This latest brief is a warning from Aotearoa about why Indigenous peoples should be concerned about USMCA, the new continental free trade agreement, framing exception clauses as “tools being used to circumvent our participation in the governance of our own territories.”
Last month, the National Post ran a story titled, “Saskatchewan Launches 16-month undercover sting to catch First Nations man illegally selling $90 worth of fish. Seriously.” This brief contextualizes this instance within a larger context of power relations between government agenda and Indigenous peoples, accountability and surveillance.
This brief examines the status of the $2.6 billion in new funding promised by the federal government for First Nation education. Since publishing this brief, the Department of Indigenous Services Canada contacted Yellowhead, providing specific information with respect to expenditures in First Nations elementary and secondary education.
On October 23, 2018, Yellowhead Institute held an official launch event centred on the pending Indigenous Rights, Recognition and Implementation Framework legislation. Here, we share highlights from the event and panel discussion, where three key themes emerged regarding the framework: Regional Contexts, Exclusion of Women, Queer, Trans and Two-Spirit Perspectives and Treaties, Relationship and the Land.
From the very first encounter with police, contact with the criminal justice system for Indigenous people is loaded with disproportionate penalties. A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision of R v Ewert finally recognized the critical role played by Correctional Service Canada that may be unjustly keeping Indigenous peoples behind bars for longer, under far worse conditions than their non-Indigenous incarcerated counterparts.
While the emerging rights framework is certainly limited and based on the flawed presumption of Canadian sovereignty over Indigenous lands and peoples, this new channel of dialogue with the Crown for the Métis National Council, its five governing members, and the Métis Settlement General Council is itself a fairly profound development.
Based in the Faculty of Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University.