Silicon Valley layoffs are a boon for tech-hungry farm equipment makers

Story by By Bianca Flowers • 

Deere & Co. tech hub in Fulton Market neighborhood of Chicago© Thomson Reuters

(Reuters) - Big agricultural and construction equipment manufacturers in the American Midwest are on a mission to lure Silicon Valley tech workers who have been caught up in a wave of hiring freezes and layoffs, executives told Reuters.

Mass layoffs at major tech firms have opened the talent pipeline for Illinois-based Deere & Co. - the world's largest tractor maker - and rivals who are eager to add tech workers to their payrolls as they expand into autonomous tractors, mining trucks, and other smart farming technology.


INSIGHT-Silicon Valley layoffs are a boon for tech-hungry farm equipment makers© Thomson Reuters

With an abundance of job openings, the companies are offering remote work arrangements and opening new offices in major cities like Austin and Chicago, a potentially attractive draw for workers who don't want to move to smaller Midwestern cities, where many of the companies are based.

The executives said the newly available tech talent could inject much-needed expertise into farm equipment manufacturing, helping to transform the industry through the use of more artificial intelligence and automation.

Detroit automakers are also hiring tech workers to meet the growing software needs of vehicles, auto executives have said.

Historically, it has been difficult for construction and agriculture equipment manufacturers to compete with Silicon Valley compensation packages, Scott Wine, chief executive of CNH Industrial, an American-Italian machinery maker, said in an interview.

"They were sucking so much oxygen out of the air because of their significant budgets," Wine said. "Now, they're not hiring and they're firing - so it just means we're getting a much larger pool of potential candidates that we can call upon."

CNH hired more than 350 engineers last year, some of whom came from Amazon.com and Microsoft Corp, Wine said. CNH expects to spend more than $1.4 billion in research and development as the company scales precision agriculture offerings in 2023, he added.

The combine harvester producer has increased its focus on agriculture in recent years to meet farmers' equipment demand, stacking its tech workforce with highly skilled workers in automation and artificial intelligence.

Building more cutting-edge machinery, such as a driverless tillage tractor, appealed to 54-year-old Mukesh Agarwal who was recruited by CNH from Microsoft in July 2021, before the latest layoffs.

He now works mostly from his home office in Minnesota and leads a team of software engineers as vice president of precision software and cloud applications development.

"I didn't know much about the ag industry or what CNH did, Agarwal said, admitting that the cultural change was an adjustment during his transition to CNH. "But, I saw a tremendous opportunity to bring science and innovation together."

Related video: Tech turbulence: Silicon Valley sheds jobs as industry growth slows (France 24)

Duration 13:56  Vew on Watch

 

REMOTE-CONTROLLED

Deere's main rival, Irving, Texas-based Caterpillar Inc., is also making a big push to recruit tech talent. New hires in machine learning, computer science, and software engineering were up 30% in 2022 from the previous year, Karl Weiss, chief technology officer at Caterpillar, said in an interview.

The manufacturer has invested in digital products to improve construction safety using artificial intelligence. It had roughly 500 open tech jobs in December 2022 and it is looking to fill roles with the outflow of laid-off tech workers, Weiss said.

"The layoffs in the tech community have not been lost on us. We're actively talking to those employees," he said.

To boost recruiting efforts, Caterpillar exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) - an annual technology trade show in Las Vegas - in-person for the first time last month. Deere was also there, trying to recruit new talent.

Attendees got to see first-hand how machinery giants are merging heavy metal with technology. In one demonstration, an excavator 1,600 miles (2,580 km) away at one of Caterpillar's Illinois plants was operated by someone using a remote operator station and joysticks.

TECH TALENT PURGE

Thousands of workers have left or been laid off from tech giants Amazon, Microsoft and Meta Platforms Inc during the biggest purge of tech talent since the dot-com crash of the late 1990s.

