In Edmonton in 2013

Native actor and comedian Charlie Hill has passed away on Monday December 30, 2013 morning following a lengthy battle with lymphoma. Charlie Hill was 62 years old.

Some previous Windspeaker articles on Charlie Hill:

Something to think about as Canada digs up our bones
http://www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/something-think-about-cana...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s special energy project envoy may have delivered some optimistic words for bringing together the Crown, First Nations and industry in B.C., but nonetheless the province’s Indigenous leaders declared that Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline remains dead in the water.

Survivors of St. Anne’s Residential School were in provincial court in Toronto on Dec. 17 for the first day of a two-day hearing. They want the federal government to hand over documents from a five-year investigation conducted by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

The investigation, begun in 1994, was the result of complaints from former students of physical and sexual abuse by priests, nuns and other Catholic caregivers at the school. St. Anne’s operated in Fort Albany, Ont. for more than 70 years, taking children from the James Bay area.

Always ensure tape is rolling when a politician is speaking. It’s one of the first things they teach young journalists when they are training, and thank goodness reporter Sara Norman of News1130 took heed, because she has provided us a clear look at the hard heart of this Canadian government. A very hard heart indeed.

The people of West Hill United Church in Toronto are acting to hold the government accountable for upholding the treaties on their behalf.

“We’re all treaty people,” said Minister Gretta Vosper as she prepared to leave on Nov. 26 in a caravan headed for Ottawa with four members of the congregation, Ruth Gill, Steve Watson, Morlan Rees and Dorothy Hirlehey.

Rodney Hill has officially expanded his ownership responsibilities on the Canadian lacrosse scene.

Hill will continue to be the owner of the Ohsweken Demons, members of the Canadian Lacrosse League, also known as CLax, which is gearing up for its third season starting in February.
Hill, an Ohsweken entrepreneur, is also now a co-owner of the fledgling circuit. He owns 50 per cent of the league while the Charlesway Corporation, which owns the Niagara Falls Monsters and Barrie Blizzard, owns the other half.

“There’s some wicked things that come out of the nuclear industry,” said Kirstin Scansen. She was speaking Dec. 12 at an event called Radioactive Colonialism: Uranium and the Dispossession of the Nehithaw Cree and Denesuline Peoples. The evening, attended by about 60 people, was organized by Idle No More Toronto.

Scansen is Cree from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, a community located 420 km north of Saskatoon.

“In the territory where I come from, and in the northern territories of the Denesuline people, is where the uranium industry in Canada starts.”

The First Nations Education Act proposed by the federal government has sparked angry protests across the country.

On Dec. 4, six horses decked out in beadwork and Pendleton blankets led a protest march up Yonge Street to the Aboriginal Affairs office at 25 St. Clair Avenue.

About 300 people marched behind, stopping for a round dance on Yonge Street. The marchers stopped again for a drum song at the busy intersection of Yonge and St. Clair, halting streetcars and noon hour traffic.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s special energy project envoy may have delivered some optimistic words for bringing together the Crown, First Nations and industry in B.C., but nonetheless the province’s Indigenous leaders declared that Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline remains dead in the water.