The B.C. Museums Association is calling on publicly-funded institutions to return ancestral human remains and burial artifacts from their collections to their rightful Indigenous owners.
While the call comes from British Columbia, organizers want to see institutions from across the country sign a call to action to repatriate these items and look at repatriation policies, accept the cost associated with that work and create an inventory of ancestors within collections.
"True, meaningful and lasting reconciliation must include the return of our ancestors back to the Nations where they were taken from," said Dan Smith, a former chair of the museum association's Indigenous advisory committee and a member of the Wei Wai Kum First Nation.
"We must work together to realize this, and in doing so free our children and their children from the sacred obligation we have for finding our ancestors and bringing them home."
You may or may not have already watched the latest Ontario Government announcement where they just gave police the power to do random checks on pedestrians and pull over anyone driving to ensure that they are leaving their house for a necessary reason. If people don’t give their address and why they’re out they will get fined $750.
This will disproportionately affect Black people and people of colour. In this broadcast they also all but explicitly encouraged people to call the cops on their neighbours breaking protocol. DO NOT CALL THE COPS ON YOUR BLACK NEIGHBOURS.
[Image of text on a screen. Black Ontarians can contact BLAC if they experience issues with the police or are in need of legal services during this stay at home order.
one of the most upsetting new covid regulations. but some departments have said they will NOT be conducting random stops despite the new rules so check this article to see if your local police have done so yet
In a statement Saturday, Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said officers will no longer have the right to stop any pedestrian or vehicle to ask why they are out or request their home address.
“If a police officer or other provincial offences officer has reason to suspect that you are participating in an organized public event or social gathering, they may require you to provide information to ensure you are complying with restrictions,” Jones said
“Every individual who is required to provide a police officer or other provincial offences officer with information shall promptly comply.”
The CCLA has also paused their court challenges following the announcement
Before the changes were made, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) issued a statement Saturday saying it had retained counsel and was preparing to go to court in the coming days to challenge Friday’s announced regulations.
But following the amendments to the regulations by the solicitor general Saturday night, the CCLA said it would “take yes for an answer and put this legal challenge on pause” as the revised order “restores an investigative detention standard for police stops.”
The concept of a universal basic income in Canada has earned more attention over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). According to a new survey by the Angus Reid Institute, 59% of Canadians support proposals for universal basic income programs at $10,000, $20,000 and $30,000 annual income. The highest amount of support comes from Quebec (66%) and the Atlantic provinces (65%), while the lowest level of support comes from Alberta (42%), the only province with more support against a universal basic income program than for one. Both Liberal (78%) and NDP (84%) voters are overwhelmingly in favour of basic income. Conservative support for the program is roughly one in four, at 26%.
While the majority of Canadians (61%) believe the wealthiest in the country should fund the universal basic income program, only a quarter (24%) of those with the highest income would actually be willing to pay more taxes to fund it. The respondents were also divided about whether Canada could actually afford to implement a basic income for its citizens, and whether or not it would disincentivize people to work.
For the complete results and methodology, please visit the Angus Reid Institute website.
While the majority of Canadians (61%) believe the wealthiest in the country should fund the universal basic income program, only a quarter (24%) of those with the highest income would actually be willing to pay more taxes to fund it.
As my dad would say, “tough noogies.” Thanks to all the tax cuts and loopholes available to them, it’s been at least 50 years since people in that income bracket have actually paid anything even approaching their fair share in taxes. Meanwhile, poverty and inequality have been getting steadily worse as those leeches suck up as much wealth as they possibly can. Taxing them more won’t actually hurt them, and it’ll help a lot of vulnerable people.
I.e. Only the NDP and Greens are promising a basic income, but y’all keep voting for the useless centrists (who have said a pandemic isn’t the time for a basic income) or Conservatives (who think basic income is some socialist scheme).
it’s completely fucked up that we’re expected to bow down to those with more economic power and create laws that benefit them because they might, hypothetically, leave the country. God I hate capitalism.
Headline: Kent Driscoll. “High Arctic Protest: Inuit blockading Mary River Iron Ore Mine since Feb. 4.” APT News. 8 February 2021.
Community members across Nunavut came out in peaceful protests
Monday [8 February 2021], to show solidarity with a group […] who continue to
blockade the Mary River iron ore mine on North Baffin Island. Protesters
at the blockade from Pond Inlet, Igloolik and Arctic Bay say Inuit
harvesting rights are being ignored in the company’s bid to
expand the mine. Demonstrations started in Pond Inlet last week. New protests were held Monday in Iqaluit, Igloolik, Naujaat and Taloyoak. Elder Annie Nattaq called for the protest in Nunavut’s capital. Around 30 people gathered at the Iqaluit seniors centre. […]
Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation wants to double its annual
mining output to 12 million tonnes. To do this, it would build a railway
and increase shipping through its port at Milne Inlet. The waters
surrounding the port are a crucial habitat for narwhal in the Canadian
Arctic.
