Category: 2015 04 03

Val-d’Or celebrates 15 years of cross-cultural solidarity at annual anti-racism event

Val-d’Or’s 15th anti-racism campaign focused on sensitizing professionals working in health and social services to the needs and cultures of the First Nations and Inuit living in the region. The two spokespersons for this year’s event were from the health and social services sectors: Dr. Stanley Vollant, an Innu surgeon who ... read more ››

Waswanipi launches free breakfast program

Michel Awashish and his friend Waka Hughes – affectionately known as Doctor Waka Waka – recently launched a free breakfast program for Waswanipi schoolchildren in association with the Breakfast Club of Canada. With the help of the local band council and community volunteers the two men have finally realized their dream ... read more ››

Genetic Sleuths attack mystery of Cree Disease

An historic meeting this week in Montreal promises that future generations of Cree will have more control over their health. “A lot of parents wanted to know why it was happening,” Annie Bearskin says of the Cree disease, which took her granddaughter’s life in 1998. “Right now, they’re very happy with ... read more ››

UN: Address problems of urban Natives

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues should discuss the situation of indigenous peoples living in urban areas, an indigenous representative told the Forum as it continued its review of United Nations activities relating to indigenous peoples. According to the representative from the Ainu Association of Sapporo (Japan), many Ainu had settled ... read more ››

Changing the future

This one was sent to the Nation via internet from Hawaii and was worthy of consideration by all. One day. when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of ... read more ››

That B.C. Referendum

Canada’s top pollster called the process “amateurish and one-sided” and one journalist called it “a repugnant, arrogant and demeaning attack on aboriginal people,” but the BC government has pushed ahead with its promise to hold an eight-question referendum on the province’s treaty process. Only 34.5 per cent of the province’s eligible ... read more ››

Community mourns three of their own

The small Inuit community of Kuujjuarapik is reeling from three suicides within 30 dtys. Two 18-year-olds and one adult, all male, took their lives for reasons known only to them. Why? This question was raised many times among the Inuit and in the adjacent Cnee village of Whapmagoostui and voices of ... read more ››

US judge upholds Makah whalehunt

A United States federal judge has rejected activists’ call for a halt to Makah whaling until their lawsuit challenging the hunt is resolved, AP reports. Judge Franklin Burgess’ ruling in Tacoma, Washington, came on the third anniversary of the tribe’s first successful gray-whale hunt in decades, on May 17, 1999. ... read more ››

Indigenous people take UN stage

The world’s indigenous peoples held their first official forum at the United Nations last week and demanded the collective ownership of land and payment for their medicinal knowledge. According to an Associated Press report, representatives of more than 900 indigenous peoples – living in regions from the tropical forests of Amazonia ... read more ››

Unholy Priests

One cannot help but wonder what is going through the mind of a priest such as John Geoghan as he is sexually abusing over 130 children during the last 30 years. It is also difficult to understand what goes through the mind of a man like Cardinal Bernard Law as he ... read more ››

Will on the Grill

When we all went out to the QCNA (Quebec Community Newspapers Association) awards in Magog last week, most of the staff decided to go golfing as the place we were staying was famous for it. I on the other hand heard there were not one but two wineries in the ... read more ››