Large tech companies shed more than 150,000 workers in 2022, according to tracking site Layoffs.fyi. During the COVID-19 pandemic, big tech firms hired aggressively to capitalize on advertising dollars as lockdowns prompted a surge in social media use and online purchases.

Layoffs at West Coast-based technology companies have coincided with Deere and CNH boosting investment in artificial intelligence and precision agriculture products, such as automated fertilizer applicators, that they hope to sell to farmers who are trying to boost food production at a time of global shortages.

While the availability of tech workers is plentiful now, industry experts say the hiring window is short for companies to reel in tech workers who also have opportunities at startups.

"Companies really need to jump into action," said Michael Solomon, co-founder at 10x Management, a compensation negotiation agency for senior tech talent. "It's a really great opportunity, but I don't think it's going to last long."

Working from home was once a rare phenomenon at more traditional companies like Deere, but is now more common. And, in some cases, the companies are willing to let workers stay in their current cities rather than relocating.

The goal is to offer prospective employees the best of both worlds: work from home or come to a city office that more closely resembles a Silicon Valley tech campus.

Deere has its global headquarters in the small city of Moline, about 165 miles west of Chicago, but opening a tech hub in Chicago's trendy West Loop neighborhood last year has helped it be more visible to prospective job candidates who want to live in metro areas.

The new office, which neighbors the corporate location of Alphabet Inc's Google in the Windy City, mimics the atmosphere of many startups with unlimited snacks and beer, standing desks, and a gameroom. The amenities aim to attract tech workers.

In an acknowledgement that not all tech workers want to relocate to the Midwest, Deere is also hiring employees in Austin, Texas, where it opened an "Innovation Hub" in 2022 and in San Francisco, where it has had an office since 2017, said Johane Domersant, global director of talent at Deere.

Previously, Deere would have required new employees to relocate to the Midwest, likely to Iowa or Moline.

"We are going to go where the talent is and that is a different strategic bent that we wouldn't have done in the past," Domersant said.

(Reporting by Bianca Flowers; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Ross Colvin)

Royal Canadian Mint temporarily lays off 56 workers at its Winnipeg facility

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

WINNIPEG — The Royal Canadian Mint says it's temporarily laying off 56 employees at its Winnipeg facility.

Royal Canadian Mint  Winnipeg facility

In a statement, the Mint says "prolonged effects of the pandemic and ongoing geopolitical instability" are disrupting global markets, which it says is limiting demand for coins it makes for other countries.

It says it believes the disruption is temporary and that the foreign circulation business will return as global markets reopen.

There were 351 people working at the Mint's Winnipeg facility before the layoffs announcement late last week.

The statement says the Mint "has made every effort to avoid layoffs and is doing so only as a temporary measure" and that the affected employees will be offered transitional support.

The Mint's website says the Winnipeg facility was established in 1976 "as a high‑tech, high‑volume manufacturing facility," and that every single Canadian circulation coin is produced there, as well as circulation coins for countries around the world.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Twilio plans to lay off 17% of staff, internal email shows

Story by astewart@insider.com (Ashley Stewart) 

John Phillips/Getty Images© Provided by Business Insider

Twilio plans to lay off 17% of its staff, according to an internal email.

 
Employees were expecting changes after top execs scheduled an unusual meeting on Super Bowl Sunday.

The company is also reorganizing to create new business divisions.

Twilio plans to cut 17% of its staff, according to an email CEO Jeff Lawson sent to employees on Monday.

"This is upsetting to be sure, so I want to share with you the reasons for making this tough decision, as well as some other changes," Lawson wrote. "As we've refined our strategy over the past several months, it's become apparent we need significant structural changes to better execute our strategy.

Employees were expecting big changes after Lawson scheduled an unusual meeting with other top executives of the tech company about an hour before the Super Bowl started on Sunday.

The company is also reorganizing to create new business divisions: Twilio Data & Applications, led by Elena Donio, and Twilio Communications, led by Khozema Shipchandler. Both will include sales, research and development, and operational resources, according to the email.

