'Nation to Nation'? Indigenous people and the Trudeau government

Confrontations between the salmon feedlot industry and indigenous communities continue to escalate. On August 23rd, the Yaakswiis warriors were arrested in Ahousaht, near Tofino, preventing the transfer of diseased smolts into a net pen. Their elected leadership has signed off on farms yet the community is growing in its resistance to the feedlots that kill their wild salmon.

On the other side of Vancouver Island there has been escalating tactics by the Musgamagw Dzawada'enuwx. In the past two weeks they’ve boarded several farms; documented infractions, served eviction notices and performed a cleansing ceremony. Their Nation is home to 1/3rd of the fish farm industry in so-called BC. They have never signed a treaty and have never given consent for the feedlots on their territory and waters....

video

..fixed the link

That was August 15th, any updates on how it turned out?

Thanks epaulo. I also found this:

http://thetyee.ca/News/2016/08/22/First-Nation-Eviction-Notice/

Morton, a long-term foe of the controversial industry, is on a two-month mission to investigate the state of corporate fish farms, do research on virus prevalence, and provide a platform for First Nations.

Some nations support fish farms on their territory, while others such as Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw have been fighting them and their impacts on wild fish for 30 years.

The eviction notice follows a number of developments, including the federal government’s decision to extend fish farm licences from one to six years despite recent evidence found by federal scientists of a “potential” heart disease in farmed Atlantic salmon samples collected from one B.C. fish farm.....

According to a recent report, the number of young wild salmon leaving Dzawada’enuxw territory in the spring of 2015 could have been reduced by nine to 39 per cent due to sea lice from salmon farms.

Along with the eviction notice, the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw have set up a website called “cleansing our waters.”

Approximately one-third of the corporate feedlots growing Atlantic salmon along B.C.’s coast are located on Dzawada’enuxw territory.

A 2008 scientific study found that wild salmon populations declined wherever corporations have set up industrial fish farms in the ocean including Norway, Scotland, Ireland and Canada.

“We have heard the words of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that honouring the rights of First Nations are a ‘sacred obligation’ to the Liberal Government of Canada,” said Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw hereditary leader and chief councillor Willie Moon at a cleansing ceremony at the Sir Edmund salmon farm at the entrance to Kingcome Inlet.

“Our people have spoken: we want salmon farms out of our territory.”.....

“Our members are always open to meeting and discussing issues with First Nations and would like to develop agreements in areas where they do not exist today,” added the statement.

Dunn told The Tyee that many First Nations have tried to evict corporate farms in the past but later signed financial agreements with the industry.

The courts have sided with indigenous peoples on pipelines so I am hopeful that will happen again and soon.

Alton gas protesters occupy fisheries minister's office

Mi'kmaq protesters say natural gas storage project in N.S. will endanger Bay of Fundy salmon

Opponents of the Alton natural gas storage project — many of them from the Mi'kmaq community — occupied Fisheries and Oceans Minister Dominic LeBlanc's office in Shediac, N.B., for much of the day Friday, as they demanded Ottawa speed up the process to designate the Bay of Fundy rivers and streams as critical habitat for the Inner Bay of Fundy salmon —an endangered species.

quote:

"If a species goes extinct in this country, that's a shame on Canada," said Cheryl Maloney, councillor for the Shubencanadie band.

Maloney said the controversial project is slated to begin September 15.

"It's not just important to Mi'kmaq people. It's important to Nova Scotians, New Brunswick, Canadians," said Maloney.

"The Liberal government is coat-tailing on Harper's environmental policies. They removed all the protections and this government has not done anything to put them back in place."

"This is the last straw," said another member of the Mi'kmaq community. "We're fed up with the whole concept of being the canaries in the cage in the experimental process of the government."

This would be a fatal flaw unless of course there must be consensus agreement on legislation, which is what is guaranteed under internation convention!

