Alberta Sweetgrass

Dozens of First Nations are among the 400 interveners the National Energy Board has accepted for the upcoming Kinder Morgan proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion hearing, slated to begin in August. More than 2,118 applications were received seeking intervener status for Kinder Morgan’s $5.4 billion pipeline expansion from Alberta to the company’s Westridge terminal in Burnaby, British…

The Alberta Wilderness Association says the Alberta government has auctioned more new oil and gas leases/licenses allowing surface disturbance within its threatened woodland caribou ranges since October 2012 when the federal caribou recovery strategy mandated provinces to start developing plans to protect caribou habitat. Alberta has also announced that by April 30 it plans to sell even more…

The public has until April 11 to respond to the government’s report from the January roundtable on child intervention. The roundtable, while heavy on experts and those who work in the system, was light on Aboriginal representation and those who were part of the child welfare system.  Approximately 68 per cent of children in government care are Aboriginal. There was a strong consensus that all…

Robin Campbell, minister of Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, said he will be consulting with Aboriginal communities before finishing up a land-use plan for southern Alberta. “I’ve asked my department to take a second look at some things because I want to make sure we’re doing it right and that we’ve engaged all of the stakeholders,” Campbell told the Calgary Herald.…

Brion Energy Corp.’s Dover oil sands project was given approval by the Alberta cabinet on March 13 after the company and Fort McKay First Nation reached an out-of-court agreement.  The Dover oil sands project is a 250,000-barrel-a-day steam-driven bitumen project. Brion is 60-per-cent owned by PetroChina; Calgary-based Athabasca Oil Corp. has the rest. Brion still requires an approval from the…

Premier Allison Redford stepped down on March 23, turning over the reins of the province to David Hancock. She announced her intention on March 20. Redford was a strong proponent of controversial pipeline projects that were being protested by First Nations and Energy Minister Diana McQueen said the government will continue to back proposals from Enbridge, Kinder Morgan and TransCanada. Redford…

The release of a report about the state of cancer in the Fort Chipewyan area has First Nations leaders incensed despite Alberta Chief Medical Offer Dr. James Talbot’s claim that the government’s hand was forced through a request for information put in by a third party. “This is gross negligence. The leaders of Fort Chipewyan have been requesting a thorough analysis on incidences of cancer in…

Sometimes emotional trauma emerges years after the fact. This was the case for Margaret Larocque. The Cree woman was in four different residential schools over the course of nine years.
Like many residential school survivors, she was taken from her community at a young age. “I remember being so traumatized when I first had to leave because I did not know the English language or anything…

Alex Janvier is best known as a successful visual artist. When he speaks in public, art is usually the topic of the talk. However, on March 27, Janvier spoke not as an artist, but as a survivor of the residential school system to a panel of church leaders at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final national event in Edmonton.

The Churches Listening Circle offered survivors the…

Edmonton
March 27-30, 2014

“It starts with forgiveness within our own families. Forgiveness to not hold on to pain and suffering. But most importantly to not pass this on any longer. Forgiveness is not forgetting…. Rather it is something internal and it’s a sign of strength. It can free us and empower us to move forward.”
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn…

Gladstone inducted as honourary witness for TRC

Jim Gladstone (centre) with Truth and Reconciliation Commission members Dr. Marie Wilson and Chief Wilton Littlechild was inducted as an honourary witness at the seventh and final national event in Edmonton. Gladstone, from the Blood reserve, is world champion in calf roping and a lawyer, with expertise in the oil and gas…

Celebrating forgotten birthdays in style

The Métis fiddlers from Prince Charles school performed at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s birthday party on the final day of the seventh national event. The birthday celebrations recognize all those children who attended residential schools but never had their birthdays marked.

When her tribal council at Soda Creek started looking at the social dysfunction and chaos in its Northern British Columbia community in the 1990s, there was no escaping its source. “All roads led back to the residential schools,” said Bev Sellars.

Being deloused with DDT, eating food unfit for human consumption and enduring the strapping that was the method of discipline at St. Joseph’s…

As the momentum of the upcoming Truth and Reconciliation Commission event was building both nationally and locally, members of Edmonton’s St. Andrew’s United Church wanted to get involved.

“We recognize the contribution of the First Nations in Canada’s development but we also were painfully aware of the legacy that the residential schools left on several generations,” said Rev. Geoffrey…

There is a Siksika asteroid in the sky. It was named by Robert Cardinal after his Nation.

Cardinal, 44, is an astronomer with the Canadian Space Agency. He is also a second-generation residential school survivor.
He told his story to Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson, as well as a packed room. Born in 1969 in Calgary, Cardinal was given up…