovation within the sector. However, the study found a major disconnect between the stated intent of funding reforms and the consequences of these changes for nonprofit and voluntary sector organizations across the country.

Recognizing that organizations are coping with current realities in a variety of ways and with differing levels of success, the study has identified some worrisome trends:

• Volatility – As organizations struggle to diversify their funding sources, they can experience huge swings in revenue. This volatility undermines an organization’s stability and its capacity to provide consistent, quality programs or services, to plan ahead, and to retain experienced staff.
    
• A tendency to “mission drift” – As organizations scramble to qualify for narrowly prescribed program funding or to win government contracts, some are being pulled away from their primary mission, which is their long-term purpose and the source of their credibility within the community.
    
• Loss of infrastructure – With the move to project-based funding and the tightening of restrictions on administrative costs that will be covered by funders, some organizations are losing their basic infrastructure. They are becoming a series of projects connected to a hollow foundation.
   
• Reporting overload – Many smaller organizations are losing heart as they face yet another round of short-term contracts, short-term hiring and letting-go of program staff, all the while pursued for multiple reports from multiple funders with multiple forms and requirements.
   
• House of cards – Because funders often now require financial or in-kind contributions from other sources, the loss of one contract or the end of one partnership agreement can bring down the whole interlocking structure. A service that is thriving one year can collapse the next. Organizations despair of arrangements in which funders will not commit until other funding partners are on-side, the last one standing being the preferred position.
   
• Advocacy chill – When organizations must cobble together different projects and partners in order to survive, being seen as an outspoken advocate on behalf of one’s client group can be regarded as too risky, despite the justice of the cause. Some organizations may not want to have their name in the media when their next funding submission comes up for approval. In effect, advocacy organizations have been effectively marginalized over the past 10 years.
   
• Human resource fatigue – People, both paid and volunteer, are stretching themselves to the limit to meet the new challenges and yet remain faithful to their mission and to the citizens and communities to whom they feel responsible. But how long can this go on?

The news media is carrying all the meetings that Prime Minister Harper is having in the far east where he is addressing other countries' human rights violations. Back in Canada, Aboriginal people continue to be discriminated against by a system and nation that has gained so much at their expense. To see Canada arguing against the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights for Indigenous People is just another example of our shameful treatment of Aboriginal people.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1163803814049&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

Where tragedy falls off Canada's map - Along with poverty, addiction, despair, aboriginal communities battle myths

Nov. 18, 2006 - MARIE WADDEN - ATKINSON FELLOW

Aboriginal communities are out of sight from most Canadians. Our family spent two weeks one summer on Vancouver Island. My children were hoping to see the people who made the wonderful totem poles of Stanley Park. We didn't see a single aboriginal person in our travels.

I understand better now, after a frustrating drive back and forth on the same highway this summer looking for the Nanoose Band Reserve near Lantzville, B.C. There aren't many off ramps for reserves. Few of the communities I visited this year, as part of my research on addiction among aboriginal people, are marked on road maps, or signposted on provincial highways.

Not even the largest reserve in Manitoba — Sagkeeng, population 3,000. To get there I drove a couple of hours from Winnipeg to the Pine Falls turnoff. A gas station attendant pointed me towards town and said "drive that way."

I drove past prosperous middle-class homes. The source of wealth — a large paper mill. Alongside it are railway tracks. On the other side of the tracks is a long line of cookie-cutter CMHC bungalows stretching as far as the eye can see. I knew I was on the reserve because I'd also run out of pavement. This was the pattern wherever I travelled and I began to see the lack of pavement as a metaphor for neglect.

Neighbours to reserves have told me over the years, "pavement isn't a priority for them." Or, "I guess they've got other priorities." The assumption is, aboriginal people choose bad roads.

The aboriginal community has been fighting assumptions for more than a century, most of them about the money — "our money," as one friend pointed out — being spent on their welfare and problems. This year, it is about $9 billion, out of Canada's total budget of $227 billion.

Sometimes the money doesn't make it to them. In 2005, $700 million was allocated for aboriginal health care, but the money never left Ottawa. The bill to free up this money was not passed before the Liberal government fell.

