On Episode 93 of The Roundtable, I talk money, personal finance, and financial literacy with Terry Goodtrack (CEO, AFOA Canada).
Aboriginal people
Gord Downie will not make things better
Is the Indian Affairs education system and philosophy right? Do the deaths of Indigenous children justify a change in the policy of this Department? As the years go on, it seems more and more likely that Duncan Campbell Scott spoke for Canada and Canadians.
Georges Erasmus Calls for Action on RCAP Recommendations
In November, it will have been 20 years since the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples issued its multi-volume final report. In this audio clip, former RCAP Co-Chair, Georges Erasmus, renews the call to make those recommendations a reality.
The Ottawa Book Awards and new work from Chelsea Vowel
I’ve been working away these past months at the 2016 Ottawa Book Awards reading list. One of three jurors in the non-fiction category, I drew up my list of finalists this past week, along with my colleagues. I’m pleased to say… Read More ›
Miche vs Canada: the dangerous quicksand of First Nations rights
This is a story about folks who just want a chance to clean the slate and get on with their lives Meet my good friend, Miche. Here is his story. Some years ago, Miche and I belonged to a company called… Read More ›
The Indian Residential Schools Are Still With Us
In 2010, I interviewed the former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Phil Fontaine, about his many years as a politician. The conclusion of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement negotiations was a few years behind, and I asked… Read More ›
Who are the Indigenous influencers in Canada?
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eBook Download: Reconciliation & the Way Forward
LAST WEEK in Ottawa I had the pleasure of launching the book Reconciliation & the Way Forward with my friends Shelagh Rogers, Glen Lowry, Sara Fryer and Mike DeGagné. I contributed an essay (“Time to Get Our Indian Act Together… Read More ›
Full Circle: download and read the story here
Follow me on Twitter. Find my latest book, Residential Schools: with the Images and Words of Survivors, here.
The Long Tsilhqot’in Journey to Aboriginal Title
THE WEBSITE of the Xeni Gwet’in (pronounced Honey Gwi-deen) reads like a manifesto: In a world full of travel promises, some kept others not, the Xeni Gwet’in people offer none. The Xeni prefer to simply share their home with respectful… Read More ›
Looking Beyond the First Nation Control of First Nations Education Act
LAST WEEK I WAS interviewed for a CBC program on the topic of Bill C-33, the First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act. The name of the program is immaterial. If you look it up, you won’t find me…. Read More ›
Notes Toward a Candid Conversation About Genocide in Canada
AS THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION Commission of Canada hosts its national event this week, in Edmonton, the topic of genocide is once again surfacing. Usually the topic is posed as a question: is Canada “guilty of genocide”? Over the years,… Read More ›
The Sixties Scoop
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS reported this week that Manitoba Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson will host a two-day roundtable with twenty people who were part of something now known as the “Sixties Scoop.” For some of you this will be a… Read More ›
Give the First Nations Education Act a Chance
THE ISRAELI DIPLOMAT, orator and polyglot, Abba Eban, is today memorialized in the truism that men and nations behave wisely only once they have exhausted all the other alternatives. In the case of Canada’s exhausted Indian Act policies, the alternatives… Read More ›
The Sound and the Fury of Indian Politicians
WHILE THE POLITICAL theatre of a possible meeting of some vague nature between the Prime Minister of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations strutted the national stage, I thought of a few lines from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 59:
