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The City of Toronto has unveiled its first ever plan to support reconciliation with Indigenous people, as Dan Karpenchuk reports.
Toronto has one of Canada’s largest urban Indigenous populations and has higher rates of homelessness and poverty. The Reconciliation Action Plan was developed over three years with input from Indigenous, Inuit and Metis people including elders, knowledge keepers, youth and Indigenous employees and city allies. The plan has 28 goals included in five themes. They are actions to restore truth, to correct relations and share power for justice, financial reparations and actions for the Indigenous Affairs Office. Toronto mayor John Tory says the city has a role to play in advancing truth and reconciliation with Indigenous people.
“In 2022, our immediate focus will be on establishing processes and relationships and priorities as we begin to implement the plan, because the message was conveyed loud and clear to me that this just cannot be another government report. And, I want to really reiterate that the Reconciliation Action Plan is a living document that will grow and evolve as needed to ensure that is in fact credible and effective as seen through the eyes of Indigenous communities and as a work plan for the government that comes from our Indigenous communities.”
The plan also includes the creation of 5,200 affordable rental homes and the creation of an Indigenous crisis-response pilot. The city also plans to apologize to Metis, improve relationships with treaty and territorial partners and boost Indigenous economic development. The action plan will be considered by the executive committee next week and then go before the Toronto City Council.
The Blackfeet Nation in Montana has declared a state of emergency to address a series of opioid overdoses and deaths. Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton has more.
The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council’s declaration states there were 17 opioid overdoses and four deaths on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in just a week’s time. The Blackfeet Tribe is forming a task force led by tribal law enforcement and behavioral health officials to craft recommendations on how to deal with the growing issue and will report back to the tribal council.
Recently, Montana law enforcement has found fentanyl in counterfeit prescription pills. Methamphetamine is increasingly laced with the powerful drug. State law enforcement officials say the number of deaths related to fentanyl overdoses nearly tripped across Montana from 2016 to 2020. All deaths related to opioid overdose have increased at similar rates, according to a state health department analysis of the most recent data. That report shows, Indigenous Montanans are dying from drug overdoses at nearly three times the rate of white Montanans.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked about her knowledge of tribes during confirmation hearings this week, before the Senate Judiciary Committee. California Senator Alex Padilla questioned her about tribal sovereignty and the unique relationship tribes have with the federal government, saying she’s had limited experience with Native rights cases, but if confirmed there will eventually be cases involving tribes. Padilla asked the federal judge to explain her understanding of U.S.-tribal relations.
“Indian tribes are as a general matter considered to be sovereigns and in the relationship is a sovereign-to-sovereign relationship, but it’s one in which the federal government has some responsibilities related to the Indian nation.”
Tribal leaders and directors of Native organizations, including the National Congress of American Indians and the Native American Rights Fund, are stressing the need for the next Supreme Court justice to understand, recognize and uphold principles of tribal sovereignty, treaty rights and federal trust responsibilities.
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