Nation to Nation

COVID-19 is known to be more harmful to the elderly and people that are immunocompromised and have chronic illnesses, which is more prevalent on-reserve.

“It’s a race against the clock,” said NDP MP Charlie Angus of protecting vulnerable First Nations, particularly in his riding of Timmins-James Bay that includes Attawapiskat.

The Trudeau government announced billions in emergency funding Wednesday to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic, including $305 million for Indigenous communities.

There is a growing rift between the provincial organizations that make up the Metis National Council (MNC).

At issue is the suspension of the Metis Nation of Ontario (MNO) from the MNC over its recognition of six historical communities.

Manitoba Metis Federation President David Chartrand, and also MNC vice-president, says the communities do not belong under the Metis umbrella.

But the president MNO, Margaret Froh, disagrees.

Alex Neve says 20 years ago missing and murdered Indigenous women wasn’t on the radar of politicians.

Negotiations over the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) was still in deadlock.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a few years away.

Now as Neve plans to step-down in June as the secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada he’s seen all these things happen.

But something is still missing.

Canada doesn’t believe the parents of First Nations children that died in the on-reserve child welfare system should be compensated through Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

That’s what a lawyer for the Justice department filed at the tribunal last Friday as all parties submitted their proposals on how these children should be compensated for being taken from their home and put in a purposely underfunded program.

That and more on this episode of Nation to Nation.

The RCMP has made a conditional offer to leave the Wet’suwet’en traditional territory as long as the road through it is kept clear, presumably for workers to continue building a pipeline.

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair made the announcement Thursday mornings saying RCMP will set up in a town close by and then called for all the rail blockades and protests to end.

But leaving the territory was just one of the demands by hereditary chiefs.

That and more on this episode of APTN Nation to Nation.

It seems everywhere you turn today there is a demonstration in the streets or at railways and even in government office buildings.

If that sounds familiar that’s because it is.

Just seven years ago Idle No More did much of the same in response.

Today, the disrespect shown to traditional Wet’suwet’en law by the approval of a natural gas pipeline through its territory and the RCMP used as enforcers to remove people standing in its way has triggered a similar reaction to Idle No More.

The Trudeau government could have created a recognition of Indigenous rights framework in its previous term says its former justice minister.

She also believes she could have written it.

That space is what’s needed to allow Indigenous nations, said Wilson-Raybould, to have the ability to rebuild and to reconcile their traditional systems in to the modern world, which will happen at their own pace.

No one can say today exactly how many First Nations children are in the on-reserve child welfare system across Canada.

In fact, no one has ever been able to say.

It’s never been tracked properly by the federal government, which it now says it’s looking to do.

That and more in this episode of APTN Nation to Nation.

On this episode of Nation to Nation: We recently heard that Indigenous inmates now make up 30 per cent of everyone in federal prisons, but what about provincial jails.

Ontario's Human Rights Commissioner says the conditions there are dehumanizing.

As well, the co-host of Ottawa’s Inuktitut-language radio station is in studio.

In addition, more from Manitoba Metis Federation President David Chartrand on the crisis in the metis national council.

On this episode of Nation to Nation: The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs don’t just oppose a pipeline through their traditional territory because of the environment and climate change.

Even if it looks that way to some.

At the root of it they’re challenging the system that allowed for the approval of Coastal GasLink’s 670-kilometre pipeline in the first place by pitting traditional ways, or laws, against the Indian Act and the chiefs and councils that are borne from the federal legislation.