Improved Information Technology in NWT… In Other News – Funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation Has Ended

Posted May 10, 2010 By tansi

The Federal Government likes to toot its own horn as far as funding for projects such as these, which are needed; however, how can over a century of systematic abuse and racism be healed in only 12 years? http://nikiashton.ndp.ca/node/138

Yellowknife (Northwest Territories), May 10, 2010 – The Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) is supporting improved information technology in the Northwest Territories with funding to the Katlodeeche (KFN) and Yellowknives Dene First Nations (YKDFN).

The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of CanNor, made the announcement today.

CanNor will provide a total of $265,000 for two projects which will enhance Internet connectivity in Northwest Territories communities.

“Better Broadband and Internet service has the potential to improve the way communities conduct business, communicate with their families, and even receive health and social services,” said Minister Strahl, who is also the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians. “This funding will provide a number of Northwest Territories communities with lasting technological infrastructure.”

“Funding to improve the Katlodeeche First Nation’s broadband service will provide immediate cost savings and administrative improvements for the band council, as well as training and employment opportunities for local residents,” said the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister Responsible for the North and Minister of Health. “The Yellowknives Dene First Nation will also benefit from CanNor’s funding, as it explores ways to build its information technology capacity.”

“CanNor’s funding has enabled us to build our existing infrastructure into a more robust and streamlined system, lowering administration costs and ensuring more accountability and transparency. The video-conferencing capabilities also gives our Chief and Council more time to spend at home and on the land, instead of travelling for meetings. We can connect anywhere in Canada,” said Lyle Fabian, KFN Band Councillor and project head. “In our culture, communication has always been very important. This is another way of communicating, to link our community through technology.”

“With CanNor funding, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation was able to assess its IT infrastructure, networking, security and connectivity upgrade requirements and develop viable options to realize these upgrades,” said Stephan Folkers, YKDFN Housing Manager. “CanNor funding also allowed the Yellowknives Dene First Nation to assess its IT-support capacity building needs.”

Funding for this project was provided through the Strategic Investments in Northern Economic Development (SINED) program, part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan. SINED is delivered by CanNor in the three territories.
CanNor is responsible for coordinating and delivering federal economic development activities in the territories, and for related policy development, research and advocacy.

Categories: Education, Finance, First Nation, History, Justice
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Government funding restored to Aboriginal healing group

Posted April 27, 2010 By móniyáw

The Charlottetown-based group Aboriginal Survivors for Healing will resume its work this week after a one-month hiatus that it was forced to take when its government funding was cut.

The group, which provides counselling to survivors of the residential school system and their families, had been getting $200,000 a year from the federal government through the Aboriginal Healing Foundation for the past 10 years, but that funding ran out at the end of March.

. . .

“Traditional services are not available anywhere else in this province,” said project co-ordinator Tarry Hewitt on Monday. “After 100 years of residential schools, they expected those issues to be addressed in 10 to 15 years. It’s just not realistic.”

Canada’s church-run, government-funded residential schools, which operated from the 19th century up until 1996, aimed to assimulate aboriginal children into white society. Children were not allowed to speak their native language and often endured physical and sexual abuse.

Categories: Health
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Truth and reconciliation framed in the past and present

Posted January 19, 2010 By móniyáw

I think our collective ignorance of Canadian history begins in high school. In high school, my success was measured by the ability to regurgitate facts and figures without spending any time on the context or meaning of events so I suffer in ignorance of current events.

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And I have a suggestion about who should go first in this reckoning. At the G20 Summit last September, our prime minister boasted that we “have no history of colonialism.” That the leader of our country can stand in front of dignitaries from around the world and speak these words is a testament to just how far we have to go in really understanding our national history.

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Truth #1:

Canada was created through a process of acquiring control over lands occupied by other nations.

Let us use one example, just to make things clear. In 1878, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald instituted the National Policy to establish greater national cohesion. The policy included a commitment to the construction of a transcontinental railway, a protective tariff on imports, and western settlement. Its implementation required land: land for the railway, land for settlers, and land over which Canada could exercise the political control necessary to exploit the West’s natural wealth. To get it, Canada undertook the project of western treaty-making, implemented the reserve system administered under the Indian Act, and introduced land scrip for the Metis.

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You can read the complete article here.

Categories: History
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