ARTICLES BY Jesse B. Staniforth

“Unfair dismissal”

Waswanipi truck-driver Gary Cooper felt there was something wrong with his dismissal from the Cree Construction and Development Company (CCDC) in April 2009, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He says he was told he was being laid off due to a lack of work, but other workers ... read more ››

Legally empowered

Hope for the future: that was the theme uniting the many speakers and dignitaries who gathered in Chisasibi to open the community’s new Justice Centre on January 24. Chisasibi is the third community to inaugurate a Justice Centre in the past year, beginning with Mistissini last January, along with Waswanipi and ... read more ››

More graduates needed

In September, Mistissini’s Voyageur Memorial School celebrated a milestone achievement: it saw its first two students – Geraldine Shecapio and Jessica Jolly – graduate since 2006. Both have gone on to study at CEGEP – Jolly in Val-d’Or and Shecapio in Gatineau. The celebration over the achievements of those students, though, ... read more ››

Roadblock

On Saturday, January 28, the Mistissini Band Council received a 10-day injunction against the roadblock on Highway 167 North. The roadblock, preventing workers from beginning the construction of an extension of the highway to the Otish Mountains as part of the Charest government’s Plan Nord, had been put up by a ... read more ››

Meet the new boss Same as the old?

The appointment of Abitibi-Est MNA Élizabeth Larouche as Quebec’s PQ aboriginal affairs minister last September occurred with a minimum of comment, much less controversy. That might not be surprising since the approach of Larouche and her government toward First Nations appear to differ little from that of the previous Liberal ... read more ››

The struggle for unity

The high drama surrounding the January 11 meeting between First Nations leaders and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has focused national attention on aboriginal issues but also highlighted deep divisions between the grassroots ground troops of the Idle No More movement and Native politicians. The frenzied and sometimes chaotic preparation for the ... read more ››

Voices from around the Sacred Fire

At Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence’s camp on Ottawa’s Victoria Island, the Sacred Fire is at all times surrounded by helpers and people from many Nations who’ve come to pay their respects. Some stop and quietly make prayers; others hang around telling stories, laughing, or having serious discussions. I returned on ... read more ››

Where’s the heat?

The communities of Chisasibi and Wemindji declared a state of emergency on Monday, December 5, following a total power outage that left homes and public buildings without heat at a time when windchills were reaching down into the -30s.   At press time, emergency supplies of generators, stoves, firewood, propane, flashlights and ... read more ››