For standing up for ourselves, our beliefs, and folks we love, women are often called a bitch.
When we demand social justice, women are often called a crazy bitch.
Just goes to show you conservative men lack both imagination and decent comeback lines.
Dedicated to the causes of Native women for more than a quarter of a century, Jeannette Corbiere Lavell is a courageous woman who fought to improve their plight and proved that one person's voice can make a difference.
Jeannette Vivian Corbiere was born on June 21, 1942, on the Wikwemikong Reserve on Manitoulin Island in Ontario. Belonging to the Nishnawbe people, she spoke Ojibway. Her mother was educated at the Residential School and Teacher's College, while her father was illiterate, never having attended school. Jeannette attended the elementary school, which was run by the Catholic Church and completed up to Grade 10 in the community before leaving for North Bay, Ontario, where she completed high school and business college.
After graduating, she moved to Toronto where she worked as an executive secretary. She also worked for the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto in many capacities, including social, court and youth worker. Later, while working for the Company of Young Canadians, she travelled across the country working with Native communities. In 1965, she was chosen as Indian Princess of Canada.
In 1970, Jeannette married David Lavell, a non-Native, who was a journalism student at Ryerson Institute in Toronto. Shortly after her marriage, she received a notice from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development stating that she was no longer considered an Indian according to section 12 (1) (b) of the Indian Act. It stated "12 (1) The following persons are not entitled to be registered, namely ... (b) a woman who married a person who is not an Indian, unless that woman is subsequently the wife or widow of a person described in section 11." (The Indian Act, 1970).
This section had grave consequences for enfranchised Native women. They lost their Indian status as did any children of the marriage; they could no longer live on the reserve and lost the right to own land or inherit family property; they could not receive treaty benefits or participate in band councils and political or social affairs in the community, and they lost the right to be buried in cemeteries with their ancestors. On the other hand, Native men who married non-Native women were not deprived of these rights and their wives and children were given Indian status.
Jeannette Corbiere Lavell decided to challenge the Indian Act on the basis that section 12 (1) (b) was discriminatory and should be repealed, according to the 1960 Bill of Rights. It was the first case dealing with discrimination by reason of sex. In June 1971, Judge Grossberg ruled against Jeannette Corbiere Lavell in County Court. Not easily deterred, on October 9, 1971, the Lavell case was heard in the Federal Court of Appeal, which ruled unanimously for Lavell. Unfortunately, under pressure from the federal government and Native organizations, this decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
In February of 1973, the Lavell and Bedard cases were heard together. Yvonne Bedard was another woman who had lost her Indian status by marrying a non-Native. On August 27, 1973, the Supreme Court, in a majority of 5-4, held that the Bill of Rights did not apply to that section of the Indian Act. Therefore, many Indian women were cut off from their heritage, not by choice, but by an archaic law. The Royal Commission on the Status of Women stated in an earlier report that approximately 4 605 Indian women were enfranchised by marrying white men between the years 1958 and 1968. Years later, Sandra Lovelace, following in Lavell's footsteps, brought the case of status removal to the United Nations International Human Rights Commission, which ruled in her favour. In 1985, section 12 of the Indian Act was repealed.
Jeannette Corbiere Lavell continued her work as one of the founding members of the Ontario Native Women's Association: she was vice-chairwoman from 1972 to 1973 and president from 1974 to 1975. She was also elected one of the vice-presidents of the Native Women's Association of Canada. She also held the position of president of both the Nishnawbe Institute (an organization promoting Native culture) and Anduhyaun Inc. (a residence for Native women in Toronto). She later received her teaching degree from the University of Western Ontario, eventually becoming a school principal. She was also a cabinet appointee to the Commission on the Native Justice System, as well as an education/employment counsellor, and a consultant to the community for the Ontario government.
Jeannette Corbiere Lavell is a woman who has worked tirelessly for change against unfairness and injustice. In a fitting tribute, the Ontario Native Women's Association established the Jeannette Corbiere Lavell Award in 1987 "to be presented annually to a deserving Native Woman demonstrating the same qualities and dedication as Jeannette". (Ontario Native Women's Association. Information, Policy and Administration Manual, 1987, p. 11)
Former National Chief Phil Fontaine and Senator Partick Brazeau, together? I hope someone with a cell phone took video.
