Ottawa will require vaccinations in the public service — but MPs may not face the same rule

Nick Boisvert 

© Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press 

Parliament will resume before the end of the fall, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.

Members of Parliament returning to work in the coming weeks could be doing so without a firm COVID-19 vaccination requirement — a rule that's expected to be introduced for hundreds of thousands of federal public servants and workers in federally regulated sectors.

If such a requirement is not introduced, it would mean that politicians deciding on vaccination protocols for much of the Canadian public wouldn't necessarily have to get vaccinated themselves.

But with the House of Commons scheduled to resume at some point this fall, there is already pressure to create a similar rule for returning MPs.

"They get fully vaccinated or they stay home," Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said today.

"[If] the price to be paid for this Parliament to start working fully and rapidly again is to force everybody walking in the building to be fully vaccinated, then let's do that."

The House of Commons has introduced a variety of health and safety measures during the pandemic — such as the masking rule and the suspension of non-essential activities — but the group responsible for devising those rules has not yet decided if vaccines will also be required.

MPs designated as spokespeople for the Board of Internal Economy, the governing body of the House of Commons, have not responded to requests from CBC News about the prospect of a vaccination requirement.

It may be possible for MPs to impose a vaccination mandate by a majority vote in the House of Commons. There's little precedent for such an action, however.

Liberal MP Hedy Fry, a doctor, said Parliament has an obligation to set an example.

"We cannot have two sets of rules," Fry told CBC News. "We are the ultimate public servants and I think we have to obey the rules."

The Office of the Prime Minister says its planned vaccine mandate will apply to ministers and staff in their offices, though it cannot decide rules for Parliament as a whole.
Public service mandate a priority for Trudeau

The federal government announced in August that it would require vaccination across the federal public service and for travellers by air, rail and ship within Canada, though that rule is not yet in effect.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that implementing the mandate is at the top of his government's post-election to-do list.

Ottawa says it also expects Crown corporations and employers in federally regulated sectors — such as banking and telecommunications — to require their employees to be vaccinated.

An estimated 1.3 million people work in federally regulated sectors.

The proposed mandate could also cover political staff who work in Parliament, the House of Commons and the Senate, since they are generally covered by health and safety protections under the Canada Labour Code.

Details on how the mandate will be applied in the public sector have not yet been announced. Ottawa has said the mandate will go into effect by the end of October.
Most MPs already fully vaccinated

Both the Liberals and NDP required that their candidates be vaccinated during the election campaign, though they did not extend that requirement to staff members. The Bloc Québécois said all of its candidates have been vaccinated, which prevented the need for a party-wide mandate.

"Getting vaccinatedis the right thing to do and elected leaders have a responsibility to set a good example by following public health advice," said NDP MP Peter Julian in a statement.

The Conservatives and Greens, meanwhile, only recommended that their candidates be vaccinated during the election campaign.

The Conservatives did not say if they would support a vaccine mandate for MPs, but a party spokesperson indicated that its members would follow whatever health and safety directives are created.

"Vaccines are safe and effective. They are the most important tool in combating COVID-19. Conservatives will continue to respect all public health guidelines," wrote Chelsea Tucker, the Conservatives' director of communications.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said during the election campaign that he opposed making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for public servants and travellers. He said that alternative measures, such as rapid tests, could be used for unvaccinated workers and travellers.

Unvaccinated Conservative MPs should 'stay home' from Parliament: Bloc leader


OTTAWA — Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Wednesday the next session of Parliament should happen in person with any members who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 staying home.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Questions remain about what the return to Parliament will look like for Canada's 338 elected representatives after the recent federal election saw the Liberals re-elected with a minority government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will name his cabinet next month and Parliament will resume sometime in the fall.

Since the pandemic hit in March 2020, the House of Commons and committees had been functioning with some MPs working from Ottawa, but many others appearing virtually, including, later on, to vote, before the election was called.

Blanchet said he wants to see Parliament resume quickly with MPs having to be fully vaccinated in order to be there in person because now vaccines against the novel coronavirus are more widely available.

His party, along with the New Democrats and Liberals, made it a rule that candidates had to be fully vaccinated in order to hit the doorsteps, but the Conservatives did not.

"They get fully vaccinated or they stay home," Blanchet said of Conservative MPs who might not have had their shots.

"Parliament should not come back under any kind of hybrid formation … now we know that we can go on with the way this building is supposed to work, and we should not refrain from doing so because a few persons don't believe that the vaccine works. This belongs to another century."

NDP MP Peter Julian said in a statement that because Canada is battling a fourth wave of the virus, the party wants to talk to others about continuing some of the hybrid practices when Parliament resumes.

"All of our NDP MPs are vaccinated and we’ve been very clear that federal government employees must be vaccinated too. Getting vaccinated is the right thing to do and elected leaders have a responsibility to set a good example by following public health advice," Julian said.

The Liberals and Conservatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

The Conservatives saw 119 MPs, including incumbents and new candidates, elected on Sept. 20, after the party spent the race dogged by questions about its opposition to making vaccines mandatory as a tool to defeat COVID-19.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole refused to say on the campaign trail whether he knew how many of those running for the Tories had been fully vaccinated, saying he told campaign teams that those who are not immunized against COVID-19 should take daily rapid tests.

