Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada: Mythic Discourse and the Postcolonial State
Jennifer Reid
Published By University of Manitoba Press
Pages: 314

Review by Christine McFarlane

Jennifer Reid’s book, “Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada” gets readers to look at a complex and comprehensive history of the Metis peoples, Louis Riel and the ensuing response to Riel’s life and work in the modern and political entity we call Canada.

Racialized Policing: Aboriginal People’s Encounters with the Police
By Elizabeth Comack
Fernwood Publishing – Halifax and Winnipeg, 2012

Review by Shari Narine

The most disturbing aspect of Elizabeth Comack’s Racialized Policing: Aboriginal People’s Encounters with the Police is not the first-hand experiences it relates in the pages, but the stories it mirrors from today’s headlines.

Poetic tale of a life of hardship

My Mother Is Now Earth
Mark Anthony Rolo
Borealis Books 2012

Reviewed by Shari Narine

The Amos Key Jr. Institute had the opportunity to present its e-learning model to delegates at the Chiefs of Ontario Education Conference held in Toronto Oct. 24 and Oct. 25. One of the reasons for the conference, said Gord Peters, grand chief of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, was to bring together leaders and people in the education field to share successes.

Former National Hockey League player John Chabot has created a non-profit organization aimed at helping Aboriginal youth.
Chabot, who is Algonquin, has launched First Assist Charity. The organization’s goal is to bring Aboriginal youth from remote fly-in communities to a major city.

“We want them to get a feel for the cities,” Chabot said, adding those on trips will visit schools and workplaces. “It’s a chance for them to set a goal and realize that their goals can become a reality.”

Aboriginal partners named
A total of 14 Aboriginal Leadership Partners have been named for the 2015 Pan Am Games, as well as the ensuing Parapan Am Games. Both games will be held in Toronto and surrounding areas. The Parapan Am Games, which feature athletes with physical disabilities, are traditionally held in the same city shortly after the Pan Am Games, which are staged every four years.

Margaret Poitras doesn’t expect the statistics to be released Dec. 1 to be any different than what is already known: too many Aboriginal people are presenting with AIDS before they are even diagnosed with HIV.

“Our people are dying on the streets. They’re walking around palliative,” said Poitras, executive director with All Nations Hope AIDS Network, the only Aboriginal-focused HIV/AIDS organization in Saskatchewan.

“I’ve always said that people shouldn’t be ashamed to go get tested,” said Stephen Simon.  “Some people are ashamed to admit they have diabetes.”

Simon, a Korean War veteran and recent recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, lives on Big Cove First Nation in New Brunswick and describes himself as “an 80-year-old retired old dog.”

There’s a dust-up on the horizon in northern Ontario. The shot was fired when a mining industry representative took aim on First Nation rights. The bullet came in the form of comments made at a recent mining symposium by Solid Gold Resources CEO Darryl Stretch.

Justice Murray Sinclair, Manitoba’s first Aboriginal judge and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, gave the keynote address at a Toronto conference to commemorate the entrenchment of section 35 in the Canadian Constitution 30 years ago.