YK Dene Chief skeptical about mining rare earth metals
- An exploration company is renaming a deposit southeast of Yellowknife today, in a traditional ceremony with the Dene First Nations.
But the proposed mining project may be too close for comfort for some.
Yellowknives Dene Chief, Ed Sangris, says the rare earth metal deposit at Thor Lake is close to traditional hunting and ancestral burial grounds.
He says although Avalon Rare Metals, Inc. has been consulting the First Nations about the drilling operation, the Dene still have to decide whether mining that close to home is worth the economic benefits.
“You gotta find the balance… do we do away with traditional culture… or do we keep our traditions?”
The deposit at Thor Lake is being renamed as Nechalacho, which Sangris says, in the Dene language means “the wind is always blowing”.
The company is flying the former Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Phil Fontaine, along with Canadian Senator Patrick Brazeau and the NWT Premier to the renaming ceremony southeast of Yellowknife. Sangris adds he’s not sure what Fontaine is doing on the company’s board of directors.
“I don’t know what they’re trying to pull. Maybe they’re just trying to garner First Nations support behind the project, you know, get someone in there, like Phil Fontaine, to convince us, ‘yeah, it’s okay’, but we have to make our own decision.”
Sangris says he plans to discuss the mining project with the Dene membership, while Avalon is conducting a pre-feasibility study at the Nechalacho site, expected to be finished by early 2010.
Police may not get it, feds may not get it, but at least a Toronto punk group called ``Fucked up`` understand that a systematic abuse of human rights is at play in the issue of missing and murdered native women. And I am not being anything but sincere when I thank Fucked Up for their support.
Police have dragged their heels on cases of missing aboriginal girls and women. For example in the case of missing teens Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander, police initially assumed (despite strong evidence to the contrary) that the girls had run away, and used this as an excuse to stall an investigation of even the the most obvious of clues, for example searching through the the girls emails.(full story)They also let inane jurisdictional issues interfere with the investigation. (More here).
Similarly when Hilary Bonnell went missing only a few weeks ago, police delayed issuing a news release on her disappearance, failed to organize a search team and failed to issue cross-Canada bulletins or alerts until days after the teen went missing. (Story)Compare this to police reaction in the equally tragic disappearance of Brendan Crisp, a Caucasian boy who police suspected of running away following an argument with his parents. Within days police organized massive aerial, marine and ground searches.(Story.) Tragically, Brendan was found dead a few weeks later.
I am not trying to compare heartaches. Every child, woman, or family member gone missing is heart-rending. My point is police consistently fail to respond as they could or should to aboriginal families and this should no longer be ignored.
Support on this point came from an unlikely place today. Upon winning a Polaris music prize a hardcore punk band, known as Fucked Up said they would use a $20,000 cash reward to host a fund raiser to help support families of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. (Full Story Below).
While there may be irony in the mental image this conjures up, (Bad boy canuck musicians standing up for aboriginal women) there is certainly no irony in the gratitude I want to express to Fucked Up: Sincere thanks guys, for using your moment in the sun to shine light on this issue.
The real F*ck-ups here are the police and RCMP. Clearly there is need for a national inquiry to slap the police into doing their jobs.
Fucked Up. That Would Be the Winner of the 2009 Polaris Music Prize Leah Collins September 22, 2009
The Toronto harcore band's current album, The Chemistry of Common Life, was honoured as the best Canadian album of the year, and awarded a $20,000 prize.
That news, however, didn't immediately register with the band's frontman, Damian Abraham -- though his slow-take apparently had nothing to do with the fact he was growling, drenched in Red Bull and wearing nothing but bunched up ginch and a belt (tightened around his forehead) while chomping through a two-song set moments before the prize's announcement.
"I was like, did they say Joel Plaskett?" joked the singer at a press conference immediately following Monday night's private gala. "The whole time I was like K'naan, Joel Plaskett, K'naan, Joel Plaskett and I was like 'oh man, I can't believe we won, that's insane.'"
"This to me is like the best moment because for the longest time I really felt like we were outside the community and music scene," said Abraham. "And now it's like if we're outside we stole the biggest prize in Canada."
As for that prize -- a nice, even $20,000 -- Abraham told reporters that the band intends to put it towards a benefit record they plan to release in time for Christmas. "There are over 500 missing aboriginal women in Canada and we're going to put out a record to try and draw some attention to it and raise some money for these people," he explained.
