Tokayev calls for creation of “green corridors” for food security

Online News EditorOctober 13, 2022

Astana, Oct 13 (EFE).- Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Monday called for the creation of “green corridors” to ensure food security as he opened the 6th Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Summit.

“We need to work out unified approaches to assessing the compliance of important food products with national standards, as well as create ‘green corridors’ among CICA member states for such goods,” the Kazakh president said.

He stressed that in the CICA area, which brings together 27 countries, it is necessary to create a “mechanism to ensure food security”, because although Asia produces two thirds of the world’s agricultural production, it is still vulnerable in this area.

The Kazakh leader called for concentrated efforts to “strengthen the importance of the Asian continent in the system of international relations.”

“For several millennia the states of our macro-region have been the driving force of social, cultural and technological progress of all mankind,” he stressed.

The Astana summit, in addition to the host president, is being attended by the heads of state of eleven CICA countries: Azerbaijan, Qatar, Iraq, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Russia and Tajikistan. EFE

kk-mos/pi/lap

INTER IMPERIALIST RIVALRY

As chip restrictions escalate, Chinese firm tells US employees to stop product development

Naura Technology asks American engineers to ‘stop working on research, development projects,’ claims report

Riyaz ul Khaliq |13.10.2022


ISTANBUL

Amid Washington’s new restrictions to disallow US employees help China’s semiconductor industry, the American employees working for China’s top firm have been told to stop “taking part in component and machinery development.”

Beijing-based Naura Technology Group has “asked its American engineers to stop working on research and development projects with immediate effect,” Chinese daily South China Morning Post reported on Thursday, citing an internal communication shared by the firm.

The order is being implemented “with immediate effect.”

Washington’s new restrictions include strict and extensive export controls besides disallowing the involvement of US citizens in key facilities on the Chinese mainland.

The US Bureau of Industry and Security’s new regulation restricts the “ability of US persons to support the development or production of chips at certain China-located semiconductor fabrication facilities without a license.”

In the backdrop of the new US restrictions, reports claimed that chip equipment suppliers “are pulling out their US staff from Chinese facilities, including the country’s top memory chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies.”

Meanwhile, China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) Thursday said it opposes the “arbitrary move” by Washington of its chip technology ban against China.

“The arbitrary move is creating disruption throughout international trade ... Such unilateral policy will only further damage the global semiconductor supply chain," the CSAI said, adding it hopes Washington “rectifies its wrongdoings in a timely manner.”

The new US move “will foster an atmosphere of uncertainty and bring a huge negative impact to the mutual trust and cooperative spirit forged by global semiconductor industry players over the past decades,” it warned.

France fuel shortages: Government orders fuel depot strikers back to work 

• FRANCE 24 English 

Oct 12, 2022

 Striking French oil refinery employees voted on October 12 to maintain blockades now in their third week, despite a government order for some of them to return to work in a bid to get fuel supplies flowing. 

 

The moment missiles struck Kyiv's Glass Bridge

Oct 10, 2022

Reuter

Camera footage showed flames engulfing the Glass Bridge in Kyiv's city center, one of the popular tourist sites, as Russia’s wave of strikes hit Ukraine.

PETULANT PUTIN TIT FOR TAT

 

Government moves to dismiss class action suit filed by Black civil service employees

Darren Major - Oct 4,2022 - CBC

The federal government has filed a court motion calling on a judge to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by Black civil service employees on jurisdictional grounds.


Nicolas Marcus Thompson (right), executive director of the Black Class Action Secretariat, speaks as Ketty Nivyabandi (left), secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, and Norma Domey (centre), national vice-president of the Professional Institute of Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), listen in during a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sept. 28.

© Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

The proposed class action — launched in December 2020 — accuses the federal government of systemic racism, discrimination and employee exclusion. It alleges that, since the 1970s, roughly 30,000 Black civil services employees have lost out on "opportunities and benefits afforded to others based on their race."

The statement of claim says the lawsuit is seeking damages to compensate Black federal employees for their mental and economic hardships. Plaintiffs also are asking for a plan to diversify the federal labour force and eliminate barriers that employment equity laws have been unable to remove.

