For 11 years, Xstine Cook has been trying to realize her goal to honor a woman struck down by violence.

Gloria Black Plume’s body was found in an alleyway in the South East area of Ramsay in Calgary. She had been stomped to death.

“I actually lived down the block when it happened and for some reason it really deeply affected me,” Cook said. “For four nights I went down to the National Hotel where they said (Black Plume) was picked up, and I just stood outside the hotel and sang…and I’m not a singer (but) I sang for her.”

THE EABAMETOONG FIRST NATION

Not everyone is entirely pleased with the work undertaken to date by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Conservative Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen from New Brunswick expressed displeasure when TRC Chair Justice Murray Sinclair and commissioners Chief Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples on Sept. 28.

There is no turning a blind eye to the fact that young Indigenous woman in Canada are five times more likely to have their life ended by violent death.

Métis artist Jaime Black has created a project that may just elevate the awareness of that fact and bring some comfort to the families of the missing Aboriginal women throughout Indian Country.

Neither Health Canada nor the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) are speaking out about the resignation of Rod McCormick.

McCormick, a Mohawk psychologist and professor of counseling at the University of British Columbia, made it known when he was in Edmonton in September that he had resigned his position as a mental health consultant with Health Canada. He was tasked with co-managing the health support for the national events for the TRC.
“I resigned from that because… the survivors are not guiding the process,” said McCormick.

THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS REPORTS
that Aboriginal populations are vulnerable to H1N1 because Canada hasn’t made improving Aboriginal living conditions a priority. Or so says the chair of Canada’s provincial chief medical officers of health Dr. Isaac Sobol.He is Nunavut’s chief medical officer of health. Sobol was speaking to a Senate committee discussing Canada’s pandemic preparedness when he made the remark.

Dear Editor:
Being a past Band councillor and board/committee member for my First Nation, I have come to the realization that it does not matter how many bylaws, policies, rules and procedures a First Nation has, it does not mean a darn thing if they are not followed.
I was first elected to my council in 1992 and from then I have spent a lot of my time caring about my First Nations members.

Here are some of the problems that I have seen with our system of government on the rez:

So here in Canada we expect that our leaders will be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Or, in more refined terms, will be able to juggle many files on many fronts simultaneously. So you can imagine our disappointment with the Harper Conservatives. Apparently, there is only one ball in the air for them. And that’s the “get a majority and disregard any other priority,” agenda item. And skill, even in that narrow-focused goal, is lacking.

Jeff Ross eventually wants to return to the coaching ranks.

But before doing that the 25-year-old has resumed his own volleyball playing career.

It is unrealistic to expect a five-year mandate to deal with 150 years of stress and seven or eight generations of residential school, stated Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC) Chair Justice Murray Sinclair at a Sept. 28 address to a six-person senate.