O'Toole is himself vaccinated and has been encouraging others to get their shot, but the Conservative leader says he also respects the personal health choices of Canadians and attacked Trudeau for using the issue to sow division in the country.

Conservative MPs will make their way to Ottawa next week to have their first caucus meeting since the election, where they will have to decide whether they want to review O'Toole's leadership.

The call for MPs to be vaccinated comes as Trudeau works on bringing in a mandate requiring the federal civil service, along with those working in its federally regulated industries, to be fully vaccinated.

His government has promised to make it a rule by the end of October that travellers flying or taking a train in Canada have to be immunized in order to board.

Many provinces have already introduced a vaccine passport system requiring consumers to provide proof of immunization to access non-essential businesses like restaurants and sports and entertainment venues.

"For the safety of House of Commons staff, translators, pages, security, other MPs and their staff, all parliamentarians should show proof that they are fully vaccinated in order to take their seats in the House," tweeted former Liberal cabinet minister Catherine McKenna, who didn't seek re-election, but served for six years in government.

As of Friday, Health Canada reported that around 79 per cent of people 12 and older as having being fully vaccinated, with about 85 per cent receiving at least one dose.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept 29, 2021.

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

Youngest Albertan dies of COVID-19 in Central Zone


The fifth COVID-19 death for the Town of Drumheller since the start of the pandemic was reported by the province on Wednesday, September 22; on the same day a total of 20 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported across the province and included the youngest death in the province-an 18 year old from the Central Zone.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) was unable to provide any further information regarding this case. The Central Zone encompasses a total of 30 hospitals across 95,000 square kilometres and stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Saskatchewan border, and from north of Calgary to the southern boundaries of Edmonton.

“We need to move past short term restrictions,” says Dr. Rithesh Ram, owner and operator of Riverside Medical Clinic. “What we need are long term policies and procedures that will help us now and into the future, otherwise every subsequent wave has the potential to be deadlier and deadlier.”

He adds, despite beliefs the government has created a mess of the pandemic, government officials are not the ones rioting outside hospitals and harassing staff at restaurants and small businesses who have enacted the Restrictions Exemption Program (REP) and require proof of vaccination.

Dr. Ram also notes the politicians in charge of putting restrictions and policies in place are not medical experts and rely on expert advice to enact these decisions.

“Clearly, given how poorly Alberta has done, they are not receiving the best advice on how to move forward,” he says.

Dr. Ram says all eligible Albertans need to get their COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible to protect the overwhelmed healthcare system, which is currently “under attack from a tsunami of unvaccinated patients.”

Some 8,073 residents of the Starland County-Drumheller region, or 78.1 per cent of residents 12 and older, have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine; 67.2 per cent of the same population, or some 6,946 people, are fully vaccinated with two doses of the vaccine.

As of Monday, September 27 there are a total of 40 active, 525 recovered cases of COVID-19 and five deaths reported for the Town of Drumheller.

In Starland County there are 11 active cases, 87 active cases in Kneehill County, and 24 active cases in Wheatland County.

Lacie Nairn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Drumheller Mail

'State of crisis': National medical group urges lockdowns in Alberta and Saskatchewan

CALGARY — If you think of COVID-19 like a fire, one Grande Prairie doctor would describe Alberta's blaze as out of control with too few resources dedicated to fighting it.

 

Dr. Alika Lafontaine said if the province doesn't strengthen public health measures to extinguish a relentless fourth wave then the health-care system will burn to the ground.

"At the end of everything, the whole system won't come out unscathed," he said. "A lot of us within health care don't feel that this wave will end until we have decisive leadership."

Lafontaine is president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association, which released a statement on Wednesday calling for lockdowns in Alberta and Saskatchewan to protect health-care systems it says are crumbling under pressures caused by COVID-19.

Both western provinces are setting hospitalization records, and intensive care capacity is running slim to none.

Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the national group, is urging the provincial and federal governments to take immediate action.

"This is beyond anything that the health-care system has ever faced in modern times," Smart said in a phone interview.

"What we're seeing now is essentially no ability to provide any other acute-care medicine beyond care to people with COVID. So, in essence, the health-care system has already collapsed."

The association is calling for short, controlled lockdowns — often called firebreakers or circuit-breakers — that would close schools and non-essential businesses.

It also wants mandatory vaccinations in health-care settings and an increase in the mobility of health workers and intensive care capacity between provinces.

Saskatchewan's proof of vaccination program for health-care employees will begin Thursday and allows workers to show a negative test every seven days as an alternative.

Alberta Health Services is requiring all staff to be fully immunized by Oct. 31.

A group called Health Workers United recently sent a letter to Alberta Health Services objecting to vaccine passports for health-care workers. It was signed by more than 3,500 people, including 75 doctors and more than 1,000 nurses, some of whom did not provide their full names.

Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping said the claims in the letter are misleading and incorrect. He debunked many of them in a statement released Wednesday.

“We need to make decisions based on good information and good advice from health-care professionals. We’re in a crisis due to our low vaccination rate, and the one sure way out of it is for more of us to get vaccinated," said Copping.

Smart said both provinces — which have COVID-19 mortality rates about three times the national average — are facing the "dire realities" of relaxing public health measures too soon.

"There is a lot of resistance from both political parties to really step up with any significant changes in their public health mitigation strategies," she said. "We've seen lots of sort of tinkering around the edges, but no real commitment to doing something meaningful to change this trajectory."

