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Photo by Canadian Press
What will reconciliation look like under a new prime minister? Here’s what Indigenous leaders are predicting
Published in Toronto Star | March 30, 2025
First Nations, Métis, and Inuit leaders weigh in on Liberal Mark Carney and Conservative Pierre Poilievre as the federal election approaches.
Photo by Mary Conlon for AP
Ontario is having its worst measles outbreak in almost 30 years. Here’s what you need to know
Published in Toronto Star | March 25, 2025
Measles was rare in Ontario, with only 101 cases reported between 2013 and 2023 — until a surge in cases last year.
Photo by Getty Images
Canadians to watch at this weekend's indoor world championships
Published in CBC Sports | March 20, 2025
Some of Canada's top track and field athletes will be in Nanjing, China this weekend for the World Athletic Indoor Championships.
Photo by Nick Lachance for Toronto Star
Should you send your kid to school sick? Here’s what parents and teachers have to say
Published in Toronto Star | March 10, 2025
Going to school sick appears to be less widely accepted than it was a few years ago. But for some keeping a kid home is far from an easy decision
Photo by R.J. Johnston for Toronto Star
Wintry weather, Doug Ford’s lead in opinion polls and Donald Trump among factors expected to keep voter turnout down, experts predict
Published in Toronto Star | February 27, 2025
With Doug Ford’s lead in opinion polls, “that will probably mean turnout is lower,” said a U of T professor.
Photo by R.J. Johnston for Toronto Star
Did Doug Ford deliver on his promises to fix Ontario health care? From hospitals to long-term care and mental health, here’s what’s changed
Published in Toronto Star | February 22, 2025
With election day looming, the Star examined the government’s record in three key areas.
Photo by Samantha Falk for CBC Sports
Invictus Games bring meaningful Indigenous inclusion at major international event
Published in CBC Sports | February 7, 2025
Athletes and spectators at the 2025 Invictus Games will be part of the first international multi-sport games fully inclusive of the four local First Nations hosts.
Courtesy of Jessica Guerin for CBC Sports
Sports helped heal Maj. Jessica Guerin — now she's headed to the Invictus Games
Published in CBC Sports | February 6, 2025
Jessica Guerin is one of 56 athletes from Canada and 500 athletes from 20 countries across the world competing in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., for the seventh Invictus Games.
Nick Lachance for the Toronto Star
Feeling the pressure of a looming fertility deadline, these women decided to take control. Here’s how
Published in Toronto Star | February 1, 2025
Egg freezing has become increasingly popular in Canada, with the number of women undergoing the procedure skyrocketing over the last decade.
Sean Kilpatrick for The Canadian Press
He was unarmed and non-violent. Why did he die after an encounter with three police officers?
Published in Toronto Star | December 23, 2024
The death of Jon Wells this fall after an incident in a Calgary hotel has brought renewed attention to racism in policing and de-escalation techniques.
Spencer Colby for The Canadian Press
Assembly of First Nations chiefs call for national inquiry into policing deaths
Published in Toronto Star | December 3, 2024
The emergency debate Tuesday came after nine Indigenous people died after direct interactions with police across Canada from Aug. 29 to Sept. 24.
Stephen MacGillivray for The Canadian Press
Deaths of 9 Indigenous people at hands of police in one month fuel renewed calls for justice
Published in Toronto Star | December 2, 2024
Families of people who died in police encounters say getting accountability is a long journey and sometimes proves impossible.
Patrick Doyle for The Toronto Star
Mary Simon made history when she was appointed Canada’s governor general. Here’s how she’s reshaping her role
Published in Toronto Star | November 10, 2024
In an interview, the first Indigenous person in the post reflects on the first three years of her mandate, a tenure met with praise but also criticism.
Adrian Wyld for The Canadian Press
‘Canada has lost a giant’: Murray Sinclair, judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, dies at age 73
Published in Toronto Star | November 4, 2024
Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge and the second in Canada, Sinclair lived a life dedicated to public service. An Anishinaabe leader in the justice system, his legacy will have a lasting impact felt by Indigenous people.
Elijah Cardinal-Whitford for Sportsnet
"They Didn't Defeat My Spirit"
Published in Sportsnet | September 30, 2024
A tool of propaganda, assimilation, and abuse that could also provide students with rare moments of freedom and community, sport's place in the residential school system is a complicated one that can only be understood through the stories of survivors.
