Native leaders question police conduct in Winnipeg shooting death
Manitoba native chiefs are calling for a public inquiry into the
Winnipeg Police Service in the wake of the police shooting that killed
Craig McDougall over the weekend.
McDougall, 26, was shot by officers who responded to a disturbance
call around 5 a.m. Saturday at a house on Simcoe Street, in the city's
West End neighbourhood. Police said he had refused repeated demands to
drop a knife.
At a press conference Tuesday morning outside the house, family
members said police had been called to deal with a fight between two
young women, and that officers had arrested McDougall's father.
McDougall had just arrived home and was talking on a cellphone to
his girlfriend as the situation unfolded, family members said. The
girlfriend heard everything, including the gunshots, they said.
New logging conflict in Clayoquot imminent
B.C. could soon see more protests and blockades in Clayoquot
Sound as a forestry company prepares to log an old-growth forest
in the Hesquiat Point Creek watershed -- the first time a company has
begun logging in such a "pristine" valley in nearly 20 years.
This time however, First Nations and environmentalists -- united in the 1993 protests -- find themselves on opposite sides of the issue.
Appalling living conditions a form of passive ethnic cleansing
I saw houses with their roofs draped with cheap blue tarps. That's
because the roofs leak and the houses are condemned. At least five are
subject to seasonal flooding from the river. Peters last warned the
government they need immediate replacement a year ago.
In fact,
he tells me, he told the government that the In-SHUCK-ch are now four
generations behind in meeting infrastructure and service needs.
In-SHUCK-ch
population is projected to double by 2028. One study estimates $40
million in new residential housing is needed for Skatin and sister
communities at Samahquam and Douglas. Already there's a diaspora as
people leave in search of basic shelter.
Maybe we should start
calling this what it is, a kind of passive ethnic cleansing policy by
which people are forced off their traditional land not by direct action
but by permitting the basic living conditions to become untenable even
as they try to negotiate a treaty.
Canada to apologize for aboriginal abuses
Canada's Prime Minister on Wednesday will officially apologize to
natives for more than a century of abuses at residential schools set up
to assimilate its indigenous peoples.
"Aboriginal Canadians have
been waiting for a very long time to hear an apology from the
Parliament of Canada," Stephen Harper said on Tuesday, previewing what
would come.
"I hope that we will begin the process of healing and
reconciliation," he told parliament, which suspended all business on
Wednesday for this solemn occasion.
Beginning in 1874, 150,000
Indian, Inuit and Metis children in Canada were forcibly enrolled in
the 132 boarding schools run by Christian churches on behalf of the
federal government in an effort to integrate them into society.
Survivors allege abuse by headmasters and teachers, who stripped them of their culture and language.
Canada hears of native abuse pain
A truth and reconciliation commission examining what native leaders
call one of the most tragic and racist chapters in Canada's history has
begun.
The commission will study Canada's decades-long policies that removed
Aboriginal children from their families to force Christianity upon
them.
The state-funded religious schools were often the scenes of horrific physical and sexual abuse.
The commission has a five-year mandate to detail the abuses.
From the 19th Century until the 1970s, more than 150,000
aboriginal children were required to attend Christian schools in an
attempt to rid them of their native cultures and languages and
integrate them into society.
National native chief celebrates peaceful day of protest
As native demonstrators from coast to coast marked the second national day of action Thursday, National Chief Phil Fontaine celebrated the event's relatively peaceful outcome.
"This year was a lot quieter than last year. But I'm not disappointed in any way," said Fontaine, the head of the Assembly of First Nations, which organizes the event. "This was a good outcome, we were quite successful in this attempt to reach out to Canadians."
Overall, police reported peaceful demonstrations to raise awareness of issues plaguing natives - a noted difference from last year, when Mohawk protesters shut down Canada's busiest highway for 12 hours, and disrupted rail lines in Eastern Canada for one day.
Aboriginals to Protest at Olympic clock
Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic countdown clock will serve as a focal point
of protests by aboriginal groups next Thursday (May 29), as part of
nationwide rallies called by the Assembly of First Nations.
“We
want to draw the attention of the prime minister [Stephen Harper] and
the premier [Gordon Campbell] that when we talk about our issues, we
want significant action by both levels of government, and they have
until the Olympics to begin to make some of these things happen,” Grand
Chief Doug Kelly of the Sto:lo Tribal Council told the Straight. “If they don’t do anything, we’ll be there in 2010 to tell the world about our story.”
Kelly
said that the protests will highlight the issues of child poverty in
First Nations communities and inadequacies in the child-welfare system.
2010 Olympics face the wrath of young natives
At the Vancouver meeting, two young women cut short Fontaine's
speech on the "unprecedented opportunities" of the 2010 Olympics by
rushing up and dumping a bag of apples on the podium.
"The point was that we're sellouts," he said, referring to the aboriginal insult of being red outside and white inside.
These
young people, he said, do not believe the 2010 Olympics will end
poverty and unresolved land claims, offer better schools or safe
drinking water on reserves or "put an end to the terrible situation
that causes families to give up their children to state care."
Open Letter Addressing Police Commissioner Julian Fantino
I would like to address the myths that Police Commissioner Julian
Fantino has perpetuated in the media since the arrest of Mr. Shaun
Brant on Friday April 25, 2008 and the events that have transpired
since regarding police action at the Mohawk protest in Deseronto:
An Open Letter to Police Commissioner Julian Fantino:
First of all Shawn Brant was not arrested during a routine traffic stop as explained by Fantino:
“Tensions boiled over in eastern Ontario near Deseronto, Ont.
Friday, when one of the protesters of a land claim dispute near that
community, Shawn Brant, was arrested during a traffic stop.”
OPP draw weapons in tense standoff with native protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police were involved in a tense standoff with
Mohawk protesters in Deseronto, about 220 kilometres east of Toronto,
on Friday.
The protesters had taken up a position on disputed land.
At one point, officers drew their weapons after allegedly seeing one of the Mohawks with a rifle or shotgun.
The protesters claim they had no weapons and no shots were fired.
Earlier Friday, six protesters were arrested, including Shawn Brant.