Smart added it's time for "courageous action" and noted that politics must be put aside to allow for collaboration between levels of government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to help Alberta should it enter another lockdown. Federal supports for businesses and individuals would be reinstated if that happened, he said Tuesday.

He reiterated his support during a phone call with Kenney on Wednesday, the premier's press secretary Harrison Fleming said in a statement. He said Kenney asked Ottawa to supply doses of Janssen vaccine, which require only one shot, to the province and spoke about needing rapid antigen tests for employers.

Kenney said Tuesday the province has been in conversations with Ottawa, the Canadian Armed Forces, other provinces and counterparts in the United States for aid, should it be required.

Smart said that need is now.

Despite the ability for provinces like Alberta to add surge capacity to intensive care units, human resources are finite, she said. Health-care workers are facing "huge amounts" of burnout and psychological trauma, she said.

"People cannot keep doing this indefinitely and the system is already totally overrun and collapsing," said Smart, who added that patients and health workers are experiencing unfathomable choices.

"What is happening is as heartbreaking as it was preventable. We are now in a situation where it's all hands on deck to address the state of crisis."

Alberta has more than 20,000 active cases, dwarfing totals in other provinces, thousands of non-urgent surgeries have been cancelled and doctors are being briefed on how to decide who gets life-saving care when resources run out.

Intensive care capacity was at 84 per cent with surge spaces on Wednesday, said Alberta Health Services in a statement. Without 200 additional spaces, the provincial capacity would be at 181 per cent.

There were 313 patients in Alberta ICUs, most of them with COVID-19. Thirty-four deaths were also reported — the highest count since mid-January.

In Saskatchewan, there were 4,585 active cases on Wednesday and 295 COVID-19 patients in hospital. Of those, 67 are in ICU.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2021.

Alanna Smith, The Canadian Press

MENNONITES/HUTTERITES/ANABAPTISTS 
This Manitoba community has a vaccination rate of 24% against COVID-19. Here's why

 The Rural Municipality of Stanley about 100 kilometres south of Winnipeg has the lowest COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Manitoba.

Ian Froese CBC

©Jaison Empson/CBC

Outsiders depict his rural Manitoba community as one divided over COVID-19 vaccines, but that isn't how Willie Penner sees it.

Within the company he keeps, Penner, who is unvaccinated, doesn't hear any discord.

Nobody in his bubble is vaccinated against COVID-19. Not his wife working in health care, nor his brothers and sisters living near and far. His in-laws and his good friend have no interest in the vaccine. His church says the choice is his.

In the Rural Municipality of Stanley, 100 kilometres south of Winnipeg, Penner is living in a bubble of the unvaccinated. He wouldn't have it any other way.

"Only [person] I feel pressure from is Dr. Roussin in Winnipeg,"he said, naming Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief public health officer and the person who in many ways is the public face of the province's pandemic response.

"That's where you feel the pressure. He wants people to get vaccinated and everybody has the right not to."

© Ian Froese/CBC

Willie Penner lives in the Rural Municipality of Stanley and isn't vaccinated against COVID-19, like most of the people he knows.

Penner's rural municipality — an overwhelmingly conservative, white, deeply Christian community where German is the second most-common language — has been treated like a pariah by some fully inoculated persons, given Stanley's stubbornly low vaccination rate.

Only24 per cent of eligible people, as of Tuesday, have received their first dose, according to the province's data. (In the City of Winkler, which the municipality surrounds, 41.3 per cent have rolled up their sleeves).

In fact, Stanley's vaccination rate is the lowest of any Manitoba health district and the second-worst vaccination rate reported by any Canadian province. CBC found only one province reporting a lower vaccination rate — High Level, Alta., which had a 20.7 per cent rate for first doses in a region spanning a large northwestern chunk of the province, as of Tuesday

.

© Ian Froese/CBC A sign espousing opposition to vaccine mandates is seen in the Rural Municipality of Stanley. The region has played host to a number of anti-mask and anti-vaccine mandate rallies over the course of the pandemic.

This reality is unsettling to public health officials, who have warned the severity of the pandemic's fourth wave will be driven by the unvaccinated.

Manitoba's Southern Health region, which encompasses the RM of Stanley, made up roughly half of the province's new COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, but is only home to around 15 per cent of the population.

An explanation for Stanley's low vaccination rate cannot be attributed to a single cause, residents and historians say.

Any account deserves a nuanced, layered understanding, they say, but it stems at least partially from generations of conservative Christians who feel the government has repeatedly turned on them

.

© Jaison Empson/CBC 

People who live in the rural municipality and historians say vaccine hesitancy stems at least in part from generations of conservative Christians who feel the government has repeatedly turned on them.

"There is this long history of viewing the social structuring parts of government, and if you think in terms of religious terms, as the encroachment of the world on the Christian," said Hans Werner, a retired Mennonite studies professor from the University of Winnipeg.

Farmyards dot this land, with homes sometimes separated by a kilometre or more. Many other residences are in small villages with Low German-speaking origins, such as Reinfeld, Schanzenfeld and Chortitz, that have survived for a century and counting.

KROPOTKIN FOUND THEM THIS AREA 
MENNONITES/HUTTERITES/DUKHBOURS

Historically known as the West Reserve, the area is shaped by immigration. Rejecting Russia's offer of working in forestry in lieu of compulsory military service, thousands of Russian Mennonites settled in the southeastern areas of Manitoba in the 1870s. They took up arable land before venturing further west, including parts of the eventual RM of Stanley, where these trained agriculturalists built farms and livelihoods.

