Volume 18, Issue 10

A problem with firearms

I wish to address a serious and disturbing problem in the Cree Nation that is growing at an alarming rate and, quite frankly, it is simply unbelievable. Answer me this, how many times can you recall in the past year where there has been an incident of an intoxicated individual ... read more ››

Better than the Oscars!

According to Roberta Jamieson, President and CEO of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, this year’s awards show went off so well that it may have put some well-known American awards programs to shame. When asked if she thought it might have been a better show than the Oscars, she responded, “Well, ... read more ››

Congratulations

This is to express my excitement after reading the article written by Amy German, entitled “Cree Youth Going Global” in your January 14, 2011 issue of Nation (Vol. 18, No. 5) which features the story of Charley Wash [CNYC’s Youth Forum coordinator’s] “Cree World Youth” project. I am hoping to read ... read more ››

Creating dialogue, visually

Le Collectif photo – le Rapprochement is a visual-arts exhibit currently being exposed in Montreal North. It is the brainchild of Suzanne Bourdon, a Communications graduate from the Université du Québec à Montréal with a passion for photography. The idea for the exhibit was conceived in 2002 when Bourdon traveled ... read more ››

cree@large: Boyce Richardson

One of the first films where I recognized Native people as being genuine was Boyce Richardson’s Job’s Garden. Job Bearskin, the grandfather of one of my classmates, was exactly the way I saw him in Richardson’s documentary. Smiling, kindly, friendly and dignified, even as he limped, by our playground on ... read more ››

Grant me the serenity

It has been very cold here in the Timmins area since the beginning of January. I prefer the clean, fresh nature of winter but I have to admit that this 30 below weather is not much fun anymore. I am not on the land much these days and I am ... read more ››

Help find Jordan Wabasse

The family of 15-year-old Jordan Wabasse is calling on the public’s help to locate their son who has been missing since February 7, when he was last seen in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Wabasse family is particularly concerned since Jordan is a member of the Webequie First Nation, a remote Ojibway ... read more ››

Human rights tribunal dismisses complaint about the welfare of First Nations children

Both the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada (FNCFCSC) have expressed deep concern after the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal dismissed their joint complaint on discrimination caused by unequal funding for First Nation children in the child welfare system. AFN National Chief ... read more ››

Mid-March crisis

One of the many things that I think of, just for the sake of thinking of it, is – Is it normal to have so many catastrophes year after year? Is it just because we hear about it instantly, or is the world really going to hell in a bread ... read more ››

One step closer

While the Washaw Sibi Cree still remain displaced living amongst the Algonquins in the community of Pikogan, the Council Board of the Grand Council of the Crees/ Cree Regional Authority has finally set up a corporate entity that will manage the allocated funds and issue all of the contracts dealing ... read more ››

Raging in the age of light and darkness

I’m currently reading a great novel by Henry Porter about the temptations of totalitarianism in the birthplace of constitutional limits on state power. Porter’s book The Dying Light recounts an all-too-credible attempt by the British government to use a fake emergency to suspend citizen rights that have their origins in ... read more ››

Speaking out for the voiceless

“You don’t see it the way we have walked it,” said Bernie Williams, cofounder of Walk4Justice, a British Columbia-based organization that is devoted to raising awareness concerning Canada’s 582+ missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Williams, whose mother, two sisters and brother were all murdered in Vancouver’s downtown eastside, had come to ... read more ››

State of the Nation Grand Chief

It’s been an interesting year and Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come is probably one of the hardest working politicians in Canada. His typical day starts at 6am in the morning and doesn’t end until after midnight. Yet he still ensures he attends many functions, such as the opening of the ... read more ››

The home movie on a global scale

So many home videos of the multiple disasters to strike Japan over the past week have been posted online that, even while sitting in the comfort and safety of our homes, it’s almost as if you can suffer post-traumatic stress repeatedly reliving the tsunami horror that came roaring ashore in ... read more ››

US think-tank urges Canada to protect waters in the boreal forest

The Pew Environment Group, a US-based think-tank and non-profit group, has released a report, “A Forest of Blue: Canada’s Boreal Forest, the World’s Waterkeeper”, calling on Canada’s governmental and Aboriginal leaders to create legislation to protect waters found within Canada’s boreal forest. The report details how these waters are the world’s ... read more ››

Who will call the shots?

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for the Cree to dissolve the economic bonds which have connected them with one another, and to combine them, creating an economic engine, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Quebec and of a constitutionally protected agreement ... read more ››