Turning a negative experience into positive action

As a young man, Dale Belcourt went through a difficult period. Born in the Lesser Slave Lake area, he spent much of his childhood passed between families in Vancouver. But it was when he returned to Alberta at the age of 14 that his life began spinning out of control and he was in and out of institutions. It was in one of those institutions that he discovered he could paint. His art work mirrors his life’s journey.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi has proclaimed March 27, 2014-March 27, 2015 as the Year of Reconciliation. It is the first time in the city’s history that a year-long proclamation has been made.

Nenshi’s announcement was made at the final national event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Indian Residential Schools held in Edmonton in March. Nenshi had letters of support from Tourism Calgary, the Calgary Stampede and Calgary Economic Development.

The statistics are staggering: 68 per cent of children in government care in Alberta today are Aboriginal.

“When the residential schools were winding down in the 1960s, the child welfare system simply became a place where they replaced the residential school system and damaged a lot of our culture,” said Bernadette Iahtail, executive director of Creating Hope Society.

Driftpile First Nation Chief Rose Laboucan anticipates changes in federal health care will soon be coming, but she didn’t hear that from federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose.

Nearly a month after the Enoch Cree Nation closed its golf course and historic cultural grounds because of the fear of unexploded munitions, a meeting called by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada on May 1 with the band and the Department of National Defence has yielded very little new information – and has brought the band no closer to re-opening Indian Lakes Golf Course and the Ta-Wow Cultural Grounds.

Eriel Deranger, from Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (left) and Crystal Lameman (right), from Beaver Cree First Nation, flank singer-songwriter activist Neil Young at the Cowboy Indian Alliance’s “Reject and Protect” protest in Washington at the end of April. The protest was aimed at TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Alberta to the Texas Gulf coast. The project has been delayed indefinitely in part due to an ongoing court case in Nebraska.

Aboriginal offenders now face a better chance of receiving a court sentence that fits their personal circumstances.

In April, the provincial government announced that it would provide $200,000 to Native Counselling Services of Alberta to coordinate and undertake Gladue Reports. Gladue Reports were created as a result of a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 1999 and further enforced in the Ipeelee decision two years ago. Courts can request Gladue reports when sentencing first time offenders, repeat offenders and dangerous offenders of Aboriginal background.

Don Langford thinks the government is moving in the right direction when it comes to changes to the child intervention system, but he is not totally sold on the amendments proposed in Bill 11.

“I support the minister … but I’m concerned about how much push back will he get from the rank and file, from his ministry….How much do they support him?” said Langford, executive director with Metis Child and Family Services.

The Harper government has announced through the Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt that it will be putting the First Nation education bill on
hold until the Assembly of First Nations clarifies its position regarding the
bill after the surprise resignation of Shawn Atleo on May 2, 2014.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt’s office said in a
statement that Bill C-33 would be put on hold.