They were lured to Manitoba under a promise of exemption from military service and control of their own education system, among other measures, said Conrad Stoesz, archivist at the Mennonite Heritage Archives in Winnipeg.

"Over time, some of those things have been eroded, often by provincial legislation."

A simmering distrust of government boiled over roughly 100 years ago when Manitoba began to force Mennonite communities to send their children to public schools. While many Mennonites assimilated to the demands of provincial decision-makers, others, particularly in the West Reserve, which Werner said was more resistant to modernist trends, fled to countries like Mexico and Paraguay. © Ian Froese/CBC Candace Grenier owns Pure Anada cosmetics. She refuses to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but knows she isn't alone in the Rural Municipality of Stanley.

Other waves of migration ensued, including Mennonites fleeing Russia in the 1920s and decades later an influx of arrivals from Germany and the return of some families who had headed to Mexico.

"That's an interesting mix of people from various different migration histories and stories, but they all share a common thread where they have not always been very fairly treated by the governments that they lived under in Canada, Ukraine and the Soviet Union," Stoesz said.

In some circles, that distrust lingers to this day, he said, and it contributes to vaccine hesitancy.

"By pushing them" to get vaccinated, "I think they're going to just resist more and more," Stoesz said.

A strong sense of community has kept these small villages alive, through periods of decline and rejuvenation, Stoesz said, unlike some other Mennonite communities in the East Reserve long since defunct.

Werner, who lived in the RM of Stanley for about 25 years, said the municipality is "still viewed as a wonderful place to raise your children with Christian values," whereas Winnipeg and Winkler are perceived by some locals as places better to visit or work than live.

It is in Winkler, the city that Stanley surrounds, where vaccine division is widespread, as proof-of-vaccination cards and mask mandates have led to rallies, hostility toward business staff and a police chief writing that "drug traffickers and career criminals are more respectful to law enforcement." A petition hit city council to turn Winkler into a "sanctuary city," which would exclude it from public health orders.

Life for Stanley residents is intertwined with the city's, but some people say the animosity that's come out at rallies against the pandemic measures and pushback at businesses following the rules isn't present in their day-to-day lives.

After all, the unvaccinated are overwhelmingly the majority in their communities.

© Jaison Empson/CBC 

Historians say that Mennonites who settled in Manitoba began to distrust the provincial government about 100 years ago when they were forced to send their children to public schools. Many Mennonites assimilated, but others moved to Mexico and Paraguay.

Candace Grenier lives in a secluded sliver of the RM of Stanley, atop a hill, shielded by trees, but she doesn't feel separated from everyone else.

Instead, she speaks of solidarity. She will not get the COVID-19 vaccine, no matter what, and she knows she isn't alone in her municipality.

"If you know that you're not the only one, you're not as afraid to stand up for your belief system."

At first, she was nervous to express her vaccine resistance on Facebook. She was worried of the impact it would have on Pure Anada, her cosmetics company. Grenier said she's heard from many customers who say they'll never buy her products again.

"But the honest truth is our business has only grown," she said. "That's probably a reflection of the stance of the people in the RM of Stanley and Winkler and Morden that we now have more support, I feel, than ever."

She attributes her apprehension to a personal choice, despite the science and statistics to the contrary.

The COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of contracting the coronavirus and significantly dampen the chance of any severe complications, legions of scientists, medical professionals and public health officials have said.

To date, 80 per cent of eligible Manitoba residents have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus. Of those 940,193, only 940, or 0.1 per cent, have experienced breakthrough infections and 18, all above 60 years of age, have died, according to the latest provincial data.

© Jaison Empson/CBC

 Jake and Barb Penner run an environmental waste and recycling company called Penner Waste just outside Winkler, Man. They're both vaccinated against COVID-19, but don't want to pressure their employees to do the same.

Conversations in the municipality show the reasons for vaccine reluctance are diverse, ranging from religion to distrust of science and a prevailing belief in a person's autonomy to make their own health decisions and a belief the government shouldn't.

Premier Kelvin Goertzen has encouraged Manitobans to reach out to vaccine-hesitant people in their own lives. He said they shouldn't use forceful language to make their point.

"I don't know of anybody who's changed their mind in an argument on Facebook," Goertzen said earlier this month.

The scourge of misinformation is evident in some of the discussions CBC had in the municipality. Among them, a retired nurse offered an array of debunked falsehoods, including ivermectin — a horse dewormer that also has a different formulation for prescribing to people with parasitic worms — being a cure for COVID-19, the local hospital filling up because people got vaccinated and even a person becoming blind because they were inoculated. None of those statements is factual.

The Stanley health district has reported 138 cases of COVID-19 and three deaths during the pandemic, although Roussin, the province's top doctor, has said southern Manitoba has a lower per capita testing rate than other areas of the province.

© Ian Froese/CBC

 Physicians and other health-care workers at Boundary Trails Health Centre, which is just outside Winkler, have told CBC News on multiple occasions that many of their COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. Many patients believe the pandemic is a hoax.

Despite an entangled web of explanations, many people in the RM of Stanley seem to be unified. Vaccinated or not, people CBC spoke with say they're against the division government has sowed by restricting access to certain places, like restaurants, to only the inoculated.

