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19 giugno MIFC celebrates National Aboriginal Day SaturdayJune 18, 2008http://www.bclocalnews.com/fraser_valley/missioncityrecord/news/20526684.html The Mission Indian Friendship Centre is hosting a special event this Saturday, patterning similar celebrations held country-wide. Assembly of First Nations National Chief commends new legislation regarding Specific Claims and the Kelowna Accord
OTTAWA, June 18 /CNW Telbec/ - Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine applauded the government of Canada and all parliamentarians for passing two bills (C-30 and C-292) through the House and Senate. He noted that both bills are set to receive Royal Assent today. He thanked all parliamentarians for their hard work to pass these Bills and commended them for the spirit of cooperation and flexibility that was demonstrated to allow these Bills to pass. First nations celebrate new cultural centreJeff Lee, Vancouver SunPublished: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 WHISTLER - Leonard Andrew says the rich heritage and culture of his Lil'wat First Nation and those of its neighbour, the Squamish, have for years been misunderstood and misrepresented. It has not helped that people coming to this resort municipality have not been able to get a clear answer to a fundamental question: who are the traditional people of the land? 18 giugno Appalling living conditions a form of passive ethnic cleansingStephen Hume, Special to the Sunhttp://www.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=2c2fa8a3-840e-4585-b3fc-7834fcc7c9e0&p=2
Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 Just before Prime Minister Stephen Harper made Canada's historic apology for residential schools and their abuses, I hitched a ride up to the village of Skatin. It took 4 1/2 hours to get there from Mission. The road is among the worst I've ever travelled, and I've travelled some bad ones. On this trip, we forded rain-swollen creeks, worked our way through washouts that would high-centre a giraffe, crawled up eroded, boulder-strewn slopes in the lowest, slowest gears of four-wheel drive, and edged around recent slide debris that pushed us onto a crumbling shoulder above drops that would be described as "exhilarating" if they were touted as a midway ride. I'm told the road to Skatin from Mt. Currie is in better shape. Logging trucks use it, so the province maintains it to a higher standard. However, since the In-SHUCK-ch Nation's office is located near Mission, it was either take the southern route or drive down the valley, across Metro Vancouver, up the Sea to Sky Highway and then back down Lillooet Lake -- about 5 1/2 hours one-way on the "improved" road. This to reach a place that's less than 100 kilometres as the crow flies from the intersection of Granville and Georgia and a scant 45 kilometres from the ostentation and opulence that is Whistler. I dread to imagine an ambulance crew some snowy January night, especially considering dispatch is located in Vancouver and wouldn't have a clue about road conditions. When I got to Skatin, I was fed tuna sandwiches for lunch and got a warm welcome from In-SHUCK-ch chief negotiator Gerard Peters, from Lester Ned and from the school kids I was to talk to about history and what it tells us about the consequences of the choices we make. Allen Gabriel and his brother Shawn gave me a quick tour of the community. What I saw was appalling -- and by using that unvarnished term I mean no disrespect to the people of Skatin. Giant transmission pylons from generating facilities on the Bridge and Seton rivers march right past the community, yet after more than 50 years of asking, the people of Skatin still are not connected to the provincial power grid. They have to generate their own dirty electricity with diesel engines. They have no telephone service and communicate with VHF radios, as though Skatin were some primitive forward operations base in a Third World war zone. I saw houses with their roofs draped with cheap blue tarps. That's because the roofs leak and the houses are condemned. At least five are subject to seasonal flooding from the river. Peters last warned the government they need immediate replacement a year ago. In fact, he tells me, he told the government that the In-SHUCK-ch are now four generations behind in meeting infrastructure and service needs. In-SHUCK-ch population is projected to double by 2028. One study estimates $40 million in new residential housing is needed for Skatin and sister communities at Samahquam and Douglas. Already there's a diaspora as people leave in search of basic shelter. Maybe we should start calling this what it is, a kind of passive ethnic cleansing policy by which people are forced off their traditional land not by direct action but by permitting the basic living conditions to become untenable even as they try to negotiate a treaty. We should want to know from government by what monumental hypocrisy and fiduciary failure, families are forced to live in condemned houses a 10-minute helicopter ride from the luxurious splendours of the province's Olympic showcase? Why is the road to Skatin so abysmal while politicians swan about in comfort on the taxpayers' tab? Why is Skatin unable to be part of B.C.'s electrical grid although millions of kilowatts pass overhead on the way to illuminate swanky pillars of steel and glass in Vancouver? Why is Skatin without basic telephone service while politicians twitter endlessly on their taxpayer-funded BlackBerrys? More important, if we care about our fellow citizens in this province, we should hold accountable those federal and provincial politicians who represent the rest of us. What we should not do, is let those same politicians get away with empty rhetoric about reconciliation or apologies which address past abuses while ignoring the abuses of the present. shume@islandnet.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
17 giugno First nations resort turns the cornerFormerly troubled project posts hefty profitBruce Constantineau, Vancouver SunPublished: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 CRANBROOK -- A seven-figure annual profit has convinced Chief Sophie Pierre the ambitious, first-nations-owned St. Eugene Mission Resort is finally out of the financial woods. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=d6fa6a8c-4004-4ec5-969b-1d74be382ab5
16 giugno One step forward toward ‘a better world’Chilliwack Progress Robert Freeman June 12, 2008
http://www.bclocalnews.com/fraser_valley/theprogress/news/19872869.html
Skatin First Nation elder Ma’kleet accepts a gift of sweetgrass and tobacco from Bruce Milne, senior federal government representative at an emotion-charged meeting Wednesday following the Prime Minister’s apology to residential school survivors.
