Avery Current Events

Native population growing

Jan 15, 2008 11:31 AM



Sue Bailey THE CANADIAN PRESS




Canada's native population has topped the million mark for the first time in the latest census, with slightly more than half the country's 1.2 million aboriginals living off reserve.
Fifty-four per cent who consider themselves North American Indian, Metis or Inuit live in or near urban areas, according to the 2006 national survey. That's up from 50 per cent in the census taken a decade previous, say figures released Tuesday by Statistics Canada.
But analysts say what appears to be a gradual urbanization of Canada's aboriginal population does not mean reserves are emptying. On the contrary, there has been net migration back to First Nations over the last 40 years.
And while many people enjoy good housing and jobs in cities, some of Canada's roughest streets are disproportionately home to aboriginals. Overwhelmed and under-funded agencies say it's a growing struggle to offer services ranging from job training and affordable rent to a bowl of soup.
"Locally our friendship centre is facing incredible funding pressures," says Susan Tatoosh, executive director of the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre in the city's notorious Downtown Eastside.
"We have over 1,000 people dropping in on a monthly basis. We keep stats."
"We have a constant turnover of staff, mainly because of burnout and leaving for better wages elsewhere."
Winnipeg leads the way with the largest native population of 68,380 or 10 per cent of its total. Edmonton is second with 52,100 or five per cent of its total, and Vancouver has 40,310 or two per cent.
Other cities with high proportions of native residents were Prince Albert, Sask., where native people account for 34 per cent of the population, along with Saskatoon and Regina with nine per cent each, says Statistics Canada.
Overall, the aboriginal share of Canada's population – 3.8 per cent – ranks second in the world to New Zealand. The Maori people account for 15 per cent of New Zealand's total, while indigenous people represent a two-per-cent share in the U.S. and Australia.
An estimated 698,025 people identified themselves as North American Indian in the 2006 census – a number lower than the 763,555 people counted in the government's official Indian Registry as of Dec. 31, 2006. This is in part because 22 First Nations, including Canada's largest Mohawk communities, shunned the census process.
Those reserves report births and deaths regularly through the federal Indian Registry and are generally suspicious of how census data might be used.
The most recent census finds that the proportion of status Indians living on reserve has held steady at about 45 per cent. The Indian Registry, by contrast, tells a different story.
It says there were 615 bands in Canada as of Dec. 31, 2006 with 763,555 members. Most of that total – 404,117 – lived on reserves, while 335,109 lived off reserve and 24,329 were on Crown land. The discrepancy between the registry and the census is explained in part by the First Nations who refused to take part in the national survey.
But the registry is also a more static reflection of birth, marriage and death, says Jane Badets of Statistics Canada. The census is a five-year snapshot of where aboriginal people primarily live, she added.
The Indian Registry along with census data are the prime sources of population data that help determine federal funds for native housing, education and health needs. Those agreements were historically negotiated between First Nations.
There's a political twist to any suggestion that an increasing number of First Nations people are living off reserve. The federal Conservatives have increased focus on off-reserve needs, most visibly by aligning themselves politically with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. The congress purports to represent off-reserve people across Canada, but its membership is disputed by rival groups like the Assembly of First Nations that are more closely identified with reserves.
The congress was notably the only native political group to openly endorse the Tories in the last federal election. Some critics of Conservative aboriginal policy note efforts to increase individual housing and other rights as piecemeal undermining of collective native rights.
In any case, observers stress that the gradual growth of native urban populations does not mean a mass exodus from reserves. In fact, since the mid-1960s more people have returned to First Nations and there's been a good deal of "churn" back and forth, says Dan Beavon, director of strategic research for Indian Affairs.
Much of the urban aboriginal growth can be traced to second- and third-generation population increases of existing native enclaves.
But bigger factors include "out-marriage" of aboriginal people with non-natives, along with a spike in cultural pride, Beavon says. People in cities have shown a greater tendency to cite native ancestry or identity from one census to the next, he explained.
The latest census shows 1.7 million people reported having at least some aboriginal ancestry, up from 1.3 million in 2001 and 1.1 million in 1996.
Higher birth rates also play a role, especially on reserves. And there's the simple fact that more First Nations now fall within city boundaries because of amalgamation, Beavon says.
For example, at least 20 First Nations border the sprawling Vancouver area, he says. "Reserves and cities are not mutually exclusive."
Aboriginal people flock to cities for the same education and job opportunities as non-natives.
"This is not a uniquely Canadian phenomenon," says Fred Caron, assistant deputy minister in the federal office for Metis and non-status Indians.
"It's worldwide. No matter what region you go to, there are more indigenous people living in cities in every region of the world – and facing a lot of the same issues."
Decent housing, a job and schooling for their kids are the main hurdles for people making the huge cultural shift from remote reserves, Caron said in an interview.
"Those three things, if they line up right, point to success – especially education."
In the meanest parts of Vancouver, Winnipeg and Saskatoon the extent to which native people have fallen through social cracks is painfully obvious.
Yet critics say federal and provincial governments aren't doing nearly enough to help these relatively young and growing urban communities to succeed.
Caron points to the federal Urban Aboriginal Strategy, a $14 million-a-year effort to co-ordinate an array of native training, transition and support services in 12 cities. He says Ottawa has forged partnerships and drawn funding from provincial, local and private interests.
"It's a small strategy. It hasn't got a lot of money attached to it," he conceded. But there are success stories, such as the BladeRunners program that trains young native workers for jobs in Vancouver's construction trade.
Peter Dinsdale, executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres, says there's a growing need for the most basic services in cities.
"We provide, disproportionately, poverty-type programs. Programs for children, young parents and their families, food banks, drug and alcohol counseling."
Dinsdale says that 117 friendship centres across the country tracked 1.3 million services offered to clients last year – up from 757,000 in 2002-03.
"It's growing exponentially."
And no one, he says, wants to take on the responsibility or the cost. "There's this huge jurisdictional war going on between the provinces and the federal government as to who has responsibility for urban aboriginal people. As a result, very little is getting done."