In addition to Fucked Up's gala-closing performance -- which featured members of Lullabye Arkestra and first ever Polaris winner Final Fantasy (how's that for a spoiler?) -- all artists on Polaris' shortlist performed live for the 400 guests packed into Toronto's Masonic Hall.
And while only Fucked Up managed to inspire a food (and chair) fight post-set (or, to be fair, maybe we should only lay the blame on Malajube and Patrick Watson's tables), the audience took in shows from Hey Rosetta!, Elliott Brood, Great Lake Swimmers, K'naan, Malajube, Joel Plaskett, Chad VanGaalen, Patrick Watson and Metric.
The Polaris Music Prize honours the best Canadian album put out between June 1 and May 31, 2009 and is selected by an 11-member Grand Jury the night of the gala. It is judged based on artistic merit alone.
The cheap clichés always win: It’s not about you; it’s about what you do
It’s unfortunate when poor leadership drags down organizations. The labour performed by dedicated and passionate people is lost or forgotten in the shower or accusations and finger pointing that is the inevitable fallout from greed and inexperience. We post CAP stories that hit the news about the fallout from poor leadership because we believe (crazy bitches that we are) that we deserve good governance – corporate, political, and economic. It just happens that all bad governance CAP stories lead back to Pat.
It’s not like CAP in the past did not have relevancy. Dwight Dorey, former national leader of CAP, ensured CAPS position at the table during discussions of the governance initiative to change the Indian Act. Pat the (sorry choice but) Conservative Senator sat as CAP’s lackey at the table back then. CAP was the force behind the Corbierre decision and the vote rights for off-reserve First Nations people. CAP can be a force again (and must) but must first rise from and leave behind the useless baubles, bits, and shiny beads left behind by the former model (who dreamed of bigger glitter and bigger baubles) and focus on issues that are meaningful. (Come on nobody actually expects world peace and nobody expects every First Nation person living on a reserve to give up their life, community, and family, land, culture, and history to haul-ass and move to the city – get real.)
Ward knows I don’t mind being vocal when I think the people who would call themselves “leader” behave in ways that look and resemble the behaviour of sheep. I want our organizations to demand answers to right wrongs and defend our positions – NOT be a mouth piece for assimilation. Why should my tax-paying dollars go to defend the assimilation views from an organization that is supposed to protect or advance my rights? If CAP wants us to assimilate then they should simply close their office doors and cancel their lease.
Otherwise sit down Patrick Brazeau – your time in the sun came and left. Your legacy as a sponge is forever solidified in our history. Now let’s cross our fingers and pray that the newly elected leader finds and issue of relevance to the people and sticks to it.
You don't often see newspapers doing this, offering a forum where First Nations youth can express their thoughts/concerns on questions that so many of our non-native brothers and sisters are curious about, but are also very often afraid to ask: How do First Nations understand the challenges that face us? Is there hope? What needs to happen/change, with the media, with Canadian/First Nations leadership, and ourselves as grassroots people? A good read, originally published in the Winnipeg Free Press. I just wanted to share.
In The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway, Anishinaabe elder Edward Benton-Banai writes about the Seven Fires prophecy of his people. It's a story that predates Canada's existence.
Each prophecy -- called a fire -- is a prediction for the future.
The fires predicted great migrations, sickness and struggles over thousands of years. But it was the final, seventh fire that predicted a new generation would rise up and try to turn things around.
Many believe the seventh fire is this generation; searching out traditions and striving to make the world better for everyone.
Winnipeg is home to one of the highest aboriginal youth populations in Canada. In coming years, as baby boomers retire, aboriginal people are poised to become integral to our province's economic well-being.
The Winnipeg Free Press sat down with a group of young, determined and outspoken aboriginal people -- part of this Seventh Fire generation. What do they see as the challenges faced by aboriginal people and what are some solutions?
Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES ABORIGINAL PEOPLE FACE?
Jackie Black: One of the challenges I see in my own family -- my family not only in the city but also on the reserve because I have a lot of cousins and family under 25 -- is education.
Not so much academic education, but also just knowledge and being able to be creative and express yourself and have the resources to be able to do that. When you don't have that, you lose hope.
After high school -- if you get through high school on the reserve -- then what? Maybe five people in my family out of 100 have come to the city.
