Indigenous

Two RCMP officers in Prince George, B.C., are charged with manslaughter in the 2017 death of an indigenous man in their custody, prosecutors announced February 1. Three others are charged with attempting to obstruct justice. Four of the officers remain on active duty while the other is on administrative leave for unrelated reasons. [node:read-more:link]

The federal government has agreed to pay $2.8 billion to settle a 2012 class-action lawsuit by 325 First Nations seeking compensation for the loss of language and culture caused by its residential school system. Subject to final discussions and court approval, the money will be paid to an independent non-profit trust. [node:read-more:link]

Two police operations in eastern Ontario across the St. Lawrence River from New York state have resulted in the arrests of six persons on firearms charges. In one case, the investigation leading to four arrests involved provincial, local and indigenous police services as well as the Canada Border Services Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. [node:read-more:link]

Federal justice Minister David Lametti has announced funding for an indigenous legal program he says will enable it to flourish alongside the established justice system. “When justice is part of a community tradition or a nation's tradition, it will work better,” he said in announcing $1.5 million for a Métis-run program. Despite making up only about five per cent of the population, First Nations, Inuit and Métis account for 28 per cent of all federally-sentenced individuals and 32 per cent of the prison population. [node:read-more:link]

The federal government will spend up to $800 million to support four major indigenous-led conservation projects covering nearly a million square kilometres in the North and along the B.C. coast. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement alongside Environment & Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault and indigenous as a UN conference on biodiversity began in Montreal. [node:read-more:link]

Sovereignty proposals by the Alberta and Saskatchewan governments have prompted First Nations in both provinces to call for the withdrawal of draft legislation they consider inherently undemocratic, unconstitutional and and infringes on indigenous rights. The Assembly of First Nations is being asked by the chiefs to formally reject the measures they see as a harmful precedent. [node:read-more:link]

Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek, an Ojibway First Nation in Northern Ontario, is suing the federal government in a bid to increase funding of reserve policing. “It happens more often than not where our officers couldn't execute an arrest because they had no backup,” Chief Wilfred King said December 4 before filing a statement of claim with the Federal Court. [node:read-more:link]

British Columbia today became the first Canadian jurisdiction to ensure that indigenous communities can provide their own child and family services, passing legislation as part of a general overhaul of child welfare programs. Statistics Canada said that some 68 per cent of children younger than 14 in provincial care programs in B.C. were indigenous in 2021 compared with nearly 54 per cent nationally. [node:read-more:link]

The federal government and the Assembly of First Nations are seeking judicial review of a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal rejection of the government’s $20-billion offer to settle a class-action lawsuit over underfunding of on-reserve child welfare. Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said they want “clarity” on how to address the parts of the deal the tribunal rejected. [node:read-more:link]

Draft federal legislation which would dissolve the RCMP’s civilian complaints review body and create a replacement which also would deal with Canada Border Services Agency should involve indigenous personnel. A potential amendment to Bill C-20, broached in the House of Commons by the New Democratic Party’s public safety critic, has drawn the support of the president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs. “It's absolutely essential that any oversight bodies of policing agencies include an indigenous presence,” says Grand Chief Stewart Phillip. [node:read-more:link]

A Belgian lawyer said September 13 that France cannot comply with a request from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to extradite a former priest to face charges of child abuse. The lawyer told a delegation from Nunavut in Paris this week that France is constitutionally prohibited from extraditing the man; nor could it try him on Canada’s behalf because the statute of limitations had expired. [node:read-more:link]

Two men remained at large today after 10 persons were stabbed to death and 15 others were wounded Sept. 4 in central Saskatchewan’s Smith Cree Nation and the nearby village of Weldon. RCMP, who have been searching for one of the suspects, have issued a three-province alert for Myles and Damien Sanderson. [node:read-more:link]

Michelle O'Bonsawin's appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada as its first indigenous member has been formally confirmed by the Prime Minister's Office. Asked about her priorities during a meeting with parliamentarians last week, she said that she is “a judge first and an indigenous person and a mother and a Franco-Ontarian afterwards.” [node:read-more:link]

In the final months of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration in 2015, the federal government agreed to “forever discharge” Catholic entities from their promise to raise $25 million for residential school survivors. Although, a court ruling that July had obliged the Catholic entities to pay $79 million, partly through “best efforts” to raise $25 million for the survivors, only about $3.5 million was raised. [node:read-more:link]

In the final months of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration in 2015, the federal government agreed to “forever discharge” Catholic entities from their promise to raise $25 million for residential school survivors. Although, a court ruling that July had obliged the Catholic entities to pay $79 million, partly through “best efforts” to raise $25 million for the survivors, only about $3.5 million was raised. [node:read-more:link]