Three Sentence Summary of my Article:

My article is about the native population growing. It is also about which province have more or less natives. And about the number of native people living on and off reserves.

Three Questions to Help you with your Comment:

1) Do you think that the growing number of natives will affect Canada’s culture? If so why? If not why not?

2) Do you think it is better that natives live on or off reserves? If so why? If not why not?

3) How long do you think the native population will stay close to this number?

Connection to course:

In class we are talking about The First Nations and this article talks about the first nations.

Summary: of news article taken from CTV>ca on Friday Aug.1, 2008
"Bus attack suspect appears in Manitoba court"

Vince Weiguang Li, 40 was taken to the Provincial Court in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba on Friday Aug. 1, 2008. Li is facing a second-degree murder charge for the stabbing and beheading of 22-year-old Tim McLean on Thursday night, July 31st. They were passengers and seatmates on a Greyhound Bus about 18km west of Portage La Prairie when the violent incident occurred.

There seems no reason for the attack. Tim’s friends say he has never been in a fight. It seems Tim was not asleep as everyone thought. Instead, he was texting a girfriend minutes before the attack. Derek Caron, a friend of Tim’s waited at the bus station all night for him.

Police said Li has no known criminal record and appeared to lead a normal life in Edmonton with his wife. The judge said Li should talk to a lawyer before a psychiatric assessment can be done. Li hasn’t said a word and only nods in response to questions.

The McLean family is angry that they had to find out about Tim’s death from a journalist, that the RCMP took too long to notify them.

The other passengers on the bus are receiving counselling after the nightmarish ordeal. It may take a long time for them to recover.

Questions:
1) How can we prevent something like this from happening again?
2) Is ridership down?
3) How do bus drivers feel about their own safety?
4) What will happen to Li if he is found not fit for trial?

Davids Article

David Pierson’s Article
NEWARK — The Toronto Maple Leafs found an extraordinary way to commemorate a 10-game start that has exceeded the expectations of general manager Cliff Fletcher and head coach Ron Wilson.
They not only battled back twice in their 6-5 shootout victory over the New Jersey Devils Wednesday night, but the Leafs also fired 48 shots at Martin Brodeur, the most the all-world goalie has faced in his storied 15-season career.
Wilson has preached patience with this new group because he has dramatically increased the tempo and skating game of the team. His concern was that it might take until Christmas before the Leafs were able to play three periods of swift-skating hockey without coasting or reverting back to their old ways.
But that certainly wasn't the case against the Devils. Playing 24 hours after a difficult 3-2 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Leafs exhibited plenty of jump against a team known for its stingy defence-first play. In their eight previous games this season, the Devils had not surrendered more than 33 shots on goal.