Lawson's email said affected employees would be notified within three hours of the announcement via their personal addresses. Severance is 12 weeks of base pay, plus one week for every year of service and the full value of Twilio's Feb. 15 stock vesting.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Twilio's business boomed during the pandemic when demand for its communication services soared, and it hired thousands of new staff. The stock jumped, making Lawson a billionaire on paper.

Now that COVID-19 restrictions are looser, Twilio's fortunes have dimmed and investors are pressing the company to cut expenses and become profitable. The shares have plunged from over $400 to about $60 now. In September, Twilio announced layoffs of 11% of its workforce.

Do you work in tech or have insight to share? Contact the reporter Ashley Stewart using a nonwork device via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email (astewart@insider.com).

UPS plans to lay off some of its controversial weekend drivers, union reps say, as delivery companies downsize for post-pandemic life

Story by ecosgrove@businessinsider.com (Emma Cosgrove) • 2h ago

UPS's higher-paid, unionized workforce gave it an advantage during the pandemic. Now that package volume has slowed from pandemic highs, many logistics companies are re-evaluating the size of their workforce. Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images© Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Teamsters representatives say UPS has raised drivers' layoffs at the bargaining table.
Layoffs are hitting the weekend-driver position created in 2018, according to local union chapters.
At least three locations in New York have already seen layoffs, according to another chapter.

UPS is beginning to lay off some weekend drivers, according to online posts from two local chapters of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, which represents drivers and package handlers at the company.

Teamsters Local 174 in Washington state said UPS representatives raised the layoffs at the bargaining table with a joint council negotiating a part of their master contract, which expires July 31.

The affected position, according to the union, is the "22.4" driver, named for the section of the contract that created the position. These drivers work Tuesday through Saturday and top out at $30.64 per hour, while regular drivers can reach $42. The Teamsters see these drivers as "second class" and now regret that the position was approved in their controversial 2018 contract.

Teamsters Local 804 further reported layoffs in three New York locations: Suffolk, on Long Island; Foster, in the southern tier; and Laurelton, in Queens.

Under the existing contract, affected drivers have the right to work from another location or work two weekly shifts handling packages inside UPS buildings instead of driving, and no so-called Regular Package Driver can be laid off before a 22.4 driver, according to the 804's post.

UPS and the Teamsters Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UPS's higher-paid, unionized workforce gave it an advantage during the pandemic when competitors were forced to out-bid each other to contend with a labor crunch. Now that package volume has slowed from pandemic highs, many logistics companies are re-evaluating the size of their workforce.

UPS-rival FedEx contracts with small delivery businesses for its largest round delivery service and therefore can downsize its workforce more easily. (Its FedEx Express business does employ delivery personnel.) FedEx announced layoffs in February, affecting management staff and not operations workers.

This reevaluation is more complicated for UPS's 350,000 union employees — especially since the existing contract expires this year.

Teamsters President Sean O'Brien has repeatedly said that the controversial 22.4 position is one of several issues that could lead to a strike. The union has been preparing to strike for months, but UPS CEO Carol Tomé has said she wants a contract that's good for the Teamsters, UPS employees at large, and the company.

"I would submit that a win-win-win is very achievable because we are not far apart on the issues," Tomé said on the company's earnings call in January.

Women are driving the labor market’s post-pandemic recovery

After suffering steeper job losses than men in the Covid-19 recession, many women have quickly regained their footing in an economy benefiting from historically low unemployment.

The American labor force looks different today than it did before Covid-19 slammed into the global economy.   Duration 4:52     View on Watch

Story by Brian Cheung •  NBC News

Labor force participation among women between the prime working ages of 25 and 54 has virtually made a full recovery, according to government data released last week. At 76.9%, the share of women in that age group who were working or actively looking for work in January was essentially back to its pre-pandemic level of 77%.

The rebound comes after 13.6 million women, or 18% of the entire U.S. female population, lost their jobs during the depths of the pandemic. Those losses were steeper than for the 11.9 million men who lost their jobs, or 14% of the U.S. male population, over the same time period.