Nick Iwanyshyn for The Toronto Star
Residential school survivors are still fighting for access to records. They can’t heal, until they know
Published in The Toronto Star | September 30, 2024
Families and survivors seeking information from various churches and government bodies are hitting roadblocks. It’s also made it hard to paint the bigger picture of what happened.
Ryan Remiorz for The Canadian Press
Pierre Poilievre sharply criticized after speech to First Nations: ‘You have a lot of education to do’
Published in The Toronto Star | July 11, 2024
Some First Nations leaders sharply chastised Pierre Poilievre on Thursday after they said his first speech to the Assembly of First Nations’ annual general assembly ignored the pressing social issues facing their communities.
Justin Tang for The Canadian Press
Justin Trudeau’s government is losing its momentum on Indigenous reconciliation, leaders say — and they’re worried a Conservative government could be worse
Published in The Toronto Star | June 21, 2024
Nine years after Justin Trudeau came to power campaigning on a new relationship with Indigenous people, Indigenous leaders say his government’s once considerable rate of progress is slowing — and they are worried about that momentum reversing if the Conservatives topple the Liberals in the next election.
Nick Iwanyshyn for The Toronto Star
Rising violence, funding shortfalls: Indigenous police say Ottawa has left them teetering on the edge
Published in The Toronto Star | June 17, 2024
Their policing resources are stretched thin and if something doesn’t change Indigenous forces in Ontario could disband.
Photo by Adrian Wyld for The Canadian Press
Trudeau government shows little progress on murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls recommendations, critics charge
Published in The Toronto Star | June 3, 2024
Five years after the release of a landmark report on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, the federal government continues show little commitment to ending the crisis, Indigenous leaders told a news conference.
Photo by James Park for The Toronto Star
‘If it’s not required, why even ask for it?’ First Nations slam Ottawa for requesting confidentiality agreements in child welfare negotiations
Published in The Toronto Star | May 30, 2024
First Nations leaders say they are being “gagged” by the federal government because it’s asking them to sign confidentiality agreements before Ottawa will negotiate funding deals under Canada’s new child and family welfare law.
Photo courtesy of Métis Nation Alberta for The Toronto Star
Are these Métis nations’ dreams of self-governance dead? Here’s what we know about the latest developments in a contentious bill
Published in The Toronto Star | April 24, 2024
The Métis Nation-Saskatchewan’s announcement it was withdrawing its support for Bill C-53 — legislation aimed at recognizing Métis self-governance by creating a path for treaties between Canada and some Métis governments — has created uncertainty about the contentious bill’s future.
Photo by Adrian Wyld for The Canadian Press
Reconciliation not a priority for Trudeau government, First Nations leaders say
Published in The Toronto Star | April 17, 2024
he Assembly of First Nations is calling for a renewed commitment to reconciliation from the federal government, with First Nations leadership saying the federal budget tabled on Tuesday showed Indigenous Peoples are not a priority
Photo by Blair Gable for The Toronto Star
Federal budget’s $918M for Indigenous housing and infrastructure falls far short of what advocates say is needed
Published in The Toronto Star | April 16, 2024
Tuesday’s federal budget committed more than $9 billion in new funding for Indigenous initiatives, focusing on education and youth, on-reserve supports and economic opportunities.
Photo by Jayson Mills for The Toronto Star
Why are Indigenous people so overrepresented in Canadian prisons?
Published in The Toronto Star | April 11, 2024
When the government repealed some mandatory minimum prison sentences, it was responding to the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in prisons. Why hasn’t it worked?
Photo by Adrian Wyld for The Canadian Press
She says this alternative to prison saved her life. So why isn't Canada investing in more of them?
Published in The Toronto Star | April 2, 2024
Healing lodges were proposed to Ottawa as an alternative to federal institutions. But supporters said the federal government has not done enough to support them.
Photo by Liam Richards for The Canadian Press
Auditor’s reports expose Ottawa’s failure to support Indigenous housing and policing, AFN national chief says
Published in The Toronto Star | March 20, 2024
New reports from Canada’s auditor general prove that Ottawa has failed Indigenous communities when it comes to housing and policing, says the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
Photo by R.J. Johnston for The Toronto Star
'Our guys don't have somewhere to go': Trudeau government criticized for taking too long to fund Indigenous housing
Published in The Toronto Star | February 27, 2024
Housing organizations supporting Indigenous people say they are desperate for the money Ottawa's new housing strategy is preparing to distribute.