Toronto Maple Leafs' Ryan Hollweg skates off the ice with a cut on his face after a fight with New Jersey Devils' Mike Rupp in the second period. (Rich Schultz/The Associated Press)


"It's coming along," Wilson said. "I had to shake some trees earlier [with the benching of Matt Stajan and Jason Blake], but everyone is starting to grasp the message. They are certainly playing with confidence and that shows in the work ethic."
The victory, which saw Stajan score two goals and assist on another before a sparse Prudential Center crowd, allowed the Leafs to finish the month of October with 11 points and a 4-3-3 record.
How does this compare with the three previous playoff-less seasons after 10 games? Not quite as good as Pat Quinn's final season behind the bench, when the Leafs were 5-3-2, but identical to Paul Maurice's first year and better than last season, 3-4-3.
"I'm proud of these guys, the way they have grasped what were trying to accomplish here," Wilson said.
There still are flaws in Toronto's game. The Leafs found themselves down 2-0 after the opening 20 minutes, a trend that has occurred in four of their past five outings. But they did correct one of their defects by finally winning their first shootout after three failures.
Toronto goaltender Vesa Toskala deserves some credit, as does his fellow Finn, Niklas Hagman, who delivered the winner in the fourth round of shooters.
Hagman skated in on Brodeur with a strange move that saw him show his backhand early before sticking with the backhand to score his second goal in five career attempts. In doing so, he was merely following in a long line of Finnish shootout marksman, such as Jussi Jokinen of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens captain Saku Koivu.
"It's not something we work at," Hagman confessed.
"If you go to a shootout against Finland, then you're dead," Wilson added.
Toskala won only his third shootout competition in 12 tries. After the Leafs lost their third shootout of the season on Oct. 21 against the Anaheim Ducks, a game in which Wilson brought in a cold Curtis Joseph off the bench, goalie coach Corey Hirsch came up with a plan for his student.
Hirsch watched tapes of the best shootout goalies and noticed that they stayed back in the net longer, a tactic that Toskala had not employed. Armed with this new strategy, Toskala stopped three of four shooters. He also was brilliant in killing a Devils power play in overtime to make sure the game got to the tiebreaker.
"I had a plan and it worked this time," Toskala said.
The 10-game mark also was significant for Leafs rookie defenceman Luke Schenn, who will turn 19 on Sunday. Earlier in the week, the Toronto brass stated the obvious when they announced that Schenn was here to stay for the season.
By playing in his 10th game, the first year of his three-season, entry-level contract kicks in. He marked the occasion by registering his first NHL point, an assist in the second period.
Link: Hockey was a winter version of an early type of lacrosse game that was invented by the First Nations hundreds of years ago. There are people are trying to prove that the First Nations did invent hockey.

Questions:
Do you think Ron Wilson Will help the Toronto Maple Leafs become a better team?
Do you think Ron Wilson will try putting in Curtis Joseph for another shootout and see how he does?

3. Do you think Vesa Toskala will get better at shootouts from the confidence he got from the shootout win?

mitchell current events

Health worsens after immigration, study showsOctober 27, 2008

Shabnam Janet Janani

The health of immigrants decreases over time in Canada and actually gets worse than the health of people born here, a study shows.
"The health of immigrants worsens with each decade they stay in the country," said Dr. Scott Lear, a kinesiologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who is to present the study today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Toronto.
The study, released yesterday, looked at 618 people – 158 Canadian-born and 460 immigrants from South Asia, China and Europe. Researchers found length of stay remained an independent factor for atherosclerosis – narrowing of arteries – even after considering age, sex, ethnicity or family history of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Chi-Ming Chow of the Heart and Stroke Foundation adds length of stay is also a "predictor of developing cardiovascular disease." Stress, language barriers and changes to diet and physical activity are likely to blame, doctors say.

summary:

three questions: If you were an immigrant, would this article scare you?

link to our course:

6-01 current events post

A picture and a thousand words

ALAN BLEWETT PHOTO

It's been 112 years since Ontario outlawed the autumn wild-turkey hunt. This week, it returns. With a robust population of 70,000 across the province, it's hard to believe they were once hunted to extinction

Oct 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Be the first to comment on this article... Robert Alison Special to the Star

Let us now consider the humble turkey.