"The other day, we went out for lunch at a popular restaurant and there was hardly anybody in there," said Harold Falk, a former farmer who moved to the municipality a few years ago.

Falk is fully vaccinated, but doesn't talk about it unless he must flash his vaccine card. He won't bring it up at his work with a farm equipment supplier. He doesn't try to persuade hesitant family members.

In fact, he said the fully vaccinated are hurting their cause by being more fearful of the virus than people who are not vaccinated.

© Jaison Empson/CBC 

The province has tried to boost vaccine rates, but the effect in the Rural Municipality of Stanley has been minimal.

Barb and Jake Penner run an environmental waste and recycling company just outside Winkler that tries to make a difference in the community. They got vaccinated for the same reason.

"I want to do my part and do the best I can to protect the people that work for us and the people around us," Barb Penner said.

But otherwise, the team behind Penner Waste stays neutral in the vaccine debate. They'll leave it up to their neighbours to get vaccinated, if they choose.

"Pressure has never worked," Jake Penner said. "I don't believe in pressuring somebody into something. That doesn't work."

Manitoba has tried to boost vaccine rates among the unvaccinated by limiting the places they can go, but its impact on the RM of Stanley appears to have been negligible. Since the program's announcement in late August, the vaccination rate has increased by 1.8 per cent, public health figures show.

Three-quarters of adults remain unvaccinated. Grenier is one of them — a businesswoman with a warm smile who said she's trying to do good for her five children.

"I have been enjoying life because I really enjoy the simple things," she said.

"I've got kids. I've got a deck. I can have a fire. And those are the things that I really enjoy about life.

"No, you haven't taken that away from me, actually."

Manitoba Metis Federation officially no longer part of Métis National Council

After waiting two years for the Métis National Council (MNC) to reassert that the “true Métis Nation” has its roots in the Red River, and after not getting that assertion, the Manitoba Metis Federation formally withdrew from the MNC today.

“The MNC no longer represents the Métis Nation. It represents a pan-Aboriginal, other Indigenous and some non-Indigenous peoples. So it’s a different creature altogether,” said MMF President David Chartrand.

The MMF’s concerns centre on a move by the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) to open its membership to people who connect to historical Métis communities in Ontario but who may not have proven connections to Métis in the west. The MNO is a member of the MNC.

In 2019, 3,000 MMF members unanimously directed Chartrand to withdraw the MMF from the MNC if all of Ontario’s members were included as part of the MNC as those thousands of additional members would “dilute” the MNC.

“I warned (MNC) we need to hold Ontario accountable, and we need to protect our homeland and our Nation because we worked too hard to get to where we are. We devoted our entire lives to where we are and now we can’t risk it to open the floodgates and that’s what’s going to happen,” said Chartrand.

Chartrand was so sure that changes wouldn’t happen with the MNC that he made the decision to withdraw MMF on the very day of a court-ordered special sitting of the MNC general assembly. The court-approved agenda included an item on the status of the MNO.

He said the presidents of the MNO, Métis Nation of Alberta, Métis Nation-Saskatchewan and Métis Nation British Columbia argued in an Ontario corporate court that the MNC general assembly had no jurisdiction or authority to suspend the MNO as a member of the board of governors. MNC suspended MNO in 2020.

“So in my view, they don’t respect the assembly. They actually made it clear if the assembly voted against this issue, they’d probably go back to court. So what’s the purpose of the assembly if its own presidents don’t recognize its purpose or power?” he said.

Chartrand says the MMF will continue to focus on representing Red River Métis across Canada and internationally.

Right now, he says, he’s getting a “flood” of requests for citizenship cards for MMF. He’s even looking at hiring more staff to process them, which will include confirming genealogy.

“People from the west are telling us loud and clear they don’t want to be part of this anymore. This is not what they dreamed would happen to them,” he said.

Chartrand says the self-government recognition and implementation agreement signed with Canada this past July will now become the focus.

“MMF will have a modern day treaty and we’ll sit down with our First Nations brothers and sisters and co-exist in sharing the lands and respecting each others territories,” he said.

The special sitting of the general assembly will also be electing a new president for the MNC on Sept. 30. Clement Chartier, who held the position for 18 years, will not be seeking another term. The court-approved agenda did not allow any time for Chartier to give a farewell speech.

The last few years with Chartier at the helm had been contentious, seeing a lack of Board of Governors meetings and Chartrand often taking over as spokesperson. The last general assembly was held November 2018.

However, as Chartier was convener of the meeting before the new chairs were elected, he managed to address the delegates.

“I believe the Métis Nation will move forward in great strength. I believe in my heart and I leave with that feeling. The politics of the Métis National Council, I believe in my heart that in the long run the integrity of the Métis Nation will remain intact. Its identity, citizens and homeland will remain intact and that our future generations will look back on this period of time and say, ‘Yes, although there was some turmoil there was also progress,’” he said.

Revisiting the status of the MNO was in progress at press time.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

KAHNAWAKE NATION

Asbestos report delayed ‘at least a few weeks,’: Diabo

A report into the dumping of asbestos containing materials into the community will be delayed slightly after the transition between councils and extra documentation caused the report’s reception to lag slightly, said the Chief responsible for the file said in an interview last week.