Photo by Adrian Wyld for The Canadian Press
'Monumental': Supreme Court rules Indigenous child welfare law is constitutional
Published in The Toronto Star | February 9, 2024
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld a law that gives Indigenous nations sole jurisdiction over the welfare of Indigenous children in a landmark challenge of federal legislation by Quebec.
Photo by Justin Tang for The Toronto Star
Trudeau government's probe into abuse in Canadian sports is lacking, critics say
Published in The Toronto Star | February 1, 2024
The federal government announced The Future of Sport in Canada Commission after athletes testified before the Heritage and Status of Women committees in recent months about abuse in Canadian sport.
Photo by Blair Gable for The Toronto Star
After years of trouble, can the AFN's new chief avoid another 'explosion,' and unite First Nations?
Published in The Toronto Star | January 28, 2024
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has inherited an organization that has been buffeted by internal strife.
Photo by Sean Kilpatrick for The Canadian Press
Ottawa is supposed to process First Nations families' child services requests within days. Sometimes it makes them wait a year
Published in The Toronto Star | January 4, 2024
First Nations families are waiting for as long as a year to have their applications for child and family services assessed by the federal government — even though Ottawa has been ordered to process them within 12 to 48 hours.
Photo by Richard Drew for Associated Press
She confronted Justin Trudeau when she was 12. Now Autumn Peltier has a new message
Published in The Toronto Star | December 26, 2023
Autumn Peltier was just 12 when she took on the prime minister. Today she hopes to build a better future for Indigenous peoples and wants world leaders to listen.
Photo by Chris Young for The Toronto Star
Justin Trudeau vowed to end boil water advisories in Indigenous communities. But a new plan to address that is under fire
Published in The Toronto Star | December 23, 2023
The federal government says new legislation will help end water troubles in many Indigenous communities. Some First Nations leaders aren't so sure.
Photo courtesy of Alice McLeod, Nipissing First Nation for The Toronto Star
‘We’ve been accused of being Métis deniers’: Trudeau government’s proposed law pits First Nations against Ontario Métis
Published in The Toronto Star | November 15, 2023
A new bill recognizing Métis rights in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan is being met with outrage from First Nations and Métis groups.
Photo by Gino Donato for The Globe and Mail
Northern Ontario doctors face ‘hidden crisis’ of emotional distress amid staffing shortages
Published in The Globe and Mail | September 15, 2023
In Northern Ontario, the burden of the doctors’ shortage is felt much more acutely than in other parts of the province. Rural doctors are responsible for both primary care in their family practices and emergency care in the hospitals.
Photo by Christopher Katsarov for The Globe and Mail
When every minute counts
Published in The Globe and Mail | September 13, 2023
On any given day at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, trauma nurse Thao Sindall cares for some of Ontario’s sickest and most injured patients. The Globe and Mail followed her for a 12-hour shift
Photo by NATHB
Children with complex medical conditions are aging out of the system designed to support them
Published in The Globe and Mail | September 8, 2023
Health care systems for adults with complex medical conditions, particularly for those that arise at birth, are not as co-ordinated as those for pediatric patients.
Photo by Joy SpearChief-Morris
Alberta conservation program looks to change how ranchers deal with grizzly bear conflicts
Published in The Globe and Mail | August 18, 2023
As the number of grizzly bears increases, they are being found farther east from the mountains, encroaching onto ranchland, causing potential conflict with humans and livestock.
Doctor shortage leaves Northern Ontario emergency rooms on the brink of shutting down
Published in The Globe and Mail | August 9, 2023
Emergency rooms across Northern Ontario’s rural hospitals are in “dire” need for more physicians and funding as doctors struggle to keep emergency rooms open through the summer trauma season.
Photo by Jesse Winter, The Globe and Mail
Almost 900 wildfires burning across Canada as provinces and territories set record temperatures
Published in The Globe and Mail | July 17, 2023
Nearly 900 wildfires continued to burn across Canada on Monday, as military assistance arrived in British Columbia and plumes of smoke triggered air quality warnings in more than a dozen U.S. states.
Photo by Elizabeth Kataquapit
Indigenous communities face harsher effects from wildfire smoke
Published in The Globe and Mail | July 15, 2023
For Indigenous communities, it is the smoke, not flames, that accounts for the majority of wildfire-related evacuations.
Photo by Ryan Peruniak, The Narwhal
Bears aren’t as deadly as you’ve been taught.
Published in The Narwhal | July 13, 2023
In Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, Parks Canada is hiring Indigenous employees to change the way people think about bears.