In the late 1700s, wild turkeys were so abundant in Ontario that settlers and farmers considered them to be pests. The birds' habit of pillaging crops became so rampant that periodic bounties were paid in parts of southern Ontario to thin their ranks.

Scarcely 100 years later, they were extinct here.

This year, Thanksgiving brings mixed blessings for Ontario's wild turkeys: The province's first autumn wild turkey hunt in 112 years – originally planned for early October – has been deferred until after tomorrow's poultry-unfriendly holiday. Once it starts on Tuesday, however, it will run for almost two weeks (till Oct. 26).

"We delayed it to avoid potential conflicts with other outdoor activities, particularly on Thanksgiving weekend," says Patrick Hubert, an avian specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

The postponement also addresses a concern: Recent sightings of newly hatched wild turkeys suggest there will be a lot of small turkey chicks in family groups. The late hatch is apparently due to a cold, wet spring, which killed off earlier broods. In addition, many hens appear to have re-nested late.

"There could be a lot of inexperienced young turkeys around," Hubert says, "and, in general, fall turkeys are less wary than in the spring."
In Ontario, spring wild turkey hunting has taken place since 1987, but only gobblers (males), not hens, may be lawfully harvested in that season. There has not been an open season on hen turkeys in Ontario since the 1890s, only a decade or so before Ontario's native wild turkeys vanished. (The last one died near Aurora in 1909.)

Between 1909 and 1975, Ontario had no wild turkey management program and no wild turkeys. The following year, I initiated the current re-introduction program. Its original aim was to provide opportunities for people to see wild turkeys in their original Ontario range. But, since then, hunting has emerged as a primary goal.

The current Ontario wild turkey population is about 70,000, enough to warrant a fall turkey hunt, according to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. To quote the province's official wild-turkey management plan: "The wild turkey has been restored as an important component of the biodiversity of southern Ontario."

The earliest record of wild turkeys in Ontario was in 1624, when Recollect priest Gabriel Sagard reported them near Georgian Bay. A 1931 Royal Ontario Museum report, authored by zoologist L.L. Snyder, confirmed that wild turkeys were "common" in Ontario until the 1880s.

Live trapping for sale in public markets was a major reason for the disappearance of Ontario's original wild turkeys. The practice was first described in 1838 by Thomas Need. In 1866, Major Ross King wrote that wild turkey trapping was "rampant," even though it had been outlawed in 1839.

The banning of wild-turkey trapping was one of Ontario's first conservation laws. In the 1970s, Ontario prepared to launch a wild-turkey reintroduction program. The MNR invited James Pack, a West Virginia wild turkey specialist, to identify suitable turkey habitat. "I saw some very good sites," he reported.

By 1983, most of the logistics had been worked out, and the next year, 74 wild turkeys that had been live-trapped in Michigan and Missouri were released in Ontario near Napanee.

A few local residents complained that the birds were too tame, venturing into gardens and yards, scratching in flowerbeds and fouling lawns. Over the next few years, wilder and more elusive stock was imported from Iowa, New York, Vermont, New Jersey and Tennessee and released at dozens of sites. Local flocks began to grow.

Eventually, Ontario stopped importing turkeys from the United States and began relocating turkeys from established Ontario populations. According to MNR records, between 1987 and 2005, about 4,000 wild turkeys were relocated to 275 different sites.

On top of the official re-introductions, there were several unofficial releases in parts of Ontario. Officials with The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario surmise that unofficial releases were responsible for current turkey sightings in Thunder Bay and Rainy River.

According to the MNR's Hubert, Ontario's wild turkey population is robust and the birds widespread. Atlas information indicates the birds can be found as far north as Ottawa, northern Georgian Bay, Lake Nipissing and the Bruce Peninsula.