But a motion filed on behalf of the federal government this week says the court doesn't have jurisdiction over the case and the claim should instead be pursued through labour grievances.

The motion says that all related claims should fall under either the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board for unionized employees or the Canadian Human Rights Act for non-unionized employees.

A statement from the Treasury Board of Canada, which oversees the federal workforce, said the government is working to create an inclusive and diverse public service but the issues brought forth in the class action shouldn't be addressed in court.

"There is an existing process to deal with harassment and discrimination in the public service," the statement said, adding that the government's position is consistent with previous government responses to class actions.

Nicholas Marcus Thompson is executive director of the Black Class Action Secretariat, the group that filed the suit. He said he is "extremely disappointed" by the government's motion.

"[The government] has acknowledged these harms and now they're moving to strike the entire claim, to deny workers their day in court," Thompson told CBC.

Thompson disputed the government's suggestion that the claims could be dealt with as labour grievances.

"These systems are not equipped to address systemic discrimination, and within them ... there's inherent biases. The systemic discrimination exists in all of the institutions," he said.

NDP MP Matthew Green called the government's motion "callous" in a tweet on Tuesday.

"They've been working to dismiss the harms they have caused through perpetrating anti-Black racism within the public service for decades," he said.

Group files UN complaint

Last week, the secretariat filed a complaint with the United Nations Commission for Human Rights Special Rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

"With this complaint, we are elevating Canada's past failures and failure to act in the present to an international body," Thompson told a press conference in Ottawa last Wednesday.

Thompson said the secretariat hopes the UN special rapporteur investigates its claims and calls on Canada to meet its international obligations to Black employees by establishing a plan to increase opportunities for Black women in the government and develop specific targets for hiring and promoting Black workers.

In response to the UN complaint, Mona Fortier, president of the Treasury Board, said that far too many Black Canadians still face discrimination and hate.

"The government is actively working to address harms and to create a diverse and inclusive public service free from harassment and discrimination. We passed legislation, created support and development programs and published disaggregated data — but know there is still more to do," Fortier said in a media statement last week.

Minister signs deal to return land to Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

Brett Forester, Olivia Stefanovich - Oct 3, 2022

Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory is now, officially, getting some land back.

At a ceremonial signing on Monday morning, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller agreed to hand over a 120-hectare plot of land to the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (MBQ) band council, along with roughly $31 million in compensation.

The deal's formal conclusion settles part of a longstanding and at-times acrimonious land dispute about 200 kilometres east of Toronto, but it only covers about a third of the area under claim.

"I think there has to be improvements to the additions-to-reserve policy," said MBQ Chief Don Maracle.

Maracle said the band has offered a financial settlement package to the adjacent town of Deseronto, but couldn't offer a timeline for the resolution of the rest of the claim or details on the offer.

"It's willing seller, willing buyer," he said.

"If somebody wants to sell their land, they'll let us know."

Miller was also unable to offer a firm timeline when the rest of the claim might be settled, or when the community will take control of the 120 hectares. It must be put through the additions-to-reserve program that Miller called "morbid" and "broken" and sometimes takes years.

"The whole process itself is one that is vested in the Indian Act," he said.

"We've been working with communities to make sure that we're not within the strict parameters of the Indian Act, because it is a racist document."

'A slap in the face'

The disputed land known as the Culbertson Tract includes 448 separate parcels of land and covers most of Deseronto, according to federal briefing documents. Third parties and private property holders occupy much of it, meaning it won't be easy to resolve the outstanding claim.

Tyendinaga, meanwhile, remains divided on the issue. Some members oppose transferring the land to the council, a creation of the Indian Act whose legitimacy, along with the federal government's colonial land claims policies, they refuse to recognize.

"I see this as nothing but a scam, a ripoff," said Mario Baptiste, a Tyendinaga member who was among the first ones on the ground as activists began reclaiming land beginning with an aggregate rock quarry in 2007, stopping work to this day.

"These people were trying to jail us, these very people who are being rewarded."