Illustration by Michelle Theodore, The Walrus
Being Black in a Small Town
Published in The Walrus | April 21, 2023
Schitt’s Creek and Gilmore Girls would have us believe there’s room for only one Black person in every small town. When will pop culture catch up to reality?
Photo by Jeffery Burnett, CBC Docs
30 years after an historic fight against clear cutting, Indigenous communities are still fighting for forests
Published in CBC Docs | March 17, 2023
Two directors tell the story of the people trying to protect some of our last old-growth forests
Photo by Adrienne Row-Smith, The Narwhal
Ottawa’s Greenbelt is federally owned but not federally protected
Published in The Narwhal | February 1, 2023
The horseshoe of wetlands, forests and farms between Ottawa’s downtown and suburbs isn’t immediately at risk from Ontario’s new development policies. But it’s still threatened, which is why some think it should be made a national park.
Photo by Kamara Morozuk, The Narwhal
Chiefs of Ontario want development-friendly More Homes Built Faster Act repealed
Published in The Narwhal | December 9, 2022
First Nations chiefs say Housing Minister Steve Clark requested meeting on omnibus housing bill, then disappeared: a ‘blatant disregard of our nation-to-nation relationship’
Photo by Jesse Winter, The Globe and Mail
Olympic race walker Evan Dunfee hopes to take lessons of success on the track into local politics
Published in The Globe and Mail | September 10, 2022
Evan Dunfee began race walking when he was about 10 years old because he wanted to be the best at something. Twenty years later, he crossed the finish line at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, with a record-breaking gold medal.
Photo by Jeff Mcintosh, The Canadian Press
The housing crisis in Canmore, Alta., is driving out doctors, families and development
Published in The Globe and Mail | September 10, 2022
Housing has long been an issue in Canmore, a former mining town of about 16,000 about an hour’s drive east of Calgary. A combination of a seasonal workforce, vacation properties and several failed attempts at building new housing have pushed up prices and squeezed supply.
Photo by Jason Franson, The Canadian Press
Indigenous survivors look to move past anger after papal visit
Published in The Globe and Mail | August 1, 2022
For some survivors, the meeting with the Pope was an opportunity to voice demands for further justice. For others, like Noella Robinson and Joan. St. Denis, the meeting was a chance to put aside anger and move forward with healing.
Photo by Vatican Media, Reuters
Pope Francis renews his residential schools apology in Quebec
Published in The Globe and Mail | July 27, 2022
In a province where Catholicism once dominated many facets of life, Pope Francis renewed his apology to Indigenous people for the harms caused by many Catholic members in government-funded residential schools.
Photo by Todd Korol, Reuters
Chief Littlechild’s headdress gift to Pope Francis carries heavy significance
Published in The Globe and Mail | July 26, 2022
The bestowing of a headdress can carry multiple meanings, knowledge keepers and elders say, and there was a purpose to placing it atop Pope Francis after he apologized on Monday for decades of abuses at Catholic-run residential schools.
Photo by The Daniels Corporation
This couple spent eight years searching for a condo in Toronto that fit their accessibility needs
Published in The Globe and Mail | July 22, 2022
Eager to move from an apartment with a shower kept together by duct tape, the Roses went on the hunt for an accessible home.
Photo by Vatican Media, Reuters
Indigenous nations, organizers struggle to secure space for residential school survivors for papal visit
Published in The Globe and Mail | July 18, 2022
Indigenous groups say they are worried that many residential school survivors will not be able to attend Pope Francis’s appearances across Canada later this month, owing to ticket shortages and poor communication from the Catholic Church and the federal government.
Photo by Patrick Doyle, Canadian Press
Hockey Canada’s culture must change in wake of ‘extremely horrific’ sexual-assault allegations, Sport Minister says
Published in The Globe and Mail | July 6, 2022
Hockey Canada’s handling of sexual-assault allegations involving eight Canadian Hockey League members, including players with the gold-medal-winning world junior team, reveals a culture problem within the organization that needs to change, federal Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge says.
Everything but the fairy tale ending
Published in CBC Sports | July 29, 2021
I stand at the start line behind my blocks, trying to see through the pouring rain that is beating down on me...
Photo by Fred Lum, The Globe and Mail
Indigenous and Black communities have a shared past of injustice. They deserve a shared future of justice
Published in The Globe and Mail | May 29, 2021
Solidarity in the face of systemic racism and police violence is more than just symbolic; it’s the latest stage in a common struggle against colonialism. What will the next stages be?