Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald. Photo courtesy Kamloops This Week. How it started. One year ago, RoseAnne Archibald from Taykwa Tagamou Nation in northern Ontario made history, becoming the first woman to be elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). This was no small
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Canadian Dimension: RCMP’s toxic culture of sexualized violence requires external review
Tens of thousands of women inside and outside the force have been victimized by the RCMP, writes professor and lawyer Pam Palmater. Photo by Pedro Lopez/Flickr. This article contains disturbing details that may be upsetting to readers. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got your back”. That was the response of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Urgent action on genocide missing from federal party platforms
Rally to raise awareness of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls along the Highway of Tears between Prince George and Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Photo by Hanna Petersen. The 44th federal election is starting to sound more like an American election than a Canadian one. Debate has increased over
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Cancelling Canada Day is a move towards truth, justice and reconciliation
Group of students posing in front of the Brandon Indian Residential School, Brandon, Manitoba, 1946. Photo courtesy Library and Archives Canada/National Film Board of Canada. Content warning: This article includes details about residential schools that some readers may find distressing. If you are a residential school survivor in need of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Federal budget ignores Canada’s ongoing genocide against Indigenous peoples
Mural artist Tom Andrich’s public display in honour of murdered and missing indigenous women, located on the Portage Avenue and Empress Street overpass in Winnipeg. Photo courtesy UM Today. Canada is in the middle of the worst human rights crisis in this country’s history—the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples, a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Doug Ford’s racism is risking First Nation lives
Doug Ford’s accusation that NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa “jumped the line” perpetuates the racist stereotype that First Nations get everything for free or get everything first. Image by Canadian Dimension. Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s unfounded allegations against NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa need to be called out for what they are—racism.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Where’s Trudeau’s pipeline for water to First Nations?
Chief Hector Shorting displays his community’s contaminated water outside his home in Little Saskatchewan First Nation. Photo courtesy of Little Saskatchewan First Nation. In 1995, Health Canada and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) found that 25 percent of the water systems in First Nations posed health and safety risks.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Jason Kenney is tanking Alberta
The only person to blame for Alberta’s economic and social woes is Jason Kenney. Image by Canadian Dimension. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is beset with woes—woes he believes are caused by everyone else but himself. So called zealots and urban militants lost Kenney his precious Teck mine. Trudeau is to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Mi’kmaw treaty rights, reconciliation and the ‘rule of law’
A man carrying the Mi’kmaq national flag at a protest in support of Indigenous fishing rights near Saulnierville, a three-hour drive west of Halifax, September 17, 2020. Photo by Trina Roache/APTN News. On September 17, 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) issued its decision in the R. v. Marshall
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada Should Declassify, Deconstruct and Defund the RCMP
The RCMP’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) participates in a training exercise in Ladysmith, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Photo courtesy the Ladysmith Chronicle. The ongoing debate about whether racism exists in the RCMP is a distraction from the real life impact that racialized violence has on Indigenous peoples everyday. Racism, sexism
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Yes, Canada Has a Racism Crisis and It’s Killing Black and Indigenous Peoples
Police at the scene of protests against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project in Burnaby, BC, November 22, 2014. Photo by Mark Klotz/Flickr. We used to be able to say that Canadians who didn’t believe that their governments and police forces were racist against Indigenous and Black peoples, were simply
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada Is Ignoring the Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous Women
Supporters and mourners walk together in the streets of downtown Saskatoon, SK during the Sisters in Spirit Vigil & March, October 6, 2019. Canada is in a crisis of epic proportions. Both Canadian and Indigenous governments are currently responding to the coronavirus pandemic in an effort to prevent the spread
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Where the parties stand on Indigenous issues
Justin Trudeau addressing the 2017 Families of Sisters in Spirit vigil for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, on Oct 4, 2017. Photo by Obert Madondo (Flickr). This year’s federal election campaign has seen a significant drop in priority for Indigenous issues, especially in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: RCMP invasion of Wet’suwet’en Nation territory breaches Canada’s ‘rule of law’
While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes flowery public speeches about respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples and reassures the international community that there is no relationship more important that the one with Indigenous peoples, Canada invaded sovereign Wet’suwet’en Nation territory. When questioned about this aggressive move at a Liberal fundraiser
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Appropriated identities and the new wave of dispossession
Photo by Jacob C Boynton In the early days of colonization in what is now known as Canada, settler governments engaged in horrendous acts of genocide in order to clear the land for settlement, extraction of natural resources and international trade. Early colonial officials saw Indigenous Nations as a real
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: True test of reconciliation: respect the Indigenous right to say No
Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa. Conflict is coming. There is no getting around that fact. Anyone who believes that reconciliation will be about blanket exercises, cultural awareness training, visiting a native exhibit at a museum or hanging native artwork in public office buildings doesn’t understand how we got here. Reconciliation between
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Resurgence or revelation? White nationalist legacies in Canada
Illustration by Canadian Encyclopedia There has been a great deal of discussion and debate around iconic Canadian symbols like Sir John A. Macdonald who, on the one hand, is a symbol of confederation, yet on the other hand was responsible for genocide against Indigenous peoples. The idea has people of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Trudeau’s forked tongue reconciliation at the UN
Screenshot from YouTube On September 21, Justin Trudeau addressed the United Nations in New York. It was, by all accounts, a historic speech. For the first time, a Canadian prime minister devoted the bulk of his UN address to Indigenous issues. Trudeau’s words were powerful, even hopeful, about reconciliation with
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Unravelling the secrets of the National Inquiry
Photo by Obert Madondo During Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s election campaign, he promised that, if elected, the Liberal’s first order of business would be to conduct a national inquiry into the thousands of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls in Canada. This was a welcome change from the former
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: PM Trudeau’s Nation to Nation Relationship Disppeared with Empty Budget Promises
Photo by Renegade98
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won the hearts of many Canadians by finally getting rid of Stephen Harper and his decade of oppression, violation of civil rights and vilification of First Natio…
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