Jerome Barnhard, left, and Mario Baptiste say they oppose 

the band council receiving the land.© Jean-Francois Benoit/CBC

'Canada failed to protect your community and your right to this land' — Marc Miller on Culbertson Tract land

Baptiste pointed to low voter turnout in the ratification and accused the band council of leaving out traditional government supporters. He said the land should be returned directly to the people of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy instead.

"I'm from this community. All these suits and dressed-up people in here, none of them were in that quarry. Not one of them," he said.

"This is a slap in the face."

From allies to confrontation

The land dispute dates to 1837 when the Crown illegally granted 370 hectares of unsurrendered Mohawk territory to John Culbertson, grandson of community founder John Deserontyon.

In 1793, Deserontyon and some 20 Mohawk families moved to the north shore of Lake Ontario on the Bay of Quinte, about 70 kilometres west of present-day Kingston, in the wake of the American Revolutionary War. There, the Crown granted the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, of which the Mohawk Nation is one of six members, about 37,500 hectares, "for the sole use and behoof of them and their Heirs for ever freely and clearly."

Tyendinaga, a 10,000 member community, now possesses about a fifth of that.

The MBQ filed a specific claim — a type of land claim that addresses allegations of land theft or treaty violations — over the Culbertson Tract in 1995, but the claim wasn't accepted for negotiation until 2003.

But by then, community members, led by activist Shawn Brant, were tired of waiting patiently. They started acting.

In what Brant would describe as a "rotational economic disruption campaign," activists began re-occupying territory and blockading infrastructure beginning in 2006 and winding down in 2008. Along with a quarry now being returned, a housing development was occupied and stopped, while train tracks and Highway 401 were intermittently blocked.

The direct action tactics sparked internal feuds with the band council and its backers, confrontations with locals, and included standoffs and raids by Ontario Provincial Police riot squads.

'Problematic process'

Under federal specific claims policy, Ottawa has typically refused to return land, offering only cash compensation to First Nations communities who must buy land back. The return of 120 hectares is a rare thing made possible by what Ottawa calls a separate agreement, whose details remain confidential, with a "willing seller," local farmholder Terry Kimmett.


Nancy Kimmett stands outside the disputed quarry site, 

which was occupied in 2007 but will now be returned to the 

Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte.

© Jean-Francois Benoit/CBC

In 2007, the Kimmett family wound up in the middle of the land dispute when Tyendinaga members occupied the quarry, which sits on the Kimmett farm. It was then that the Kimmett family made a difficult decision to sell the land and see it officially returned, Nancy Kimmett, Terry's spouse, said.

"It's really just been living in a dangerous environment because there's been no policing," she said.

"We have had crops destroyed; the quarry is no longer operating. It's just been a huge financial loss, and it's been dangerous for us at times living in a major land conflict."

Despite being one of few private landowners willing to return land to a local First Nations community, Nancy Kimmett has no kind words for the federal government's specific claims policy, which has wrapped up both Tyendinaga and the adjacent town of Deseronto for 15 years.


Outside the quarry along Deseronto Road that was at the centre of a land occupation in 2007, a sign warns users that the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte contest the land’s ownership.

© Brett Forester/CBC

It took multiple lawsuits to push the parties to sit down and talk. Terry Kimmett sued the Ontario government in 2012 for $20 million, and the case remains open after it was ordered to trial in 2015, according to the Ontario court registry.

MBQ, meanwhile, sued Canada for judicial review in 2013, successfully obtaining a court declaration Canada was negotiating in bad faith. Negotiations resumed in 2017.

"I'd like to see the specific land claim process reformed," Nancy Kimmett said.

"I also wouldn't advise anybody to engage in being a willing seller because it's a very long, drawn out, problematic process."

Laurentian University's creditors vote in favour of plan that allows school's survival

Kate Rutherford, Jonathan Migneault - Sept 14

Laurentian University's creditors have voted in favour of a plan of arrangement that sets the roadmap for the Sudbury, Ont., university to exit its insolvency proceedings, allowing it to continue to operate.

