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The latest figures from the Regional Longitudinal Health Survey show that smoking rates among First Nations people in Canada are dropping, but we'll have to wait until the end of 2005 for researchers to tell us why.

Statistics from the 2002-03 survey put the rate of smoking among First Nations people age 20 and over at 57.6 per cent, down 4.4 per cent from survey figures for 1997 and 1991 when the rate was at 62 per cent.

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Youth today face many obstacles and tough decisions in their day-to-day lives. Lee Robert Mason, who is with Youth Warrior Programs based in Vancouver, knows the price to be paid when the choices made are the wrong ones.

"I lived the life I talk to the kids about. Drugs, alcohol, crime, gangs, I did it all."

Not everyone who lives the kind of life Mason did manages to survive, but sometimes they're lucky enough to get a wake-up call before it is too late. That's what happened to Mason.

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The IMAGeNation Aboriginal Film and Video Festival has continued to grow both in size and reputation since holding its inaugural affair in November 1998. The theme for this year's seventh annual festival, to be held Feb. 17 to 20, is "Indigenous Inter-Faces," and will feature more than 100 entries, including short drama and documentaries, experimental works, video art, animation, music videos and feature-length films and documentaries.

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Although many people don't realize it, there are living Tseshaht Elders who were born on the Broken Group Islands. They were once yound children who enjoyed a playground of rocky beaches and lush forests before being sent to residential schools in Port Alberni. On Dec. 1, a handful of them paid a visit to the places they once called home.

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Vancouver

A number of respected Aboriginal leaders, legal experts and academics from across the province will be taking part in a speakers series on First Nations governance and land claims, but their words will reach more than just those in attendance in the University of British Columbia's First Nations Longhouse.

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The subject of the latest portrait unveiled in Parliament's hall of honor is Kim Campbell, Canada's first and still only female prime minister. Behind Campbell in the painting is the work of Haida fashion designer and artist Dorothy Grant.

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A Saskatchewan judge has struck down a down a provincial government policy requiring band approval before First Nations children in care can be put up for adoption.

The Dec. 10 ruling by Madame Justice Jacelyn Ann Ryan-Froslie of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench found that the province's policy contravened the Canadian Charter of Rights by limiting the rights of First Nation children.

She said the policy works to keep First Nations children from being adopted into non-Aboriginal homes and keeps them stuck in a foster care "limbo."

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The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has received a submission from the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) in an appeal involving the sexual assault of a 12-year-old Cree girl.

The judge granted the organization intervenor status in November. The women's association submission will stress gender equality rights under Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"It was never applied at the trial level so we want to make sure that they do take it into consideration," said Beverley Jacobs, NWAC president.

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PRINCE GEORGE, B.C.-School trustees in this northern community have approved plans for an all-Aboriginal high school to open in September. They are hoping to reverse the current trend of a higher Native drop-out rate. The school will be launched under a three-way partnership between the Ministry of Education, local First Nations and the school district.

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The Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council says the provincial government's new Pacific Salmon Forum is just a smoke screen and "a case of too little, too late."

Tsawataineuk First Nation Chief Eric Joseph said he is frustrated that the province is conducting yet another forum on the B.C. salmon industry instead of acting on previous studies, most of which say the same thing-salmon farming is bad for wild salmon and bad for the environment.