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Page 15
John Kim Bell, the founder of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, has taken yet another step away from the organization he has led for the past decade.
Former chairman of the board Bill Shead made the announcement in a letter to stakeholders on June 11. The letter states that effective May 31, Bell retired as president of the foundation.
This…
Page 15
Lorne Cardinal is a happy man. The 40-year-old member of the Sucker Creek First Nation has a steady acting job in the most popular situation comedy in Canadian television history.
Cardinal plays Davis Quinton, the police chief of the fictional town of Dog River. It's the home community of Corner Gas, seen on CTV and The Comedy Network.
When producer David Storey…
Page 14
THE URBANE INDIAN
For years, philosophers, Elders and people who work in the membership department at band offices across the country have been battling with the age-old question of what is Native and what is Caucasian. What separates the two and where does one belief system begin and the other stop? Truly complicated questions worthy of serious pondering. Well, I believe…
Page 13
NASIVVIK
Now that another federal election is upon us, just how alive and excited are we about this great exercise of Canadian democracy called niruarniq in Inuktitut? What is there in a federal election that would cause an Inuk to pause and exclaim 'Oh, joy! Another federal election!' Searching the political landscape for something that Inuit can directly relate to in…
Page 13
PRO BONO
Dear Tuma:
Last month my cousin died and left a will naming me as the executor. I do not have a clue as to what to do. I paid all the funeral expenses, but does Indian Affairs pay that? How can I be reimbursed for all the money I spent? Now his family tells me that what is in the will is not what he wanted and that they know what should go to whom. What…
Page 12
A poll commissioned last summer by several federal government departments that asked grassroots on-reserve First Nation people what they thought about the First Nations governance act produced results that might surprise you.
The poll showed that more than half of the grassroots people wanted the legislation. Even more provocative, the poll showed that opposition to the…
Page 11
Ron Ignace wants some answers. His son is dead and the three men who killed him were convicted on a lesser charge as a result of police mistakes during the investigation.
Ignace, the former chief of the Skeetchestn Indian Band, has had a very heavy heart since his 21-year-old son Gabriel Palmer, known to his friends and family as Skooks, was viciously killed Dec. 30, 2002…
Page 10
Many Aboriginal organizations, including the Assembly of First Nations, are crying foul after former British Columbia Judge David Ramsay was sentenced to seven years in prison (a term they think is far too short) for what they say are race-based crimes.
Ramsey was convicted of one count of sexual assault causing bodily harm, one count of breach of trust and three counts…
Page 9
Aboriginal people living in British Columbia want more say in the operation of the world's first Aboriginal television network.
That was the general theme that emerged from a four-hour public consultation session at the Squamish Recreation Centre near North Vancouver on June 6.
All 20 current members of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network's (APTN) board of…
Page 9
The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) came within 10 days of disappearing from Canadian airwaves forever. A cash flow crunch put it dangerously in arrears with the company that transmits its signal.
Jean LaRose, the network's chief executive officer (CEO), was reached by phone while attending the Banff Television Festival in the Alberta mountain resort town.…
Page 8
A total of 17 people showed up over the course of a day-long session of the Assembly of First Nations Renewal Commission held in Edmonton on May 26.
Lewis Cardinal, director of the University of Alberta's Native studies program, facilitated the session. He told Windspeaker the 17 people who attended in Edmonton was more than attended either of the Calgary or Saskatoon…
Page 8
More than 2,000 Aboriginal people from across British Columbia, tired of having their rights ignored, marched in protest to the B.C. legislature on May 20.
Participants called for changes to provincial forest legislation and agreements that are being offered by government to First Nations that they say would compromise Aboriginal people's rights in exchange for limited…
Page 8
A long list of new (or newly revived) initiatives that the Assembly of First Nations hopes to undertake over the coming months will cost a fist-full of money, some say upwards of $20 million.
Inquiries have shown that budgets for few of the initiatives have been finalized, but there is talk that the money flowing through AFN will again swell to an amount not seen since…
Page 5
Dear Editor:
Enough already: I am appalled by the ongoing character assassination of Aboriginal people. In reading the newspaper and hearing the radio news broadcast May 26, it was once again affirmed that I, a Mohawk woman of Kanhesatake, must endure the omnipresent, institutional racism that exists in Canadian society.
Since 1990, many public figures have taken…
Page 5
Dear Editor:
In the May 2004 Windspeaker, Prof. Jack D. Forbes alleges, among other things, that the Bible book of Genesis does not give a single "correct" form of marriage. Forbes would have your readers believe that his accounting of the Genesis story is scholarly and reliable. Not so!
Prof. Forbes speaks of Elohim and Yahweh versions of the biblical text.…