July 1 is about cottages, fireworks, beer, and the long weekend. As a white person born and raised in Canada, I was taught to believe that Canada Day was a nice summer tradition. Of course, as a kid growing up in the early ’90s, there was no obvious reason to think otherwise. By and large, […] More »

If you want Google Maps directions from Whapmagoostui, Quebec to Parliament Hill, Ottawa, our trusted search engine doesn’t know what to do with itself. That wasn’t the case for six Cree First Nation youths, who arrived at the capital on Monday. They trekked the 1,600km distance with the help of a guide to show their […] More »

Today, the snow-crusted supply road that winds north of Attawapiskat to the Victor diamond mine has a new blockade, right where the last one was only recently dismantled. Blockades are yet again costing mine-owner De Beers, as well as Canadians, mineral revenues, royalties, and taxes. Unfortunately in Canada, blockade stories typically begin and end like this. […] More »

This weekend, queer folks and friends at Toronto Pride who reach for a Bud Light under the beer’s namesake music stage may be surprised to know what they’re drinking. Budweiser is just one brand sold by Anheuser-Busch, the American arm of Brazilian-Belgian multinational beer conglomerate Anheuser-Busch InBev. Just this May, Anheuser-Busch was targeted by Pulitzer […] More »

On June 9, protesters gathered outside of Nunavut grocery stores and on Parliament Hill to decry Canada’s shoddy food security situation, highlighted in last month’s scathing UN report.  At the helm of the June protests is Leesee Papatsie from Iqaluit. Papatsie started the facebook page Feeding My Family, which now boasts 21,500 members. The page […] More »

UN condemns Canada’s lack of food security. If I’d pursued political cartooning instead of sociology, I would be sketching a picture of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney with his mouth full of cheap imported bananas. He’d have one hand over the mouth of UN rapporteur Olivier De Schutter, and the other  distributing food aid “to starving […] More »

A project that would have provided hundreds of Metis with jobs and affordable housing was quashed on Tuesday, with a 7-6 vote by the Edmonton City Council. And though it may not seem so at first glance, that decision was likely for the best. While the project’s benefits were appealing, there were some deeper problems with […] More »

We profile five legislative initiatives that died on the docket—and find out which of them will be re-attempted after the election Compiled by Dylan C. Robertson & Victoria Salvas This election means death. Not only have Ottawa scrums, filibusters, and drawn-out committees been killed, pieces of legislation making their way through parliament have all met […] More »

So there’s this scandal: Bruce Carson, a former adviser to Stephen Harper’s prime minister’s office, allegedly claimed ties to the PMO in order to move forward a deal with an Ottawa company that would provide water filtration systems to First Nations communities. This deal would mean a handsome payout to an employee of that company—who […] More »

Changes to the government’s food subsidy program are making some in Northern Canada fear higher prices and fewer small, local stores. The Food Mail Program was axed last October, to be replaced by a redesigned initiative in April 2011. The program, jointly run by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Canada Post, and Health Canada, provided food […] More »

Metis National Council president Clément Chartier Today we’ve got a new entry in the Verbatim series, the transcripts we provide of our Listen to This podcast. (Just a reminder that you can catch new, original interviews every other Monday—you can subscribe with any podcast listening program by grabbing the podcast rss feed, or easily subscribing […] More »