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National Indigenous News August 14 · National Indigenous Newscasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is a look at your National Indigenous News.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Daryl Stranger.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Lower Simalcomine Indian Band says the province of BC stunted its conservation efforts in the Ashnola watershed by not pausing mining claims in an area of southern BC.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Lower Simalcomine Indian Band declared an indigenous protected and conserved area within the Eshnola Corridor to protect the Ishnola watershed in 2022 and has done extensive restoration work after a devastating wildfire in 2023.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Indigenous protected and conserved areas are places of collaborative stewardship between First Nations and the Crown to conserve important ecosystems identified by indigenous communities.
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  SPEAKER_00: The band applied for a no registration reserve in 2024, which would place a pause on new mining claims in the area but was unsuccessful.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now they say new mining claims have boomed.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Mining claims in the province are made online for land anywhere in BC under the Mineral Tenure Act, including private property, and cost$1.75 per acre.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: The province must buy out claims, which typically sell for between$200 to$800 a hectare, within a proposed conservation zone in order to eliminate mining in the area.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Lower Samalcamine Indian band previously contacted mining companies with mineral claims within the nation's Eshenola protected and conserved area back in 2022, but did not hear back.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: BC's chief gold commissioner told the nation no decisions would be made on a non-registry pending land use planning decisions by First Nations, but the band was not approved to be a part of that land use planning table.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: A statement from the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said the province looks forward to partnering and collaborating with the Lower Samalcamine Indian Band.
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  SPEAKER_00: Pre-sentence reports for Indigenous offenders will soon have a new name in at least one Alberta court over concerns the current term stigmatizes people with a common surname.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Alberta Court of Justice announced this week that starting September 1st, GLADU reports will be known as Indigenous Background Reports.
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  SPEAKER_00: The reports, which are named after the Supreme Court's 1999 GLADU decision, assess how government policies affecting First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people may have contributed to an indigenous person's criminal behavior.
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  SPEAKER_00: The court said the change is being made after meaningful consultation with members of the GLADU family, indigenous leaders, indigenous serving organizations, and others who work closely with the court.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Court of Justice stressed that while the name of GLADU Reports is changing, the process is not.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Gladue reports came out of the case of Jamie Tannis Gladue, a 19-year-old Kree Metis woman from Alberta, sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter and the death of her common law husband.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: A few years before Gladue was sentenced, Parliament amended the criminal code to require sentencing judges to consider non-prison sentences for all offenders, with particular attention to the circumstances of indigenous people.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: The change stemmed from concerns about the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous people in Canadian prisons.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Gladue reports are now produced so judges can weigh the factors that bring an indigenous person before the justice system.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: The reports are authored by government employees who interview offenders and their families to determine whether they were directly or indirectly impacted by residential schools, the child welfare system, or other policies that led to worse outcomes for Indigenous people.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: A Government of Northwest Territories report has found that indigenous people in the Northwest Territories continue to have a higher cancer mortality rate, while overall cancer rates in the territory were similar to the rest of Canada.
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  SPEAKER_00: The report, which was released last week, studied cancer diagnosis and mortality rates in the territory between 2011 and 2022 and cancer screening rates from 2011 to 2024.
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  SPEAKER_00: It compared those findings to data from 2001 to 2010 in a previous Northwest Territory's cancer report as well as available national data.
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  SPEAKER_00: The latest report found that between 2011 and 2022, there were an average of 164 invasive cancer diagnoses each year in the Northwest Territories.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Compared to the Northwest Territory's non-Indigenous population, the cancer mortality rate for indigenous people in the territory was higher between 2011 and 2020 as well as 2022.
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  SPEAKER_00: In a news release, the government of Northwest Territories said the report's data will be used to inform program planning and policy.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: The territorial government also encouraged residents to speak with healthcare providers about cancer screening programs.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's a look at your National Indigenous News.