Category: News

Kids Help Phone reaches out to Native youth

The folks at the Kids Help Phone have come to the realization that their posters, featuring images of lonely non-Native kids in city parks, couldn’t possibly appeal to Native kids in communities, like Attawapiskat, Ontario where there isn’t even a playground. This is why the private and confidential kids help-line embarked ... read more ››

Five more CHR graduates

Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue proudly announced June 4 that five more Native students were awarded Attestations of Collegial Studies in becoming Community Health Representatives (CHR). Last December the program graduated its first two students and now five more have successfully completed their studies. Alice and Sylvie Jerome of Lac Simon, Hazel Georgekish of ... read more ››

Natives finally covered by Canadian Human Rights Act

Closing a 30-year gap of lacking human rights protection, First Nation Canadians living on reserves will finally be included under federal human-rights laws. When the Canadian Human Rights Act was created in 1977, the federal government argued that since Natives were governed under the Indian Act more time was needed to ... read more ››

Remembering 1971

Every generation of Crees will have to retell and adapt the story of their past to meet the needs of their particular historical and cultural and social situation. That is what will keep them alive as Crees – both socially and culturally. They will need to shape the material into ... read more ››

The Indians of Quebec Association

In the mid-1960s, the Indian Affairs Head Office in Ottawa ordered its Quebec regional office to organize a number of province-wide meetings with the leaders of Indian Bands to encourage them to develop a regional Indian organization to be prepared to meet with Ottawa to discuss proposed changes to the ... read more ››

Native pride

First off, I hope everyone had a great National Aboriginal Day on June 21, I know I did and I’m not even Native. For the celebrations I went to the reopening of the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal (NFCM) which held an event in partnership with the Inter-Tribal Youth Centre ... read more ››

The greatness of graduating

Though school might be out for the summer, for some Crees this spring marked school being out forever for them. While the Nation would like to congratulate everyone who graduated from their respective academic programs this spring, we caught up with a handful of post-secondary graduates to see what it felt ... read more ››

Running with Shannen’s dreams

The Shannen’s Dream campaign to end education apartheid for First Nations youth held a major launch on June 10 for a new report that will make its way to the United Nations later this year. The 84-page document is an alternate report, entitled Our Dreams Matter Too, that will be delivered ... read more ››

Entering Wemindji’s golden era

With the looming gold mining project on Wemindji territory getting closer to moving from the advanced exploration phase into becoming a full-fledged mine, one question that has been on the minds of many Crees is how to maximize the economic spinoffs from the project for those who live on the ... read more ››

Plugged in and beyond

When broadband finally hits Eeyou Istchee this fall, it won’t just mean that Crees will finally be able to run an iPhone or play Farmville at regular speed as a flood of new technologies geared at everything from online learning to medical diagnoses at a distance will finally be available ... read more ››

Native Friendship Centre re-opens on Aboriginal Day

On National Aboriginal Day, the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal (NFCM) invites everyone to its grand re-opening celebrations. There will be two days of activities showcasing Native culture and heritage June 21-22. The event is being organized by the NFCM and its Inter-Tribal Youth Centre as well as QPIRG-Concordia, Projet ... read more ››

Michener Award nominee Steve Bonspiel

It is with great pride that we announce that our friend Steve Bonspiel, the editor and publisher of The Eastern Door, is a nominee for the prestigious Michener Award. The award is given to a Canadian news publication whose entry is judged to have made a significant impact on public ... read more ››

Xstrata Nickel hands out profits to Inuit

Nickel’s Raglan mine has given $15.2 million to Makivik Corporation towards the development of Inuit communities. The money comes as part of an agreement signed in 1995 between Raglan, Makivik and the Inuit communities. This sum is the Inuit share of the profits from 2010; to date the agreement has ... read more ››

Aboriginal gaming innovation at its best

Adding to Montreal’s already thriving gaming industry, Rezolution Pictures has branched out with Minority Inc. to produce games. Executive producer and chief spiritual officer Ernest Webb has always wanted to share stories of the James Bay Cree with the world and Minority Media is an extension of that desire. As ... read more ››

Reaping the benefits

Six First Nation trainees are ready to start work in the mining sector thanks to a partnership program between Matachewan First Nation, Northgate Minerals Corp and Dumas Contracting. The graduates of the Underground Miner Training program, which was provided under the Matachewan Aboriginal Access to Mine Jobs Training Strategy (MAATS), ... read more ››

Restoring the balance

Although the Quebec government has denied it for years, the facts are that Lake Chibougamau has been and still is contaminated by waste from the mining facilities nearby. In August 2005, Nation editor-in-chief Will Nicholls exposed a government cover-up in his article entitled Poisoned (Volume 12, No. 20). The effects on ... read more ››

Reinterpreting the past

The McCord Museum, located in downtown Montreal, is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. The museum is taking advantage of the occasion to promote its position as a premier history museum as well as maintain its reputation as a thought-provoking, contemporary and progressive institution. The new signature, “Our People, Our ... read more ››

There’s more than gold in thar hills

The Plan Nord is off and running as far as the mining industry is concerned. New roads are slated to open up Eeyou Istchee like a can of sweet peaches. Everyone is looking to get a share of the potential windfalls the roads will bring. The mining companies near those ... read more ››

Without justice or juries

It has only been weeks since Jordan Wabasse was laid to rest in his home community of Webequie, Ontario and yet it may take years before he and the other six First Nations students, all of whom died while attending school in Thunder Bay, will get justice. On February 7, the ... read more ››

Down the yellow plastic road

The recent Symposium Mines Baie-James in Chibougamau not only brought out many of the companies looking to do business in Eeyou Istchee but also those who can offer products and solutions to many of the problems the mining industry faces, Terratech is one of these companies. Having recently set up shop ... read more ››

Showcasing the goods

As the province’s Plan Nord for development in the north is finally moving into the action phase, a handful of Cree business bigwigs have made some proactive moves, presenting what Cree business and a Cree workforce can do for the mining industry at a major international mining event. This year’s Canadian ... read more ››

First day on the job

As Parliament finally resumed on June 2 for the first time since the election, many shiny new MPs were making their way into the House of Commons as elected representatives to report for duty for the very first time. Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou MP Romeo Saganash was one of them. Just moments after exiting ... read more ››

Regaining control

While the fresh ink on the new framework agreement between the Grand Council of the Crees and the Province of Quebec may have finally dried, the work to create a Final Agreement within one year has just begun. On May 27, Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come and Premier Jean Charest finally ... read more ››

Washaw Sibi chooses change

As Washaw Sibi’s newly elected Chief, Pauline Hester knows the struggles of her own people intimately, which is why she feels she is the perfect person to take the reins at this point in time. Much like the rest of the Washaw Sibi people, Pauline Hester says that she is from ... read more ››

IFAW dog clinics

The International Fund for Animal Welfare will be hosting veterinary dog clinics in two Cree communities. Vets at the clinics perform surgeries to spay or neuter dogs as well as vaccinations and other routine procedures. IFAW is in Waskaganish June 1, 2 and 3 (contact Ernest Blueboy or Darlene Cheechoo) and ... read more ››

Robbie Robertson awarded Order of Canada

After 50 years of rocking out and writing songs that shaped decades and generations, Six Nations of the Grand River rocker Robbie Robertson graced a stage he had never graced before when he received the Order of Canada at Rideau Hall May 27. Canada recognized the 67-year-old singer/songwriter for his contributions ... read more ››