Yet that same year, $2.6 billion was fast-tracked for Newfoundland after Premier Danny Williams insisted on getting a fair share of offshore oil and gas revenues. The message: There are twice as many aboriginal people in this country as there are Newfoundlanders, but they don't count as much.

Through the writing of this series I found a daunting list of aboriginal problems — poverty, alcohol addiction, suicide — and the path to solutions isn't an easy one.

When I applied for the Atkinson Fellowship, my topic was The Money Pit. Why Throwing Money at Aboriginal Addictions Doesn't Work. I changed the title to Tragedy or Triumph? Canadian Public Policy and Aboriginal Addictions to gain acceptance into aboriginal communities.

Now I know it's neither a money pit nor a triumph. It is a tragedy, and not one of aboriginal making.

There are about 391,000 aboriginal people living on reserves in Canada, and more than a million others in towns and cities across the country, including 40,000 Inuit in the Far North.

The United Nations Human Development Index equates the aboriginal standard of living in this country with that of Brazil, well below the Canadian norm.

In 1978, I was in the Labrador community of Davis Inlet, where the people lived in shacks. "Indians don't know how to live in houses," I was told. Inside I found walls built without struts, sheets of drywall installed without proper framing, a single lightbulb to light a three-bedroom house. The "Indians" didn't build these houses; some southern contractor profited from the construction.

This year, I met Phyllis and Andy Chelsea, a Shuswap couple in B.C. whose house is rotting with mould. Statistics Canada says 50 per cent of reserve housing is like this.I was so wrapped up in writing their story, I missed an event at my child's school. Later, when a parent asked where I'd been, I told her about the Chelseas' predicament. Her husband works for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and has told her the houses on reserves are mouldy because "they leave their water running."

I lived with the Chelseas for a couple of days at Alkali Lake and their water wasn't running. Neither was the electricity. Huge trucks piled high with timber routinely knock out the power lines. To add insult to injury, the truck drivers are not aboriginal. And the timber is going off the reserve, to enrich someone else's life.

Contrary to some taxpayers' perceptions, aboriginal people don't get their housing free. It is provided through loans to band councils that are repaid by charging rent. In B.C., I heard many stories of people being evicted by band councils because they couldn't afford to pay their rents. Taxes? Only goods purchased on reserves are tax-free — most reserves have little to sell.

The Inuit pay all the same taxes we do and more because of the higher costs of goods shipped north.

Aboriginal people have another way of looking at the issue of "our" money. They believe "our" money is being made off their land. Some Canadian judges have agreed.

---------------------------------------------------------------`
You can either be on the side of helping us or you can decide to make the struggle that much harder'

Berma Bushie, of Hollow Water, Man.
-------------bbb-------------------------------------------------- 

Jim Prentice, federal minister of Indian and northern affairs, says the solutions to aboriginal poverty are through better education for their youth and he estimates it will take two generations to make a difference. He sees promise in a bill under study by the Senate that would fast-track aboriginal self-government. How long is that going to take? And if this minority government falls, any progress Prentice may have made goes to waste, like the Kelowna accord the Liberals negotiated before their defeat.

Aboriginal people have little faith in our political solutions. That's why they're doing so much on their own.

I did find stories of triumph, where aboriginal solutions to their own problems are making a difference. In June, I attended a banquet to celebrate the 25th birthday of the National Native Alcohol and Drug Addiction Program, a great source of success stories. This past August, I was in Edmonton, where 3,000 delegates from as far away as New Zealand gathered as part of an inspiring addiction healing movement driven by aboriginal Canadians. Later, in the aboriginal community of Sagamok, near Sudbury, I saw plans to make its people less dependent on welfare.

While addictions are my focus, it was impossible to visit aboriginal communities this year without hearing about the epidemic of suicide. In 2000, the Canadian Institute of Child Health reported 126 out of every 100,000 First Nations people has committed suicide, compared with 24 per 100,000 in the rest of the country. This is the most recent record we have of this unfolding tragedy. The Inuit complain no central agency tracks suicides in their communities, so how can they know if the situation is getting better or worse?

