Improve access to services in N.W.T.'s 11 languages: commissioner

People in the Northwest Territories must be able to access health care and other basic services in any of the territory's 11 official languages, Languages Commissioner Sarah Jerome reminded MLAs on Monday.
Read More>>

First Nation plans to charge rent for band housing

A First Nations community in northern Manitoba thinks it's come up with a novel solution to its housing problems.
Read More>>

Canadian infant mortality among worst in group: Study

Canada continues to have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world, a trend that has held since the 1990s, according to a new study.
Read More>>

Native women's group elects new leader

The leadership turnover among Canada's national aboriginal organizations continued this weekend, as the Native Women's Association of Canada elected Jeannette Corbiere-Lavell as its new president.
Read More>>

Pond Inlet woman resists GN, gives birth at home

Unlike most other young children in the community, Pond Inlet’s newest resident, Jaide Inuaraq, came into the world with the help of two traditional midwives.
Read More>>

Conference Board creates northern research centre

The Conference Board of Canada has launched a "virtual centre for the north" that will produce $5 million worth of research on issues ranging from climate change to the northern economy.
Read More>>

Labrador Inuit, Innu to get flu vaccine first

Aboriginal people in Labrador will be given the H1N1 vaccine before other area residents, says a provincial health official.
Read More>>

More foster care resources needed in Nunavut: department

Nunavut's social services officials say they are aware of concerns about sending Inuit children to foster homes south of 60, but add that they don't have enough resources to keep all foster children in the territory.
Read More>>

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq still stumped over body bags sent to reserves

WINNIPEG — It's been over a week but Canada's health minister said she still doesn't know why dozens of body bags were sent to some Manitoba reserves in preparation for flu season.
Read More>>

Agency receives $20K grant for aboriginal programming

WINNIPEG - The Behavioural Health Foundation has received a $20,000 federal grant to develop culturally-appropriate programming for the aboriginal community.
Read More>>

Ground broken on aboriginal care home

WINNIPEG - Ground was broken this morning for a $21-million personal care home for the city’s aboriginal community.
Read More>>

Nursing schools developing cultural safe curriculum

The Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada (A.N.A.C.), together with its partner, the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN), have selected six Canadian Schools of Nursing as representative schools for the implementation of new Nursing curriculum based on cultural safety competencies.
Read More>>

B.C. reserve hit by first outbreak of the fall flu season, experts say

The Ahousaht First Nation, a small native community off the coast of Vancouver Island, is known for being the home of Shawn Atleo, the chief of the Assembly of First Nations. But yesterday it earned a dubious distinction: the home of what some medical experts say is Canada's first H1N1 pandemic outbreak of the fall flu season.
Read More>>

H1N1 vaccine key for future outbreaks, Montreal officials say

Health officials in Montreal are urging people to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus because they expect the next outbreak – either this fall or winter – to be as widespread as the wave of infections that spread across the island last spring.
Read More>>

Stop sending Nunavut's foster children away: petition

A foster mother in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, has started a petition urging the territorial government to stop sending Inuit foster children to homes in southern Canada, where she said children are losing their culture.
Read More>>

Better H1N1 protection for homeless needed

The health of Manitoba's homeless population needs to be safeguarded against a potential outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus this fall, says the co-chair of a Winnipeg drop-in centre.
Read More>>

Manitoba chief wants to lock down community against swine flu

A new case of the H1N1 virus in Manitoba has prompted the chief of a nearby First Nations reserve to prepare plans to isolate the community until its members can be vaccinated.
Read More>>

Ottawa, First Nations announce flu strategy

Following a tense week that saw it criticized for sending body bags to First Nations, the federal government on Saturday announced a joint action plan with Canada's aboriginal communities to deal with potentially deadly outbreaks of H1N1 flu.
Read More>>

Nunavut tests aerial surveys of polar bears

Scientific efforts are underway in Nunavut to develop less invasive ways of surveying polar bears, addressing Inuit concerns about the physical handling of bears.
Read More>>

