ARTICLES BY Will Nicholls

Cree Youth Speak Their Minds

Youths may be the majority of the Cree population, but their views are often overlooked. Jobs, traditional values and future hydro-electric development – those are the main concerns raised by youth leader James Shecapio in an interview with the Nation’s William Nicholls. Shecapio is the chair and spokesperson for the Cree ... read more ››

Give of Yourselves this Christmas

Merry Christmas to all the Cree Nations. Our first issue was fun. Never having put out a newspaper before, we found it was the kind of experience that comes along once in a lifetime. Waiting for it to come off the presses once all our work was done was truly ... read more ››

Ouje Bougoumou: Survival of a Nation

The story is an old one for natives, but the ending proves what Yogi Beara said all along: “It ain’t over ’till it’s over.” The Ouje Bougoumou Nation has fought the longest of all our nations for recognition and survival. Their problems started in the 1920s, when forestry and mining developers ... read more ››

Hydro-Quebec to Fund Cree Study

It cost $400 million and was 5,000 pages long, but Hydro-Quebec’s environmental-impact study of the proposed Great Whale project is incomplete, admits the giant utility. Hydro-Quebec agreed to provide $450,000 to fund a Cree-designed study of the social impacts of the $ 13.3-billion project after Crees refused to fill out ... read more ››

The Hydro Job Creation Myth

Hydro-Quebec has broken an agreement to create jobs for Crees, says a study by Universalia, a Montreal consultants’ group. According to the 1986 Opemiska Agreement, Hydro-Quebec was to create 154 person-years of employment for the Crees. Today’s reality, says Universalia, is that only 10 to 20 person-years of employment have ... read more ››

Chretien Owes Us, Says Moses

That’s right, it’s a long overdue account. Normally, politicians promise a chicken in every pot, but here’s one politician who took one. The story goes that in the early 1970s, when the governments were desperate to negotiate with the Crees, Jean Chretien was Ottawa’s man on the spot. He rushed ... read more ››

Interview with Viola Robinson – Co-Chairing The Royal Commission

Early December saw the last public hearings of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The Nation was on-hand to get the impressions of Viola Robinson, co-chair of the commission and former national leader of the Native Council of Canada. “This has been one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences of ... read more ››

Good Neighbours

In the United States, the good neighbour policy is alive and well. At least in working-class Worchester, Massachussetts. People had mowed Adele Gaboury’s lawn, collected her mail, had her water pipes fixed and generally tried to make life comfortable for this 77 year old lady. Then they discovered that she ... read more ››