It certainly feels worse, as a weekend in Manitoba and northern Ontario taught me. On a Saturday morning, I was on the Hollow Water (Wanipigow) First Nation reserve not far from Winnipeg. I was driving a teen to the store. He was from a neighbouring reserve and was staying with relatives because he was having nightmares at home. His sister's boyfriend had hanged himself and this young man had found the body. On the way to the store, he pointed to a house and said, "there's a suicide watch on a 15-year-old girl."

That same day I met a couple of teenage boys my own children would think were "very cool" because of the way they were dressed. When they agreed to pose for a photo, I nearly dropped the camera when I noticed rope burn marks on the neck of one of the boys from a suicide attempt.

Later the same day, Marcel Hardisty, a community leader in Hollow Water, told me he and his wife are raising a child orphaned by parents who committed suicide.

On Sunday, I drove to Kenora to meet Tania Cameron, the program manager of Aboriginal Wellness and Healing for the Kenora chief's advisory council. She was to take me to the Wabaseemoong Reserve the next day. A suicide there cancelled that visit.

I was reeling from this when I checked my emails before going to bed to find this, from Allan Saulis of the Maliseet Reserve in New Brunswick:"There was another suicide this weekend in our community. ... This will be the third. ... How many more will it take for the authorities, governments, and the media to take affirmative action once and for all?"

When I called Tania a few weeks ago, she told me 24-year-old Travis James Henry, whom I heard sing at the spring feast in Kenora, killed himself in September and a few days later she attended her brother-in-law's funeral. He also died by his own hand.

Aboriginal people appeared before the Senate committee on mental health and addictions a year ago to express their profound concern about the high rate of suicide. The senators were moved, but recommendations addressing aboriginal concerns buried within the report have not been acted on.

It wouldn't be fair to say nothing is being done. The federal government has launched a national strategy on youth suicides in aboriginal communities. But I fear it will take much more than a federal program to restore hope to aboriginal youth.

After spending a year going in and out of aboriginal communities, after reading dozens of books and countless reports, I've come to believe we have driven the original inhabitants of this country into a place where their survival is at risk.

Inuit women have raised the alarm about violence in their communities. Experts on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder warn of an impending social disaster if alcohol abuse is not curtailed in aboriginal communities. Sober people on reserves are begging for mental health and addiction training, and income parity for professionals to work in their communities. First Nations and Inuit leaders are asking for relief from a severe housing shortage and want a national health budget that reflects their population's needs.

Aboriginal people are not asking to be saved. They are asking for support. Berma Bushie of Hollow Water, Man., was tired, afraid and discouraged when we spoke, but resolute. "You can either be on the side of helping us or you can decide to make the struggle that much harder," she told me.

"I would like to believe there are good people out there, regardless of what positions they hold in government. I believe that goodness, that's what's going to triumph. I truly appreciate all the help that we've gotten from government up to now and I would hope that the help continues. That's all I ask for. The rest of the work that needs to be done is definitely on the part of aboriginal people."

It has been my great privilege to meet people like Berma Bushie this year. Whenever I have felt sad I've pushed myself to work a little harder, read more, write more.

Sad is passive. I wouldn't stand beside a lake where people are drowning and say "how sad.

"I'd jump in to lend a hand and I know most other Canadians would do the same."

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And the government officicals blame each other's government for the problems that continue to plague First Nation communities.

From http://www.wawatay.on.ca/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=5&pid=237

Tories respond to Valley's claims - 2006.11.09

In response to your November 7, 2006 story "MP blasts Tories over First Nations water," Liberal MP Roger Valley claims the federal government has failed "to provide safe drinking water."

This is simply not factual.

The community has a water treatment plant and water points in the community ensure that clean, drinkable water is available to all residents.

We acknowledge that the majority of homes have not been hooked up to the treatment plant. There are two main reasons for this:

1. The First Nation has limited power supply from a diesel generator, which cannot supply the electricity needed for pumping water to all the residences.
2. The issue is complicated by the presence of burial sites throughout the community, making it difficult to carry out the work necessary to hook up the houses.