I expected tears.
The pain of residential school survivors - not just the strappings and the sex abuse they sometimes endured - but the daily assaults on their dignity by “superior” white teachers - is not hard to imagine. Indignities that didn’t end when they returned home to reserves pushed to the farthest edges of society: out of sight; out of mind. Indignities that continue to this day.
What surprised me as I sat with In-SHUCK-ch elders, chiefs and survivors watching the historic apology, was the depth of the emotion among the non-aboriginals in the room.
Female government bureaucrats, looking cool and official before the meeting, were soon red-eyed and weeping as one of the survivors, a Skatin elder named Ma’Kleet, spoke after the apology.
“I have great sorrow that so many of our elders and other survivors of residential schools, who suffered so greatly, are no longer alive to hear these words of apology,” she said. “We lost too many of them before their time, and their brief time was burdened by their experience.”
“For too many of our people, the experience all but extinguished their inner light, like a smudge with only a tiny ember still alight,” she said. “I am hopeful that this apology will fan this tiny ember into the light that it can be.”
Bruce Milne, the federal government’s senior representative at the In-SHUCK-ch talks, struggled to hold back his tears as he presented a gift to Ma’kleet.
The gift was sweet grass and tobacco, not the usual government pens, Milne noted, to honour the aboriginal tradition. It was a small gift in light of all that has been taken from aboriginal people.
“There’s so much to give back,” he said.
But then Milne, just another government bureaucrat after all, took it a step further and added his own personal apology to the government’s.
Looking into Ma’kleet’s eyes, he said the residential school policy was probably made by well-intentioned people just like himself, blind to the harm they were doing.
“I’m sorry,” he said. And worried out loud if government policies in place right now might suffer from the same kind of blindness.
An interesting concept, I told him after the ceremony. But do you think there are such “well-intentioned” policies doing harm, that we simply don’t see?
“I’m the son of colonials,” Milne replied, meaning just about all non-aboriginals with a hand in making or carrying out government policy. “I’m sure there is.”
It occurred to me after the ceremony that it’s going to take a lot of people, taking that extra step like Milne, who make the apology a personal matter, for it to achieve the “healing” the Prime Minister is seeking.
“You have been working on recovering from this experience for a long time and in a very real sense, we are now joining you on this journey,” Harper had said during the apology.
A journey of healing for the survivors, for the policy-makers, for the nation.
Harper had also asked aboriginal-Canadians for their forgiveness “for failing them so profoundly” when the government approved the policy designed for “killing the Indian” in aboriginal children and assimilating them into white society.
But the fact that the policy failed showed the courage of aboriginal people, he said, and served as a “testament to their resilience as individuals and to the strength of their cultures.”
The absence of an apology for that tragic policy has stood in the way to healing the relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people, he said.
Skatin Chief Patrick Williams said the good-will of every individual in Canada, aboriginal and non-aboriginal alike, will be needed for the healing to begin.
“We all need to work on this to make this come true,” he said.
“Please work together for a better world,” said Ma’Kleet.
MP insists treaty committee visit B.C.Jessica Kerr, Special to Surrey NowPublished: Friday, June 13, 2008 As the Tsawwassen First Nation treaty moves through Parliament, Delta-Richmond East MP John Cummins is hoping to bring the federal committee to B.C. to hear from those who will be affected by the agreement. Bill C-34, the legislation that will enact the TFN treaty, received preliminary approval in the House of Commons last month. Now the bill has been sent to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development for its review before going back before MPs for final approval. http://www.canada.com/surreynow/news/story.html?id=d1bea68c-7f4e-4da5-9fa0-db27095be4f4 Ottawa pledges $17 million each in Olympic legacy funds to two BC First Nations2 days agoVANCOUVER — Two B.C. First Nations are getting a multimillion-dollar thank you for their support for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver but some band members say it doesn't mean they won't be protesting. http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3SbcM1-uSSWqVjxK3LpTVl1h5_g Canada and First Nations Partner in an Olympic Legacy AgreementJun 13, 2008 16:00 ET
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - June 13, 2008) - The Government of Canada today announced the conclusion of Olympic Legacy Agreements with the Musqueam First Nation and Tsleil-Waututh First Nation which will help ensure that Aboriginal people share in the economic, social and cultural benefits of hosting the 2010 Winter Games.
