Category: Editorials

“For you….”

  My grandmother shared a story with her family. My mother knows it and so do all her children. I would like to share it with you and I can only hope I do it justice. When Gookum was a young girl it was the hard times. Non-Native trappers came in and ... read more ››

Educate me

  I never knew how blind I truly was until I saw the Tories were looking at creating a formal Native education system through a First Nations Education Act. I had always assumed one was already in place as the ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development funded First Nations schools ... read more ››

The Cree way

  A parent in Chisasibi recently wrote an open letter asking why the Cree School Board reduced the amount of Cree taught to her children. She wanted to know why the CSB “replaced” the Cree Language of Instruction Program (CLIP) with a formula of 50% Cree and 50% in French and/or ... read more ››

Balancing the risks

  We long ago became accustomed to the environmental review reports issued by those who wish to exploit the land. Usually we are told there will be few problems if any, no real impacts and that the materials to be left behind are already naturally present in the environment anyway. So ... read more ››

Building a legacy on a foundation of humanity

I know many of you might expect me to use this space to attack National Post columnist Christie Blatchford for her December 27 piece as full of bull… err horseshit (she’s the one who fertilized her prose with “horse manure,” after all). But, really, despite her ill-informed assertions and tortured ... read more ››

Coals in Xmas stockings

The holiday season is upon us and for some the Christmas cheer isn’t so loud. While Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan is quietly glad Parliament is finished until January, the community of Attawapiskat will still be looking at a chilly and sparse Christmas.   The 22 houses (originally 15) won’t arrive until ... read more ››

No editorial

  This issue of the Nation doesn’t have an editorial. It’s not that I have nothing to say but rather no time in which to really say it well. Other matters have occupied my mind and time. On Thursday, November 17 at 5:05 pm, my wife Amy German delivered Hunter Donald Joshua Nicholls. He ... read more ››

Individuality

A man once wrote those who control our knowledge of the past controls the present and therefore define the future. Within the Cree world we are subject to more than the tales and legends of our people. We are overwhelmed with tales, legends and histories that are not our own and ... read more ››

Caribou and you

Recently, a poll by Léger Marketing showed Quebecers felt it was important to protect endangered species. It’s an attitude the Crees know well. It’s even one they have been a part of when the need was there. For example, in the 1940s the Cree and the Hudson Bay Company created beaver ... read more ››

Still no apology?

  Wow, we did a news brief last issue in which Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan said residential schools weren’t really genocide. Duncan instead felt “the history of residential schools tells of an education policy gone wrong.” This was done during an announcement that a stained-glass artwork in honour of residential school ... read more ››

What’s with the walk?

Quebec has yet again shown they have traditions they are unwilling to give up. After releasing the long-awaited Golder Report they withdrew their representative on the steering committee that is supposed to deal with the mining toxins affecting the area surrounding Chibougamau and Oujé-Bougoumou. We have seen unwillingness year after ... read more ››

Facts you should know

The Cree world is never one you can stand back and fully understand. It is like the many rivers our ancestors used for highways. A wise man once said a river is a place where every step you take is new. I guess that’s the rushing water and all that. It’s ... read more ››

Opening the door to a brighter future

I’ve been traveling a lot in the past while. I went to Eastmain for the Grand Council/Cree Regional Authority Annual General Assembly. One of the discussions I had was on meals for students. I was told that a meal program was refused because it was the parents’ responsibility to feed ... read more ››

Lesson’s learnt

I haven’t missed a Grand Council/Cree Regional Authority Annual General Assembly since the Nation first went to press. Every one of them has been fun, unique and thoroughly enjoyable. Going to Eastmain without my wingman, Neil Diamond, felt as though something was missing. He was up in the belly of ... read more ››

Bad faith

The federal Specific Claims Tribunal is on the chopping block and October 16 is the execution date. This sudden and radical policy change has many First Nations worried. About 65 current land claims negotiations with First Nations will be immediately affected. Negotiators are saying that government representatives are telling them ... read more ››

Sweetgrass on the verge

The restaurant biz is one the toughest businesses to be in, and this is the one I have dedicated the last 7-1/2 years of my life to. It has been a dream come true and one I would like to share with you. I know I have written this before and ... read more ››

Of our beginnings

Looking back is always, as any police officer will tell you, difficult. If 10 people witness a crime you’ll have 10 different stories and many of them aren’t the same thing the others experienced. Another problem is summed up in a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche when he said, “I have done ... read more ››

First Nations spied on

Access to information can be a wonderful thing. Some of the latest information to surface through this method was the fact that in January 2006 the newly formed Harper government intensified intelligence and surveillance of First Nations with an emphasis on splinter groups, such as the Warrior societies. With the ... read more ››

Congrats to everyone at the Nation

Once a year I get to sing praises on how well the Nation has done in the past year. It is the time when the Quebec Community Newspapers Association holds its Better Newspaper Competition. This is when the Nation competes against other Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal newspapers in Quebec. This year ... read more ››

Looking back

This federal election was certainly bittersweet for many. In Quebec many wished for another minority and even a coalition government in Ottawa. Harper though pulled through and got the majority government he desired and asked Canadians for. The next four years should be interesting ones as Canadians will have the ... read more ››

As I Look Back…

As I look back on my life I find myself wondering… Did I remember to thank you For all that you have done for me? For all the times you were by my side To help me celebrate my sucessess And accept my defeats? Or for teaching me the value of hard Work, Good judgement, courage, and Honesty? I wonder if ... read more ››

Make the vote count

Crees, Inuit and other First Nations traditionally don’t really vote as much as other residents of either the Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou or the Timmins-James Bay ridings. The times though are changing. Romeo Saganash, a Cree from Waswanipi, has tossed his hat into the ring as the NDP candidate hoping to win the Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou ... read more ››

Election 2011

We need a better reality show! Recently the minority government headed by Prime Minister Steven Harper announced an election for all Canadians because of the Unholy Trinity of the Opposition. At least this is the message coming our way via the Conservative Party spin doctors. It is fear mongering at its ... read more ››

Who will call the shots?

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for the Cree to dissolve the economic bonds which have connected them with one another, and to combine them, creating an economic engine, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Quebec and of a constitutionally protected agreement ... read more ››

Cree got your tongue

In 1993, the Assembly of First Nations declared the month of March as Aboriginal Languages Month. Since then, March is a time when First Nations celebrate their languages and their survival. There are 192 different Aboriginal languages that are recognized in North America. Canada is home to 70 of them. Statistics ... read more ››

Press not necessarily a pass anymore

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. – from Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Being a member ... read more ››