Cindy Blackstock Says Feds Have Ignored Legal Order On First Nations Children

The Trudeau government is consciously discriminating against 163,000 children in its delivery of child welfare services on reserves, First Nations advocate Cindy Blackstock said Thursday as a human rights tribunal issued a second compliance order on the issue.

Blackstock — executive director of an organization that together with the Assembly of First Nations spent nine years fighting the federal government over child welfare services — said Canadians need to know that the Trudeau government is not following a legal order.

"It is saying, really, in its actions that the government of Canada is above the law and sadly, that First Nations children are below the law,'' Blackstock said.

"And that should no longer be allowed in this country, not after the residential schools.''

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/09/16/cindy-blackstock_n_12043886.html...

his are mild to some i've heard.

First Nations entered a relationship with the crown on an equal footing.......

Yes I believe it was based on the Royal proclamation of 1763, recognizing the rights of sovereignty of the Indigenous Nations and the responsibility of the British Crown to guarantee and protect those rights of sovereignty....but why does not the Indigenous Nations now demand their sovereignty rights under UN Conventions and the Declaration and assert their rights under properly constituted process....under their rights of consultation and consent, within the process of "consulta popular"...

I've discussed this matter with the grass roots sovereigntist movement of Treaty 8 Territory...I don't understand why they don't engage their constituted rights?

from UBCIC.....

Chief Robert Chamberlin, Vice-President of the UBCIC, said “Both the federal and provincial governments are expected and called upon in Canada to uphold the honour of the Crown. The Government of BC’s fast-track ‘to the point of no return’ approach on Site C and the spirit of the Conservative’s ‘stall and litigate’ tactic permeating the Trudeau Government’s handling of T’aaq-wiihak, the implementation of Nuu-chah-nulth Fishing Rights, are two recent examples of why First Nations are heading to the courts to compel both governments to uphold the honour of the Crown.”

Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, Secretary-Treasurer of the UBCIC, remarked “The Trudeau Government and the Government of BC cite the number of First Nation agreements, talk of the many issues that need to be addressed, make promises of better times tomorrow in the name of reconciliation but their actions today demonstrate the opposite. There is no true recognition of Indigenous Title, Rights and the honouring of Treaty Rights when it comes to Site C, Enbridge, Kinder Morgan or Lelu Island. Just processes weighted down with the governments’ belief that our Title and Rights do not exist until we win in court or negotiate a treaty.”

Grand Chief Phillip concluded, “With the deepening poverty of our communities, remembering the missing and murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the ongoing negligence of Indigenous Child Welfare policies across this country, in good conscience, I cannot participate in the Black Rod Ceremony. The suffering in our communities is too great. I apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused with our decision. We do not mean any disrespect. It is a matter principle.”........

....Nation to Nation? Some important ceremonial and legal steps ongoing here....interesting to watch their next steps en route to their true sovereignty?

Alliance building as Grand Chief Stewart Phillip has recently been propmoting? Steps to UN recognition?

Here is the UBCIC press release.

Quote:

Reconciliation Must Be More than Symbolic: Grand Chief Stewart Phillip Declines Invitation to Participate in Ceremony with Duke and Duchess of CambridgePosted by Ubcic 0sc on September 26, 2016

(Coast Salish Territory / Vancouver, B.C. – September 26, 2016) On Monday September 26, as part of the Royal Tour Itinerary, the Honourable Judith Guichon, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia will be hosting the Black Rod Ceremony at Government House. The Honourable Judge Steven Point - Xwĕ lī qwĕl tĕl – will be supporting the ceremony.

Last week, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) hosted its 48th Annual General Assembly (AGA) at Musqueam Community Centre, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Territory).

