Joan Delaney Epoch Times Sep 21, 2007 http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-9-21/59991.html

On June 29, native protestors marched past the Parliament building in Ottawa for a ‘National Day of Action’ to bring attention to gross poverty in native communities. Protests included fires burning on rail lines, ramshackle buses parked across highways, marches in every city, and teepees on legislature lawns. (Keep reading…)

United Nations, General Assembly Report of the Human Rights Council

September 12, 2007

NOTE: The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was finally passed at a vote in the General Assembly on September 12, 2007. Canada was one of only four countries — the others being the U.S., Australia and New Zealand — that voted against it. 143 voted in favour and eleven abstained. (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension August 22, 2007

On Friday, August 10, 2007 my husband, Shawn Brant, was denied bail for the second time on charges relating to the closure of the CN main line, a provincial highway and the 401. Shawn is a member of the Mohawk Nation, from the community of Tyendinaga. The larger context for the charges he currently faces include unresolved land claims, poverty, suicides and polluted water throughout First Nations communities across Canada. (Keep reading…)

Winnipeg Free Press Sat Aug 18 2007

THE muddy water surrounding the future of first nation gaming just got a little muddier. The province, along with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, announced a quid pro quo yesterday that will see the South Beach Casino, one of only two aboriginal-owned gambling palaces in Manitoba, get 300 slot machines in exchange for an agreement to go smoke free and to share proceeds with 13 remote, economically challenged first nations. (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension August 8, 2007

In 1994, the General Assembly decided that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People shall be observed on 9 August every year during the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People (Resolution 49/214 of 23 December). The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. (Keep reading…)

July 26, 2007 TheTyee.ca

A couple hundred members of B.C.’s Tsawwassen First Nation made history Wednesday night when they voted to ratify the province’s first urban treaty. (Keep reading…)

Winnipeg Free Press Jul 17 2007

MONTREAL — First they made peace with Quebec, now they’re making it with Ottawa — and becoming masters in their own house. Dropping lawsuits totalling $4.5 billion, leaders of the 16,500 Cree of northern Quebec announced a historic $1.4-billion deal with Ottawa on Monday. If ratified in a referendum in October and approved by Parliament, it will see them take control of all policing, courts and social and economic development in their communities — and perhaps eventually form their own state within Canada. (Keep reading…)

A Socialist Project e-bulletin …. No. 52… June 28, 2007

On May 31, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) called for a national day of action on June 29, to force changes in key features of federal aboriginal policy. On June 12, the Harper Conservative government responded with an important reform of “specific claims” settlement policy. Now as the day of action approaches, the AFN’s limited and reformist direction for the day’s protest plans remains uncertain. So does the Harper government’s ability to appear responsive on this file without either a costly resort to repressive force against protesters, or a costly investment in the kind of self-government structures that would further alienate its neo-conservative base. (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension Magazine, July/August 2007 Issue

I fell in love when I was seven. I mean really and truly in love. It was the kind of rapturous love that changes the lighting in your world and makes everything sharper, clearer, like it never existed in quite that way before, or ever will again. Some people call it “puppy love” to make light of it, but I’ve come to know enough of dogs in my time to know that puppies love truly and unconditionally. And it’s true for human puppies, too. (Keep reading…)

Winnipeg Free Press Jun 8 2007

ON May 8, the day that the Winnipeg Free Press reported on a law passed by the Minnesota Senate and signed by the governor requiring annual reports on the implementation of the Northern Flood Agreement, I attended a massive “Walk of Power” by the Pimicikamak Inewiwin. About 500 people gathered at the occupation site on the Hydro golf course near the Jenpeg dam, north of Lake Winnipeg. They walked in high spirits in the cold wind and blowing snow, across the dam that turns Lake Winnipeg into a giant reservoir by controlling its water level, and back to the site for speeches. The numbers constitute perhaps a fifth of the Cross Lake population. (Keep reading…)