But the challenge is, in the community they live, they just don't see that.
There are only so many jobs. There's only so far you can go, and you get stuck in the cycle of poverty and drugs and alcohol and suicide. That's one of the biggest challenges that I see.
Julie Lafreniere: The challenges our aboriginal people face are complacency within our own people to accept the cards we are dealt. That maybe if we're dealt an unfortunate hand, that we just accept it, 'okay this is our life.'
With the Brian Sinclair issue at the Health Sciences Centre, when he was left to die there, I wasn't surprised that sort of thing happens. It's happened in my family. When we heard about Brian Sinclair, before anything was reported, we knew right away, he's either aboriginal or he's disabled. It turned out he was both.
Michael Champagne: I have the perspective of being an urban aboriginal youth, somebody from a remote reserve where there's a high rate of substance abuse, teen suicide, a community that lives in poverty, deals with discrimination. I'm a product of the child welfare system. I think it's important to provide tangible opportunities not only to youth but to all aboriginal people, legitimate opportunities, not only to educate themselves but to self-motivate.
I've only gone to three years of university, but my three years at the U of W were terrible. It was absolutely ridiculous that there's zero accommodation for aboriginal youth who are transitioning from a life of low expectations, a life of stereotypes that have been put upon them. There's no hope of succeeding.
There are no positive relationships being modelled within the aboriginal community.
It can't even be solely related to poor media, but that's a big thing. The media is always on board to paint aboriginal people with one brush and a negative image.
Niigonwedom Sinclair: The one thing that keeps coming up is the notion of sovereignty. That's what I think I've heard running through the strands of all of this. How do you achieve self determination?
How do you take your life by the reins and become a self-sustaining individual who leads to healthy communities and a healthy nation?
I'm very interested in getting away from the deficit model that's plagued native people for centuries.
The deficit model is seeing ourselves as singular representations of the stereotypes we swallow, the economic situations that we are in and also the political situations that we are in.
But what I see in our youth, what I see in everyone actually, from my two-year-old and beyond, I see aboriginal people more vibrant, more beautiful, stronger than they ever have been.
And that doesn't mean we don't have our struggles.
I see the biggest challenge as recognizing our intellectual selfhood, our intellectual sovereignty. That means seeing ourselves as beautiful and as capable as we ever have been.
YOU SPEAK ABOUT LEADERSHIP, THE MEDIA...
Julie Lafreniere: In terms of leadership, I think every single one of us has the strength within us to become a leader. I think we lack role models, whether that be someone within the family or within the community.
In terms of the media, I'm not a fan of the media at all.
We're either protesting or being arrested or stealing cars or dead. It's not a legitimate view of our community. It's not what's actually happening.
Personally, I write letters to the editor. I think it's important to have our own voices heard as aboriginal people within the media.
In terms of education, we talked about the [myth] of natives getting free money. Everyone thinks that I'm an aboriginal person. I'm Métis, therefore I don't get any money for my education. I had to get student loans.
We have to educate ourselves in our own communities obviously, but we have to educate the non-aboriginal people in Canada as well.
I think we have to acknowledge the gap, acknowledge that there are stereotypes and there is racism still today. Then we can move toward making it better.
Jacquie Black: As far as leadership goes, I think we all have that within ourselves and in each one of our own little corners of the world.
I worked at Stony Mountain Institution and Headingley for five years, and I believe in people being responsible for what they do and being accountable. But I don't like thinking of people as lost or forgotten or worthless.
When I talk about that I get very passionate because even though these people made mistakes and they're in jail, all you hear is negative. What we tried to do was work with the Aboriginal community to help the Aboriginal inmates not forget their traditions.
As long as we hold on to our traditions and we educate our young people and that continues, hopefully one day 85 per cent of the people in prison won't be Aboriginal.
I've had the opportunity to work with "Eagle Vision, the Legacy of Hope," to interview residential school survivors. One of the things when you talk about solutions is healing right, and you need to talk about ways to heal. It makes me mad when all you hear in the paper is it's all about the money, 'What can we give them to shut them up?'
When you sit down with these people and they tell you these stories, it's a privilege to me because they're releasing something that's going to heal them and their family. We're at a solution now because we're talking about it, and we just need to continue to do that.
Niigonwedom: My daughter is the first member of her family to not have to deal with the legacy of the residential school system. She has to deal with the legacy, but she's going to deal with the legacy in a different way than I do and in a different way from my parents and in a different way than my partner's parents who are residential school survivors. That gives me more hope than anything in the universe.
That legacy is beginning to be healed.
Not to say that some people haven't had a rough time of it and continue to because we definitely see the abuse cycles still continuing, but I think those will end with time and strength.
With media, I see native people writing and engaging in struggles, the struggles that we take up not just in journalism but in literature.
If you ask 100 native people a question, you get 100 different answers. And that's the beauty of what media provides.
I get sick and tired of seeing the more mainstream conceptions of indigenous people. The 19th century 'warriors in the wilderness' have now become the 'warriors at the barricade.' All that's changed is the decoration.
I don't believe Aboriginal leaders ever get into it for bad reasons, but I believe there are systemic forces that lead them down some destructive paths.
Julie Lafreniere: I'm disappointed in the Aboriginal leaders of today. I don't think they step forward and take the opportunity to make statements when certain things are in the forefront of Canadian media.
I think we lack leadership on a political level.
Niigonwedom: I agree they can only represent themselves ultimately as we all do, of course, but they do make decisions.
I think youth see their leaders not listening to them. Don't think the youth aren't speaking up. All you have to do is look at the gang situation. That is youth speaking up. That's youth saying, "we're not going to take this crap anymore. We're not going to take the legacy of residential schools anymore."
Those unelected leaders that we've always had, that have always been part of our communities, we've always had clan leaders, we've always had them on hunting, on berry picking.
That's what community and nationhood is all about. The solutions are by those people as much as by any elected Assembly of First Nations leader, any Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs leader.
Michael Champagne: If you look at the urban centres, specifically the North End -- I grew up there, that's my perspective -- if you look at the North End, we have families that are debilitated. They are completely debilitated, and it's not that the families are unsuccessful in being a family. It's that they have to exist inside a society where they aren't supported, where their voices aren't heard; their inquiries aren't acknowledged or addressed in any way.
We have parents that have no accountability. We have parents that don't take responsibility for their youth and so what happens from there it becomes the whole family's problem.
And then we have grannies burning themselves out because these grannies have to take care of not only their kids who are suffering with addictions, suffering from the long-lasting effects of colonization, we have the kids, grandchildren who not only have the absence of a strong male and female figure in their lives, they lack belonging to a family.
There's only so much that granny can do to save the day.
And I do agree that we do have leadership in place, and we do have things that are going on right now that are great things, that are happening, that are addressing these issues that are helping. But it's not enough, and that's why leadership is so important.
A leader is a warrior, and we've always had that, and it's something that we need to hold onto. A leader is somebody people will follow into battle. This is a struggle, this is a fight, we are fighting for our sovereignty, we are fighting for our cultural identity, we are fighting for our kids, and that is a fight I take very seriously.
Leaders need to be innovative. They need to understand the systems currently in place aren't working.
We, as a people, need to make our leaders accountable to us.
And we need to harvest those grassroots leaders and empower them, enable them to provide those tangible opportunities and build a strong healthy community.
HOW CAN WE SOLVE SOME OF THESE CHALLENGES?
Julie Lafreniere: Making intro to native studies a requirement for all students, not just Aboriginal students, but for all students, should be enforced at the university as much as a writing requirement or a math requirement. Because people graduating as teachers are going on to teach our Aboriginal youth, and they don't know the history of our people.
I went to a graduation at the faculty of education, and we were talking about residential schools. And one of the recent graduates asked 'what's a residential school?'
It blew my mind. It's unbelievable people don't know and they are graduating university without knowing general knowledge of our history.
Jackie Black: I'm focusing more on the communities outside of Winnipeg because I have a lot of young cousins there who I know have so much potential. Everyone has a gift, and if you're not given the opportunity to explore that gift or even realize you have a gift or feel bad that you might have this gift, you feel foolish. When you're young and you're just finding your way, you feel kind of goofy sometimes; you just don't feel you fit in.
My mother did leave her community, and she took the step to come to the city and was one of the first Aboriginal women in Canada to get her degree in education. That made a big difference for me and my family, for me and my brother, too, growing up in Winnipeg and having a strong role model like she was. Some people aren't that fortunate, and that's where other people need to step in and be responsible.
