Following a successful university career, Marlon Gardner is now hoping to become a professional hockey player.
Gardner, who is from the Eagle Lake First Nation in northwestern Ontario, has spent the past four seasons toiling with the Neumann University Knights.

The NCAA Division III squad is based out of Aston, Pennsylvania.

Gardner, a centre, led the Knights in scoring this past season, averaging just more than a point per game. He collected 26 points (11 goals, 15 assists) in 24 games for Neumann, which competes in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) West.

Cup champs
Collectively they have played less than 100 National Hockey League games, yet a pair of Aboriginal athletes, Dwight King and Jordan Nolan, has accomplished what most hockey players only dream of, hoisting the Stanley Cup.

King and Nolan were both members of the Los Angeles Kings, who captured the NHL’s top prize this season. The Kings won the Stanley Cup on June 11 on home ice with a 6-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils. Los Angeles defeated the Devils in six games in their best-of-seven championship final series.

The national report on First Nations Health, released June 14 by the First Nations Information Governance Centre, said little has changed in such health indicators as housing over the last five years since their last report.
Mould and mildew still plague First Nations housing, with 51 per cent of households dealing with the nasty stuff, as compared with 44 per cent in 2003.

The Chief Coroner of Ontario will be conducting a joint inquest into the deaths of seven teenagers who left their remote communities in Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) territory to attend secondary school in Thunder Bay.

Incorporating Indigenous knowledge into managing Canada’s fisheries is just one research project recently funded by Ottawa, announced May 25 by Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology).
Social sciences and humanities researchers at various post-secondary institutions across Canada will form research partnerships among the academic, private, public and not-for-profit sectors due to a $70 million federal provision through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

So far there are 120 cases identified by Ontario’s Coroner’s Office of missing and dead children from the province‘s Indian reidential schools, and it’s said this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Ontario has taken the lead in the search for information that might help families learn what happened to their children, removed from them and sent to the schools, never to be seen again. The province’s Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs provided $20,000 to the coroner’s office to hire staff to carry out a search of the records. That work began earlier this year.

The federal government is once more ignoring the needs of the most vulnerable group in Canadian society, said an advocate for First Nations children.

The Department of Justice Canada has appealed the decision rendered April 18 by the federal court that orders the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) to consider the charges levied by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, and other organizations. They say the federal government is discriminating against First Nations children in care in their delivery of treatment and services.

On May 30, Prime Minister Stephen Harper alienated Canada’s Indigenous population by telling them they had no place on a national hunting and fishing advisory panel, and Environment Minister Peter Kent has not softened that position since that day.

Ernie Crey, a former employee of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, who now serves as senior adviser to the Sto:lo Tribal Council on the Fraser River, said the minister is taking a dangerous step backwards in light of the progress that has been made in recent years.

A Private Members Bill to amend aspects of the Indian Act has been introduced to the House of Commons, and is expected to be discussed there this fall.

Saskatchewan MP Rob Clarke, (Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River) introduced the Bill June 4.

Assembly of First Nations Election 2012 Announcement of Candidates for the Office of National Chief

The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, responsible for the July election of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief, has received nomination papers in proper form from the following persons, listed below in alphabetical order:

1. Mr. Shawn Atleo
2. Mr. Bill Erasmus
3. Ms. Elaine Gabriel
4. Ms. Joan Jack
5. Ms. Diane M. Kelly
6. Mr. Terrance Nelson
7. Ms. Pamela Palmater
8. Mr. George Stanley