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Windspeaker Publication

Windspeaker Publication

Established in 1983 to serve the needs of northern Alberta, Windspeaker became a national newspaper on its 10th anniversary in 1993.

  • March 28, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor BARRIE, Ont.

Margaret Froh is confident that the Metis Nation of Ontario is ready to be led by a woman. Froh announced on March 21 her intention to seek the position of president. She says she was encouraged to run by retiring MNO President Gary Lipinski, who has also endorsed her candidacy.

Froh presently serves as both in-house legal counsel and associate chief operating officer to the MNO, as…

  • March 24, 2016
  • Andrea Smith Windspeaker Contributor EDMONTON

In response to the growing crisis of dwindling Indigenous languages, members of an art group with a social action agenda have come up with an interesting—though intensified—way to create new Indigenous speakers.

Members of the Onaman Collective—Erin Konsmo, Christi Belcourt, and Isaac Murdoch—have launched “Language Immersion House” projects across Canada. The original three were held…

  • March 24, 2016
  • Nigel Irwin Windspeaker Contributor TORONTO

It is disheartening that plays such as Judith Thompson’s The Crackwalker, which premiered 36 years ago, are still deeply relevant today. Because of some darkness within us, the dreadful experiences of physical and substance abuse, internalized racism and infanticide that The Crackwalker explores are realities that remain with us.

Factory Theatre is in its Naked Season, with six “…

  • March 24, 2016
  • Sam Laskaris Windspeaker Contributor SIMPCW FIRST NATION, B.C.

Members of a First Nation in British Columbia are hoping a short film will help its residents become more active and eventually turn its community into a tourist attraction.

The film, which is titled All Trails Are Indigenous, was released last week. The movie, just over seven minutes long, was shot this past October on the Simpcw First Nation.

The entire film can be viewed…

  • March 24, 2016
  • Windspeaker Staff

It seems a curious misstep for the Liberal government, so adroit at building its brand as enlightened, fair and just, to simply fail to address the serious—and proven—discrimination in child welfare funding on reserve.

Why didn’t they just get that monkey off their backs in the federal budget March 22? Why didn’t they just choose to get out from underneath the political burden of it, an…

  • March 24, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor OTTAWA

In a budget that runs a deficit of $29.4 billion, Cindy Blackstock does not understand why the federal government drew the line at $71 million for this upcoming fiscal year for child welfare services on reserve.

“When you have a deficit… you can’t fund everything. But racial discrimination against children should never be one of those criteria upon which they base their decision. We…

  • March 24, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor OTTAWA

Indigenous leaders are pleased, saying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has followed up on his campaign promises with funding. The federal budget delivered by the Liberal government on Tuesday committed $8.4 billion to Indigenous peoples over the next five years.

But while one Indigenous leader sees this budget as a strong step forward in closing the gap between Aboriginal and non-…

  • March 23, 2016
  • Compiled by Debora Steel

CBC is reporting that 82-year-old Wolverine, a leader of the 1995 Gustafsen Lake standoff in B.C., has died. William Jones Ignace, a Secwepemc man, spent five years in jail for his role in the standoff when 20 First Nations occupied sacred, unceded land near 100-mile House. The confrontation lasted 31 days, and this year people called for a national inquiry into the force brought to bear on…

  • March 23, 2016
  • Compiled by Debora Steel

“We have been betrayed by our elected leader," said Hereditary Chief Yahaan of the Gitwilgyoots Tribe of the Lax Kw'alaams. He said elected Mayor John Helin did not hold a community-wide meeting to secure a mandate to write “the highly questionable letter to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, which offered qualified conditional support for the LNG project on Lelu Island.

"Our…

  • March 23, 2016
  • Windspeaker Staff

RELEASE:   Today's federal budget is a significant step in closing the gap in the quality of life between First Nations peoples and Canadians and beginning the process of reconciliation, Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde says.
 
"The budget begins to address decades of underfunding and neglect, which have perpetuated a growing gap in the quality of life…

  • March 23, 2016
  • Compiled by Debora Steel

Doreen Nutaaq Simmonds went with her son and a friend to see Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie “The Revenant” and realized she was in the film, or at least her voice was, reported the Alaska Dispatch News. In a scene from the film, a poem is read quietly in the background as the Pawnee tribe helps DiCaprio’s character build a shelter. Her friend whispered to Simmonds “Hey! I can understand that!” The…

  • March 23, 2016
  • Compiled by Debora Steel

A 28-year-old woman was found March 10 just after midnight on a street in Thunder Bay. She was naked and screaming for help. Her mother is now accusing the local police of ignoring the crime committed against her daughter, because she is a First Nations woman and an addict, reports the CBC’s Jody Porter.

A man who had stopped to help the woman said the victim told the police she had…

  • March 23, 2016
  • Compiled by Debora Steel

The remains of Delaine Copenance, missing since Feb. 28, were discovered in Lake of the Woods in Kenora, Ont. Ontario Provincial Police confirmed the discovery March 22. OPP would not confirm if foul play was suspected. A forensic identification unit and the coroner had been sent to the scene at the end of Water St. at the dock. Searches were conducted in both Kenora and Winnipeg, but a ground…

  • March 22, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor OTTAWA

March 22, 2016.

As First Nations leaders wait for the federal budget to come down Tuesday afternoon, they also wait to see if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has kept his campaign promises and earned the ceremonial name bestowed on him by Tsuut’ina First Nation earlier this month:  “Gumistiyi” or “The One Who Keeps Trying.” 

“We’ll see after the budget,” said Assembly of First…

  • March 21, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor WET’SUWET’EN NATION

Four days after receiving a go-ahead letter for Pacific NorthWest LNG terminal from Mayor John Helin of the Lax Kw’alaams Band, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) has requested more information from Pacific NorthWest.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna has granted a three-month extension.

And if that extension does not include more…