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the UBCIC, stated “After an intense three days of discussion and debate during our AGA; I put the matter to the Chiefs-in-Assembly of my participation in the Black Rod Ceremony. A clear majority of Chiefs felt, in the face of the Trudeau Government’s hesitancy to follow through on their federal election commitments and the Government of BC's intransigence on following through with the Four Principles arising from the historic Supreme Court of Canada’s Tsilhqot'in decision, the Chiefs-in-Assembly felt it would not be appropriate for me to participate in a 'reconciliation' ceremony at this time.”

Chief Robert Chamberlin, Vice-President of the UBCIC, said “Both the federal and provincial governments are expected and called upon in Canada to uphold the honour of the Crown. The Government of BC’s fast-track ‘to the point of no return’ approach on Site C and the spirit of the Conservative’s ‘stall and litigate’ tactic permeating the Trudeau Government’s handling of T’aaq-wiihak, the implementation of Nuu-chah-nulth Fishing Rights, are two recent examples of why First Nations are heading to the courts to compel both governments to uphold the honour of the Crown.”

Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, Secretary-Treasurer of the UBCIC, remarked “The Trudeau Government and the Government of BC cite the number of First Nation agreements, talk of the many issues that need to be addressed, make promises of better times tomorrow in the name of reconciliation but their actions today demonstrate the opposite. There is no true recognition of Indigenous Title, Rights and the honouring of Treaty Rights when it comes to Site C, Enbridge, Kinder Morgan or Lelu Island. Just processes weighted down with the governments’ belief that our Title and Rights do not exist until we win in court or negotiate a treaty.”

Grand Chief Phillip concluded, “With the deepening poverty of our communities, remembering the missing and murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the ongoing negligence of Indigenous Child Welfare policies across this country, in good conscience, I cannot participate in the Black Rod Ceremony. The suffering in our communities is too great. I apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused with our decision. We do not mean any disrespect. It is a matter principle.”

Grand Chief Phillip was invited to actively participate in the Black Rod Ceremony by handing the Ring of Reconciliation to His Royal Highness, and then invite him to affix the Ring onto the Black Rod. The Black Rod is a ceremonial staff used on formal occasions when the monarch or her provincial representative, the Lieutenant Governor, is present in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The materials and symbols affixed to the Rod are representative of the province and its relationship to the Crown.

http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/royalreconciliation

Charged with Racial Discrimination, Canada’s Government Fought Dirty and Lost

The incredible thing about Cindy Blackstock's landmark racial discrimination case against the government of Canada, is that it almost didn't happen at all.

Nearly a decade ago, the social worker filed a human rights case that claimed First Nations kids are systemically denied access to the health, education and child welfare services that are widely available to non-First Nations kids. Within a month, the feds cut all of the funding to her non-profit First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.

"We lost 50 percent of our staff," Blackstock told VICE. "We had to go pro-bono on our legal, we were much more reliant on volunteers, and I think all of us at the Caring Society worked double time without being paid... During the same period the number of people increased at the Department of Indian Affairs, so it was much different over there."

You might call this the first suckerpunch in the government's long and dirty fight to keep Blackstock out of court. It set the tone for nine years of surveillance, interference, legal loopholes and cover-ups that ultimately didn't work. Canada's human rights tribunal ruled that Indigenous kids are discriminated against in January, and has since issued two compliance orders against the slow-to-act feds....

Liberals given plan to roll First Nations education money out faster, but decided not to

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett was presented with a plan to roll First Nations education funding out over four years — as the Liberals had promised during the last election — but the government ultimately opted for a slower route, earmarking a large part of the money for after the next election.

In a proposed funding document obtained under access to information, the department lays out a "projected investments" plan to meet the campaign promise of $2.6 billion in additional dollars over four years for kindergarten to Grade 12 school education on reserve.

The documents show much more money would have been available sooner to address the dire state of Indigenous learning had the fast-tracked plan been followed: nearly $3 billion more than current spending track.

quote:

Of the $2.6 billion committed in the 2016 budget for kindergarten to Grade 12 education, $801 million (or 31 per cent of all money committed) has been back loaded to 2020-2021, a spending practice the Liberals fiercely criticized during the last Conservative government. The next federal election must be held on or before Oct. 21, 2019.

