Oil exploration company halts drilling near Gaspé, announces talks with First Nations

Junex has several wells at its Galt site, located in the Gaspé. (Radio-Canada)

Junex’s consultations with Mi’kmaq leaders will last 4 months

CBC News, September 2, 2017

Under mounting pressure from First Nations leaders and environmental activists, an oil exploration company has agreed to temporarily halt drilling activities at their site in the Gaspésie and hold consultations with the surrounding M’ikmaq communities.

Military personnel in Proud Boys incident return to regular duty

Military personnel and members of the Proud Boys who disrupted a Mi’kmaq ceremony in Halifax on July 1 are back at their regular jobs. (Anjuli Patil/CBC)

No criminal charges or demotions against men who harassed people at Mi’kmaq ceremony in Halifax

By Susan Bradley, CBC News, August 31, 2017

Four of the five Canadian Forces personnel who said they were members of the group the Proud Boys and disrupted a Mi’kmaq ceremony in Halifax on July 1 have been allowed to return to their regular duties.

Traditional Mi’kmag 1st and 7th District Chiefs oppose Junex projects in Gaspesie, Quebec

by Suzanne Patles & Gary Metallic, The Media Coop, August 24, 2017

Today, we traditional council chiefs from the 1st and the 7th Districts of Mi’kma’ki have gathered at the Junexit Banquet organized by the Camp by the River. We are here not only to support the occupation that has been set up on August 7th against Junex but also to assert our inherent rights and title over our unceded and unsurrendered territory, as affirmed by the 1763 Royal Proclamation. We assert our presence here to protect our territory under the Protection clauses for unceded lands, as protected by Constitutional Rights, Charter Rights, Human Rights, and International Rights.

A Statement of Support for the Gaspesie Land Defense

By Montreal Counter-Info, August 14, 2017

I, Madonna Bernard, as a Mi’kmaq, of the Unamaki territory, and as a land / water protector, stand in solidarity with the people of Gaspesie for standing up again Junex to prevent them from drilling for oil on Mik’maq territory, land of the 7th district in Gespegawagi.

‘Offensive and disgraceful’: Protesters cheer as City of Halifax shrouds Cornwallis statue

Protesters who pledged to remove a statue of Halifax’s controversial founder Saturday say they came away victorious after the monument to Edward Cornwallis was covered. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)

Mayor Mike Savage says veil is a temporary measure, will be removed after demonstration

By Frances Willick, CBC News,  July 15, 2017

Municipal crews draped a black cloth over a statue of Edward Cornwallis in a downtown Halifax park Saturday as protesters gathered with a plan to remove the statue.

After a city truck arrived, crews informed the gathering they would shroud the monument as a sign of good faith.

Halifax mayor cautions against protesters’ plans to tear down Cornwallis statue

A statue of Edward Cornwallis in downtown Halifax. Cornwallis, a governor of Nova Scotia, was a British military officer who founded Halifax in 1749. The same year, he issued the so-called scalping proclamation, offering a cash bounty to anyone who killed a Mi’kmaq person.

Removing statue now will ‘set back progress’ on reconciliation with Mi’kmaq people, says Mike Savage

By Anjuli Patil, CBC News, July 11, 2017

Halifax’s mayor says forcibly removing the statue of Edward Cornwallis in downtown Halifax will set back progress on reconciliation with Mi’kmaq people.

A group of protesters is planning to tear down a statue of Cornwallis in a south-end park this Saturday.

‘This is a British colony’: Group disrupts Mi’kmaq ceremony in Halifax

Some in attendance said the men identified themselves as members of the “Proud Boys,” a U.S.-based ultra-conservative fraternity-like group that believes in “reinstating a spirit of Western chauvinism during an age of globalism and multiculturalism.”

by Jeff Lagerquist, CTV News, July 3, 2017

A First Nations ceremony held in downtown Halifax on Canada Day to honour missing and murdered indigenous women was interrupted by men who identified themselves as part of an alt-right organization — and included two members of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Prominent Mi’kmaq Warrior evicted from apartment calls for reform

Suzanne Patles on Treaty Day in 2016 with her son. Patles received an eviction notice from her landlord in Eskasoni. Photo: Trina Roache/APTN

by Trina Roach, APTN National News, April 7, 2017

An eviction notice for a well-known Mi’kmaq warrior has her raising questions around housing security for people who rent apartments on reserve.

Suzanne Patles, a key figure in the 2013 fracking protests near Elsipogtog, NB, is a band member of the Eskasoni First Nation in Nova Scotia. She’s lived in the same apartment there for over 11 years, along with her partner and three sons.

‘It’s … insulting’: Mi’kmaq warrior chief says of Canada’s 150th celebration

‘The First Nations are struggling,’ says John Levi. ‘We’re pretty much living in Third World countries.’

By Oscar Baker III, CBC News, Jan 25, 2017

As Canada celebrates its 150th year of Confederation, Mi’kmaq Warrior Chief John Levi says First Nations people are still struggling with poverty and he’s made a call to action to remind the country of its shortcomings.

Lawyer removed from Alton Gas case after inflammatory arguments

Sipekne’katik Band councillor Cheryl Maloney, right, questions Alton Gas security about the location of a fence along the Shubenacadie River in October. (FRANCIS CAMPBELL / Local Xpress / File)

Alex Cameron, a lawyer who argued on behalf of the provincial government that the Sipekne’katik Band was a conquered people, has been removed from the Alton Gas case that is before the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.

by Francis Campbell, Local Xpress, December 8, 2016

The lawyer who disparaged Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq population in a divisive legal brief presented to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court has been removed from the Alton Gas case.