An Aboriginal training institute is doing everything it can to create opportunities for Winnipeg’s Aboriginal workforce.

The Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development Inc. (CAHRD) received close to $380,000 for one of their skill development programs on April 16, and they continue to keep their fingers crossed for funding to keep their work going.

“Our budget is around $6 million a year. We provide $12 million worth of training each year so we go out and get resources from people,” said CAHRD executive director Marileen Bartlett.

Though he’s been a professional golfer since 2007, Mitchell Fox is still trying to figure out whether he has what it takes to make a living out of the sport.

How long does it take for a Mobile TeleOphthalmology Project to go from dream to reality, asked Norman Lewsey, executive director of the Inter Tribal Health Authority (ITHA) on Vancouver Island.

Five long years, he said.

Not so surprising then that the launch of the project would be turned into a big event, complete with feast and speeches from some of the people who had devoted considerable energy to seeing the dream come to fruition.

The celebration included the blessing of the teleophthalmology mobile units and traditional First Nations drumming and singing.

Editor’s comment: Please be aware that some of the language in this article could be offensive to some readers.

An interview by the new director for research for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) with his university newspaper has prompted an apology from commission chair Murray Sinclair.

In a March 22 interview granted by John Milloy, who also serves as history professor with Trent University, Milloy told the Trent Arthur that “the churches are not being cooperative at all” when it comes to the TRC accessing documentation.

A survey that takes a snapshot of urban Aboriginal life across the country is sparking a dialogue about issues that impact the success of First Peoples in Canada’s city centres.

The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study, which was released April 6 by the Environics Institute, involved person-to-person interviews with 2,614 First Nations, Métis and Inuit people conducted in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Montreal, Toronto, Halifax and Ottawa.

The Federation of Newfoundland Indians remains tight-lipped about the lengthy legal proceedings that surrounds the three-year battle for the creation of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation.

“This matter is now into a legal process and I am not permitted to speak until this matter is resolved,” said president of the Federation Brendan Sheppard.

As Alanis Morissette would say: Isn’t it ironic!
On March 26th, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation rolled out the red carpet for 14 outstanding individuals less than a mile down the road from the First Nations University of Canada in Regina, where the academic institution is in danger of having the rug pulled out from underneath it by the federal government.
The topic was mentioned more than once during the night by those such as Métis academic, teacher and film-maker, Dr. Raoul, J. McKay, who was honoured for his work in education.

Heretofore the history of the United States has been largely treated as the story of a process, rather than the complete history of a land “from sea to shining sea.” And this process always begins either in Europe or on the Atlantic Coast of North America.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, what with me being on a book tour for my new novel, Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, and maintaining my usual lecture and reading tour schedule.

I never know where I’ll end up. Just the other week I was in central Quebec. I didn’t know what to expect other than people eating that unusual and questionable concoction of french fries, gravy and cheese, called poutine.

It’s important, said Gwen Reimer, lead investigator with Praxis Research Associates, that people don’t take away the wrong message from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation’s newest report.

Just because more residential school survivors claimed to have positive experiences with the Common Experience Payment (CEP), it shouldn’t be assumed that these experiences outweigh the negative impacts of the CEP, she said.