Men of prime working age, by contrast, have yet to experience a full recovery. While labor force participation among 25- to 54-year-old men outstripped the rate among women in the same age group, at 88.5% in January, it was still shy of February 2020’s level of 89.2%, according to federal data.

Overall labor force participation for all workers older than 16 remains below pre-pandemic levels, largely due to a wave of retirements as the workforce continues to age. (Experts say deaths during the pandemic and immigration policies have also contributed.) And while many older workers have rejoined the workforce in pursuit of income as the economy recovers, federal policymakers and economists anticipate that millions of recent retirees may never reverse course and return to the job market.

But among women in their prime working years, employment gains appear to be strong. The Center for American Progress, a center-left think tank, estimated this month that 993,000 more mothers were working in December 2022 than the year before, underscoring the role that women with relatively younger children are playing in the recovery. Once kept home by limited child care options and other factors, more women have returned to work amid school reopenings and the availability of Covid vaccines for children.

Beth Almeida, a senior fellow at CAP, said women’s labor force participation had already been trending upward before the pandemic, suggesting a pent-up eagerness to return to work as the health crisis ebbed.

“Women, after really fighting for a lot of the gains and having opportunities in the workplace, weren’t just going to kind of walk away from that,” she said.

Another major factor in the rebound: a hot economy packed with employers looking for workers in most corners of the job market. The number of job openings remained well above pre-pandemic levels into the end of 2022, as government data showed employers looking to fill some 11 million positions, leaving roughly 1.7 jobs for every person hunting for work. As of last month, the overall unemployment rate was 3.4%, a low not seen since 1969.

But women’s recent job gains haven’t been spread evenly, and those with less education continue to face disproportionate obstacles in finding work.

While the number of employed women with four-year college degrees is above pre-pandemic levels, CAP found that there were fewer women without college degrees at work today than in February 2020. Less educated women were also more likely to have suffered job losses during the pandemic, given the impact of economic shutdowns on lower-wage, service workers.

Almeida said the high cost of child care is the biggest burden for low-wage earners. “If you’re not able to attain child care that’s affordable, even if there’s plentiful jobs, you can’t work in one,” she said. Women with higher-earning jobs may be less likely to face that trade-off.

However, as CAP noted in its February report, “Regardless of age or parental status, women were a staggering five to eight times more likely [than men] to experience a caregiving impact on their employment in 2022.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Infamous Native Clothing is now on permanent display at Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG).

(ANNews) – 

In an interview, its CEO VJ Curry talks about his brand. His message is simple, he explains. He created his line to break into generational trauma and become a positive role model for Afro-Indigenous youth and others.

Curry’s branding is unconventional. While several other brands promote culture, and educate on indigenous politics and social justice, Curry draws from his learning experiences and self-discovery as part of his branding.

Infamous Native Clothing encompasses his journey, as a survivor of street life and poverty in his youth and of Canada’s Child and Family Services.

Curry has changed his life to give back to the community. He does this by hiring local Indigenous artists such as Cody Lighting and supporting Cree artisans from central Alberta.

Never would Curry have envisioned coming back to his homelands, the Sovereign Four Nations of Maskwacis (formerly known as Hobbema), and becoming Maskwacis’ most popular clothing brand, with his clothing prominently featured on permanent display at the prestigious Red Deer MAG.

Curry’s branding is a hybrid culture where he pulls from the solidarity between his Black and Cree heritage and their commonality of facing oppression. His marketing and branding are geared toward Urban Culture, and infused with Urban Indigenous, Black Urban Culture, and Latino Culture.

According to Amnesty International, “In a country built on white supremacy, it is a threat to the order of society for oppressed people to work in solidarity with each other because this poses a real challenge to power. A common tactic of those in power is to pit different groups against each other as if each were the problem.”

“I experienced racism my whole life and lateral violence,” explained Curry. “I still deal with it today; everyone’s always like, oh, the Black guy…I’m Native enough for them.”

