The Native Women’s Association of Canada has released an open letter to MPs from Sharon McIvor opposing Bill C-3 (aka, the “Gender Equity in Indian Registration Act”): According to the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Bill C-3 will make about 45,000 people newly eligible for registration as Indians. But Bill […]
It’s official: the Tohono O’odham Nation are now publicly and formally coming out against Arizona’s new immigration law, partially answering my recent question about what Indigenous people of the area make of all the controversy surrounding the soon-to-be enacted law: The [Nation] … strongly opposes enactment of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070. The law […]
Yesterday around 3:30 am, an Ottawa branch of the Royal Bank of Canada was torched in the name of “aboriginal peoples, workers and the poor” of British Columbia. It then appears the people responsible posted a video of the fire-bombing. The brief video of the actual incident is followed by a message (full text here) […]
The following piece originally appeared in somewhat different forms in guest editorials/commentaries for Kanata (Vol. 1) and Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review in its Winter 2009 (#203) issue. I’ve always hated pencils and erasers. I was first forced in grade two to use them, in handwriting class. My teacher said, “We use pencils […]
The always interesting Blue Corn Comics by Rob Schmidt has recently come across a TV ad for Koff “Indian” Beer (a Carlsberg product) that Schmidt believes “emphasizes the uncomfortable connection between Indians and alcohol.” See for yourself: Huh. You don’t see that very often: teepee-as-nightclub. Here’s another spot in the series, which I believe came […]
