Dream becomes reality at Whitefish Bay health centre

The development of a new 7,000 sq. ft. building to house the new clinic at Naotkamegwanning (Whitefish Bay) is the most recent development in a community that’s truly on the move. In recent months they’ve opened a new ambulance station, as well as bought three businesses (Home Hardware in Sioux Narrows, King Fisheries and Kenwood Steak House in Kenora).
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Aboriginal Sport Circle announces the Aboriginal Athlete Support Fund

The Aboriginal Sport Circle (ASC) is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the Aboriginal Athlete Support Fund (AASF). The fund is designed to help Aboriginal athletes attend national or international sporting competitions. Funding for the program is a legacy of the highly successful 2002 North America Indigenous Games (NAIG) held in Winnipeg.
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Lakehead Masters Student Receives NAHO Award

June 25 - Robert Animikii Horton (Bebaamoyaash), 26-year-old Sociology Masters student at Lakehead University and Band Member from the community of Manitou Rapids (Rainy River First Nations), has received the 2008 National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) National Aboriginal Role Model Award. Robert is one of 12 recipients across Canada.
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Becoming an aboriginal role model

For somebody who didn’t know he was aboriginal until he was 20 years old, the journey to being honoured as one of 12 national aboriginal role models has been bumpy.
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First nations take early steps towards better health

June 19 - An approach is giving first nations communities a hand in developing programs to fit their needs. It was formalized in a 10-year-agreement signed last June between the First Nations Leadership Council and the provincial and federal governments.
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New Agreement Aims to Increase Economic and Social Well-being of Métis People

June 18 - The Government of Alberta and the Métis Nation of Alberta Association (MNAA) have signed a new seven-year agreement to work together towards enhancing the economic and community well-being of Alberta’s Métis people.
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Why did four kids choose to die?

June 17 - Tsuu T'ina seeks answers to frightening suicide rate
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The tragic story of four tsuu t'ina teenagers Who decided to stop living
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$100,000 Expands CERAH’s End-of-Life Care Research in 12 First Nations Communities

June 17 – Lakehead University’s Centre for Education and Research on Aging and Health (CERAH), in partnership with the Kenora Chiefs’ Advisory and the Fort Frances-based Gizhewaadiziwin Health Access Centre, has received $100,000 from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) for a project entitled Improving End-of-Life Care for Aboriginal Elders with Cancer and other Chronic Diseases. The palliative care research project will involve 12 First Nations communities in the Treaty 3 area.
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Hospital launches pilot program

June 15 - Sudbury --- A pilot project is underway that will see the Regional Cancer Program (RCP) of the Hôpital régional de Sudbury Regional Hospital (HRSRH) and the Aboriginal Cancer Care Unit (ACCU) of Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) take the message of colorectal cancer prevention and screening directly to First Nations communities.
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Is growing up in the care of the state any better for native children today?

June 13- Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged this week that stripping aboriginal children of their culture by putting them in residential schools caused great harm. In 1945, at the peak of the program, more than 9,000 children were taken from their families and boarded in the schools. Today there are 27,000 aboriginal children across the country in government care, most being raised in a culture that is not their own.
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Government Moves Ahead on Improvements to Northern Regulatory Regime

June 12 - The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, announced an amendment to the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement today that will eliminate duplication in federal environmental assessment processes in Nunavut.
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Aboriginal leaders look to future after historic apology

The federal government's historic apology to former students of the residential school program must signal the start of a better relationship between aboriginal Canadians and the rest of the country, aboriginal leaders say.
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Harper apology leaves Labrador students in cold: Innu, Inuit

Labrador's aboriginal people are accusing Prime Minister Stephen Harper of ignoring the pain and suffering they experienced at boarding schools.
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Statement of Apology to Former Students of Indian Residential Schools

June 11 - At 3:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time), the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, will make a Statement of Apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools, on behalf of the Government of Canada. The full text of the apology will be made available on the Prime Minister's website at www.pm.gc.ca following the Statement of Apology by the Prime Minister.
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A Plan to Expand UBC's Pharmaceutical Services to Haida Gwaii

Haida Gwaii, an archipelago of more than 150 islands off B.C.’s northern coast, is home to 5,400 residents, but only one pharmacist. Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Judith Soon and fellow researchers in UBC’s Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) group have a plan to change this by establishing a patient-centred pharmacy clinic.
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Actor sees a way to break out of his people's drama

June 10 - It would be easier to say he is just acting - but he isn't. He is Adam Beach of the Dog Creek Reserve in Manitoba and of Hollywood, Calif., and his acting credentials are impressive...But so, too, are his credentials for speaking out this week as the Canadian government finally issues its official apology for the abuses caused by residential schools through two centuries.
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Apology to spare no detail, Strahl says

June 10 - OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper will offer a lengthy and detailed apology tomorrow that will specifically acknowledge the mental, physical and sexual abuse suffered by aboriginal children at residential schools as a result of the decades-long federal policy.
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Cardiac autonomic activity and blood pressure among Nunavik Inuit adults exposed to environmental mercury: a cross-sectional study

Mercury is a contaminant that reaches high levels in Nunavik (North of Quebec). It is transformed into methylmercury (MeHg) and accumulated in marine mammals and predator fish, an important part of the traditional Inuit diet.
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The National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation Welcomes New Federal Funding For Aboriginal Addictions Services in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

June 9, 2008 - The National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation welcomes the government’s recent announcement of $2 million dedicated to helping First Nations and Inuit recover from addictions to alcohol and illicit drugs in Vancouver, in addition to the $10 million funding to be provided over five years to find treatment solutions for residents of Vancouver’s Downtown eastside.
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Final Report of the Wabauskang First Nations Indigenous Knowledge and Contaminants Program

It is now widely known that the mercury contamination of the English-Wabigoon River system in northwest Ontario is one of the largest and most severe examples of industrial contamination in North America.
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Research head looks at Native health issues

June 5 - The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario has donated $1.5 million to the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to hire a research chairperson for Aboriginal and Rural Health, the first of its kind in Canada.
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Solving Pressing Public Health Problems: Close to $13 Million to Fund 14 New Research Chairs in Public Health

June 3 - Close to $13 million is being invested to fund 14 new Research Chairs on the topic of Public Health. The newly funded Research Chairs will look into the pressing problems of obesity, sexually transmitted diseases among youth, animal transmitted diseases, drug use, health among First Nations and Métis people, mental health in the workplace and how neighbourhoods influence our health.
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First Nation sues Alta. government over oilsands development

June 4 - EDMONTON - A small First Nation band in northern Alberta has launched legal action against the Alberta government over continuing oilsands development in the region.
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Re-evaluation of blood mercury, lead and cadmium concentrations in the Inuit population of Nunavik (Quebec): a cross-sectional study

Arctic populations are exposed to mercury, lead and cadmium through their traditional diet. Studies have however shown that cadmium exposure is most often attributable to tobacco smoking. The aim of this study is to examine the trends in mercury, lead and cadmium exposure between 1992 and 2004 in the Inuit population of Nunavik (Northern Quebec, Canada) using the data obtained from two broad scale health surveys, and to identify sources of exposure in 2004.
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MDs call for diabetes strategy as prevalence skyrockets

June 4 - The prevalence of diabetes in Canada has rocketed beyond all expectations, a national policy summit on the impact of diabetes complications heard yesterday.
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FNUniv graduates first Bachelor of Health Studies class

June 2 - REGINA -- This year's spring convocation ceremonies at the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) will see its first graduates from the Bachelor of Health Studies (BHS) program.
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