Attawapiskat

Tuesday July 23, 2019

Tuesday July 23, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 23, 2019

Silent protest draws attention to Attawapiskat at Trudeau talk

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to the Canadian Teachers’ Federation at its annual general meeting in Ottawa on Thursday, a row of teachers silently held up letters spelling “Attawapiskat.”

April 2, 2019

The demonstration comes just days after the local band council declared a state of emergency in the Indigenous community amid issues with water quality.

The group was sitting at the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario table.

The state of emergency was declared on July 9 in the northern Ontario First Nations community after potentially harmful levels of byproducts from a water disinfection process were found in its drinking water. Residents were told to limit their exposure to the water and avoid showering and washing food with tap water.

April 13, 2016

While Trudeau did not directly acknowledge the protesters, he did touch on boil water advisories during the discussion.

“We’ve done a lot,” Trudeau said on the subject of reconciliation. “We’ve eliminated close to 85 different boil-water advisories, [and] are on track to eliminate all of them on time by 2021.”

He acknowledged, however, that there is more to do.

“It’s very tempting in politics to focus on the negative, and certainly I’m more than willing to admit that like any good teacher I’ve made mistakes and I’ve learned a lot through this process, but we’re on a path of making Canada better for everyone,” said Trudeau.

June 3, 2015

His government came under fire when, on July 4 – just days before the state of emergency was declared in Attawapiskat – Environment Minister Catherine McKenna tweeted about Ottawa’s high-quality tap water.

“There’s a lot to love about Ottawa — including our tap water! Did you know it’s rated among the best in the world?” she wrote on Twitter.

The tweet prompted a swift response on social media, including a tweet from Attawapiskat resident Adrian Sutherland.

“Must be nice to have clean drinking water – thousands of indigenous people don’t even have clean water to bathe in never-mind drink. I don’t think is something to be proud of!” he wrote.

The government says it is working to bring the levels of the contaminant down in the community’s water.

“The community is concerned, and when the community is concerned we are concerned too,” said Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O’Regan in an interview with CTV News Channel on Wednesday.

“We’re working with the community right now.”

The state of emergency, in the meantime, is ongoing. (CTV) 

 

Wednesday April 13, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday April 13, 2016 Attawapiskat emergency debate to be held by MPs this evening The House of Commons will hold an emergency debate this evening over "the gravity" of the many suicide attempts on the northern Ontario First Nation reserve of Attawapiskat. Members of Parliament will address the crisis during the debate scheduled to begin at approximately 6:40 p.m. ET and expected to last until midnight. The request for an emergency debate comes as Attawapiskat Chief Bruce Shisheesh fears more young people will try to harm themselves while the community tries to grapple with the crisis after declaring a state of emergency Saturday, following reports of 11 suicide attempts in one day. There are also reports of over 100 suicide attempts and at least one death since September. On Monday, provincial and federal government officials sent a medical emergency assistance team and five additional mental health workers to the First Nation community of less than 2,000. Three mental health workers were already in the community, a spokesperson for Health Canada told CBC News on Tuesday. The emergency debate was approved by House Speaker Geoff Regan Tuesday morning on a request from NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding includes Attawapiskat. "The crisis in Attawapiskat has gathered world attention and people are looking to this Parliament to explain the lack of hope, that's not just in Attawapiskat but in so many indigenous communities. And they're looking to us, in this new Parliament, to offer change," Angus said in the House of Commons on Tuesday morning. Angus said the emergency debate would allow MPs to address "the lack of mental health services, police services, community supports" facing so many First Nations communities across the country. "In closing," Angus said, "the prime minister called the situation in Attawapiskat 'heartbreaking' but it is up to us as parliamentarians to turn this into a moment

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 13, 2016

Attawapiskat emergency debate to be held by MPs this evening

The House of Commons will hold an emergency debate this evening over “the gravity” of the many suicide attempts on the northern Ontario First Nation reserve of Attawapiskat.

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday June 3, 2015 CanadaÕs residential schools cultural genocide, Truth and Reconciliation commission says The residential schools that removed aboriginal children from their homes, subjecting many of them to substandard education, malnutrition, abuse, illness and even death was a key part of a government-led policy that amounted to cultural genocide, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concludes. ÒThese measures were part of a coherent policy to eliminate Aboriginal people as distinct peoples and to assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will,Ó says the 381-page summary of its final report released Tuesday in Ottawa. ÒThe Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources,Ó says the report. The heart-wrenching and damning report is the culmination of a six-year examination of the history and legacy of residential schools Ñ largely operated by churches and funded by the Canadian government Ñ that saw 150,000 First Nations, MŽtis and Inuit children come through their doors for more than a century. The exercise has been Òa difficult, inspiring and very painful journey for all of us,Ó said Justice Murray Sinclair, Canada's first aboriginal justice and the commission's chairman. ÒThe residential school experience is clearly one of the darkest most troubling chapters in our collective history,Ó Sinclair told a packed news conference Tuesday in Ottawa. ÒIn the period from Confederation until the decision to close residential schools was taken in this country in 1969, Canada clearly participated in a period of cultural genocide.Ó Through the testimony of residential school survivors, former staff, church and government officials and archival documents, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission pieced together a horrifying histor

June 3, 2015

Members of Parliament will address the crisis during the debate scheduled to begin at approximately 6:40 p.m. ET and expected to last until midnight.

The request for an emergency debate comes as Attawapiskat Chief Bruce Shisheesh fears more young people will try to harm themselves while the community tries to grapple with the crisis after declaring a state of emergency Saturday, following reports of 11 suicide attempts in one day. There are also reports of over 100 suicide attempts and at least one death since September.