Long before Mr. Valley called for "immediate action," Indian and Northern Affairs was working with the First Nation to develop a new hydro transmission line to the community from Red Lake.

Last month, October 19, 2006, the Ontario Regional Director General met with the Tribal Council and offered to co-ordinate all issues in the community, including proper sewage treatment and a new school, with the Department, the First Nation, the Tribal Council and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation.

Ontario region's current Five Year Capital Plan identifies $1 million for water and wastewater work in Pikangikum this fiscal year, $1.1 million for the next year, and a total of $9 million in future years.

The First Nation receives approximately $676,670 a year to support operations and maintenance of its water and wastewater treatment systems, as well as approximately $1.26 million a year in minor capital funding, some of which can be used for work on water and wastewater infrastructure.

The First Nation manages this funding, along with any user fees or other revenue, to safely operate and maintain its water and wastewater systems. We find it curious that Mr. Valley would allege inaction by Canada's New Government of nine months when his own riding, which includes the First Nation, was represented by a Liberal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs between 1999 and 2003.

I trust this helps clear up the numerous inaccuracies contained in the statement by the MP for Kenora.

Bill Rodgers
Director of Communications
Office of the Hon. Jim Prentice
Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

From http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2006/11/16/flanagan-pressclub.html

Selling reserve land could help solve poverty: professor - November 16, 2006 - CBC News

One of the only ways to address poverty on native reserves is to enhance property rights, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former senior campaign adviser said Wednesday night.

The system in place now is stopping aboriginal Canadians from improving their economies, said Tom Flanagan, a University of Calgary professor and co-editor of  Self Determination:The other path for Native Americans, a new book that takes a hard look at property rights on reserves.

The value of property on native reserves has gone up significantly, especially on the outskirts of cities like Calgary, he told a meeting held at the Ottawa press club. 

Yet people on reserves live in poverty and their homes are falling apart, added Flanagan, whose 2000 book, First Nations? Second Thoughts, called native reserves dysfunctional although he admits he's never been to one.

Under Canadian law, many people on reserves face restrictions when it comes to selling or leasing land but Flanagan believes some of those should be lifted.

Aboriginal people should have the right to sell some of their land to business developers, who would make better use of their property and create jobs for native people, he said.

"I don't think native people have much choice in the matter because they are maybe three per cent of the Canadian population," he added. "They are surrounded by western capitalism everywhere."

That comment angered Wayne Courchene, an adviser to the Assembly of First Nations. He said Flanagan's views are narrow-minded and don't take into consideration the traditional connection aboriginal people have to their land.

"I was outraged by the remark," he told CBC News. "I didn't think it reflected what a lot of Canadians feel."

Flanagan, whose work also questions why First Nations should live in a tax-free environment with free housing, stressed that he's not advising the government on aboriginal issues.

Press release ...

Ontario Power Generation and Lac Seul First Nation Sign Settlement Agreement

TORONTO, Nov. 16 - The Lac Seul First Nation (LSFN) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) are pleased to announce the signing of an agreement that resolves past impacts in the Lac Seul First Nation traditional territory and establishes the foundation for a positive relationship between the Lac Seul First Nation and Ontario Power Generation. The agreement also provides the opportunity for a commercial relationship with Lac Seul First Nation that will benefit both parties.

OPG's President and CEO, Jim Hankinson stated: "This agreement redresses issues of the past and provides the opportunity for establishing a new commercial relationship with the Lac Seul First Nation."

LSFN Elder Shamandy Kejick, speaking in Anishinaabemowin, opened the signing ceremony with a prayer and spoke about the hardships felt by the people of Lac Seul in the years since the first flooding. Councilor Mervin Ningewance followed the Elder with a drum song and traditional blessings for the signing ceremony. Chief Clifford Bull said: "This agreement recognizes the impacts of the past and looks forward to a more positive future. Our people support the work that is being done by OPG to add additional generation at the Lac Seul site. In the future we want to build a commercial relationship with OPG in which our people can benefit from projects on our traditional lands." Chief Bull also spoke on the First Nation now being able to begin to address the impacts to the reserve and its people. Several other Band Councilors, Youth Council Chief Dinah Maud, and former Chief David Gordon were also in attendance at the signing ceremony.