For the vote to pass Wednesday, the plan needed a majority of creditors to vote yes, and they had to represent two-thirds of the value of the claims Laurentian owed.

The Laurentian University Faculty Association confirmed 522 creditors voted in favour of the plan, which represented 87.4 per cent of eligible votes.

The creditors who voted in favour of the plan represented 68.9 per cent of the value of the total claims Laurentian owed. To pass, the plan needed at least 66.6 per cent support.

What is a plan of arrangement?

The vote on a plan of arrangement is one of the last steps of the university's insolvency proceedings, under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), that started in February 2021.

The plan sets out the terms among Laurentian and its creditors, and outlines the steps it will need to take to rebuild as it exits insolvency.


Now that the vote has passed, creditors will get cents on the dollar, and the university will go ahead with a plan to pull itself out of its financial hole.

Had creditors voted no to the plan, Laurentian said it would have had to shutter its doors and liquidate its assets, including the buildings on its campus.

"In a liquidation, students would be required to transfer to other universities and all faculty and staff would be terminated, other than a small group retained for a period of time to assist with the transition of students, including the provision of transcripts upon request, as well as assisting with the maintenance of assets," Laurentian said in an FAQ from a website dedicated to its insolvency proceedings.

The university also said that in the event of liquidation, it would have had to wind up its pension plan for staff and faculty members, and that would "involve a reduction in pension benefits for many current and future retirees, as a result of the funding deficiency."

Fabrice Colin, president of the Laurentian University Faculty Association, said creditors can expect to get between 14 per cent and 24 per cent of the money they are owed based on the plan's terms.

Over 500 creditors listed

A court document filed in February 2021, when Laurentian filed for insolvency — which under the CCAA allowed it to operate while it dealt with its financial issues — listed more than 500 creditors.

They ranged from large banks like RBC, which was owed more than $71 million, to local construction companies, government agencies, and terminated staff and faculty members.

Ahead of the Wednesday vote, Colin said he was "cautiously optimistic" creditors would vote in favour of the plan. The faculty association recommended its members vote yes.

"If the plan is rejected, there is absolutely no guarantee that, for instance, we will have a stronger negotiating position or that the province will support the second round of negotiations," he said.

"And again, in addition, there is a risk that the university could just be shut down."

Now that creditors have approved the plan, Laurentian will present it for court approval on Oct. 5. Pending approval by the courts, the plan can be implemented.

Despite a tumultuous year, Laurentian has continued to offer its remaining programs. In August, the university said it had a 25 per cent year-over-year increase in confirmed students heading into the fall term.

An updated plan

Late last week, Laurentian's administration filed an amended plan that would see the payout period to claimants shorten from four to three years.



Tom Fenske, president of the Laurentian University Staff Union, 

said he was hoping the vote would pass.© Erik White/CBC

That's because the province and Laurentian have come to an agreement on the purchase of the university's assets in a shorter timeframe.

In May, the province said it would purchase up to $53.5 million worth of Laurentian's real estate. Although it hasn't said what real estate it would buy, that money would go to the university's creditors.

The Laurentian University Staff Union had recommended that members who were eligible vote in favour of the plan of arrangement.

"I think I would lie to you if I said I wasn't anxious," staff union president Tom Fenske said before the vote.

"The risk of a no vote is too great and we just don't see any evidence that there would be more money injected."

Some advocated for 'no' vote

But some terminated faculty members believed they could get a better plan if they voted no to the current offer.

Eduardo Galiano-Riveros was a Laurentian physics professor, but lost his job in April 2021, when the university cut 69 programs and fired nearly 200 staff and faculty members.


In April 2021, Laurentian University shut down 69 programs 

and fired nearly 200 staff and faculty members.© Erik White/CBC

Now, he works at Hamilton's McMaster University and represents some of the 111 former Laurentian faculty members who lost their jobs last April.

"We are still advocating for a no vote so that the administration and the province will go back to the drawing board and come up with a fairer, more equitable plan of arrangement which then we as creditors might be in a position to support," Galiano-Riveros said prior to Wednesday's vote.