On Monday, provincial and federal government officials sent a medical emergency assistance team and five additional mental health workers to the First Nation community of less than 2,000. Three mental health workers were already in the community, a spokesperson for Health Canada told CBC News on Tuesday.

January 25, 2012

The emergency debate was approved by House Speaker Geoff Regan Tuesday morning on a request from NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding includes Attawapiskat.

“The crisis in Attawapiskat has gathered world attention and people are looking to this Parliament to explain the lack of hope, that’s not just in Attawapiskat but in so many indigenous communities. And they’re looking to us, in this new Parliament, to offer change,” Angus said in the House of Commons on Tuesday morning.

December 10, 2011

Angus said the emergency debate would allow MPs to address “the lack of mental health services, police services, community supports” facing so many First Nations communities across the country.

“In closing,” Angus said, “the prime minister called the situation in Attawapiskat ‘heartbreaking’ but it is up to us as parliamentarians to turn this into a moment of hope-making.”

October 28, 2005

“That’s why I’m asking my colleagues to work with me tonight, to work together, to discuss this issue tonight and start to lay a path forward to give the hope to the children of our northern and all other indigenous communities,” Angus said Tuesday morning.

Regan acknowledged “the gravity of this situation” before granting Angus’s request.

Other Ontario First Nations communities declared public health emergencies earlier this year.

At least four aboriginal leaders have been scheduled to appear before the Commons indigenous affairs committee on Thursday to discuss the health crises facing their communities. (Source: CBC News)

Federal Minister of Indigenous & Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett was asked about former prime minister Jean Chretien’s suggestion this week that those living on remote reserves could consider moving.

“It is about people’s attachment to the land, people having a right to live a traditional life and but also with economic opportunities,” she said.

“There’s choice involved …. Some communities have chosen to change their location to no longer be flooded and be on higher ground. Some community members choose to go to town to get a job, but then be able to come back, but this is about us wanting to support the choices.” (Source: Globe & Mail)

 

Other media

Published in the Regina Leader-Post April 14, 2016

Published in the Regina Leader-Post April 14, 2016

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Thursday, January 10, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, January 10, 2013

Attawapiskat chief slams audit leak as ‘distraction’

A newly released audit of the federal funding spent by the Attawapiskat First Nation has found significant documentation lacking for the $104 million transferred to the band between 2005 and 2011.

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence responded Monday in a news release, which dismissed the timing of the leaked audit as a distraction from the “true issues” and claimed it was designed to discredit her.

“I remain steadfast on my journey and will not allow any distractions at this time to [waver from] the goal set forth,” Spence said.

The chief is on the 28th day of a hunger strike amid national Idle No More protests.

The audit was requested by the federal government to ensure that the approximately $104 million it provided to Attawapiskat between April 2005 and November 2011 was spent as it should have been. The accounting firm Deloitte was engaged to perform the audit in December 2011.

The funding was intended for housing, infrastructure, education and other services. CBC News obtained a copy of the audit before it was made public.

In a letter dated Aug. 28, 2012, that was written by Deloitte to Chief Spence and copied to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the auditing firm says that of 505 transactions reviewed, more than 400 lacked proper documentation. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday December 10, 2011

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday December 10, 2011 Some Attawapiskat residents at odds with chief Some residents of Attawapiskat First Nations support the government's plan to put the reserve under third-party management, a move strongly opposed by the chief and band council. "I think it would be a good thing. We need to clean up our financial crisis here in Attawapiskat because it's been like this too long now," Greg Shisheesh, a former deputy chief of the reserve, told CBC News in a phone interview. "I was happy to hear the federal government was stepping in to clean the mess up." Shisheesh, who said he has lived on the reserve all his life, said he believes a forensic audit should be conducted on a number of organizations on the reserve, including the band office and economic development office. "If our leaders have nothing to hide, by all means do it." Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence has vehemently rejected the imposition of a third-party manager. "She says that and she didn't even ask the whole community what we thought about it. She never asked us," Shisheesh said. "The way the chief and council operate is totally opposite. They decide and then bring it to us after." Spence also said on Monday she will use the courts if necessary to resist the imposition of a third-party manager. Martha Sutherland, a tribe elder, told CBC News she is frustrated with the reserve leadership. "We want to hear what the Indian Affairs has to say, the third party, and we want to meet with them so we can voice our concerns." (Source: Globe & Mail) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/canada-us-border-agreement-a-good-thing/article4180452/ Canada, Stephen Harper, Attawapiskat, first nations, indians, natives, Theresa Spence, audit, transparency, accountability, legend

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 10, 2011

Some Attawapiskat residents at odds with chief

Some residents of Attawapiskat First Nations support the government’s plan to put the reserve under third-party management, a move strongly opposed by the chief and band council.

“I think it would be a good thing. We need to clean up our financial crisis here in Attawapiskat because it’s been like this too long now,” Greg Shisheesh, a former deputy chief of the reserve, told CBC News in a phone interview.

“I was happy to hear the federal government was stepping in to clean the mess up.”

2011-2015

2011-2015

Shisheesh, who said he has lived on the reserve all his life, said he believes a forensic audit should be conducted on a number of organizations on the reserve, including the band office and economic development office.

“If our leaders have nothing to hide, by all means do it.”

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence has vehemently rejected the imposition of a third-party manager.

“She says that and she didn’t even ask the whole community what we thought about it. She never asked us,” Shisheesh said. “The way the chief and council operate is totally opposite. They decide and then bring it to us after.”

Spence also said on Monday she will use the courts if necessary to resist the imposition of a third-party manager.

Martha Sutherland, a tribe elder, told CBC News she is frustrated with the reserve leadership.

“We want to hear what the Indian Affairs has to say, the third party, and we want to meet with them so we can voice our concerns.” (Source:  CBC News)