I try to encourage my younger cousins to try this and that, but it's hard to pull them away from... they're in a cycle of having children. They're staying home and that's great, but then they never get the opportunity to leave the community or to see what's outside.
I don't know what the solution is other than everyone trying to take some responsibility in trying to help.
Michael Champagne: We need to ensure that these solutions are actually legitimate solutions because it's happened in the past where there have been "solutions," and they haven't actually helped - residential schools.
We need to revamp the child welfare system, and devolution I think is a great step towards that.
It's an attempt to give the power back to Aboriginal people in communities so we actually have a say in what's happening with our own children. I think that's a great example and other systems need to follow suit, specifically the health care system, the education system, through all levels early, middle, high school, post secondary.
It's very important especially in urban centres and remote reserves to ensure there are more accessible recreational opportunities. They need to be done by the community for the community, by the youth for the youth.
We need to show not only the people around us but also show ourselves that we have the ability and the capacity and the potential to make change in our communities.
Niigonwedom Sinclair: The solution is here, precisely what we are doing right now, the same activity that we've done for tens of thousands of years on this land.
One of the most important things we did in the winter time is teaching. It wasn't just teaching our own children, but it was also the community, and it was from the elders down to the children.
And so for me the solution is not that we need to do something new but the recognition that we are already doing it.
I'm 33, and I think about the changes I've seen in my own life, and I can only imagine the changes other people have seen who are much older than I am. And I see tremendous hope.
Health Canada has decided they should speak to First Nations about H1N1 concerns and is hoping it will stop the F*** ups. What a revolutionary thought. They are so excited about this ingenious new idea, that they will hold a Press Conference all about it tommorrow. Well, it's not much, but it's a start. Hopefully the government will follow up with other super smart and clever ideas - like access to clean water, safe housing, schools, doctors and nurses, economic development.... Now that would be worthy of a news conference. The one bizarre twist in this story is INAC flack Ted Yeomans' insistance that the body bag incident had nothing to do with this announcement. Uh-huh. Christ Ted, just say your sorry and stop being an ass.
Full story below.
Tories reach out to First Nations after body bag blunder By Sue Bailey (CP) – 1 hour ago
OTTAWA — The Harper government is reaching out to First Nations with a flu communications strategy after this week's body-bag fiasco was blamed on a misunderstanding.
Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, will join Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl for an unusual weekend news conference here Saturday.
Sources say chiefs of some of the most vulnerable communities across Canada will soon have a conduit to raise flu concerns with Ottawa health officials.
The ministers are expected to outline a plan for regular meetings between assembly and government staff. Federal willingness to ease the exchange of such information is seen by some as an olive branch to outraged chiefs.
Ted Yeomans, a spokesman for Strahl, said that's going too far.
"Tomorrow's announcement is not a result of what issues were dealt with this week in regards to H1N1. What will be announced has been worked on for a number of weeks and has been planned for some time."
There is also talk of a virtual summit to allow First Nations with online access to ask questions of flu experts.
Not all communities will be able to take part, said one source close to the planning. But it's a start.
Atleo has expressed frustration with how Ottawa deals with far-flung, often remote First Nations.
He reacted with "disbelief" when Manitoba reserves hard hit by the H1N1 flu received several body bags from Health Canada this week.
A department spokesman said the shipment was part of "routine restocking" - not linked solely to a potential new wave of flu.
Atleo said the badly timed blunder shows why native leaders have been calling since last spring for a new approach.
"This incident demonstrates the urgent need to ensure pandemic planning is developed in partnership with First Nations," he said in a statement.
"I am urging the responsible federal ministers to work with First Nations leadership nationally, regionally and locally to ensure effective communication, clear planning and full engagement and attention on this matter."
Aglukkaq has vowed to get to the bottom of the body bag deliveries as native reserves brace for a second outbreak of H1N1 this fall.
Starting last spring, the flu pandemic disproportionately hit native reserves grappling with lack of running water and overcrowded houses.
Chiefs from some of the most stricken Manitoba reserves accused Ottawa of abandoning them. Some leaders travelled to the nearest cities to buy hand sanitizer and other supplies in bulk after federal shipments were delayed over concerns residents would drink alcohol-based cleanser.
Aglukkaq has repeatedly insisted that the federal government has a pandemic response plan to help all communities should the flu return in force.
