I don’t usually do ‘breaking news’ stories…and well I guess I’m not doing it now either. This news isn’t new at all, it’s just finally getting some mainstream attention as the situation is set to get exponentially worse. The problem with OxyContin OxyContin, also known colloquially as hillbilly heroin, is a powerful and potentially addictive…
Category: First Nations
Speaking different languages at the CFNG
Well folks, there was a lot of ‘speaking two different languages‘ going on in Ottawa yesterday. For me, the highlights of the Crown-First Nation Gathering held yesterday in Ottawa came from the mouths of two women, Dr. Pam Palmater and Chief Jody Wilson-Raybould. Dr. Palmater provided commentary during the opening and closing of the Gathering…
Guest Blog: Don’t give up on Attawapiskat!
The following article is my first ‘guest blog post’, by David Schulze, a partner in the law firm of Dionne Schulze in Montréal, which specializes in representing Aboriginal communities and individuals. I think it is important to remember that the immediate problems facing Attawapiskat are still not resolved. (This article may be linked to or…
Building relationships requires education.
When it comes to the many challenges that aboriginal peoples face here in Canada, I find I have to strike a balance between identifying those problems and trying to come up with solutions for them. Spending too much time on either of those things and I get mixed up, ungrounded. The one is too depressing…
You’re Métis? So which of your parents is an Indian?
In a previous post, I described what it is like as an Alberta Métis to come to Quebec and realise that ‘Métis’ does not mean the same thing here. I’m not a shut-in…I realised that there were different definitions out there, I simply hadn’t lived where I was defined by them before. In another post,…