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AN AGREEMENT WAS REACHED AUG. 30
between Brokenhead Ojibway Nation’s chief and council and Manitoba’s minister of conservation to develop a co-management agreement on the petroform sites in Whiteshell Provincial Park without prejudice to Brokenhead’s existing Treaty Land Entitlement (TLE) selections in Whiteshell. Petroforms are human-made shapes and patterns made by lining up large rocks on the open ground. At Whiteshell, rocks have been laid out on the bedrock in the shapes of snakes, fish, and turtles.
“Our First Nation wants to have a say in maintaining these sacred sites, and that’s why our people instructed us to select these sites under our TLE agreement in 1998,” said Chief Deborah Chief. “These sites are important to the people of Brokenhead. As a result, we agreed to work with Manitoba Conservation in developing a proposed co-management agreement in managing these sites. Under this process, our people, and other interested First Nations, will be involved and consulted in developing this government-to-government co-management agreement between Brokenhead and Manitoba.”
Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie said he welcomed the agreement to work together on a proposal for the protection and management of the petroform sites.
“These sites are culturally important to Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, and other First Nations, and it is critical that a process get underway to address that reality.”
FIRST NATIONS LEADERS HAVE CALLED
for a public inquiry into the murders of convicted killer Robert Pickton, a former pig farmer in Port Coquitlam, B.C. Pickton was charged with murdering 26 women, but convicted on only six of those counts in 2007. The other charges were stayed. The provincial government is to decide sometime in September whether to hold an inquiry or judicial review into the case of the missing and murdered women, many of whom were Aboriginal and from Vancouver’s poor Downtown Eastside.
Vancouver police recently released a report that stated mistakes were made in the Pickton investigation. Some family members of the murdered say they would like the review or inquiry to be independent of the police service.
“I don’t think a cop-on-cop review is going to cut it,” said Ernie Crey of the Sto:lo Nation, reports the Vancouver Sun. “Or they won’t hear the end of it from many of the families who have lost loves ones down here.” Ernie is the brother of Dawn Crey, one of 33 women whose DNA was found on the Pickton farm.
What has been made clear, however, is that First Nations leaders must be a part of any investigation. They want to ensure that this situation could never repeat itself, and despite government and police assurances that say that appropriate changes have been made to make a repeat impossible, they are skeptical. They point out there are many communities across Canada where First Nations women have disappeared or have been murdered and there has been no solving the cases.
THE HURON-WENDAT NATION WANTS A
ban on the bulldozing of important Native sites without the consultation or notification of First Nations people. Luc Laine, the Ontario spokesperson for the Wendake First Nation in Quebec, said the Crown has a duty to consult.
The comments came after it was discovered that an archaeological excavation had been undertaken of a historically and culturally significant Huron village site dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries, all done without the knowledge of First Nations.
The area at the northeast corner of Teston Rd. and Jane St. in Vaughan, Ont. is only metres away from the burial site of about 400 remains of Huron people, which was discovered when Teston Rd. was being widened in 2005.
There are no regulations in Ontario about consultation when Native sites are found on private property, said a spokesperson from the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. “The ministry is updating the standards and guidelines for archaeology to bring more consistency and predictability,” Danelle Balfour said. “Aboriginal engagement will be a key part of the new standards and guidelines.”
The Toronto Star reports the archaeologist was informed by landowner Gold Park Homes that the company was proceeding with the dig because “they wanted to make sure there was nothing on the site to impact development.” Best practice, the archaeologist said the company was told, dictated that First Nations should be notified of the dig, but Gold Park refused.
“They didn’t want anything to hold this up. They wanted to go fast,” said archaeologist Keith Powers, even after the ministry requested a halt to the dig. “They didn’t want to contact Aboriginal groups. That is clear. But I don’t want to be the bad guy here. I did what my employer said to do.”
MP SHELLY GLOVER (Saint Boniface, Man.) is the new parliamentary secretary for Indian Affairs. Glover is MÈtis. She replaces John Duncan, who became the minister of Indian Affairs replacing Chuck Strahl in a recent cabinet shuffle. Glover had been the parliamentary secretary for official languages since 2008, and is on a leave of absence from her job as a Winnipeg police officer.
A PLAN FOR ALBERTA: Ending Homelessness in 10 Years won the Gold Innovative Management Award at the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) national awards ceremony in August. Spearheaded by Alberta Housing and Urban Affairs, the initiative shifts the role of government from managing homelessness through emergency shelters to ending homelessness by providing permanent housing and the supports needed to break the cycle of homelessness. When fully implemented, the plan will ensure homeless Albertans are permanently housed with the supports they need within 21 days of entering a temporary emergency shelter.
The First Nations Economic Partnerships Initiative, led by Alberta Aboriginal Relations, received the Bronze level award. The program is delivered in partnership with Alberta Employment and Immigration to develop sustainable partnerships between First Nations, industry and government.
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