OPG's Executive Vice President, Hydro, John Murphy said: "This agreement is a model to facilitate the construction of new clean, renewable hydro power through a partnership between OPG and the Lac Seul First Nation." A new hydroelectric plant is currently being constructed at the Ear Falls site that will add over 12 MW of renewable supply to Northern Ontario.

This settlement addresses the impacts of the Root River diversion project and the generating stations at Ear Falls and Manitou Falls. The First Nation represents over 2,710 Band members, with approximately 850 living in one of the reserve's three communities.

Ontario Power Generation is an Ontario-based electricity generation company whose principal business is the generation and sale of electricity in Ontario. OPG's focus is on the efficient production and sale of electricity from our generation assets, while operating in a safe, open and environmentally responsible manner.

For further information: Ontario Power Generation, Media Relations, 1-877-592-4008 or (416) 592-4008; Lac Seul First Nation, (807) 582-3503, P.O. Box 100, Hudson, Ontario P0V 1X0

From http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061116.INDIGENOUS16/TPStory/?query=aboriginal

Ottawa's rejection of native-rights declaration 'sad' - BILL CURRY - POSTED ON 16/11/06

OTTAWA -- Canada's reputation as a human-rights leader will be smeared when it votes against a declaration on indigenous rights, warns the chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz said it is "very sad" that Canadian officials have gone from active supporters to strong opponents of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which could be put to a final vote as early as next week in New York.

"Canada has a substantial number of indigenous peoples, and having the reputation of being a champion of human rights, will definitely be smeared by this act that they are going to take," she said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

Ms. Tauli-Corpuz, a career advocate of indigenous rights in the Philippines, was elected as chair of the 16-member United Nations advisory group.

Canadian native leaders and all three federal opposition parties are accusing the Conservative government of harming Canada's reputation by reversing its position on the declaration, which has been discussed for more than 20 years and will finally come to a vote by the full United Nations as early as next week. It is one of the first two declarations to come out of the new Human Rights Council, which was established in May after strong support from Canada.

The declaration calls for the recognition that indigenous peoples be free from discrimination and provides an extensive list of rights that governments should extend.

But a Canadian official who has been involved in the international talks since 1984 said Ottawa's position has been consistent from the Liberal to Conservative governments.

Canada made a host of specific objections at a December, 2005, meeting when the Liberals were still in office, and when the final text did not address those concerns, the government of today decided to oppose the declaration.

"I can tell you definitely that the wording of [the section dealing with land rights] did not reflect the suggestions we put forward," said Fred Caron, an assistant deputy minister with Indian Affairs.

Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, who was not available for an interview, has said one of his main concerns is the line referred to by Mr. Caron, which states, "Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories, and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise acquired." In a detailed explanation posted on the Indian Affairs website, department officials argue that such wording is so broad that it could lead courts to interpret it as a native right to reopen land claims that have already been negotiated and settled.

Other concerns are that a duty to consult and obtain "free and prior consent" on issues that have an impact on indigenous peoples are so unclear that they could impede Parliament's ability to legislate in areas of native policy by granting a veto to undefined native groups. Wording dealing with "self-determination" could also be interpreted to allow native communities the right to full statehood, officials argue.

Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, is in New York this week lobbying other countries to ensure the declaration will pass. He insists Canada did change its position.

"We witnessed the 180-degree shift and we were extremely disappointed with the government's change of position on this," he said.

Craig Benjamin, of Amnesty International, says the document is not legally binding on governments and that the sections that worry Canada are tempered by other sections of the declaration.

"When governments like Canada or the U.S. or New Zealand or Australia make claims that you can take any particular article and predict dire consequences for law and order or for the operation of the state, it just doesn't work that way. None of the provisions will ever have that kind of weight," he said.

