Kina Gbezhgomi Child and Family Services has been designated as Ontario’s newest children’s aid society. This designation will result in KGCFS assuming child protection services for seven First Nation communities in the Manitoulin area. For the past 20 years KGCFS focused on providing prevention supports and services to First Nations children and families, with protection services provided by the Children’s Aid Society of the Districts of Sudbury and Manitoulin.

Ontario Native Education Counselling Association executive director Roxane Manitowabi and president Roger Chum display some of the gifts that will be offered in thanks for donations at various levels as they raise $85,000 to help honour Francis Pegahmagabow.

Agreement with Red Cross stop-measure gap

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling against the Buffalo River Dene Nation, which wants to halt oilsands exploration on its traditional territory. Last year a Court of Queen’s Bench judge ruled against the Buffalo River Dene Nation’s challenge of exploration permits issued to Scott Land and Lease. The First Nation argued the permits were a violation of treaty rights and the duty to consult was ignored. The judge ruled there was no duty to consult for exploration permits. The Buffalo River Dene filed an appeal. In April, Justice J. A.

University of Saskatchewan professor Eric Howe says the province is losing its battle against Aboriginal joblessness. According to recently released figures, Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.4 per cent in March, the lowest in Canada. However, the numbers for First Nations and Métis people, after years of gradual improvement, have stagnated in recent years. Métis unemployment levels hover in the 10 per cent range in Saskatchewan, with First Nations at roughly 15 per cent. More than 18,000 First Nation adults in the province remain on welfare, the same level as five years ago.

The Council of Canadians was in Saskatchewan mid-April as part of a speaking tour in opposition to the multi-billion-dollar Energy East pipeline project. TransCanada proposes repurposing a 43-year-old existing pipeline across the southern Prairies and Ontario to carry oil, rather than natural gas, to the Irving Oil refinery at Saint John, N.B. “The purpose of the tour is to provide some information about the project, specifically about the risk that we see of a pipeline spill,” said Andrea Harden -Donahue, an energy and climate justice campaigner with the Ottawa-based council.

Upon his visit to Canada in mid-April, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed an agreement valued at hundreds of millions dollars to buy uranium from Saskatchewan. India has entered into a contract with Cameco Corp. to purchase more than 3,000 tonnes of uranium to fuel India’s power reactors. “For an employer of 4,000 people in the province—45 per cent of them First Nations and Metis —it`s a great day for Saskatchewan,” said Premier Brad Wall, who was in Toronto for the signing.

The coroner’s inquest into the death of Lee Bonneau, 6, heard from 32 witnesses over two weeks in April in Regina. On Aug. 21, 2013, Lee was lured away by a 10-year-old boy and struck by a blunt object. He died in hospital the next day. Lee was visiting the Kahkewistahaw First Nation and waiting for his foster mother who was playing bingo at the recreation hall. Social Services had apprehended Lee and put him in foster care two and a half months before. The 10-year-old boy was known to social services and RCMP.

If Bill C-51 had been law when Chief Donny Morris of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) and his council were thrown into jail in 2008, Morris expects their experience would have been different.

“That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t know what the future holds for anybody who will be protesting in the future… when it happened to us in a remote area, I think it would be bigger now because now (the federal government) will have more power.

Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) National Chief Betty Ann Lavallée has announced her intention to resign.

After seven years at the helm of the Aboriginal advocacy organization, National Chief Lavallée leaves CAP well-prepared to take advantage of coming opportunities, having fully addressed the challenges she inherited.