At least 76 Canadians across the country have died from H1N1, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
October will be Women's History month. While the official theme is "women and sports," aboriginal women, and NGO's like Amnesty International will be raising awareness about missing and murdered aboriginal women during the first week. Some 520 aboriginal women have been murdered or have gone missing in Canada since 1970. More than half of the cases have occurred since 2000. More than two-thirds of the total number of women have been found dead, while 25 per cent are still missing. Here are three cases I have been following. Several opposition MP's and aboriginal groups have called for a national inquiry asking why cases remain unsolved and why aboriginal women are targeted. It's a good time to put some pressure on government to have a full inquiry.
Hillary Bonnell’s Mom: “Whoever has her, please don't hurt her; that little girl is my world."
16 year old Hillary Bonnell spent part of the summer in the Mi’kmaw community of Burnt Church, in New Brunswick. On September 5th 2009 she attended a late night party in the community. A friend gave Hilary a lift to a main highway, the well-travelled Route 11, about two kilometres from her aunt's house where she planned to spend the night. It was around 3 am, as she walked down the highway to her aunt’s when Bonnell telephoned her mother, Pam Fillier, who was in nearby Miramichi, reminding her they were to go shopping for new school clothes the next day. Hilary never made it to her aunt's house. Surveillance video taken from 4D's convenience store on the corner of Micmac Road and the well-travelled Route 11 showed the missing girl was there at about 7:30 a.m. Saturday and appeared to be alone. The last known communication with Hilary took place later Saturday morning when she sent a text message to her cousin, which indicated she was scared and wanted to “get away” but did not say where she was. Since that message was sent, Hilary’s cellphone has either been disconnected or drained of batteries, since all attempts to reach her have been unsuccessful. She had no purse, makeup, change of clothes, or cash Hilary is aboriginal, has dark eyes and black, shoulder-length hair. She is 5-5 and weighs about 134 pounds. She was last seen wearing a purple T-shirt, a black sweater, jean shorts and sandals. Her community is offering a $15,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to her discovery. http://www.helpfindmychild.net/hilary-bonnell
Claudette's family: :"She is a mother of 4 beautiful children who need her to tuck them in at night and tell them she loves them. Claudette is a good mother and they need her home."
21-year old Claudette 'Penny Tyo.' Osbourne, mother of four, disappeared 14 days after giving birth to her baby girl. Shortly before she disappeared, Claudette called her boyfriend and indicated to us that she was hemorrhaging. She has been missing since July 24, 2008 and was last seen near Selkirk Avenue and Charles Street in Winnipeg. Osborne is 5'7", 145 lbs, and was wearing black pin striped pants, black v-necked t-shirt with a ruffled collar. There is a $20,000 reward for information leading to her discovery. If you have any information please call: Police Missing Persons Unit at 986-6250 Crimestoppers at 786-8477 Manitoba Search and Rescue: George Leonard 777-0553
Maisy's Grandmother: "Not knowing if she's alive or dead, that's the hardest thing"
(Kitigan Zibi, Quebec) Maisy Odjick’s treasures, her flute, her camera and treasured photos are still where she left them at the home of her grandparents, where she usually stayed. There is still a pillow on the arm of the brown fold-out couch where Maisy slept, and her clothes are still in the white cupboard in the corner. Her family got a cake for her last birthday and put gifts under the tree for her at Christmas in case she came home. Maisy Odjick was last seen with her friend Shannon Alexander, who is also missing on Sept. 6, 2008. At the time, Odjick was 16 and Alexander was 17. Shannon’s father Bryan said he has been waiting by the phone for months, hoping someone who knows the girls' whereabouts will call. The two girls were heading to a dance, on a Saturday night, and planned a sleepover at Bryan’s home. Bryan had left for the weekend to help his Son paint his home. When her returned he found the doors to his house locked, while inside, the girls had left their purses, their wallets, their identification, their backpacks — even Shannon's medication. But the girls themselves where nowhere to be found.
There is a 13,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of the girls. Maisy Odjick, now 17, is six-feet tall, 125 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes. Maisy has two piercings on her bottom lip and one in her nose. Shannon Alexander, now 18, is five feet nine inches, 145 pounds and also has brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information should contact the Kitigan Zibi Police at 819-449-6000.
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