“I’ve also had older generations in my family who were racist towards me.”

He adds, “It’s time for us as Native people to take back our pride and show people that we’re still here and we’re not going anywhere.”

Bless the Dead is one of his most popular clothing designs, which The Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery (MAG) collections purchased from the Infamous Native Clothing Streetwear brand.

MAG states, “We’re proud to be part of the community and to offer a meaningful opportunity to explore all that has been preserved through the years…In 2022, after reading an article in the September issue of Alberta Native News, the MAG purchased this hoodie and sweatpants set from the Infamous Native Clothing Company.

“The owner, VJ Curry, is committed to breaking his intergenerational trauma by using his company to honour his family members who passed away from tragic circumstances. The Bless the Dead design honours VJ’s mother, who was murdered when he was six years old.”

“I try to use my designs to show people the adversity we as Native people face in our daily lives,” said Curry. “Some of us have broken those cycles and are just trying to leave something behind for our kids…I came from nothing and grew up in the street life. I’ll do whatever I [can] to make sure my kids don’t get to live that kind of life.”

“We can achieve our dreams even when the system doesn’t want us to win,” he added.

“I am proud that some of my designs have made it to a permanent display in the Red Deer art museum as a representation of Urban Native American Culture…We’re here to show Canada, that Natives are still here, and we won’t be treated as second-class citizens on our land.”

That is why Curry created a new design called “Solider Edition,” which highlights “the struggle” of Urban people living in poverty. It encompasses the “fight” for fundamental human rights, two spirit inclusion, Indigenous-led housing, food, water, winter clothing, and being treated like a human being. He has also expanded to include a new shoe line called “War.”

Through his clothing line, Curry is encouraging people to support each other.

He ends the interview by reaffirming that his brand is geared towards acknowledging the hardships of poverty, and his logos highlight his lived experiences of growing up with nothing and surviving street life.

He wants all Urban Youth to be proud of themselves, to know that their dreams are valuable and worthy and to wear “Infamous” with pride.

Curry is available to give talks on Indigenous entrepreneurship. Contact him at vj.curry1981@gmail.com or on Facebook: Infamous native clothing company.

Chevi Rabbit, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

MANITOBA

Exhibit in South River details how colonialism decimated bison population in North America

Story by The Canadian Press • 


An exhibit depicting how Europeans colonizing the New World virtually wiped out the bison population kicks off an annual festival at the New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) studio in South River.

The exhibit 'Forced Migration' is this year's launch to the 22nd annual Deep Wireless Festival of Radio Transmission Art.

Forced Migration was created by Michelle Wilson, an artist from London, Ontario. Wilson's sculpture is a framed, woolen fabric that resembles a land mass in Canada and the United States that stretches from the NorthWest Territories to Texas.

Wilson says “biological historians tell us this would have been the original range of North American bison”.

Embroidered bright orange threads run throughout the fabric and Wilson says these “are the lifeblood of the land and represent the waterways” in both countries. And positioned in key areas on the fabric are grey threads.

Wilson says each of the threads represents the lives of each bison as it was forced to move from one location to another over many decades in both countries. Occasionally there are broken threads and these represent the bison that died at various points during the forced migrations thereby ending any further generations of future bison.

Wilson's story of the forced migrations and depopulation of bison herds comes to life through the threads.

Wilson says touching the threads triggers a sound recording of her voice recounting specific segments of the migration during the 19th and 20th centuries. Touching the thread a second time turns off that particular audio segment.

Wilson's partner Angus Cruickshank put together the exhibit's music and sound design.

Wilson's threads tell numerous stories about the bison which numbered between 20-million to 60-million before European contact. Visitors can follow the audio by picking up a poster at NAISA which has a transcription of Wilson's bison story.

Wilson has a Phd in Visual Arts from the University of Western Ontario. It was while carrying out an artist residency at Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba during 2016-17 that she was inspired to create the exhibit people can now see at NAISA.

“I was recording the bison as a way to know and understand them,” Wilson said.

