Many residential schools were built from brick so artist Dawn Marie Marchand has invited survivors, their descendants and their spouses to draw their stories in the form of a three inch by nine inch piece of brown paper.

“I want to recreate the stories on a wall and I wanted to use a medium that was easily accessible and anybody could mail,” said Marchand of choosing the brick-shape.

Marchand is coordinating a collaborative installation that will be unveiled during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final national event, which takes place in Edmonton March 27-30.

Jen Lee with Sandra Crazybull, Mi Yvonne Cita, Allan Merovitz and Chantal Stormsong Chagnon at Calgary’s 6th Annual Valentine’s Day Women’s Memorial March.

March recognizes missing, murdered men, boys as well

Papaschase First Nation Chief Calvin Bruneau led the Memorial March in Edmonton, which took place on Valentine’s Day. An annual event honouring missing and murdered women, similar marches took place in other cities across Canada. This year, Edmonton’s march also honoured men and boys who are missing or who have met an untimely end. The march began and ended at Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples.

Literacy is central to keeping youth out of the criminal justice system.

“A lack of literacy means a lack of employment. It is very difficult to get a job if you can’t read or write,” said Kyle Dube, executive director of YOUCAN Youth Services and vice chair of REACH Edmonton board. “These young people need to see the importance of employment, which only comes from being literate.”

Dube was the keynote speaker on Feb. 20 at Frontier College’s forum on Literacy’s Impact on Criminal Justice and Youth, in Edmonton.

Fort McKay First Nation and Brion Energy will not be going to court.

The two signed an agreement on Feb. 21 for the development of the Dover oil sands project, four months after the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that the First Nation could argue Constitutional and treaty rights in its appeal of the Alberta Energy Regulator’s approval of the Dover project, a 250,000-barrel-per-day thermal oilsands venture. Counsel for Fort McKay had expected the appeal to be heard by June 2014.

For Chief Wilton Littlechild the seventh and final national event for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be different than the others he has attended.

“It’s kind of a reunion for me as well and I look forward to putting certain parts of my life behind me. This event will help me personally,” he said.

“Damage control” is the term Kevin Ahkimnachie uses to describe the forum hosted Feb. 27 by the University of Alberta Water Initiative to go over the work being undertaken by the province and Sherritt International Corp. to address the Obed Mountain Mine coal slurry of last October.

First
Nations leaders on the Sunshine Coast are calling for Ottawa to study the
impact of Fukushima radiation on the West Coast fishery. A March 2011 tsunami
in Japan resulted in a catastrophic failure of the Fukushima nuclear site and
radiation has been detected (barely) in BC coastal waters, said an ocean
science division manager with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO. The
federal government has tested fish species in 2011 and early 2012, but Canada’s
Food Inspection Agency reports that “further testing of imported or domestic

The Haisla First Nation wants Ottawa to delay a decision on the Northern Gateway
pipeline because a quick approval “would be illegal,” without meaningful
consultation with Aboriginal groups. A decision on Gateway is expected by July,
following a report last year that found projected economic benefits from the
project outweighed environmental risks. Environmental groups and First Nations
— including the Haisla — have challenged that decision in federal court on
grounds the report ignores the adverse effects of oil sands development. The

The third annual Moosehide Campaign to end violence against Aboriginal women and children
took to the steps of the BC legislature Feb. 20. Men from both the Aboriginal
and non-Aboriginal communities came together to denounce the violence and
pledge to speak up against violence in their communities.  The event was organized by the B.C.
Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centre. Men wore moosehide patches and
many fasted for one day to show solidarity. “All of us in this room love our