B.C.'s First Nations welcome the worldB.C.'s First Nations welcome the worldBaby boomers are now joining international travellers in exploring the province's aboriginal-based attractionsTed Davis, Special to the SunPublished: Saturday, June 14, 2008 International travellers have a long tradition of fascination with the first nations aspects of life, culture and history in British Columbia. Now, domestic tourists are making the same sort of discoveries at an increasing number of aboriginal-based attractions around the province. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/travel/story.html?id=8fd29c2d-7d89-4b1d-bd84-8c54bf88192f Poilievre's bad weekThe Ottawa CitizenPublished: Saturday, June 14, 2008 As comedians, dancers and hockey goalies know, timing is everything. But for a truly graphic lesson in the consequences of bad timing, consider what happened to Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre this week. On Wednesday, shortly before his boss, the Prime Minister, was set to make a historic apology to Canada's aboriginal peoples, Mr. Poilievre went on the radio and dumped all over aboriginal peoples. In official Ottawa, undermining one's boss is a serious offence. When the boss happens to be Stephen Harper, a man with authoritarian tendencies, it's practically a capital offence. First Nations' languages becoming extinct
Updated: Sat Jun. 14 2008 19:31:58 The unique languages of B.C.'s First Nations communities make up one of the three most important linguistic regions in the world and are in danger of becoming instinct, according to a UBC linguistics professor. Majority of B.C. students exceed expectations, exam results showJanet Steffenhagen, Vancouver SunPublished: Friday, June 13, 2008 Results from provincial tests in reading, writing and math suggest that more than two-thirds of B.C. students in Grades 4 and 7 are meeting or exceeding educational expectations, Education Minister Shirley Bond said Friday. Treaty troubles
Posted: June 16, 2008 by: David Wiwchar / Today correspondent
Boundary disputes, broken histories hound Vancouver Island's First Nations
PORT ALBERNI, British Columbia - Vancouver Island's first aboriginal treaty in more than 150 years is facing stiff opposition. Not from governments, or the many small towns and cities that border proposed settlement lands, but from neighboring First Nations.
First nations have key role in 2010 Winter OlympicsJeff Lee, Vancouver SunPublished: Monday, June 16, 2008 VANCOUVER - Nearly 10 years ago, when Vancouver business and community leaders were considering bidding for the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, Joe Mathias, a hereditary chief of the Squamish First Nation, saw an opportunity. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=4a234a38-c98a-4d9c-9bb2-503bec21effc More than apologiesPaula Simons, The Edmonton JournalPublished: Monday, June 16, 2008 By now, the story of the damages done by the residential schools is all too well-known. Over decades, thousands of children were taken from their parents and communities and raised in church-run boarding schools. The avowed intent of the schools was to prepare Indian children for life in a white world, to teach them English, to give them an education, to provide them with a marketable trade, and, of course, to convert them to Christianity. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=be88bf1c-6b2b-4d1c-81f6-23e0a94d39ee A cultural change starts with capitalHarvey Enchin, Vancouver SunPublished: Friday, June 13, 2008 Now that we've got contrition and the National Day of Inaction out of the way, perhaps we can get to work improving the lives of aboriginal Canadians. Canada spends roughly $7,600 per capita annually on the 1.3 million Canadians who claim aboriginal ancestry, compared with $7,100 for Canadians overall. Where does the money go? http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=3e4e7a03-0cc3-4870-bf9e-36ee11f815a9 12 giugno B.C. First Nations languages at riskhttp://www.straight.com/article-149331/bc-first-nations-languages-risk
June 12, 2008
By Carlito Pablo There will be no first-language speakers of First Nations languages left in British Columbia within a quarter of a century as a direct legacy of the Indian residential-school system.
UBC associate professor Henry Davis made this projection a couple of hours before Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered an apology to survivors and families of former students of the boarding schools that were meant to assimilate Native youth into the dominant white society. PM apologizes to first nationsDalson Chen, Windsor Star Published: Thursday, June 12, 2008 The Canadian government has formally apologized for the country's legacy of residential schools that subjected aboriginal children to isolation, assimilation and abuse.
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=14983786-8af9-44fa-a2ba-01fc800bc624 Residential schools ‘a sad chapter in our history,’ Harper tells First Nations'Sad chapter in our history'Meagan Fitzpatrick and Linda Nguyen, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Chris Wattie/ReutersPrime Minister Stephen Harper shakes hands with Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine. Harper delivered a historic apology on Canada's residential schools policy. OTTAWA -- Canada's historic apology to residential school survivors is underway in the House of Commons and aboriginal leaders and former students are watching closely in the hopes the prime minister's words signal an era of healing and reconciliation. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=580506
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