Under the department's proposed plan, the money would have been more evenly allocated each fiscal year....

Labrador Inuit turn up the heat on Muskrat Falls energy project

Around 30 people in Labrador, including Nunatsiavut President Johannes Lampe, have blockaded the construction site at Muskrat Falls, a massive $11.4 billion dollar hydroelectric project along the Lower Churchill River.

“We aren’t huge numbers here in Labrador,” said Inuk artist Billy Gauthier. “This here turnout shows how strong we are. There will be more. We will do more.”

Gauthier, 38, began a hunger strike Thursday.

Gauthier and the Labrador Inuit are demanding the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the provincially owned energy company Nalcor fully clear the reservoir of all trees and topsoil before flooding begins.

“The government, I just don’t understand why they don’t step in and fix it?” said Gauthier. “Why waste time? Why put people in a position where they feel like they need to fight for their rights? For their culture?”

The main concern is methylmercury. A study by Harvard University predicts that trees, vegetation, and topsoil left in the flood zone will create the toxin and flow downstream, contaminating traditional food sources for the Inuit.

quote:

On Friday, the mayor of Cartwright sent a letter to federal and provincial leaders, including the Prime Minister.

“I write to you all today to add my voice and the voice of my community to the growing level of discontent with the Muskrat Falls Project as we approach the first flood of the reservoir,” wrote Dwight Lethbridge. “My community of Cartwright, Labrador has decided to take a hard line stand on the methyl mercury issue, based on the concerns of our residents over the potential loss of country foods, culture, and an unknown impact on fish resources very important to our area.”

And though the Muskrat Falls project falls under provincial jurisdiction, Lethbridge added that there is a role in this for the federal government.

“You are allowing the demolition of an Innu and Inuit food source and culture,” wrote Lethbridge.

At a town meeting last week, residents were clear in the action they plan to take against Nalcor.

“Our community is to be used as a port for the delivery of transformers to Muskrat Falls,” said Lethbridge. “As things sit right now, until this methyl mercury issue is addressed, that shipment will not be happening through here.”

The blockade at Muskrat Falls continues. People have set up tents, with no plans to go anywhere, anytime soon.

RCMP are at the site, but no arrests reported so far....

Protests swell on first potential day of flooding at Muskrat Falls

Saturday saw the biggest protest yet against Muskrat Falls, with around 200 people gathering alongside the Trans Labrador Highway and then about 100 to 150 people marching along the highway and to the North Spur and Spirit Mountain on the dam’s construction site.

The potential first day of flooding also drew a few prominent figures from the Indigenous communities, prompting many to note the people of Labrador were uniting against a project that will affect Innu, Inuit and settlers alike, all of whom live in the communities that surround Lake Melville and harvest fish and other country food from the estuary.

Before he joined a 45-minute march along the Trans Labrador Highway that slowed traffic in one lane, Nunatsiavut President Johannes Lampe told The Independent he wants the government to “halt the construction of Muskrat Falls until full clearing is done,” and that if Nalcor and the government proceed with flooding without fully clearing the reservoir they will be complicit in creating dependency and a new wave of intergenerational trauma among Indigenous communities.

Before he joined a 45-minute march along the Trans Labrador Highway that slowed traffic in one lane, Nunatsiavut President Johannes Lampe told The Independent he wants the government to “halt the construction of Muskrat Falls until full clearing is done,” and that if Nalcor and the government proceed with flooding without fully clearing the reservoir they will be complicit in creating dependency and a new wave of intergenerational trauma among Indigenous communities.

“In Labrador people have suffered over many hundreds of years since colonization,” he said, naming relocation of Indigenous communities and residential schools as past tools of colonialism. “And now this, the flooding of the reservoir of Muskrat Falls. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador has made a major mistake, so we have to make a strong statement.

