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July-August 2016

The canoe and the ship

Today's universities want to "Indigenize" their curricula. But how do you re-imagine institutions that were never meant to welcome Indigenous people in the first place? This talks with Indigenous students, scholars, and professors in search of an answer

Justine Ponomareff

A CANOE AND A SHIP TRAVEL DOWN A STREAM. The vessels navigate parallel paths, moving side-by-side, synchronized, but separate. This image was at the heart of the Two Row Wampum treaty, the agreement made between representatives of the Dutch government and the Haudenosaunee people, on the shores of what is now called New York, in […] More »

The power of hip-hop

How music brings social change

Dina Lobo

“Having a message should be cool,” says Toronto hip-hop artist Rich Kidd on the power of rap. Kidd hosted First Out Here: Indigenous hip-hop, a documentary by Noisey, in which Kidd visited Winnipeg, Regina and Toronto to meet with Indigenous hip-hop artists. Kidd, born to Ghanian parents, says he drew a lot of parallels between […] More »
September-October 2015

When the cure is worse

Canada’s so-called Indian hospitals were depressing places that segregated, abused and even experimented on aboriginal patients. Gary Geddes speaks to those who were there about their long and painful legacy

Gary Geddes

  The first image: a small child in striped pyjamas, three years old, peering through the bars of a crib, directly into the lens of the camera. There’s intelligence in her eyes, but no indication of pleasure or recognition. Just a quiet, cautious curiosity. She’s holding a naked, hairless, rubber doll. Behind her, off-kilter on […] More »
November-December 2011

How Grassy Narrows’ lawsuit could change aboriginal-government relations across Canada

Carmelle Wolfson@TeamCarmelle

On a cold December day nine years ago, a group of young people from the Grassy Narrows First Nation lay down in front of a line of logging trucks on a snow-covered road. Chrissy Swain, now 32, recalls that day at Slant Lake, about an hour north of Kenora, Ontario, which set off what has […] More »
March-April 2011

Photo Essay: Fort Chipewyan lives in the shadow of Alberta’s oil sands

Ian WillmsWebsite

The residents of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, live downstream from the most destructive industrial project on earth. A portrait of a community in peril Canada’s oil sands are the largest and most environmentally destructive industrial project in the world. So far, oil sands development has eliminated 602 square kilometers of Boreal forest and emits 29.5 million […] More »
September-October 2011

Repeal the Indian Act and abolish the department of Indian Affairs

Daniel Wilson

The path forward, if the futures of First Nations and the rest of Canada are to reconcile, begins with two steps. Repeal the Indian Act, and abolish the department that delivers it. Bluntly put, the legislation that governs how status Indians are treated—and defines who holds that status—was racist and wrong in its conception 135 […] More »
September-October 2011

Dechinta brings to life the 50-year dream of a university for the North

Katie HyslopWebsite@Kehyslop

Back in the 1960s, a group of high-minded northern and southern Canadians had a collective revelation: if the North ever wanted to succeed, it desperately needed a university. Toronto-based lawyer and retired Air Force general Richard Rohmer spearheaded the idea, first lobbying locals and politicians, and later penning a draft for a bricks-and-mortar institution. While […] More »
September-October 2011

Aamjiwnaang First Nation case could add environmental rights to Canada’s constitution

Teresa Goff

Over the last 40 years, 90 countries have amended their constitutions to include the right to a healthy environment. Portugal was the first in 1976, and since then scores have followed, from Argentina to Zambia. But not Canada. What we have is the 1999 Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Under that law, polluters found in violation […] More »

What's in the September-October 2011 issue of This Magazine

Graham F. Scott

The September-October 2011 issue of This Magazine (that’s it on the left there!) is now in subscribers’ mailboxes (subscribers always get the magazine early, and you can too), and will be for sale on better newsstands coast-to-coast this week. Remember that you can subscribe to our RSS feed to ensure you never miss a new article going […] More »
September-October 2011

Canada’s coming $50-billion hydro boom brings environmental perils, too

Will Braun

Canada is a nation of wild, legendary rivers. The Mackenzie, the Fraser, the Churchill, and dozens more all empty into our national identity. They flow through our landscape, history, and imagination. They are vital to any history textbook, Group of Seven exhibit, or gift-shop postcard rack. Canada is also a nation of river-tamers. We revere […] More »
March-April 2011

Checking the right wing’s math on First Nations tax exemptions

Daniel Wilson

Apparently, some Canadians find it troubling that some First Nations citizens do not pay taxes. This supposed unfairness is the subject of frequent criticism. For example, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy  reprinted an article (originally appearing in C2C Journal) reading: “Tax relief and tax reform must be based on the principle of fairness. Taxes […] More »