Galiano-Riveros said he, and some of his former colleagues, do not believe Laurentian would have shut down if the plan of arrangement hadn't been approved.

"Statistically and historically speaking, typically there have been a number of amendments for plans to be accepted and receiving a positive vote," he said.

But Laurentian argued there was not going to be a second chance.

"If Laurentian cannot obtain the necessary support of its affected creditors to the plan, it will be unable to resolve and settle its substantial debts. As a result, it is expected that the university will cease operating and will commence a liquidation process which would include a sale of all assets including all buildings and real estate," the university said in its online FAQ.

Galiano-Riveros said that might not matter in the end for himself and other faculty members who lost their jobs.

"Right now, we don't look out for the interests of the university. We're no longer connected to the university," he said.

"They kicked us out in a 15-minute Zoom meeting. What we are looking out for is our interests and those of all the creditors."

Doctor who blew whistle on atrocities of residential schools honoured in Ottawa

Olivia Stefanovich - Sept 30,2022 - CBC

One hundred years ago, the former chief medical health inspector of what was then known as Canada's Indian Affairs department walked through the doors of a publishing house in Ottawa.

He carried a manuscript called A National Crime. It was published in 1922 detailing the appalling and deadly health conditions in government-funded residential schools.

On the second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Dr. Peter Bryce is being honoured with a plaque in front of the very same building of the publishing house that released his work, James Hope & Sons, at 61 Sparks St.

"It allows us to more critically think about our history and to uplift and celebrate some of these great people who resisted all the wrongdoing," said Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and a member of the Gitxsan Nation.


Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, is behind the effort to honour Dr. Peter Bryce.

© Olivia Stefanovich/CBC

Similarities between Blackstock and Bryce

Blackstock, whose organization is paying for the plaque, said she sees parallels between Bryce's work and her own advocacy for Indigenous children's rights.

Bryce first blew the whistle in 1907, explaining how the practices in these institutions and underfunding of health-care services for the children who attended them were leading to death rates of 50 per cent.

He reported that inadequate sanitation, poor ventilation and overcrowded classrooms and dormitories were leading to major outbreaks of disease, including tuberculosis.

He was ignored.

The federal government of the day stonewalled him by cutting his research funding, barring him from speaking at medical conferences and eventually pushing him out of his job.

Blackstock filed a human rights complaint against the federal government in 2007 — 100 years after Bryce first spoke up — accusing it of underfunding child welfare services and denying essential health services to First Nations children.

"Just like in Dr. Bryce, when we brought the case and we were showing the evidence that Canada was discriminating against children, they retaliated," she said.


Marie Wilson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission holds a shesheguin, a traditional Cree baby rattle, wrapped in a beaver pelt. The rattle is a reminder of her commitment to the families and children missing from residential schools.

© Jamie Pashagumskum/CBC

Blackstock was surveilled by the government and she continues to fight for compensation for children in court — 15 years later.

"That story is the same. Where I hope our stories are departing is that the Canadian public is not as much in the dark as they were back then," she said.

Marie Wilson, who served as a commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2009 until 2015, said the plaque presents an opportunity to inch Canadians forward to a deeper way of understanding their country.

"It's really a story about what happens when you ignore the facts put before you and what happens when you act as if the lives of some children are less valuable than the lives of other children, and when you do that along racial lines," she said.

"That has been the history of residential schools and their consequences."

Blackstock said she also hopes the plaque dispels myth that people in the last century didn't know any better and no one was outraged.

"None of that was true," Blackstock said.

"What I hope people take away from seeing it is that Ottawa really is the command and control of residential schools."

'When the headlines die, the children do too'

The Caring Society's theme for Sept. 30 this year is resistance.

It's working with a youth group, the Assembly of Seven Generations, to hold public historical tours throughout Sparks Street in Ottawa to point out buildings where key decisions about residential schools were made.

The group's co-founder, Gabrielle Fayant, said the effects of the institutions are still felt today through intergenerational trauma, and the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice and child welfare systems.

"This isn't just something that happened in the past," Fayant said.