“Once that food chain is contaminated, what else can we do?” Lampe continued. “It seems that the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador do not care about our traditional way of life and our traditional foods. They want to dictate to us what we can eat, and as Labrador people we don’t want processed food — we want food that we traditionally hunt and harvest and trap, including within the area of the Muskrat Falls.”...

On Melting Ice: Inuit Struggle Against Oil and Gas in the Arctic

The Inuit in the Canadian Arctic are engaged in a centuries-old fight to retain their culture and reestablish self-determination and genuine sovereignty. In particular, Inuit in the autonomous territory of Nunavut are resisting what American Indian studies scholar Daniel R. Wildcat has described as a "fourth removal attempt" of Indigenous people, coming on the heels of failed efforts at spatial, social and psycho-cultural deletion.

The common discourse on climate change focuses on the physical world: inexorably rising atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and the impact on sea-ice extent; melting glaciers; and roiling, unpredictable perturbations in weather patterns. But these are but the physical manifestations of political decisions made in the social world. The questions behind them include: Who produced all that extra CO2? For what purposes? And which sets of people are paying the most immediate price?

quote:

To frame climate change in the Arctic as simply a story of liquefying dihydrogen monoxide is deceptive. The ice-filled north is first and foremost a human story, a story about home and the struggle to preserve it against outside forces. It is about a culture that quite literally rests on knowledge of ice, ocean and the animals that live on top and underneath it.

James Qillaq, mayor of Clyde River in Nunavut, explained, "That connection to the land, that's our life ... that's the reason why we stand: our connection to the land and water, of something that is ours, that's it. That's it and nothing else. That's our everything -- our connection to the land."

Jerry Natanine, also of Clyde River, added, "Different animals are hunted in different seasons. We follow the young seals when they go out, to go hunt them, fishing season when the fish are plentiful. There's a time when the Arctic char smell like what they eat in the ocean -- that's when some people don't like to eat them. When that's over, berry-picking season."

With over 80 different terms to describe various aspects and characteristics of sea ice, the life of Inuit in Clyde River is intimately connected to the reliable variability and cycles of sea ice. In her book, The Meaning of Ice, scientist and longtime resident of Clyde River Shari Fox Gearheard notes: "The cycle of sea ice is bonded to cycles of hunting, of family activities, of equipment preparation, and even of cravings for different foods."

Chippewas of the Thames protest pipeline

The pipeline snakes across the forested plain, east from a place called Aamjiwnaang and on through the land that Myeengun Henry says has never been surrendered.

He said his nation, the Chippewas of the Thames, didn’t consent to the pipeline’s construction in the first place, 40 years ago. And when Enbridge, the pipeline owner, wanted to put through more oil and partially reverse its flow, Henry and his compatriots called for direct “nation to nation” consultation with the Canadian government — such is their constitutional right, he argued.

quote:

Canada’s top court is scheduled to hear the Chippewas challenge Nov. 30, the same day as another case brought forward by the Inuit in Clyde River, a small town in Nunavut. Similar to the Chippewas, the Clyde River Inuit are claiming they weren’t properly consulted by Ottawa during the process that approved seismic testing for oil off the coast of their small community.

Nader Hasan, a Toronto lawyer representing the Inuit in the Clyde River appeal, said the two cases are of the upmost national importance.

“At a fundamental level, both cases involve legal issues emanating from the constitutional duty to consult,” Hasan said.

“It’s also about Canada’s soul. What kind of a nation do we want to be? One that takes seriously our constitutional obligations to First Nations, or one that treats indigenous rights as a box to be ticked off in a due diligence check list. That’s what’s ultimately at stake here.”