“With the orientation of the new Council and entering the fourth wave of the pandemic,” Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Chief Cody Diabo, who is the lead on the environment file for the MCK, said. “We didn’t want it to drag on too long, but we understood there would be delays.”

Since the report will not arrive by September 30, MCK issued an announcement last week saying the Deloitte Forensic report would be delayed due to ‘community issues,’ among other reasons. In addition, Diabo said there was far more documentation for Deloitte Forensic to sift through than was anticipated.

“The goal was to start in May and not have it dragging on too long. Originally, we thought there would be about 15 interviews to do,” he said, but that number nearly doubled when work began in earnest and investigators did 29 interviews, he added.

“The goal was those soft targets,” he said “We’re suspecting mid-October. That’s kind of what we’re shooting for. About two or three weeks for that (to arrive). We don’t have an exact date set yet.”

At that point both the MCK and community observer Doug Lahache will look at the reports and then it will be released to the community, Diabo added.

It’s been about two years since the discovery that old sewage pipes that were crushed and disposed of in the community were contained asbestos, which was used as a bonding agent in concrete in the past. Asbestos can be hazardous to health in humans.

“In 2019, this all came to light, and since April of 2020, we’ve been looking at how to address it,” but the COVID-19 pandemic took some of the focus off that project.

Diabo said he’d like to have a plan in place for ridding the community of the ACM by November of this year.

“We’re working now on the global strategic plans in place to address it,” he said. “More areas sort of came to light. We had the 106 area, more pipes were found on the island and so my goal, my deadline is sometime in November, maybe around the end of November we will have that plan presented to council.”

Diabo said he would like to finalize the plan for disposing of the ACM over the winter and be ready to go when the snow melts in 2022.

“Then we can take the winter to really work out the schematics and be ready for next Spring,” he said.

Marc Lalonde, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Iori:wase

Documents Suggest Catholic Church Hasn’t Followed Through On ‘In-Kind’ Commitments

(ANNews) – The Catholic Church appears to have not followed through on its legal commitment to provide $25 million in “in-kind services” to residential school survivors, according to documents obtained by the Globe and Mail.

The documents contain an “in-kind log” of services provided by Catholic entities, which were mandated under a national settlement reached by Indigenous groups, residential school survivors, the federal government and religious groups in 2006.

The log was last updated in September 2011 and includes training for pastors, unspecified “community work,” outreach services and a bible studies program. The documents don’t indicate whether these services were provided specifically for Indigenous people, nor whether the church would have already provided them without a settlement.

Out of 192 log entries, nearly half list “community work and presence” of a pastor or nun.

Other entries include the participation of a bishop and two priests in a healing pilgrimage, participation in a conference, and support for a pilgrimage to the Vatican.

“It’s just completely against the spirit of the settlement agreement, which was supposed to be about reconciliation,” Aideen Nabigon, former director general of policy and partnerships for the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, told the Globe.

Mike DeGagné, former executive director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, told the Globe that the content of these documents warrant a full review of past Church obligations.

“I certainly support drilling down on these activities to see what was a genuine attempt to provide healing services and what would ordinarily be an activity of the Catholic Church,” he said.

The documents were obtained via an access to information request the Globe made on Aug. 24, requesting the Department of Justice’s dealings with the Catholic Church under the residential schools settlement, including a copy of both the in-kind services list and the cash commitment list.

The in-kind services list was a point of contention in a 2014 Saskatchewan court case between the federal government and the organization established to administer the Church’s portion of their residential schools settlement.

Under this agreement, a group of dozens of Catholic Church entities agreed to make three forms of payments — $25 million in in-kind services meant to enhance healing and reconciliation efforts, $29 million in cash, and a $25-million national fundraising campaign to benefit survivors. The fundraising campaign ultimately collected $3.7 million.

The feds raised questions about the church’s accounting practices in a factum filed with the court.

However, the case was settled in 2015 and the Church was released from any remaining obligations from the settlement agreements, including questions about the nature of its in-kind services.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, a law professor and academic director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia, told the Globe there needs to be a thorough review of how the settlements obligations were established, how they were carried out and accounted for, and why the government released the Church from its obligations.

“What did survivors get?” Turpel-Lafond asked about the in-kind services. “What did the communities get? Did they get records? Did they get the services they wanted? Did they get acknowledgments and apologies and reconciliation activities related to residential schools? That’s a hard question.”

Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

Federal Court backs ruling that Canada must compensate indigenous foster children for discrimination

By Moira Warburton and Anna Mehler Paperny

(Reuters) -Canada's Federal Court on Wednesday upheld a human rights tribunal ruling ordering the Canadian government to compensate indigenous children and families in foster care for suffering discrimination.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in 2016 that the federal government allocated less funds for child and family services of indigenous people than for non-indigenous people, pushing more indigenous children into foster care.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government appealed the tribunal's follow-up order in 2019 that Ottawa pay each affected child C$40,000 ($31,500), the maximum allowed under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The tribunal also said that with some exceptions, parents or grandparents of the children would also be eligible for compensation.

The tribunal's ruling could cost the federal government billions of dollars.

Federal Court Justice Paul Favel rejected the government's appeal and encouraged the two parties to continue negotiating.

"The parties must decide whether they will continue to sit beside the trail or move forward in this spirit of reconciliation," Favel wrote, referring to an indigenous parable about a man who sits beside a trail for so long that it grows over and he loses his way.