"It hasn't fully been settled. It hasn't fully been healed. It's an ongoing genocide."

More than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend government-funded residential schools operated by the Catholic, Anglican and other churches between the 1870s and 1997.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission reported that the residential school system amounted to cultural genocide.

Last July, Pope Francis declared that what happened at the institutions was genocide after issuing a historic apology on Canadian soil.



Gabrielle Fayant is the co-founder of the Assembly of Seven Generations, an Indigenous-owned and youth-led, non-profit organization.

© Olivia Stefanovich/CBC

To mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Caring Society played a CBC Radio documentary, first aired on Sept. 30, 1978, about Bryce and then-deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs, Duncan Campbell Scott, who rejected Bryce's recommendations. The documentary was presented again on Thursday evening to the public at the Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa, where Bryce and Scott are both buried.

"The lesson from history we need to draw from Dr. Bryce is that when the headlines die, the children do too," Blackstock said.

"That is our opportunity today … We cannot turn the page because public pressure makes all the difference."

DIRECT ACTION GETS THE GOODS

In wheelchairs and walkers, Victoria seniors stage protest for park space


"The assumption is that we're old, we're quiet, we're not capable of standing up for ourselves. We are going to be saying what we need and making the point clearly."


VICTORIA — About 100 seniors, some more than 90 years old, staged a protest in Victoria Tuesday calling for a vacant school field to be transformed into an elder-friendly neighbourhood park.

Many arrived at the field using walkers, wheelchairs and motorized scooters, with organizers saying they were among more than 1,000 older people living in nearby care facilities.

Some carried placards demanding the field at the former S.J. Willis Junior High School be turned into a park, at least temporarily until the Greater Victoria School District decides what to do with the property.

"It's just dirty brown grass, all burnt," said June Meaning, who lives in a nearby long-term care facility and arrived at the protest with the assistance of a walking frame.

"It could have a little pond, places to sit in the shade," said Meaning. She said she was in her 80s and "a bit of a tree hugger."

A large sign saying "Seniors Need Parks Too" was tied to the fencing around the field.

Other seniors carried placards saying "Parks Should Be Accessible to Us All" and "An Oasis For Seniors."

Protest organizer Terry Dance-Bennink, 74, said the seniors have the support of local businesses, residents and nearby care homes.

She said the City of Victoria recently opened a new skateboard park near the field, but local seniors have no comparable outdoor public gathering place to socialize, exercise and enjoy the environment.

"The assumption is that we're old," said Dance-Bennink. "We're quiet, we're not capable of standing up for ourselves. We are going to be saying what we need and making the point clearly."

She said the seniors have approached the school district about turning the area into a temporary seniors park, but have not heard back.

The Greater Victoria School District said in a statement it had not officially received a request to turn the field into a park, but recommended that the protesters write to the Board of Education.

Anne Duggan, 85, said the protest organizers were pleased with the turnout.

"We have a very diverse group of people here and ages as well, with some well into their 90s who are here in their chairs," she said. "It's just wonderful to see everyone participating and sharing in the fun of developing this."

Both Duggan and Dance-Bennink said they were aware of a report last week by B.C. seniors advocate Isobel Mackenzie that found the province ranked last in Canada in providing key financial supports to seniors.

Victoria mayoral candidate Stephen Andrew attended the rally.

"Too often we forget about our seniors," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2022.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

Indigenous people more likely to have housing issues as population grows: StatCan

WINNIPEG — Angela Klassen Janeczko calls out to a young woman sitting behind a building in downtown Winnipeg to see if she needs any water or food.

I LIVE IN AN INDIGENOUS INNER CITY NEIGHBOURHOOD FOLKS LIVE IN HOUSES

AND YES WE HAVE SOME HOMELESS TENTS TOO

They know each other by name and Janeczko has seen the young Indigenous woman struggle with housing and addiction for more than year.

Janeczko works with the Bear Clan Patrol, a neighbourhood watch group in Winnipeg that walks through streets and alleys looking to help those most in need. She says they have seen rooming houses and apartment buildings become derelict. At the same time, rent has also gone up and nearby houses are selling for record amounts.

