The release of Wally Oppal’s scathing final report from B.C.’s missing women inquiry was met with sobbing, drumming, and anger on Dec. 17 as families and friends began the next stage of grieving for their lost ones, and rights groups rallied around the call for a Canada-wide investigation.

The commissioner concluded more than a year of testimony, reports and controversy, ruling that “systemic bias” by RCMP and Vancouver police had repeatedly “forsaken” dozens of missing Native women.

The Turtle Island Garden Club, started in spring 2012, is about more than growing vegetables.

Joanne Mitchell began her own garden work a number of years ago when personal problems became too much. After realizing the “healing experience” of working with her hands and growing things, she pitched the idea of a garden club to the Can Am Urban Native Homes.

“There were so many dynamics to the project,” said Elayne Isaacs, liaison for Can Am. “It was very, very social and interactive.”

As Idle No More explodes across the country–galvanized, at least initially, by controversial omnibus legislation–two First Nations in Alberta have taken the federal government to court over the matter.

On Jan. 8, arguing that the Crown’s “failure to consult” on the sweeping bills–affecting everything from the protection of waterways, fisheries, industrial development and more–violated their treaty rights, Mikisew and Frog Lake first nations launched a legal challenge against the newest legislation, Bill C-45, and its equally controversial predecessor, Bill C-38.

Could the battle against Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline have a parallel in the NorthWest Rebellion, the 1885 uprising of Métis and First Nations which led to Canada’s infamous hanging of Louis Riel and others?

“That’s the only time that we’ve ever known the First Nations and Métis to get together,” said Lyle Campbell-Letendre, president of the Kelly Lake Métis Settlement Society, B.C.’s only historic Métis settlement. “This is huge; over 100 years later, that we’re fighting for nearly the same thing, for recognition and to save the future of our land.

We once had a columnist—a cranky old man, at times—who bristled when we talked about Canada’s need to learn about Aboriginal people. Someone would say something like ‘Canadians have no understanding of us or our issues’ and ‘we should be educating them.’ He would grumble and say he couldn’t care less about what Canadians understood about his people. He wrote, he said, so that his people could understand his people.

Chief Spence, we think about you with this lesson in mind.

Editor’s Note: We received this just before we went to press: The Ontario Superior Court of Ontario has ruled that the federal government must disclose all documents to the TRC regarding Indian Residential School. While the government has already turned over about a million documents, the TRC wants access to millions more.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is waiting on a decision from the Ontario Superior Court that could compel the federal government to provide documents as outlined by the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA).

Three people have been charged in the Jan. 1 death of Duril McKay, 20, of Red Earth First Nation. Police went to the reserve at around 2 a.m. after receiving a report that several people were fighting outside a residence. Ambulance workers found McKay unconscious. He was taken to hospital where he was declared dead. Charged with second-degree murder are Lenny Head, 20, Tyson Whitehead, 26, and Douglas Head, 19, all of Red Earth First Nation.

Saskatchewan’s Child and Youth Advocate Bob Pringle is renewing the call for a national children’s advocate and voiced his opinion in a recent letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Pringle wrote Harper asking him to visit some Indigenous communities to see and hear the issues up close. “We believe that that is the number one human rights issue in this country, is the condition of Indigenous children,” said Pringle. The Harper government has continued to reject the call for a national children’s advocate.

For the 2011/2012 fiscal year, the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority earned $267.2 million, with a profit of $81.6 million. The revenue total represented an increase of 27 per cent over the previous year’s net earnings. SIGA’s net earnings have been boosted by expansions, which were undertaken from 2006 to 2009. In that time span, SIGA expanded operations with the openings of Dakota Dunes Casino at Whitecap Dakota First Nation and Living Sky Casino in Swift Current. SIGA also rebuilt Painted Hand Casino in Yorkton. Every project was created in partnership with a First Nation.