Afterwards she talked to the park employees, community members and First Nations people to get a better understanding of how the national park came to be and how the bison ended up there “after being (almost) eliminated”.

What Wilson learned was that bison living today in conservation herds can trace their ancestry to a handful of calves that were collected after a hunt.

“My sculpture attempts to simplify a story that shows we can follow a bison through their familial lineage to a hunt that took place on the Saskatchewan Plains near North Battleford,” Wilson said.

Wilson says around 1870 a Metis leader named James McKay brought back five calves after a hunt and raised them on the outskirts of Winnipeg. At the time of McKay's death the bison population had grown to 12 and his estate was bought by the Warden of the Stony Mountain Institution during the 1870s and the bison lived on the prison grounds.

Wilson said it's while on the prison grounds that the bison population begins to grow a little more. The threads on her sculpture depict this growth starting with the thread count at the McKay property.

Related video: More than 100 bison from Yellowstone National Park transferred to Fort Peck Tribes (KBZK Bozeman, MT)    Duration 0:52  View on Watch

There are actually six threads at the beginning because McKay brought back six calves but one died so one of the six threads is cut to represent the death of one bison.

Later the bison are moved from the prison to Kansas and again the exhibit depicts this migration with more threads where some again are cut.

Rancher, hunter and conservationist, Charles Jesse “Buffalo” Jones was the buyer of the Warden's bison. Jones also acquired the bison in the Texas Panhandle to form one herd.

Wilson said at one point Jones went bankrupt and the bison found their way to the Flathead Reservation in Montana where the herd thrived and the exhibit depicts that with dozens of threads.

Over time Canada acquired the herd but the question was where to put the bison.

In 1908 the federal government created Buffalo National Park southwest of Wainwright, Alberta and in 1912, Wilson says 748 bison arrived at the new site. By 1922 there were nearly 6,800 bison in the park but the land's resources became strained as the bison shared the area with large populations of deer, moose and elk.

Wilson said the land quality degraded under the strain and tuberculosis broke out among the bison.

The Canadian government began to slaughter thousands of bison to preserve the land quality.

Wilson said the slaughtering ended when the public intervened and the remaining bison were relocated to Wood Buffalo National Park which straddles the Alberta and Northwest Territories border.

It's from here that the bison at Riding Mountain National Park came.

In 1931, 20 bison were taken from the Alberta park and reintroduced in Manitoba.

Today Riding Mountain National Park, where Wilson's story starts, has about 40 bison in an area known as the Lake Audy Bison Enclosure.

In a small way the story has a happy ending in that Wilson says the remaining bison are “nurturing new herds of bison on ancestral land” and that the “free-ranging bison are re-establishing their ecological relationship with the land and other species”.

But Wilson adds today's bison population is a far cry from the original numbers only several hundred years ago.

The exhibit is on display until April 3rd.

'Forced Migration' is one of two attractions at NAISA during the sound festival.

Darren Copeland, NAISA's Artistic Director, says on February 18th at 7:00 pm, Geronimo Inutiq of Montreal will perform an audio experience using a laptop and other electronic devices.

Then on February 16th Inutiq will hold roundtable talks at NAISA at 2:00 pm and at the Capitol Centre in North Bay at 7 p.m.

During the roundtables Copeland says Inutiq will listen and record people's conceptions of home and how their surroundings help form that conception.

He will then collect the recordings and turn them into an audio collage of multiple voices as people describe what home is for them.

Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

 Local Journalism Initiative, The North Bay Nugget

Inuktitut should be official language: Makivik president

Story by The Canadian Press • 

Inuktitut should be an official language of Canada, according to Pita Aatami, president of Makivik Corp.

Aatami made the call during a wide-ranging keynote speech Friday as part of the Northern Lights conference and trade show in Ottawa.

“There are two official languages in Canada, French and English, as we all know,” he said.

“Why not make Inuktitut an official language? If I do get my own government one day, that will be our official language.”

