It may surprise you, citizen reader, that there are Americans out there who hold deeper constitutional rights in Canada than you. It’s because they’re Indigenous, and because the Supreme Court decided in 2021 that they should receive special privileges. Now, despite being foreign, they’re using their newfound esteem in Canadian courts to intervene in what kids are taught in school.
In May 2021, the Kamloops First Nation announced the discovery of 215 burial sites near a former residential school—a claim that sparked global headlines about “mass graves” and left Ottawa’s flag at half mast for five months.
We now know this was a mistake. A group of researchers, myself included, published Grave Error, laying out the reasons for skepticism. The ground-penetrating radar (GPR) results had almost certainly been misread, confusing thousands of feet of buried weeping tile in the orchard with human burials.
Climate change causing ‘ecological grief’ in First Nations, federal report claims
A federal review says climate change is driving “ecological grief” in First Nations and Inuit communities while exposing shortfalls in Ottawa’s $1.6 billion wellness program meant to support mental health.
The Department of Indigenous Services reported that extreme weather, wildfires, and disrupted access to traditional practices such as hunting, fishing and medicine gathering are taking a toll on well-being.
h/t Auntie Polly (Incognito)
On a stretch of the south arm of the Fraser River, in the Vancouver area, the Cowichan Tribes in centuries past had an annual summer fishing village, a place they defended with a warrior ethos against other Indigenous groups.
But in the mid-1800s, the Cowichan – whose home territory is on Vancouver Island – were displaced from that village as the British took control and, after British Columbia joined Canada, the land was sold over the years.
Today, the land is occupied by an array of owners. Part of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and other industrial operations are there. There’s a golf course and private homes with small farms, along with a span of infrastructure such as roads and dikes. In a Globe and Mail analysis of property assessments, land and buildings in the area are worth more than $1.3-billion.
It’s an insane ruling.
The defamatory non-stop claim that Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, committed genocide against indigenous people, including Indian Residential School children, is the most scurrilous slur hurled against him by his critics. Accordingly, it is necessary to examine this claim using the gold standard for doing so: the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Convention lists five “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group,” any one of which constitutes genocide.
KAHNAWAKE – The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake says it will probably impose tolls on the roads crossing its territory in response to looming federal budget cuts.
Grand Chief Cody Diabo told reporters the tolls could help offset the impact of cuts by Indigenous Services Canada on the Mohawk community south of Montreal.
He says his council is looking at implementing tolls on major highways where he says approximately 120,000 vehicles pass through daily.
Settlers pay Billions every year to natives. No settlers = No payments. Choose your option. pic.twitter.com/u66iqxVBkL
— Chris (@Chris91138742) August 1, 2025
h/t Patti Jo
An author has won her defamation lawsuit against a University of Regina professor who called her book “racist garbage.” Candis McLean had filed her lawsuit with a Saskatchewan court eight years ago.
McLean published a book in 2016 called “When Police Become Prey: The Cold, Hard Facts of Neil Stonechild’s Freezing Death.” The book challenged the findings of an inquiry into the death of Stonechild, an indigenous teen who died in Saskatoon in 1990 at age 17 on the night he was taken into police custody. Two Saskatoon police officers lost their jobs as a result of the inquiry. However, McLean’s book says they were innocent of wrongdoing in the teen’s death.