NOTE: Click here for more background information about the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

From http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.html?id=d9a3caae-1b0e-4054-a7be-11fbc4112e6a

Counterpoint: Native assimilation is not the answer - Waubageshig (Harvey McCue) - National Post - Nov 16, 2006

In a recent editorial, this newspaper praised former Ontario cabinet minister Alan Pope for his proposal to relocate the Cree residents of the troubled Kashechewan First Nation from their reserve near James Bay to the outskirts of Timmins, Ont.

But Mr. Pope and his media admirers are merely reiterating what many Canadians have argued for generations is the salvation for First Nations: "Get off the reserve and get a life!" In fact, this sentiment began in earnest with Duncan Campbell Scott who, as the deputy minister for Indian Affairs in the 1800s, officially commented numerous times that the only good Indian was an extinct one, or words to that effect.

If the residents of Kashechewan agree to it, the relocation proposed by Mr. Pope will result in their assimilation. The same would be true of any other isolated First Nations communities that accept this route.

Elsewhere, other First Nations, such as the Cree on the Quebec side of James Bay, are actively pursuing economic and social progress, and rejecting the conventional wisdom that says success for First Nations lies in assimilation. The principal difference between the communities on the two sides of the bay is that the Quebec Cree have acquired authority over their lives.

That authority has enabled the Quebec Cree to fashion a growing regional economy, a quality of life that combines ancient Cree traditions with Western modernization and a cultural confidence that is the bane of Quebec separatists. They have found a successful course that does not involve assimilation. Life is not perfect for the Quebec Cree, but they do have the tools to work at resolving their problems.

The Ontario Cree, by contrast, have been virtually ignored. The communities there have been left to subsist on federal government handouts rather than developing policies for their own benefit. That subsistence has led to what some might call a culture of dependence.

The condition stems from the views of an army of officials, who have been unwilling to see northern Indian communities as self-reliant. And so Ottawa continues to provide a minimal level of services, which ensures that a wholesale social collapse will be avoided but ignores any meaningful consideration of how these communities might become successful. Consequently, the residents lack the tools, i.e., the infrastructure, the institutions, the fiscal resources and, more importantly, the self-determination to do much more than make do with handouts.

Indeed, the federal government doesn't really know what "self-government" means for First Nations. If the Quebec Cree had relied on Ottawa to achieve their local and regional governments, their nation would now be in tatters. Moreover, the process to achieve Indian self-government -- as Ottawa defines it -- is mired in bureaucracy with little guarantee for success.

Relocating northern residents is the easy way out, the quick fix. The slow strangulation by the umbilical cord of government handouts is not a viable option either. Instead, we should support Kashechewan and similarly situated First Nations in creating a northern economy, and ensuring that they have the power necessary to take control of their land and resources.

For two centuries, officials and politicians have been trying to figure out how to get rid of Indians. As their strategic roles as key players in the early economy of the fur trade and as military allies waned, the preferred strategy came to be moving them as far as possible from developing areas onto remote, isolated patches of land. Duncan Campbell Scott predicted that residential schools would possibly be the final step in the process. Failing that, the Indian Act was used as an instrument of the state to get rid of Indians through the loss of Indian status.

Mr. Pope's suggested urban relocation of an entire community is just another step in that desperate process. Assimilation is simply not a justifiable or worthy goal for this country to pursue.

- Waubageshig (Harvey McCue) consults on a variety of First Nations issues

Founder and Drummer of MYRAGE, Raymond Kakepetum of Sandy Lake First Nation, was suprised to learn his band had been Nominated for Best Rock Album for the 2006 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards.

The family and friends of Raymond Kakepetum from Sandy Lake, On. would like to congratulate his band called Myrage who have been nominated for Best Rock Album with their album titled “Images” for the 2006 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards.

Myrage was number 1 for 4 weeks on NCI 105.5 FM Aboriginal Top 30 list and remained on the list for several weeks during 2005 with their song titled "Walk a Fine Line".

The winners will be announced on Friday, November 24th, 2006, at the John Bassett Theatre in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario.  The music awards show is a part of the Canadian Aboriginal Festival.

Congrats and the best of luck.