Trudeau's government could appeal the court's decision. His government has argued in the past that although the human rights tribunal was correct in finding discrimination in the system, it overreached by ordering compensation.

The government is reviewing the decision and more information "will be forthcoming," Marc Miller, minister for indigenous services, said in an emailed statement.

"Canada remains committed to compensating First Nations children who were removed from their families and communities," he added.

Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society that brought the original complaint, said the ruling was "a complete rejection of all the government’s spurious arguments, and a complete win for kids."

The Canadian government's legal battles with indigenous people have come under increased scrutiny after hundreds of unmarked graves were discovered at the sites of former residential schools.

Until as recently as 1996, Canada's residential school system separated children from their families and sent them to boarding schools where they were malnourished, beaten and sexually abused in what the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission called "cultural genocide" in 2015.

($1 = 1.27 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Vancouver and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Richard Pullin and Peter Cooney)

'Put down your sword': Federal Court dismisses feds' Indigenous child-welfare appeals

OTTAWA — A prominent child-welfare advocate wants Canadians to ask their MPs to urge Ottawa to cease its court battles around services and compensation for First Nations children after the Federal Court upheld two key rulings on Wednesday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal had earlier ruled Ottawa had "wilfully" and "recklessly" discriminated against Indigenous children by knowingly underfunding child and family services on reserve.

In September 2019, it ordered the federal government to pay $40,000, the maximum the tribunal can award, to each First Nations child removed from their home after 2006, as well as to their parents, because of the discrimination.

It was estimated that around 54,000 children and their parents could be eligible to receive compensation, which would likely cost the federal government more than $2 billion.

The second legal battle stems from a separate ruling in 2020 that expanded the scope of Jordan's Principle, which is a rule stating when there is jurisdictional disagreement over what level of government should provide a service to First Nations children, Ottawa takes on the responsibility and worries about the costs second.

The tribunal ruled the principle should apply to children who are members of a First Nation even though they don't have status under the Indian Act as well as kids whose parents are eligible for status when they are not.

"No one can seriously doubt that First Nations people are amongst the most disadvantaged and marginalized members of Canadian society," Federal Court Justice Paul Favel wrote in his decision released Wednesday.

"The Tribunal was aware of this and reasonably attempted to remedy the discrimination while being attentive to the very different positions of the parties."

Favel found that the government failed to establish that either of the tribunal's decisions were unreasonable.

"In my view, the procedural history of this case has demonstrated that there is, and has been, good will resulting in significant movements toward remedying this unprecedented discrimination. However, the good work of the parties is unfinished," Favel wrote.

"The parties must decide whether they will continue to sit beside the trail or move forward in this spirit of reconciliation."

Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, which is one of the parties fighting for Indigenous children to be compensated, said the judicial reviews Ottawa launched took direct aim at central calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada regarding child welfare and Jordan's Principle.

"This is the moment for Canadians, with the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation tomorrow and knowing that these are some of the top calls to action, to get ahold of their elected officials and say, 'put down your sword.'"

"They have been fighting this case against First Nations kids to get equitable services and their families to get help to recover from the residential school trauma for now 14-and-a-half years … the Canadian people are now at a place where they want to see the TRC calls to action realized."

The parties have 30 days to appeal Favel's ruling.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said the government is reviewing the Federal Court’s decision.

"Canada remains committed to compensating First Nations children who were removed from their families and communities and to continue implementing significant reform of the First Nation Child and Family Services Program, recognizing that class actions have been filed, including by the Assembly of First Nations and Moushoom," Miller said in an emailed statement.

Miller said that Jordan’s Principle continues to ensure that First Nations children can access the products, services and supports they need when they need them.

He said the government continues to work with Indigenous governing bodies to implement an Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, under which First Nations are enabled to exercise their jurisdiction in relation to child and family services and make decisions in the best interest of their children.

"These are important steps in redressing the intergenerational impacts of colonization."

Blackstock said the work has been done to set up a system to provide payments to First Nations children and their families who are eligible to be compensated.

"We're ready, as soon as the federal government puts down its sword and stops fighting these kids," she said.

Opposition parties and Indigenous leaders have criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to fight both of these rulings, saying that's not the appropriate course of action for a government committed to reconciliation.

“Today was an absolute victory for First Nation children. For six years Justin Trudeau spent millions fighting the rights of Indigenous children and trying to overturn a ruling that found his government guilty of 'wilful and reckless' discrimination against vulnerable Indigenous kids. The court has thrown his case out," NDP MP Charlie Angus said in a statement Wednesday.

He called for the government to immediately end its legal battle in the matter and focus on closing funding gaps and chronic denial of services to First Nations children.

"Given that tomorrow is the first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, it is imperative that the federal government finally take clear steps towards truth, justice and reconciliation for all Indigenous people in Canada," he wrote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2021.

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

Truth and Reconciliation Day personal for new governor general, Mary May Simon 


OTTAWA — Governor General Mary May Simon has some very personal reflections on the eve of Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

As the daughter of a white father and Inuk mother, May Simon says in a statement that she was not made to attend a residential school.

She stayed behind and was home-schooled while other children were ripped away from their homes, separated from their families and sent to residential schools where they were not allowed to speak an Indigenous language or honour their culture.

May Simon, who was born in an Inuit village in northern Quebec, recalls visiting families where the absence of children was a "palpable void."

