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Toxic waste from outside Alberta may soon be treated at the Swan Hills plant in northeast Alberta.

Alberta's Natural Resources Conservation Board has approved he province's bid to import toxic waste for treatment at the plant, which sits on the traditional lands of the First Nations that signed Treaty 8 in 1899.

"What we're going to see happening if they get away with this is the concentration of the worst of the worst net to Indian lands," said Brian Staszenski, executive director of the Environment Resource Centre in Edmonton.

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Staff at Native friendship centres across the country are in a state of shock after learning that up to 75 per cent of their funding may be cut by the federal government.

There has even been talk of eliminating all core funding to the 99 friendship centres currently supported by the federal Heritage Ministry.

"It's absolutely unconscionable to cut funding to a program that has provided so much benefit to Aboriginal people and the Canadian mosaic in general," said Marc Maracle, executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres.

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A Liberal promise to appoint an Arctic ambassador was made good by Foreign Affairs Minister Andre Oullet with the announcement that long-time politico Mary Simon would take on the assignment.

Simon pioneers the position in two respects: She is the country's first ever ambassador to the circumpolar region and is the first ever Inuit to hold an ambassadorial role.

"Mary Simon will be an effective and knowledgeable voice for Canada in its dealings with other circumpolar nations," said Oullet.

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Native leaders and the British Columbia have come to a tentative agreement regarding a ski hill expansion in the Okanagan.

After four days of round-the-clock discussion with the Penticton, Upper and Lower Similkameen bands, the provincial government has reached an initial agreement with the band, said Penticton councillor Stewart Phillip.

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An Algonquin chief who was tried in a court conducted in a foreign language, without benefit of a translator, has appealed to the Quebec Court of Appeal for justice.

Chief Jean-Maurice Matchewan was sentenced to six months in jail on Nov. 21 despite the fact much of his trial on assault charges was conducted in French, a language he does not understand.

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At least 20 people, the majority under the age of 14, in a northern Ontario reserve have been exposed to radioactive dust and gases from vandalized lights being tested on a community helicopter landing pad.

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Nov. 18 was a day of jubilation in James Bay as the new spread that Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau had indefinitely postponed the massive Great Whale hydroelectric project.

Some couldn't believe their ears. A band official in Great Whale (Whapmagoostui in Cree) stood holding the phone for two minutes in silence when he heard the news.

"This must be some cruel joke," he finally muttered.

"Everyone was jumping around joyfully and shaking hands," said Whapmagoostui Chief Matthew Muskash. "People were just going wild."

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In what is perhaps the most unusual land claim to date, two Ontario First Nations are seeking 22,000 hectares and $90 billion in compensation.

On May 27 of this year, the Saugeen and Nawash Ojibway filed a statement of claim against Ontario and Canada for a breach of their fiduciary obligations (trusteeship to the First Nations in the negotiation and signing of the Treaty of 1854.)

The Saugeen and Nawash Ojibway are also asserting ownership of road allowances currently vested in nine municipal defendants in Gray and Bruce Counties.

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When the National Film Board invited Catherine Anne Martin to do a documentary about traditional parenting in Native communities across Canada, she wasn't sure where to start.

"I thought this is a big topic," says Martin. "I'll be working on this till I die. The appropriate way to do that kind of film would be to live in those (Native) communities."

Instead, inspiration came from her own community.

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Solvent sniffing really doe smelt your brain, says a physician in Edmonton's inner city.

"All of those substances that can be sniffed - they can dissolve organize material, and our bodies are made up of organic tissue," said Dr. Amy Borkent, a family physician at Edmonton's Boyle-McCauley Health Centre.

"The place that most of that happens is in the brain."