ARTICLES BY the Nation

UN honours Inuit activist Watt-Cloutier

Environmental activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier is the recipient of a United Nations lifetime achievement award for human development. The 53-year-old Watt-Cloutier will receive the 2007 Mahbub ul Haq Award for Outstanding Contributions to Human Development in New York City on June 20. The honour is in recognition of her work fighting global ... read more ››

Waswanipi Band Council In Turmoil – Lawsuits and conflict of interest allegations as feud goes public

Former Cree Model Forest President Sam W. Gull is suing Waswanipi Chief John Kitchen, alleging Kitchen unfairly fined Gull and appointed Band Councillor Derek Neeposh to oversee the organization even though Gull had six months left on his contract Gull is looking to recoup money he says is owed to ... read more ››

Rupert River fight continues – Montreal’s Echofête event another effort to save river

They didn’t, as promised, bring the water from the Rupert River, but three Cree chiefs were able to make a big splash anyway. Up to 300 people attended the environmental festival Echofête April 18 at Cafe Campus in Montreal, and at the same time, gained a better understanding of the Cree ... read more ››

Cree childhood obesity is growing – report

Childhood obesity is an epidemic in Canada and the statistics are even more alarming among Aboriginal children. A study published recently in the American Journal of Public Health found that up to 65 per cent of Cree preschoolers in northern Quebec communities were overweight or obese. Dr. Noreen Willows, a community ... read more ››

Just don’t take him out to the bush

Quebec has a new Native Affairs Minister, and if his name sounds familiar, it’s because the new boss is the same as the old (old) boss. Premier Jean Charest reappointed Benoit Pelletier to the position the Chapleau MNA held from 2003-2005, when he was replaced by Geoff Kelly. Pelletier is part of ... read more ››

Waskaganish kids walk to protest drug and alcohol abuse

Children from the Winibekuu and Annie Whiskeychan Memorial Schools in Waskaganish relayed a strong message on April 12 that their community needs to fight rampant drug and alcohol abuse so they can live a brighter future. The walk, organized by the Walk Committee and the Crisis Intervention Committee, was a first ... read more ››

First Nations have last word on sovereignty

The sovereignty debate and the threat of separation in Quebec has torn apart families, devalued property and given the province a bad name for many years. APTN decided that they would consult Quebec’s first peoples about the issue last April 18. A panel of seven invited guests traded observations and theories ... read more ››

Time for a sober view of alcohol

The Mistissini Band Council’s recent decision to reject a Cage-aux-sports style resto-bar in the community is raising many questions. The first being, Why was it shot down so hastily? Calvin Blacksmith may or may not have been the right person to end the ban on alcohol sales in the community. He ... read more ››

A journey to heal wounds and shed inhibitions – Mistissini’s Journey of Wellness celebrates 10th year

As CBC North journalist Roderick Rabbitskin has discovered, the journey to wellness requires continual travel. In the Nation last year, Rabbitskin revealed that a community member had repeatedly abused him as a child. During this year’s Wellness Week, held in Mistissini March 17-22, Rabbitskin spoke of that terrible ordeal for ... read more ››

Nation wins 3 CCNA awards

The Nation took home three awards at the Canadian Community Newspaper Awards this year. The announcement was made on March 12. The awards are to be handed out in Winnipeg on May 11. This year’s showing is a slight improvement over last year, when Neil Diamond and the duo of Will ... read more ››

Feds defy Kashechewan choice

Leaders of Kashechewan are demanding their troubled community be moved to a site within their traditional lands. The demand comes as they rejected a federal offer to relocate to Timmins, Ontario, which is 450 kilometres away. They fear that with spring break-up coming, the community could be evacuated again, or worse, ... read more ››

A first for Manitoba First Nations

Manitoba lawyer Doreen Redhead has become the first aboriginal woman to be appointed a judge in Manitoba. Attorney General Dave Chomiak said having a female aboriginal judge gives the courts a better reflection of the population of Manitoba. Redhead graduated from the University of Manitoba Law School in 1996. She has practiced ... read more ››

Military manual targets Natives as potential terrorists

Canada’s military has been embarrassed over a draft counterinsurgency manual that identified the Mohawk Warrior Society as a terrorist threat. A Globe and Mail report detailed strategies to defeat hypothetical insurgencies and noted that the Mohawk Warrior Society was involved in the 1990 Oka crisis in Quebec, which spawned a ... read more ››

