Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
27 February 2012
Aboriginal Timeline 11
2009 to Present
2009
(April 6)
The B.C. Court of Appeals rules that the Indian Act is discriminatory. Professor of Aboriginal law professor and member of the Lower Nicola Band Sharon McIvor applied to register her children as status Indians, but because their father was not Indian the application was denied. Ms. McIvor took her case the B.C. Supreme Court, which ruled that her rights had been violated under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Appeal Court gave Ottawa one year to fix the problem. As of August 2010, the government of Stephen Harper had not made the necessary changes to the Indian Act.
(April 29)
Pope Benedict XVI apologizes for the role played by the Roman Catholic Church in the abuse of children in residential schools, about three quarters of which were run by Catholic orders.
(June 10)
Justice Murray Sinclair, an Aboriginal judge in Manitoba, is appointed Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
(August 10)
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams unveils a monument on the site of the old school at Hebron in northern Labrador as a memorial to the 500 Inuit who were forced to relocate in southern Labrador in the 1950s.
2010
Inuit declare 2010 The Year of the Inuit.
(February 3)
The Saskatchewan government suspends funding to the First Nations University of Canada
(left). The following day the Board of Governors is dissolved and, on February 8,
the federal government withdraws financial support. Evidence of improper spending
on trips to Las Vegas and Hawaii is uncovered while the university is struggling
to pay its bills.
(June 9)
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, along with 38 Aboriginal and civil society organizations across Canada, sends an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper urging him to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
(August 18)
The federal government issues an official apology to the Inuit who were relocated to Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay in the high Arctic saying in part “We would like to express our deepest sorrow for the extreme hardship and suffering caused by the relocation. The families were separated from their home communities and extended families by more than a thousand kilometres. They were not provided with adequate shelter and supplies. They were not properly informed of how far away and how different from Inukjuak their new homes would be, and they were not aware that they would be separated into two communities once they arrived in the High Arctic. Moreover, the Government failed to act on its promise to return anyone that did not wish to stay in the High Arctic to their old homes.
(September 30)
Famed movie director James Cameron (Titanic and Avatar) calls for a halt to further
development of the Alberta tar sands following a three-
(October 20)
Among the Inuit the belief is strong that the RCMP slaughtered 20,000 sled dogs as
part of a government policy to force hunters to settle in permanent villages. 
Nick Russill
The Qikiqtani Truth Commission found there was no deliberate plan to kill the animals but, as reported by Jim Bell of Nunatsiaq News (“Inuit Commission Calls for Big Healing Effort,” October 21, 2010), there was a “widespread killing of Inuit sled dogs, which was often done without explanation.”
(November 12)
“Canada has finally endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” writes Brett Popplewell in the Toronto Star. “The endorsement comes three years after the declaration passed through the General Assembly” of the United Nations. National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn Atleo is quoted as saying the action “hit the reset button in our relationship.” However, he cautions a lot remains to be done to improve the living conditions of First Nations people on reserves.
2011
(October)
Officials at the Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario declare a state of emergency because of the substandard housing in which residents are forced to live.
This is the third time in three years that the reserve west of James Bay has declared
a state of emergency. According to Global News “The government says it poured $91
million into the village of under 2,000 residents, but the images of people living
in tents, mould-
2012
(February 24)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission that is looking into the residential school program has issued an interim report.
The commission notes that, “Residential Schools constituted an assault on Aboriginal
children, families, self-
“Canadians have been denied a full and proper education as to the nature of Aboriginal
societies, and the history of the relationship between Aboriginal and non-
Among the commission’s 20 recommendations is one that calls for education about the residential schools system to be added to school curricula across the country.
Some other recommendations were outlined by Ethan Baron in The Province (B.C.), “including
establishment by the federal government of grief-
The commission also wants early childhood and parenting programs to be set up to help those affected by residential schools.
© Canada and the World, August 2010
Updated February 2012
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“Given the sufferings that some indigenous children experienced in the Canadian residential school system, the Holy Father expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the church and he offered his sympathy and prayerful solidarity.”
Daryl Mitchell
Of the four nations that have not signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Australia and New Zealand have stated they support the Declaration. The United States is holding a public review of its position. Canada remains alone in refusing to sign.
“Dog ordinances required owners to chain their animals, in a land where chains were unavailable. It required dogs to be muzzled, which stopped them from eating snow for hydration and removed their defence against polar bears or wolves.”
Bob Weber
Sled dogs, called qimmit in Inuktitut, “died from disease; shot by hunters moving into settlements who thought qimmiit were not allowed or no longer useful; abandoned by owners working in settlements who didn’t have time to hunt or care for their dogs; abandoned when Inuit were suddenly sent south for medical treatment; or, were gradually replaced by snowmobiles.”
Qikiqtani Truth Commission
“We have all been the losers for lack of that knowledge and understanding. It has
led us to a place of stereotypes and judgement, and often an inability to connect
the dots between the realities in our country today and the 130-
Truth and Reconciliation Commission commissioner Marie Wilson