signed between Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization for a study of nuclear waste storage and its impacts on the region. The Swampy Cree Tribal Council chided Harper for signing the agreement without their knowledge and confirmed their collective moratorium against nuclear energy and storage within Cree territory. “This moratorium follows previous resolutions against nuclear energy and storage passed at a Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Chiefs Assembly in Norway House in 2014.

agreed March 20 to a 10-year extension of an emergency management agreement. The agreement covers 45 First Nations in the province. Ottawa’s contribution is $14.6 million. The agreement allows for the employment of four First Nations field officers plus a manager, and they will provide on-site training. The Alberta Emergency Management Agency continues to provide assistance on reserves in the case of disaster under the agreement.

celebrated 20 years of self-government March 19 in Whitehorse.

“We Yukon First Nations should be immensely proud our people have survived hundreds of years of social disruption and forces of oppression that were trying to ultimately assimilate and eradicate us. And yet here we are. We have endured,” said Kristina Kane, chief of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council.  Carl Sidney, chief of the Teslin Tlingit Council, said many promises of self-government are yet to be fulfilled.

said the federal government is tracking her activism. She said access-to-information documents reveal that she is being surveilled by three federal government departments.

this summer by the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation. Come Walk With Me will showcase the patterns and designs used by different First Nations in the region in their beadwork and slipper making. “You can see how those beading styles and traditions and culture have influenced the beading styles that are currently in the community,” said heritage manager Joella Hogan. The book will feature new beadwork from Elders and historical photographs of beadwork.

There is no ringing endorsement from Collette Arcand for a report on natural resource development released early March by an independent working group consisting of representatives from the Assembly of First Nations and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.

Advancing Positive, Impactful Change is the culmination of work begun in December 2013 and outlines ways in which First Nations can participate in and benefit from resource development on their land.

Two days after Darlene Necan talked to a Toronto audience about the daily desperation of poverty and homelessness in Northern Ontario, she got some much-needed good news.

Necan, a member of the Ojibway First Nation of Saugeen #258 in northwestern Ontario, had been charged by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) for building a home on her family’s land in nearby Savant Lake.

In October 2013, MNRF issued a stop-work order claiming she was building on Crown land.

More than 1,000 people gathered on March 14 at Nathan Phillips Square to stand against Bill C-51, the federal government’s anti-terrorism bill.

There was a strong Aboriginal presence at the rally that was organized by, among others, civil liberties groups, unions and Idle No More organizers.

Elizabeth May, the leader of the federal Green Party, as well as several members of the NDP were present to voice their concerns against the proposed legislation. Noticeably absent was Liberal Party representatives.

An expert panel established by the Assembly of First Nations to gather information on the specific claims process is underscoring the findings of a report authored by claims research directors from across Canada.

In Bad Faith: Justice At Last and Canada’s Failure to Resolve Specific Claims challenges Canada for “incorrect conclusions and misleading statements” that say the Specific Claims Action Plan: Justice At Last is successful.

Street drug forces state of emergency on Blood reserve