[…]
The remote mine takes days to travel to by snowmobile from Pond
Inlet and surrounding communities, so the group at the blockade remains
small, around 10 men as of Saturday, though more were joining with
supplies.
[…] “We are thinking about our younger generations. We want a clean
environment and healthy food. This is everyone’s responsibility,” he
said in Inuktitut. “We don’t want our wildlife and land contaminated.”
[…]
——-
Headline, photos, captions, and text published by:
Beth Brown. “Mine blockade sparks solidarity protests across Nunavut.” CBC News. 8 February 2021.
——-
Since 5 February, seven hunters have created a makeshift barrier of
snowmobiles and sleds to block the airstrip and service road of the Mary
River ore mine, halting operations. Temperatures in recent days have
dipped to the low -30sC. At issue are controversial plans drawn up by the mine’s operator
Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation to double output. To bring 12m tonnes
of iron ore to market, the mine has said it needs to build a railway to a
port near the community of Pond Inlet.
[…]
“Baffinland is making money and we are given very little money and we
know that money will not bring back wildlife,” Tom Naqitarvik said in an
Inuktitut language video posted to Facebook, reported CBC News.
——-
Map and text published by: Leyland Cecco. “Inuit hunters blockade iron mine in freezing temperatures …” The Guardian. 9 February 2021.
——-
Inuit protestors blocked the airstrip and access road of the Mary River
iron ore mine in North Baffin Island on Feb. 4, forcing a stop to mining
[…].
Inuit in the two closest communities – Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay – have said they are joining the protestors with supplies.
Baffinland, the owners of the mine, have been seeking to double
production from six to 12 million tonnes annually and put in a railway
to aid shipping.
They have been applying to the Nunavut Impact Review Board [NIRB] to
make this move since 2014, when the mine opened for business.
Many Inuit in the area say that since more mine ships started arriving, whales and seals have been harder to find.
Near the mine site, bright red iron dust makes clean snow look like a Prince Edward Island dirt road.
Many fear that the proposed railway will scare off caribou, which are
already very hard to find on Baffin Island even with strict quotas in
place.
While the protestors held the mine in lockdown, their community members made their case to the three person NIRB panel. Caleb Sangoya […] has been writing down his
observations about wildlife around the Mary River since 2009, when the
idea of a mine was proposed. “Baffinland says no drop has taken place,” said Sangoya in Inuktitut.
“From our observation, no way. When there’s ship traffic, mammals start
to move away.”
——-
Photo and text published by:
Kent Driscoll. “High Arctic Protest: Inuit blockading Mary River Iron Ore Mine since Feb. 4.” APT News. 8 February 2021.
Biden Freezes Saudi Arms Sales, Spotlighting Major Trudeau Failure:
The Joe Biden administration has put a freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which has unintentionally spotlighted a major foreign policy failure by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Every billionaire is a policy failure. Nearly every millionaire is a policy failure (selling a million books is not a policy failure). Every casino industry millionaire, though?
Definitely a policy failure.
Take Rodney Baker, who made $10.6m in 2019 as the CEO of the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, a national racetrack and casino operator. Baker resigned on Sunday, because he did something despicable even by the standards of the casino industry.
Baker and his wife, the actor Ekaterina Baker, chartered a small plane and flew to Beaver Creek, a tiny First Nations community, where they defrauded their way into getting covid vaccinations intended for elders in the White River First Nation.
The Bakers did not quarantine on arrival. Rather, they presented themselves at the remote Yukon community - a community whose isolation has offered some protection from the pandemic - as workers at a local motel. In so doing, they recklessly endangered the whole community.
Then they asked for a ride to the airport, which tipped off clinic workers. Officials caught them in Whitehorse and charged them under the Yukon’s Civil Emergency Measures Act. They were fined $1150 each.
The White River First Nation has asked Yukon authorities to “pursue a more just punishment” (the Act provides for prison sentences of up to six months for violations); they fear that without meaningful penalties, other wealthy sociopaths will follow the Bakers’ example.
I’ve been thinking about this all day, looking for a bright side. There is none. These millionaires will not go to jail. They won’t face social sanction. They’ll be invited to private islands and exclusive parties, wooed by charities and flattered by university fundraisers.
They are part of a long Canadian tradition of depraved, inhuman conduct towards First Nations people. The nation’s money is slathered in pictures of people who did far worse, after all.
These evil, irredeemable people were just upholding a long Canadian tradition.
liberalsarecool
diaryofandnwoman
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