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Flora Merrick, an ailing 88-year-old woman, has decided that the federal government's process designed to allow residential school survivors to seek justice outside of the court setting is not the way to go.

Ted Hughes, the chief adjudicator for alternative dispute resolution (ADR), was informed of Merrick's decision to pull out of the process on Oct. 14 through a letter authored by Winnipeg lawyer Dennis Troniak and sent to the Office of Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada (OIRSC).

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An angry Tony Belcourt, president of the Metis Nation of Ontario (MNO), called a press conference Oct. 7 to respond to an announcement made the previous day by Ontario Minister of Natural Resources David Ramsay.

Belcourt said the minister had broken a promise to the Metis people when he announced that an agreement to give Metis hunters the same rights as First Nation hunters was being limited to only the northern part of the province.

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The announcement last month that as much as $1 billion in new money will be directed to improving the health outcomes of Aboriginal people doesn't impress Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

Blackstock knows the numbers on Aboriginal children in care and they're not good. And she says the department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development has informed her that none of the recently announced money will make it into this area of concern.

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Dear Editor:

On Oct. 13, 1854 our ancestors signed a treaty with the Crown in Canada. By that treaty we lost some 500,000 acres in the Bruce Peninsula, but reserved land, including lands still home to the Chippewas of Saugeen and the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation.

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Dear Editor:

How about you people stop whinning (sic) and start to realize that you do get spacial (sic) rights and that maybe it is not fare (sic). Like very (sic) one else, stop relying on others to give you a handout. The past is the past. Start getting motivation going and become an independent culture on your own.

-Anonymous

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Dear Editor:

I thoroughly enjoyed Windspeaker's article on the hooky-playing chiefs in Charlottetown (see September edition 2004), and I truly hope that a future article will be devoted to this issue.

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October saw the public release of the final report of the commission of inquiry into the death of 17-year-old Neil Stonechild. This young man was found frozen to death in an industrial part of Saskatoon in 1990 after last being seen by his friend Jason Roy in the back of a police car screaming in fear for his life.

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You can find a little bit of home-with an upscale twist-the next time you visit the nation's capital. Sweetgrass Aboriginal Bistro is about to celebrate its first anniversary. Located on Murray Street in Ottawa's trendy Byward Market, the restaurant is owned and operated by husband and wife team Phoebe and Warren Sutherland.

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Sun on the Mountains, Book 1

The Story of Blue Eye

By Tyler Trafford

Thistledown Press Ltd., 2004

$18.95; 349 pp. (sc)

Not since I devoured saga after saga by that great chronicler of the American West, Zane Grey, 45 years ago have I enjoyed a story of the wide open spaces so much.

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Eco-North 2004, an educational opportunity for entrepreneurial-minded First Peoples, is coming to Thunder Bay Nov. 24 to 27. The tourism conference and trade show aims to foster heritage, adventure and nature-based activities in Northern Ontario, key resources that Native communities have to offer.

With an increasing demand by the baby boomer population for more culturally relevant learning experiences, Native communities are in an ideal position to capitalize on this trend.