On April 8, Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy issued

Survivors Committee member Eugene Arcand is urging survivors to “stay calm” as his committee pushes for changes to the personal credit portion of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement.

Lionel Chartrand was not sure whether the Canadian Aboriginal Curling Championships would even be held this year.

The national bonspiel had been cancelled in 2013 and it appeared doubtful it would be revived this year.

But following some hurried preparations, organizers did indeed manage to stage the event this year. It was held April 18 to April 20 at Saskatoon’s Granite Curling Club.

Canada’s Corrections watchdog has launched an investigation into the increasing “over-medication” of female prisoners — some into a perpetual “zombie-like” state while incarcerated.

One Native woman is believed to have gone into a coma because of being drugged by authorities.

With Aboriginal women making up a disproportionate number of those incarcerated across the country, advocates say it will take significant and deep change before the injustice is addressed.

Alaska wins Arctic Winter Games

Fort Chipewyan First Nations push for cancer study

There are still more than 12,000 cases–more than one-third of the applications received–that need to work their way through hearings in the Independent Assessment Process.

The Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat expects it will be 2018 when all reviews are concluded and the last compensation made.

The Alberta and Yukon governments are the latest to commit to curriculum development to get the history of Indian residential schools taught in the classroom. But for the real story to be told, instruction has to go deeper and be consistent, say proponents of Aboriginal learning.

“I don’t think it’s enough for us just to say, ‘Listen, we had residential schools, it’s terrible and we apologize and now Canada’s a better place,’” said Wab Kinew, director of Aboriginal inclusion at the University of Winnipeg.

Valerie Crowshoe and her husband Ivan McMaster chose not to tell their stories at the seventh and final national Truth and Reconciliation Commission event held in Edmonton March 27 to March 30. But the event did open their eyes.

“We learned something new every day,” said Crowshoe. “I may be preparing for my healing journey.”

“I am inspired by the stories that we have heard and the dialogue and commitment to reconciliation that we have witnessed … I have been moved by the incredible generosity of spirit that we have seen from survivors and from the intergenerational survivors… I was brought to tears by the acts of love you showed each other,” said Truth and Reconciliation Commission Chair Justice Murray Sinclair in the closing ceremony of the seventh and last national event hosted by the TRC.