Here's an article that contemplates Downie's assessment of Trudeau:  Gord Downie Was Wrong About Justin Trudeau

Canada could face ’20 Standing Rocks,’ says Mohawk chief as Ottawa rejects need for ‘consent’

Canada could face “20 Standing Rocks,” said a Mohawk chief in response to the Justin Trudeau government’s revelation Thursday it doesn’t plan to include consent as part of its consultation approach with First Nations on major resource projects.

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr told reporters Thursday the Trudeau government believes it only needs to accommodate and consult First Nations before proceeding with major resource development projects and not obtain “free prior and informed consent.”

It’s a position at odds with Supreme Court of Canada rulings which have stated that obtaining consent is part of the consultation spectrum the Crown faces when dealing with First Nations on issues that impact rights, title and territory. The position also undercuts a key element of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which the Trudeau government has claimed it plans to embrace as part of its efforts toward reconciliation.

quote:

International human rights lawyer Paul Joffe, who also worked on UNDRIP, said Carr’s description of the government’s position does not comply with Supreme Court decisions, nor the international declaration.

“It is highly problematic and it’s not helpful to the discussion and it’s not helpful to reconciliation,” said Joffe, who was provided with a transcript of Carr’s statements.

Joffe said the concept of consent in UNDRIP has been demonized, twisted and misinterpreted to mean a “veto.” He believes the Trudeau Liberal government doesn’t seem to grasp that consent is part of international human rights law and part of the tapestry woven by Supreme Court decisions on Aboriginal rights and title.

“For the minister to say we are going on the basis of consultation and accommodation, that doesn’t quite make sense, the way he is using it,” said Joffe. “Consultation is a spectrum, it hangs on the facts and the law. It might be minimal consultation in some cases…but at the other end of the spectrum, the Supreme Court said in the Haida case, that on very serious issues it would require the full consent of the Aboriginal nation. That is the full spectrum. On very serious issues, it would be consent.”...

..i post 5 of 9 conditions.

At the table?

What you should know about the land claims policy that Trudeau is not telling you

The recent announcement by the Trudeau government that Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada is opening 20 “exploratory tables” to possibly develop new terms for the land claims and self-government processes must address the current core federal mandates listed below. We reject the euphemistic changes to the policy that replaced “extinguishment” to “modification” to “certainty” to “recognition” without ever changing the termination plan.

quote:

1 Extinguishment: You must consent to the extinguishment of your Aboriginal title. The lawyers and negotiators call this the “modification” of rights or “non-assertion.” These are legal weasel words: none of the legal protection for Aboriginal title lands will apply on modern treaty lands.

2 Private Property: You must consent to the elimination of Indian Reserves by accepting all settlement lands as fee simple (private property). Fee simple lands can be bought, sold, and lost to outsiders. Unlike Indian Reserves, fee simple lands are not governed under federal jurisdiction or under the Indian Act. But this does not make them sovereign Indian land. Rather, fee simple lands fall under provincial jurisdiction and must be governed to comply with provincial land regulation, as well as applicable federal regulation. This is the scenario critics call the transformation of reserves into “ethnic municipalities.”

3 Land Selection, aka Surrender: The government has a cash/land formula that is not public, but can be determined by averaging out every Agreement in Principle and Final Agreement that has been signed, roughly $25,600 per person and 9 hectares (23 acres) per person. In the British Columbia Treaty Process, for example, negotiating groups cede an average of 95 percent of their traditional lands.

4 Third Party Interests: You must respect existing Private Lands/Third Party interests, This means you must consent to the alienation of Aboriginal Title territory and give up all right to compensation for past infringements.

5 Incorporation: Your band becomes the legal entity of a corporation, with powers and privileges defined in the Final Agreement. You are no longer a First Nation, but a business entity under the law....

..this is a pretty good article inspite of it coming from np.

More talks, instead of action, from the federal government ‘is beyond sickening, it’s neglectful,’ critic says

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a trio of indigenous leaders Thursday called for patience and more time as they committed themselves to more negotiations and more study to improve the lives of Canada’s indigenous peoples.