Fears over H1N1 flu rising in NWT community

Fear over the possible spread of swine flu has started to spread in some of the most isolated communities in the Northwest Territories, prompting claims that calls for medical help have fallen on deaf ears.
Read More>>

BC health officials call journal report on flu 'irresponsible, inflammatory'

VANCOUVER, B.C. — A B.C. health official called the Canadian Medical Association Journal "irresponsible and inflammatory" on Thursday for an article about the H1N1 influenza virus circulating in a Vancouver Island aboriginal community.
Read More>>

Health minister orders probe over flu body bags

The federal health minister has ordered an inquiry into why the government sent body bags to Manitoba aboriginal reserves as part of preparation kits for a possible swine flu outbreak.
Read More>>

Health Canada official takes blame for body bags

A senior Health Canada official is apologizing for sending dozens of body bags to a handful of remote First Nations in Manitoba.
Read More>>

Remote B.C. community hit by H1N1

The outbreak is significant because it confirms what public health officials had feared: An early flu season. The fact that cases are mild also hints at what's to come with influenza this fall.
Read More >>

Woman walking to help aboriginal children

Tamara Malcolm remembers the day she was taken from her family and shuffled between a hotel and foster homes.
Read More>>

No squabbling promised over children's health

Promising health comes first, Saskatchewan federal, provincial and First Nations politicians signed an agreement Wednesday to ensure jurisdictional issues will not hold up treatment for children needing medical attention.
Read More>>

Feds announce priority list for flu shots

People with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes and heart disease can go to the front of the line when Canadians are offered the H1N1 influenza vaccine this fall.
Read More>>

Ottawa sends body bags to First Nations fighting H1N1

First Nations chiefs in northern Manitoba say Health Canada sent an ominous message to their reserves this week when dozens of body bags were included in shipments of medical supplies for H1N1 influenza.
Read More>>

B.C. First Nation wants Prince Rupert schools to teach its language

A First Nation in Prince Rupert wants local schools to teach its language. The school board is considering the request by the Prince Rupert Haida Nation by having a consultant investigate the costs and benefits of such a program.
Read More>>

Health facility, high school under construction on First Nation

The Opaskwayak Cree Nation near The Pas is bustling with backhoes and bulldozers.

Last week, work on a new, multi-million dollar high school on the First Nation began and this week, construction started on a new $4.5-million specialized health facility.
Read More>>

Feds shortchanging aboriginal child services: AFN

The federal government is underfunding aboriginal child welfare agencies, the Canadian Human Right Tribunal heard Monday.
Read More>>

Pauktuutit plans sexual health forum

Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada plans to convene a policy forum on Inuit sexual health in Iqaluit, Oct. 6 to Oct. 8, the organization announced in a news release Tuesday.
Read More>>

Inuit gather on Parliament Hill to mark suicide prevention day

About 200 people gathered on Parliament Hill on Thursday to mark World Suicide Prevention Day and call attention particularly to suicide among natives.
Read More>>

Health team makes first visit to First Nations villages

A team of health professionals visited the communities of Kitkatla and Metlakatla on Friday. Their goal was to see what the medical needs are within both communities and heard that the number one concern is the lack of doctors.
Read More>>

Manitoba launches $47M flu plan

Manitoba's $47-million battle plan against the H1N1 influenza includes recruiting retired nurses and perhaps enlisting pharmacists and paramedics to be on the front lines should the pandemic bug hit the province with a vengeance this fall.
Read More>>

Manitoba among ’best prepared’ for swine flu

Manitoba is spending $47 million on vaccines, antiviral drugs and protective equipment and is one of the better prepared provinces for the expected resurgence of the swine flu, say health officials.
Read More>>

Garden River First Nation flu plan given top praise

The Garden River First Nations Wellness Centre has received top praise from Health Canada, leading national health officials, and the all party House of Commons Standing Committee on Health for its proactive pandemic flu plan.
Read More>>

