Welcome to AMMSA.COM, the news archive website for our family of Indigenous news publications.

Windspeaker Publication

Windspeaker Publication

Established in 1983 to serve the needs of northern Alberta, Windspeaker became a national newspaper on its 10th anniversary in 1993.

  • November 30, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor OTTAWA

“We are not about to stand down and go quietly into the night. That’s not going to happen,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.

Phillip was speaking an hour after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced approval for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline and Enbridge’s Line 3.

Trudeau rejected Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project and…

  • November 22, 2016
  • Cara McKenna Windspeaker Contributor VANCOUVER

Several thousand people marched in Vancouver in opposition to Kinder Morgan on Saturday, Nov. 19, as many prepare to face arrest if the pipeline project is approved.

The unprecedentedly huge rally drew Indigenous people from diverse nations across Western Canada who spoke, sang and drummed alongside politicians on all levels who oppose the pipeline.

The display of opposition came…

  • November 22, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor VAL-D'OR, Que.

The commissioners of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls have committed to examining police behavior.

In a statement issued Nov. 18, the commission said, “The situation in Val-d'Or is exactly the type of situation that the national inquiry will look at. Policing is a crucial government service that certainly falls under the inquiry's mandate.”

  • November 17, 2016
  • Windspeaker Staff

Bert Crowfoot, the publisher of Windspeaker and CEO of the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA), has headed off to Ottawa to address the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

On Nov. 17 he’ll be speaking to the committee about the importance of Indigenous media in Canada and how media concentration impacts our publications and operations.

The Standing Committee is…

  • November 17, 2016
  • Shayne Morrow Windspeaker Contributor PORT ALBERNI, B.C.

Assembly of First Nations B.C. Regional Chief Shane Gottfriedson suggests it’s time for parties to step back and take a deep breath. He was speaking about a lawsuit that has been filed in the BC Supreme Court.

“It’s really being blown out of proportion,” he said.

The lawsuit raises the issue of how schools should be allowed to teach and promote Indigenous culture in the classroom…

  • November 15, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor SIKSIKA NATION, Alta.

Arthur Bear Chief said his is a story that needs to be told. Not only for himself, but for the other children who were abused at Old Sun residential school and can no longer speak out.

“It’s important for me to make public what I personally went through and also to speak for people that are gone that went to residential school with me and that went through probably the same thing that I…

  • November 15, 2016
  • Windspeaker Staff

An anonymous donation to the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) will be housed in a new Gallery of Northwest Coast Masterworks.

Construction of the new gallery begins this month and is expected to be completed in time to open to the public by National Aboriginal Day, June 21, 2017.

The 200 pieces of Indigenous art, worth $7 million, make up…

  • November 15, 2016
  • Windspeaker Staff

The Heiltsuk Nation is disappointed to learn that the federal government is withholding analytical data arising from early environmental sampling after a tug and barge ran aground Heiltsuk territorial waters.

These samples, collected by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and handed over to the Department of Environment and Climate Change, may contain information critical to Heiltsuk…

  • November 15, 2016
  • Sam Laskaris Windspeaker Contributor SMITHS FALLS, Ont.

Bradley Dobson is making quite a name for himself, albeit far from his original home.

Dobson, a member of the Moose Cree First Nation, was born in the remote northern Ontario community of Moose Factory.

The 17-year-old is now starring in his first season of Junior A hockey with the Smiths Falls Bears. The Bears compete in the 12-team Central Canada Hockey League, comprised of…

  • November 1, 2016
  • Windspeaker Staff

 

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler announced Oct. 28 that the Thunder Bay training centre has been renamed for Chanie (Charlie) Wenjack, a First Nations boy who died while running away from residential school 50 years ago on Oct. 22, 1966.

The Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education and Training Institute will be renamed as a “fitting and lasting tribute to the memory of…

  • November 1, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor OTTAWA

 

MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette says now that he has “put it down on paper what it should look like” he is hopeful that a member of the Trudeau Cabinet – either Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett or Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly – will take his private members bill forward as a piece of legislation, setting June 2 as Indian residential school reconciliation and memorial day.…

  • November 1, 2016
  • Drew Hayden Taylor, Windspeaker Columnist

Indigenous activist and world-renowned architect Douglas Cardinal lost his bid in Ontario Superior Court to stop the Cleveland Indians baseball team from using its “racist name” and Chief Wahoo mascot logo during the American League Championship Series games played in Toronto against the Blue Jays.

The application also named Rogers Communications Inc., which broadcast the games.

  • October 25, 2016
  • Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor OTTAWA

A movement started to draft Cindy Blackstock as the next leader of the federal NDP is flattering, she says, but it’s not where she needs to be at this point.

“In life you’ve just got to think about where you’re best suited, where you can make the biggest contribution, and for me, right now, that’s outside of politics,” said the executive director of First Nations Child and Family Caring…

  • October 25, 2016
  • Windspeaker Staff

The Indigenous Bar Association says it’s disappointed with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his failure to appoint an Indigenous candidate to the Supreme Court of Canada.

With a promise to work with Indigenous peoples on a nation-to-nation basis, Trudeau missed an opportunity to do something important and meaningful to live up to his much touted “new approach, both to Indigenous/…

  • October 25, 2016
  • Windspeaker Staff

That old mistrust is creeping in. And it all started out so hopeful… a new day, a new relationship, and a bright new enlightenment after the long dark bleak winter of Conservative rule.

But today, we’ve got to call it. The Liberal Party of Canada has duped us. Instead of ‘sunny ways,’ we’re getting a long familiar shadow cast over all our dreams. The bright new day promised by Prime…