She says she became a "stand-in, a well-loved substitute" for parents who desperately missed their own children.

Residential school survivors told their stories at a ceremony Wednesday night on Parliament Hill ahead of the inaugural Truth and Reconciliation Day.

The Peace Tower was illuminated in orange and the survivor flag was raised at half-mast in honour of residential school survivors.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he applauds the courage of survivors and acknowledged that it cannot be easy for them to tell their stories.

Canada is seen as a peace-loving place that respects the rights of people, but it is also a country that has made "huge and terrible mistakes," Trudeau said.

"It's harder to reflect on the truth, of the mistakes, of the evil that we did in the past."

Reconciliation simply doesn't mean looking back and understanding the mistakes made in the past but note that they are shaping the country even today, he said. The challenges facing First Nations such as injustice, inequality, discrimination and racism can be traced back to the decisions made generations and decades ago, he added.

Truth and Reconciliation Day is not just for Indigenous people but for all Canadians because everyone needs to learn from the choices and actions made in the past, Trudeau said.

"And all of you as you go about your daily lives, take a moment to listen to the stories of a survivor, to an Indigenous elder who shares their perspective, their experiences in this country," he said.

"And know that that story, their story, is your story as well."

Truth and Reconciliation Day is intended to honour the lost children and survivors of residential schools, 140 of which operated across the country from 1831 to 1998.

Some 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend the church-run schools, where many suffered physical and sexual abuse, malnutrition and neglect. More than 4,000 are believed to have died.

"We all felt it. The sorrow of missing a part of our community," May Simon said.

"The legacy of colonization has had devastating repercussions for Indigenous peoples, including the loss of language, culture and heritage. This pain has been felt from generation to generation, and it continues today.

"These are uncomfortable truths, and often hard to accept. But the truth also unites us as a nation, brings us together to dispel anger and despair, and embrace justice, harmony and trust instead."

In June, Parliament fast-tracked a bill making Sept. 30 a statutory annual holiday for federal workers.

The bill was passed shortly after the tragic discovery of what are believed to be the remains of 215 Indigenous children in unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Since then, unmarked graves have been discovered at several other former residential school sites in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, while other former school sites are still being explored with ground-penetrating radar.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2021.

Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

Profiting off pain? Why you should verify your orange shirt is helping Indigenous groups

By Simon Little & John Hua Global News
Posted September 29, 2021 

Orange Shirt Day organizers are asking you to avoid wearing clothing that exploits Indigenous artists. John Hau explains.

With thousands of Canadians expected to don orange shirts Thursday to mark Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous designers are asking people to be cautious about where they get the apparel.

The new federal statutory holiday falls on Sept. 30, a date that has served as Orange Shirt Day for close to a decade.

In that time, orange shirts have become a symbol of recognition of the harms caused by the residential school system and support for survivors, and Indigenous groups have been using unique designs to help raise funds to further the cause of reconciliation.

But orange shirts have also been popping up in various online stores, sometimes with the designs stolen outright, by people apparently looking to profit off the movement.

READ MORE: Warning issued about scams capitalizing on tragedies impacting Indigenous Peoples

“It’s very maddening and frustrating to say the least, to see businesses who aren’t Indigenous owned or operated make a profit off the cause,” Langley-based Indigenous artist and orange shirt designer Tina Taphouse told Global News.

“It’s important for people to buy orange shirts that are sold by Indigenous organizations … or to search around for an indigenous artists who makes them themselves because all First Nations have been affected by residential school, whether we attended, our parents grandparents or ancestors.

“Each is made with honour and respect towards them.”

0:52Supporting indigenous makers on Orange Shirt Day

Taphouse’s mother put her up for adoption to keep her out of the Kamloops residential school, a facility most of her relatives attended — a fact she says remains front of mind while she’s producing every shirt.

A third of the proceeds from every shirt she sells goes to the Indian Residential Schools Survivor Society.

Meeting and speaking with the people who buy the shirts is also important part of the reconciliation process, she added.

“What I love is I get to have a conversation with each of them about me, and a lot of times people will apologize to me, they have tears, we share some time together,” she said.

“That’s what I find amazing about this, is to be able to have conversations.”

The Better Business Bureau has previously issued a warning about scammers looking to cash in on orange shirts, some of which even fraudulently claim money is going to survivor groups. The BBB advises people to make sure they research the seller before committing to buy anything.

4:22 Creator of Orange Shirt Day on raising awareness for National Truth and Reconciliation Day – Sep 16, 2021

Jerome Beauchamp, president of the Orange Shirt Society, said the idea of well-intentioned dollars being directed away from Indigenous groups was “frustrating” and “upsetting.”

“This isn’t short-term work. There’s a long road ahead and the funding really helps a lot,” he said.

Beauchamp said those resources have allowed Indigenous communities and groups like his to support residential school survivors and do difficult work towards reconciliation.

READ MORE: Canada set to mark 1st National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Here’s what’s happening

“If you’re just making a shirt and selling it for profit, you’re not involved in any of that, and that’s the big piece for us,” he said.

“If people are making shirts and selling them and using the proceeds for furthering reconciliation, that’s a good thing because they’ve made a bigger impact than just having people wearing shirts.”

Beauchamp encourages anyone buying an orange shirt to ask the seller where the money is going, or to check on the Orange Shirt Day website for a list of verified partners.