Contraband cigarettes popular with teens

Teenagers are smoking a surprising amount of contraband cigarettes, which is undermining tobacco-prevention strategies, a new study suggests.
Read More>>

Ottawa specialists take on geography, weather and even stubborn polar bears to help residents of Nunavut get medical care

It was 7 a.m. when Ottawa’s Dr. John Mahoney got a frantic call from doctors at the Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit. A man with a ruptured bladder needed emergency surgery, but the procedure was beyond the expertise of the hospital’s only general surgeon.
Read More>>

We’re ready for H1N1, northern premiers say

Canada’s three northern premiers say they’re satisfied, so far, with the amount of help they’re getting from Ottawa right now to help prepare for a possible swine flu pandemic this fall.
Read More>>

First Nations need own health system: task force

First Nations could soon form their own health regions, own their own pharmacies and control their own health information and research, say members of a new task force.
Read More>>

In death, three women shine light on a Manitoba epidemic

All three of them, as children, were hooked on crack cocaine and locked into a life spent selling themselves for money, drugs, food, shelter and the illusion of protection they couldn't get anywhere else.
Read More>>

Canada will get vaccine by October: health chief

Canada will have a pandemic vaccine by early next month, and could speed up delivery to Canadians if the swine-flu virus turns more severe in the fall, the country's chief public-health officer says.
Read More>>

First Nations want to be first in line for vaccine

The H1N1 flu vaccine will reach all First Nations reserves this fall, but a successful immunization campaign will depend on leaders mobilizing their communities, a Health Canada official told Alberta chiefs Wednesday.
Read More>>

Gap widening between Saskatchewan's rich and poor: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report

A report that chronicles “a new and troubling phenomenon in Saskatchewan’’ of increased economic inequality over 30 years was released Thursday.
Read More>>

New action group for vulnerable aboriginal women

On the heels of a police task force, the province is hoping to assist in the safety of aboriginal women through the community.
Read More>>

New grand chief says 1st priority is swine flu preparations for northern Man.

THE PAS, Man. — The newest grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc. says his first priority is to prepare northern communities for the looming H1N1 crisis.
Read More>>

Agency offers 'tool kits' to help families of lost women

Canada's epidemic of missing and murdered aboriginal women has become so widespread a national agency has developed 'tool kits' to help families through the ordeal.
Read More>>

Health minister touts cash but chiefs say First Nations left behind in flu prep

Manitoba's First Nations are being left out of the federal government's swine flu preparations even though their communities have been hardest hit by the virus, the province's chiefs said Tuesday.
Read More>>

First Nations child welfare meetings begin

FREDERICTON - A community meeting to discuss child welfare services in New Brunswick's 15 First Nations will start on the Burnt Church reserve today. The meeting will be one of six held before the end of the month, leading up to an independent report about the system to be finished January.
Read More>>

Canada's top doctor says no delay in flu vaccine

Canada is not moving too slowly on the production and approval of the H1N1 flu vaccine, the country's chief public health officer said Tuesday in response to renewed questions about whether the vaccine will be rolled out in time to protect Canadians from a second wave of the ongoing pandemic.
Read More>>

16 First Nations clinics under construction

Construction of 16 nursing stations and health clinics in First Nations communities is underway across Canada, thanks to $135 million in federal funding, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Tuesday.
Read More>>

First Nations target of health-care funding

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is announcing details of more than $400 million in funding for First Nations health-care projects on Tuesday, Canwest News Service has learned.
Read More>>

Canada's flu strategy flawed: CMAJ

Canada's strategy to vaccinate its entire population against the pandemic H1N1 virus has come under attack by the country's leading medical journal. It warns that Canadians with the highest risk of developing the potentially fatal flu are more likely to fall victim because they won't receive shots as quickly as others elsewhere in the world.
Read More>>