Aatami’s remark was followed by a round of applause across the room. In the audience were several Inuit organization and business leaders.

Aatami compared the struggle to protect Inuktitut to provincial measures implemented in Quebec to preserve the French language.

Rather than pin one cause against the other, he said both Inuit and Quebecois should work together.

“Like the French, we don’t want to lose our language,” he said.

“If you don’t want to lose your language, we’re the same.”

Ian Lafrenière, Quebec’s minister responsible for relations with the First Nations and Inuit, said last month he plans on tabling an Indigenous language protection bill later this year.

Lafrenière travelled to Nunavik and Nunavut in January to begin discussions on the topic, ahead of further consultations to come later.

“I can see that we’ve got so much in common in terms of protecting language, culture, in terms of building issues, construction issues; I see that as promising for a partnership,” Lafrenière said, about building a new partnership with the Government of Nunavut.

Aatami’s keynote speech touched on several other topics, including mining consultations, the state of the two Makivik-owned airlines Canadian North and Air Inuit, and improving Inuit rights under the James Bay Northern Quebec Agreement.

He called Nunavik an open door for investors from the south; however, he wants to see those investments go back to improve communities and support the people of the region.

Above all, respecting Inuit as equal partners is key, Aatami said.

“I might have a brown face but I still cry and laugh like you, so let’s be equal,” he said.

“I don’t want to be controlled anymore. As a people, we want to start controlling our own destiny, our own future.”

Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News

Yukon celebrates 50th anniversary of watershed self-governance meeting

Story by The Canadian Press • 

WHITEHORSE — For Peter Johnston, Grand Chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations, the history of the territory's modern self-government agreements runs in his blood.



On Feb. 14, 1973, his father — Sam Johnston, former chief of the Teslin Tlingit Council — was part of a delegation of Yukon First Nations leaders who flew to Ottawa to present then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau with a document laying out both grievances and a proposed plan to for the future.

Five decades later, it was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who flew across the country, coming to Whitehorse as part of a weeklong celebration marking the anniversary of the historic meeting.

The document, titled Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow, launched decades of negotiations that culminated in the territory's Umbrella Final Agreement in 1993, a landmark moment in Canadian Indigenous rights, and individual self-government agreements for First Nations.

"We now have the jurisdiction, the autonomy, the ability now, to rewrite our own policy based on our own value system — our own priorities — and the way we see it as First Nation people," Johnston said.

"And that's the beauty of what Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow provides us now."

Self-government agreements allow, among other powers, for First Nations to enact laws in respect of their lands and citizens, to tax and to manage or co-manage lands and resources.

“We want to take part in the development of the Yukon and Canada, not stop it,” reads Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow.

“But we can only participate as Indians. We will not sell our heritage for a quick buck or a temporary job.”

Trudeau told a dinner for First Nations leadership Sunday that first meeting with the delegation "set the path for so much of what we refer to as reconciliation today."

"That vision that they had shapes not just the Yukon, it shapes our whole country. That meeting helped lay the foundations for modern treaties that have benefited First Nations across the country," he said.

"Five decades later, modern treaties have provided Indigenous ownership of 600,000 square kilometres of land — that's about the size of Manitoba — capital transfers of about $3.2 billion, participation in land and resource management decisions, self-government rights, political recognition, and of course protection of traditional ways of life."

In a statement, Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai called Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow a "forward-looking document articulated a vision for a fair and just future where First Nations people would be equals in Yukon’s society, economy and governance."

Johnston said he feels a responsibility that comes with his connection to Yukon history.

"When we look at the opportunity for me to now meet the prime minister in my capacity, I think things come full circle and we have to honour the fact that he has taken the time and recognizes the significance of today," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2023.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press

After more than five years, inquiry into Innu children in care begins in Labrador

Story by The Canadian Press • Today

SHESHATSHIU, N.L. — A long-awaited inquiry into the treatment of Innu youth in provincial care has begun in Sheshatshiu, N.L., one of two Innu communities in Labrador.