Trudeau and leaders from the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Taparit Kanatami and the Metis National Council met on Parliament Hill Thursday morning where they agreed that Trudeau and his ministers would meet regularly over the coming years with members of each organization.

quote:

“This announcement is not an act of reconciliation,” said Pam Palmater, the chair of the indigenous governance program at Ryerson University in Toronto and one of the leading critics of not only the federal government but also of the Assembly of First Nations. “This is the same old delay tactic used by previous governments to make it look like they are doing something when faced with growing criticism that they are not doing enough.”

quote:

The Kitigan Zibi First Nation in western Quebec was frustrated enough that last week it filed a lawsuit in Ontario provincial court claiming legal title to Parliament Hill.

“At this point it is clear that real change has been replaced with incremental change,” said Hayden King, an assistant professor in the school of public policy and administration at Carleton University. “Even if the shift to an incremental approach was predictable, it is still frustrating, more so, when justified under the pretense of ‘getting it right.’ I think that’s disingenuous.

“It is apparent that we are stuck in reconciliatory inertia. And that breeds cynicism of this government and the national First Nation and Métis organizations that endorse incremental change.”

Feds provide inadequate mental health care for First Nations: internal memo

Even as the federal government pressures provinces and territories to take up its offer of billions to improve mental health services for Canadians, an internal memo suggests it's failing in its own responsibility to provide adequate care for mentally ill children in First Nations communities.

In extreme cases, the memo says, desperate parents are giving up their children to child welfare agencies as the only way to ensure their kids get treatment for mental illnesses.

The memo, prepared for Health Minister Jane Philpott early this year, was uncovered through an access-to-information request from New Democrat MP Charlie Angus. Compared to provincially funded services, the memo says, some First Nations and Inuit Health Branch services are "less accessible and/or not funded to similar levels."

Where mental health services are available, "they are provided by paraprofessionals or generalists, even though in geographically similar off-reserve (locations), they would be provided by a professional with specialized training," the memo says.

Further, it says funding for the First Nations and Inuit Home and Community Care program does not have a built-in escalator to keep pace with inflation, requiring annual internal reallocation of at least $20 million.

"This funding shortfall contributes to consistent failure to meet basic needs, erosion of other important programming and, in many cases, leads to extended hospital stays, relocation, social isolation, limited opportunities and caregiver hardships."...

.......another weapon in the fight against the Canadian rogue state?

‘Torture & murder’: WWF to be probed for alleged human rights abuses against Cameroon tribesPublished time: 8 Jan, 2017 13:29

Members of the Baka Pygmy tribe, the original forest dwellers of the Cameroon forests, Kika, Cameroon.The World Wide Fund for Nature is to be investigated for alleged human right abuses against native tribes in Cameroon. A complaint claims that WWF-funded poaching squads arrested, tortured, and even killed locals.

The complaint was filed by British group Survival, which champions the causes of tribal peoples around the world, to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in February 2016. But the OECD, whose mission is to promote policies improving economic and social well-being, did not agreed to launch the investigation until this January.

Survival says that the complaint contains numerous examples of “violent abuse and harassment against Baka 'Pygmies' in Cameroon by WWF-funded anti-poaching squads.” 

Quebec coroner blames aboriginal suicides on Canada's "ancient apartheid system"

The five suicides that occurred within a nine-month period in 2015 in a small indigenous community in northern Quebec were avoidable and fundamentally the result of Canada’s “ancient apartheid system,” a Quebec coroner wrote in a searing report released Saturday.

“I believe and see evidence that the great fundamental problem lies with the ‘apartheid’ system into which aboriginals have been thrust for 150 years or more,” writes coroner Bernard Lefrançois in his 50-page report on the public inquiry he conducted last June in Sept-Îles at the request of Quebec’s Minister of Public Security.

“It is time to put an end to this apartheid system, and for all of the authorities concerned to confront that challenge.”...