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters says Ontario's wild-turkey program has been enormously popular with hunters. "On my travels around the province, I am hearing that a lot of folks are up for fall turkey hunting," says Mark Clifford, a National Wild Turkey Federation representative in Aylmer. "I will be out there myself."

However, there have been some drawbacks. Negative "human-turkey interactions" have generated a variety of complaints.

"Most negative interactions develop as a result of the birds searching for food," the management plan states. "The most common complaints: feeding on recently planted fields, scratching in winter wheat and hay bales, causing damage to fruit crops, and being aggressive towards people and pets."

Once the fall hunt concludes, another concern will come into play. Ontario is on the northern edge of the continental wild turkey range, and winter survival is an unknown factor. "Cold temperatures and snow depths over 25 cm for several weeks" can be fatal to wild turkeys, says MNR's Pack.

According to Josef Hamr, an ecologist at Cambrian College, in some severe Ontario winters, emaciated wild turkeys are frequently encountered.

"They often die in such conditions," adds biologist Linh Nguyen of Laurentian University, who studied wild turkeys in several Ontario winters.

Ontario's harsh winter of 2008 did cause some wild turkey "mortality events," according to the MNR. But, while the birds' numbers no longer rival those of the 1700s, the province's turkey population remains substantial.

Robert Alison, now retired, was an avian specialist with the Ministry of Natural Resources


Summary: In the late 17oo's there were so many wild turkeys that they damaged crops. Farmers hunted them and people trapped them to sell in markets and they became extinct in Ontario by the late 1800's. In the early 1980's the Ministry of Natural Resources started to release new turkeys in Ontario by bringing them from the United States. Now there are about 70,000 turkeys in Ontario and the MNR has created a two week fall turkey hunt for the first time in 112 years.

Qeustions:
1. Will turkys ever become extinct in Ontario again?
2. Do you think the MNR has made the turkey hunt long enough or should they make it longer?
3. Have you ever seen a wild turkey and if so where?

Link to course topics:
I think my artical can connect to our coures topics because, the first nations people had to hunt to animals for their food and to survive.

Conrad's report

Aboriginal communities are out of sight from most Canadians. Our family spent two weeks one summer on Vancouver Island. My children were hoping to see the people who made the wonderful totem poles of Stanley Park. We didn't see a single Aboriginal person in our travels.
I understand better now, after a frustrating drive back and forth on the same highway this summer looking for the Nanoose Band Reserve near Lantzville, B.C. There aren't many off ramps for reserves.
Few of the communities I visited this year, as part of my research on addiction among Aboriginal people, are marked on road maps, or signposted on provincial highways. Not even the largest reserve in Manitoba — Sagkeeng, population 3,000.
To get there I drove a couple of hours from Winnipeg to the Pine Falls turnoff. A gas station attendant pointed me towards town and said "drive that way." I drove past prosperous middle-class homes. The source of wealth — a large paper mill. Alongside it are railway tracks. On the other side of the tracks is a long line of cookie-cutter CMHC bungalows stretching as far as the eye can see.
I knew I was on the reserve because I'd also run out of pavement. This was the pattern wherever I travelled and I began to see the lack of pavement as a metaphor for neglect. Neighbours to reserves have told me over the years, "pavement isn't a priority for them." Or, "I guess they've got other priorities." The assumption is, Aboriginal people choose bad roads.
The Aboriginal community has been fighting assumptions for more than a century, most of them about the money — "our money," as one friend pointed out — being spent on their welfare and problems. This year, it is about $9 billion, out of Canada's total budget of $227 billion.
Sometimes the money doesn't make it to them. In 2005, $700 million was allocated for Aboriginal health care, but the money never left Ottawa. The bill to free up this money was not passed before the Liberal government fell. Yet that same year, $2.6 billion was fast-tracked for Newfoundland after Premier Danny Williams insisted on getting a fair share of offshore oil and gas revenues. The message: There are twice as many Aboriginal people in this country as there are Newfoundlanders, but they don't count as much.

1) do you think we should care more about aboriganals?
2) why do you think the aboriganals have been ignored?
3) do you think the aboriganals should move forward or continue to be a devoted and mystical group