It is disproportionately affecting Indigenous people in the neighbourhood, she says, and many are ending up in tents tucked behind buildings, along the riverbank or in small community parks. The COVID-19 pandemic just exacerbated the problem, she adds.

“Treat people with humanity and respect,” Janeczko says, as she hands out some food to another person nearby.

Statistics Canada's latest release of 2021 census data shows the Indigenous population is still growing, although the pace has slowed, and is much younger than the rest of Canada. However, the data says, they are also struggling with housing in a system that's already stretched thin.

The census says there are 1.8 million Indigenous people in Canada, accounting for five per cent of the total population. The Indigenous population grew by 9.4 per cent from 2016 to 2021, almost twice the pace of the non-Indigenous population.

While the number of Indigenous people in insufficient housing decreased slightly, it is still much higher than the non-Indigenous population.

Almost one in six Indigenous people lived in a home in need of major repairs in 2021, a rate almost three times higher than for the non-Indigenous population, and more than 17 per cent of Indigenous people lived in crowded housing.

Statistics Canada says because of difficulties in collecting census data on First Nations and other Indigenous communities, some caution should be exercised in comparing census years. The agency says it made adjustments to track overall trends.

Wednesday’s census release comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government set housing for Indigenous Peoples as a priority. It was also a part of the agreement between the minority Liberal government and the New Democrats.

The 2022 federal budget committed $4.3 billion over seven years to help improve Indigenous housing, a number the Assembly of First Nations says falls far short of what is needed. The national advocacy organization had asked to see $44 billion to deal with overcrowding and homes in dire need of repair on reserves.

Michael Yellow Bird, dean of the University of Manitoba's social work faculty, says it is a byproduct of colonization. Forced relocation, a loss of sovereignty and decades of underfunding have contributed to poverty and poor housing for Indigenous people. The trauma and displacement caused by residential schools is also a factor, he adds.

Housing on-reserve also doesn’t work the same as elsewhere, Bird explains, and it can be a complex administrative process for First Nations to work with Ottawa to tackle those long-standing issues.

The effect of unstable and overcrowded housing on- and off-reserve can be the same, Bird says. Poor housing is connected to major health issues, mental health problems, poor education outcomes and higher rates of suicide, he says.

“These things are all so connected,” Bird says. “It’s the demography of these things that we know, that these critical factors are causing a number of different kinds of disorders in communities.”

The Liberals have promised to develop an urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing strategy and have budgeted $300 million over five years so that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation can work with Indigenous communities to build the plan.

Affordability has become an issue in many real estate markets in Canada, but Indigenous people are more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to be living in a low-income situation.

The census found 18.8 per cent of Indigenous people lived in a low-income household. The rate was highest among First Nations people, particularly those who lived on a reserve.

"Nearly one-quarter of Indigenous children 14 years of age and younger lived in a low-income household in 2021, which is over double the rate among non-Indigenous children," said Annie Turner, with the centre for Indigenous statistics and partnerships at Statistics Canada.

Research shows that Indigenous people are also disproportionately homeless.

Janeczko walks through an alley with a handful of volunteers as the call of “sharp” echoes each time they find a needle. The group picked up more than 325 needles in a couple of hours during the recent patrol. Not every person without a home has addictions, but it can be a way those community members cope, Janeczko says.

Winnipeg has the largest Indigenous population of any major city in Canada and it continues to grow. Janeczko says every level of government has committed to studying the housing problem, but the people most affected need help now.

A sign on a nearby garage reads that a person has permission to live there. The young man inside thanks the Bear Clan volunteers for food and water as they check on him. Inside the garage is a makeshift living area with a couch covered in blankets, a table and a handful of personal items.

Janeczko explains the property where the garage stands used to be a rooming house that had about 20 occupants. When the owner died it was abandoned, she says.

The housing needs in the neighbourhood are immense, so the loss of an affordable rental space left many people at risk of being on the street, she says.

“The housing need is here,” she says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2022.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press