Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm very honoured to appear with Mr. Jackson. Meegwetch, “Peter”, for your work over the years. Also, Regional Chief Poitras, meegwetch again for your leadership during these difficult and uncertain times. Meegwetch to the committee for inviting me and allowing me to say a f

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Meegwetch for the question. I think it's an important one as we ponder what that recovery will look like. I would say that in NAN territory we've developed frameworks on the reopening of NAN, what that could look like, but also we're in the process now of developing a framework o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Working with the federal government is a bit of a hit-and-miss. That's why we've tried to streamline the communications process and the decision-making processes in partnership with Ontario, so that we can move as quickly as we can on many of the issues we're struggling with. It

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. It has been extraordinary to witness the efforts that our leadership and our citizens have made over these last three months to keep themselves safe, including putting up checkpoints or barricades. In our territory, we have 35 remote communities. I think we have 20 that are

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We've had to put in these measures very quickly, on the fly. As I said, we didn't have pandemic plans when this pandemic was declared in March. We very quickly had to give advice to our communities on what they could do and what the risks are. That's true of the work of our NAN C

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's actually 49 communities, and we did have one positive case in Eabametoong in early April, which has since been resolved, thankfully.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's nice to hear from you, MP Battiste. That's something we are also working on right now in terms of our own governance systems during this pandemic. Obviously we have to make adjustments to how we do business, especially with our leadership, and that's something on which we'

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Even during this pandemic we're hearing in the media stories about communities still facing pressure from developers going through their territories, wanting to consult them on a mining project, for example. Right now with the travel restrictions that are in place, we need to res

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for this very important question. While we're dealing with COVID and all the safety measures put in place, at the same time we need to look at education because we don't want our children to fall further behind in their schooling. That's what we are working on right n

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You can take anything, any sector, and on the reserve there are no standards. There are no standards on health care. There are no standards on education. There are no standards on housing or water. That's what this government needs to look at, building those standards, the standa

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it's also important to note that these challenges existed before this pandemic was declared. Because we are a party to the Human Rights Tribunal case that Dr. Cindy Blackstock launched back in 2008, we've been able to carve off significant pieces to help support our chil

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Right now it's unique to the Nishnawbe Aski Nation and we've been very open about sharing this information and the work that our communities are doing with other regions, because we know it's making a difference in the lives of our children. We're still experiencing suicide, but

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Meegwetch. [Witness spoke in Oji-Cree] [English] Good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be back here on the unceded, unsurrendered lands of the Algonquin nation. My name's Alvin Fiddler, and I'm the grand chief for Nishnawbe Aski Nation, one of the PTOs in what is now called

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. I'll try to be as brief as I can. We can talk about this issue alone all day. That's why we're here. It's important for us to defend our interests and our rights, not just for the treaty, but our inherent rights given to us by our Creator. There are some, I think, new real

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't know of any specific case, but I just want to say that our communities are very welcoming. When we talk about this issue, for example, we do have what has been historically called “half-breeds”. Because of a trader who came into our territory, there are half-breeds in our