Rank Comix October 2012

The Revolution will not be funded

The discovery of a video tape of members of Senator Scott Brown’s campaign doing so-called Indian war whoops and making tomahawk chops at a political rally has the senator on the hot seat in Massachusetts. Brown’s campaign staff, reports Native News Network, was looking to draw attention to the Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard professor, who cited Cherokee as her American Indian heritage when she applied at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, though she has no documentation to back up the claim.

First Nations leaders and Saskatchewan’s Advocate for Children and Youth are seeking an effective way to decrease the number of Aboriginal children in foster care, reports CBC. The parties signed a letter of understanding that will lead to a better way to serve First Nations children and their families, by striving to keep families together and allow grandparents to have more contact with foster children.

Tsilhqot'in First Nation near Williams Lake is opposed to the proposed New Prosperity Mine, but one Elder says he fully supports the copper-gold mine, now that Taseko Mines have amended the proposal to protect Fish Lake from contamination. Ervin Charleyboy, former chief of the Alexis Creek Nation, said he has been shunned by the Tsilhqot’in for this support, however. Taseko Mines submitted a renewed environmental impact statement to the federal government in mid-September.

The Tehran Times reports the Iranian Foreign Ministry has condemned the inhuman conditions that the Indigenous people of Canada are forced to live in and has called upon the international community and UN human rights bodies to take measures to restore the fundamental rights of First Nations. The ministry released the statement on the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Sept 13.

Nanaimo-Cowichan MP Jean Crowder has called for an extension of the deadline for people who experienced abuse in residential schools to file for compensation. The deadline to file the claims passed Sept. 19. And First Nations leadership agrees, saying it’s unfair to put a deadline on the personal healing and ability to deal with the legacy of abuse on individuals. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo said he is pressing Ottawa for an extension to the deadline.

Enbridge is not required to disclose the list of First Nations groups that have signed on for a share of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project says the Joint Review Panel which met in Edmonton last month. The lawyer for Coastal First Nations said the list was a “matter of significant importance,” and demanded it be shared. Enbridge has claimed a 60 per cent buy-in among Aboriginal groups within 80 km on either side of the 1,177-km pipeline route. But Enbridge claims the nations required legal confidentiality clauses be written into the agreement. The panel said the list isn’t relevant—yet.

The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples held public hearings and conducted fact-finding activities in western and northern Canada in late September and early October as they studied Métis identity in Canada. Committee Chair Senator Gerry St.

The man who ran the historic race against Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo in 2009 is seeking the job as head of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. Perry Bellegarde from Little Black Bear First Nation went a record 24 hours in voting rounds in that contest, and is now on the campaign trail running against Delbert Wapass from Thunderchild First Nation and Morley Watson of the Ochapowace First Nation. Watson is serving as interim chief of the FSIN. Bellegarde held the position of chief of the organization in the 1990s.

The Federation of law Societies of Canada is recommending that all new Canadian lawyers possess knowledge of Aboriginal rights. The recommendation is part of the societies first ever set of national standards for admission to the bar. Currently, each provincial law society is in charge of its own standards. The purpose of the national standard is that provincial standards become uniform. Aboriginal law relates to the content and application of the constitutional protection of Aboriginal and treaty rights.