More native children than ever being taken from families

On February 23, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (FNCFCS), along with the Assembly of First Nations, filed a human rights claim in the name of the 27,000 First Nations children currently in state care. First Nations leaders said the number of children taken from their parents is greater than ... read more ››

Abenaki youth elected – Speaks Out

Alexis Wawanoloath is a political pioneer. At the tender age of 24, Wawanoloath is one of the youngest members to be elected in the March 26 provincial election… and he is the first Aboriginal to win office as a member of the Parti Québécois. Wawanoloath’s election represents a change in the ... read more ››

Former residential school students must decide on opt-out plan

The second phase of a national notification program has begun to alert former students of the Indian residential school system and their families that they must decide whether to stay in the legal settlement or remove themselves (opt out) from it by August 20, 2007. Notices will be distributed, published, ... read more ››

Fight isolation by sharing problems

Picture this; you are holding two people’s hands as you sit in a circle of happiness and comfort. You love and respect those around you and you trust them. You are surrounded by people you care about, people who can relate to what you’re going through, people who are living ... read more ››

Mistissini Social Club proposal gets clunked – Proposal to install ‘Cage aux Sports’ style resto-bar shot down by community members, band council

The community has spoken. In a six-hour meeting that attracted over 350 people to the elementary school in Mistissini, 31 out of 33 people walked up to the microphone and spoke out against the proposed idea of a resto-bar similar to Kuujuarapik’s social club. Billing his proposal as a ‘Cage aux Sports’ ... read more ››

‘We will build Great Whale’ – ADQ

In a stunning disregard for the Paix des Braves Agreement and the Cree Nation, Action Démocratique du Québec leader Mario Dumont has vowed that he would bring the multi-billion-dollar Great Whale hydroelectric project back to the forefront if his party came to power. “I still think that export, for Quebecers, is ... read more ››

Aboriginal leaders unhappy with federal budget

Aboriginal leaders across Canada are unhappy with the federal budget presented March 20 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. “This budget is doing nothing for First Nations people. It’s very disappointing,” Nova Scotia Micmac Chief Shirley Clarke said in the Montreal Gazette. “Sometimes confrontation may be the way to go, ... read more ››

Blockade on Route 117 removed

Motorists breathed a sigh of relief as a blockade on Route 117 between Val d’Or and Grand Remous was removed without incident. About 50 protestors, led by Confederation of Aboriginal Peoples leader Guillaume Carle, claimed they were asserting their Aboriginal rights and bringing to light the plight of off-reserve Natives and ... read more ››

‘Kelowna Bill’ passes House of Commons

Bill C-292, also known as the Act to Implement the Kelowna Accord, was passed in the House of Commons on March 22. The Bill was introduced after the Conservative government shot down the original Kelowna Accord signed in the fall of 2005 at the First Minister’s meeting by unilaterally deciding to ... read more ››

Chisasibi hosts successful job fair

The first-ever Regional Job Fair organized by the ==^ Cree Human Resources Department and held in Chisasibi, brought out many youth looking for a way to brighten their future by exploring jobs that interest them. High school students and adults alike were able to tour the booths, ranging in interest ... read more ››

The 2001 Census

In 2006 the last Canadian census was taken and though most of the information has been published, much of the data on Quebec’s north is still not available. What is available however is the new numbers on population amongst the Cree reserves and when you combine it with the previous ... read more ››

Weeneebeg Film Festival Celebrates Fifth Year – This year’s ‘community festival’ pays homage to the little guy

A lot can happen in five years. Just ask brothers Paul and Fred Rickard about their little festival that could. “When the Weeneebeg Aboriginal Film and Video Festival started off five years ago, we thought it would be a one-time event,” Paul Rickard, the filmmaking portion of the dynamic brotherly duo ... read more ››

The Kativik Regional Government’s female employees celebrated International women’s day with a potluck lunch

The Kativik Regional Government’s (KRG) female employees celebrated International women’s day with a potluck lunch on Thursday March 8th 2007. The chairperson for the KRG, Mrs. Maggie Emudluk attended the lunch and talked on the theme for the day, which was Ending Violence Against Women, Action for Real Results. Special guests, ... read more ››