The Inquiry into the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System will include examinations of Innu history and the systemic barriers they face.

It will also investigate several cases of Innu children who died in the care of the Newfoundland and Labrador government.

Commissioner Anastasia Qupee said today in her opening statement that Labrador's Innu children and communities have long borne the effects of the foster care system.

The government first announced a memorandum of understanding with the Innu Nation in 2017 to pursue the inquiry.

The latest census data shows that Indigenous youth compose more than one-third of all children provincial care.

The Innu Nation's website says there are around 3,200 members in Labrador, most of whom live in Sheshatshiu, about 40 kilometres north of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and in Natuashish, which sits along Labrador's north coast.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2023.

'We’re stuck in two worlds’

Story by The Canadian Press • TODAY

The Innu of Labrador have waited six years for a promised inquiry to take place into their experiences with the province’s child-protection services.

That day has finally arrived.

The Inquiry into the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection Systems gets underway Monday in the community of Sheshatshiu. The first two weeks will be devoted to the history and culture of the Innu, and will be live-streamed for the public to see.

Other segments of the process will take place throughout the spring and summer, and involve investigative testimony as well as private and community truth-telling sessions.

A report is expected in October.

Lawyers for the commission held a technical briefing for reporters Friday, Feb. 10, to explain the complexities of the inquiry stemming from both its sensitive subject matter as well as the broader impact of colonialism in general.

Some names will be subject to a publication ban unless consent to disclose identities is given.

Contacted Friday, a spokesperson for the Innu Nation said leaders will offer reflections on the inquiry on its opening day.

Residents of the Innu communities of Sheshatshiu and Natuashish share a common ancestry as descendants of Indigenous caribou hunters, but arrived in their current locations through separate paths.

Sheshatshiu is the longest-established reserve, whereas Natuashish was built in 2002 when the Mushuau Innu moved out of Davis Inlet.

Their traditional language is Innu-aimun, although there is some variance between the two groups.

As a people who traditionally lived a nomadic existence following the migratory routes of caribou, the Innu have struggled to adapt to the stationary lifestyle imposed on them by European encroachers.


During the launch of a provincewide suicide prevention initiative in 2021, former Sheshatshiu band chief Anastasia Qupee explained how her people have more recently tried to recapture their traditional way of life by getting children out of the classroom and out on the land as part of their education.

“That’s where people are the happiest. Kids are happy. We need to do more to support those kinds of initiatives and to support our culture and language, and to make the youth feel strong,” she said.

Innu and Inuit communities experience some of the highest rates of suicide, in some cases as much as 20 times higher than that on the island of Newfoundland.

Qupee is one of three commissioners for the inquiry, along with retired social work professor Mike Devine and chief commissioner Judge James Igloliorte.

While the Innu experience with the child-protection system follows a long and tragic arc, perhaps the most visceral moment came in the early 1990s when images of teenagers in Davis Inlet sniffing gasoline were broadcast around the world.

Several of them were extracted from the community and taken to St. John’s for treatment.

The episode sparked a collective movement to rescue residents from their broken surroundings and move them to the newly built community of Natuashish.

However, many of the social problems came with them, and the legacy of lost identity continued as children continued to be farmed out to group homes and foster parents.

As well as addressing broader issues, the inquiry will delve into specific incidents of children dying while under the purview of protection services.

In 2020, former Innu deputy grand chief Simeon Tshakapesh expressed his long-standing frustrations after the death of an Innu boy, Wally Rich, at a group home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Tshakapesh’s son, Thunderheart, took his own life three years earlier when he returned to Natuashish after being in care.

The Innu elder summarized the inherent conflict for the Innu under colonization during an earlier interview with The Canadian Press.

“We’re stuck in two worlds,” he said. “We have TVs, satellites, cellphones, the internet, Facebook. … The Mushuau Innu came out of the bush not even 50 years ago. We were a nomadic people.”

The provincial government allocated $4 million in Budget 2022 to establish the inquiry.

Peter Jackson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Telegram