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People's homes not source of Constance Lake blastomycosis outbreak, say investigators– CBC News Blastomycosis cases in Constance Lake First Nation have not been linked to residential homes, investigators have confirmed.
Opioid overdoses in Indigenous communities increased sharply during pandemic: reports- CBC News A pair of new reports show that opioid-related deaths among First Nations people in the province increased 132 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic, and an Ontario regional chief says governments need to work with Indigenous communities to help fix the problem.
Open more overdose prevention sites in urban and rural areas across Canada: study– Sudbury.com Researchers in British Columbia say the expansion of overdose prevention sites in Vancouver led to immediate behaviour changes among some drug users as they enter addiction treatment and decreased the number of times they injected substances in public or shared syringes.
Indigenous delegates postponing Vatican trip over pandemic worries, says AFN national chief- Assembly of First Nations National Chief Rose Anne Archibald said today an Indigenous delegation is postponing a trip to the Vatican planned for next week due to concerns about the omicron variant — but sources also have told CBC News a final decision has not yet been made.
Better collaboration with First Nations would have improved B.C.'s response to huge 2017 wildfire: report- An Indigenous-led review of a massive wildfire that destroyed more than 100 homes in British Columbia's southern Interior four years ago has produced 30 calls to action to improve wildfire management and recovery practices.
The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, began to be implemented in 2007. One of the elements of the agreement was the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to facilitate reconciliation among former students, their families, their communities and all Canadians.
The TRC created a historical record of the residential schools system. As part of this process, the Government of Canada provided over 5 million records to the TRC. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba now houses all of the documents collected by the TRC.
In June 2015, the TRC held its closing event in Ottawa and presented the executive summary of the findings contained in its multi-volume final report, including 94 "calls to action" (or recommendations) to further reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous peoples.
In December 2015, the TRC released its entire 6-volume final report. All Canadians are encouraged to read the summary or the final report to learn more about the terrible history of Indian Residential Schools and its sad legacy.
To read the reports, please visit the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation website.
1. Call Public Health Sudbury Districts at (705) 522.9200 or toll-free at 1 (800) 522-9200 during regular business hours and extended hours on evenings and weekends. If call volumes are high, you will be asked to leave a message and Public Health staff will call you back within 24 hours (unless there are extenuating circumstances).
2. Use the form provided by Public Health Sudbury Districts and Public Health staff will call you back within 24 hours (unless there are extenuating circumstances). Find the form here: https://www.phsd.ca/health-topics-programs/diseases-infections/coronavirus/covid-19-information-request
Symptoms can range from mild to severe and include:
Fever
cough
difficulty breathing
Other less frequent symptoms of COVID-19 have been reported to include:
fatigue
muscles aches
loss of appetite
sore throat
runny nose
loss of taste and smell
diarrhea
For further information, please call the public health number above or the Community Wellness Department: 705-865-2171
A FAL is a set of governance and finance practices that helps Councils and staff make informed decisions and run their First Nation well. A Nation that lives by its FAL commits to good governance and finance practices over the long-term.
Governance and finance affect every aspect of community life. It is too important to leave it to individual Council and staff members to develop their own practices. Even if their way of doing things works, when the people are gone, so is the knowledge.
Your FAL makes good governance easier by putting the same good finance practices into the hands of current and future Council and staff members. This makes your First Nation more stable and strengthens members’ confidence in how it is run.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the General Assembly on Thursday, 13 September 2007, by a majority of 144 states in favour, 4 votes against (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) and 11 abstentions (Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Samoa and Ukraine).Click here to view the voting record.
Years later the four countries that voted against have reversed their position and now support the UN Declaration. Today the Declaration is the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples. It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world and it elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms as they apply to the specific situation of indigenous peoples.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the General Assembly on 13 September 2007, with 144 countries voting in support, 4 voting against and 11 abstaining.
Fourteen years have passed since the UN Declaration was adopted by the General Assembly. Since then, the four countries voting against have reversed their position and now support the Declaration.
Today, the Declaration is the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of indigenous peoples. It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world and it elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms as they apply to the specific situation of indigenous peoples.
Some highlights of the Declaration
While implementation of the Declaration worldwide remains uneven, there has been recent progress. In June 2021, the Canadian Senate passed Bill C-15 (UNDRIP Act) which following Royal Assent, has become law. The UNDRIP Act is Canada’s first substantive step towards ensuring federal laws reflect the standards set out in the Declaration.
This past year has been an unprecedented year for us all, but from it and despite the pandemic, we’ve learned from it, grown from it, and are coming out of the pandemic with stronger family and community connections and supports than before. With the onset of the pandemic, we had to learn a new way of doing things so that we could carry on bringing the services our community members need to be healthy, well and safe.
We also came together to target areas of need in our community, thinking about what our families need in terms of their basic services and what insecurities they might face during a pandemic. At first, COVID-19 made us transition to working in virtual environments and from home where possible. We did this with remarkable speed and minimal disruption of any of our Essential and Critical services. We all looked forward to times when the state of the pandemic could allow for an easing of provincial restrictions, and when they came it was delightful to return to in-person (though modified) contact. And it was sad to see us have to go back into restrictions with the rise of second and third waves of the pandemic.
As soon as the World Health Organization declared a world-wide pandemic situation in relation to the COVID-19 coronavirus, Sagamok Anishnawbek Chief and Council began responding with the cancellation of approved travel and community events that might involve those from high risk destinations in southern Ontario visiting the community, followed by a succession of community responses to the unfolding situation.
Sagamok Anishnawbek’s Emergency Operations Control Group (EOCG) was immediately activated upon being informed of the World Health Organization’s pandemic declaration. The EOCG is composed of the Senior Management Team as well as key resources needed to manage emergency situations that pose a risk to the Sagamok community. With each different type of emergency that presents itself for the EOCG to respond, one individual director is usually assigned a lead responsibility. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, Community Wellness has assumed the lead as Incident Command as the com-munity’s response is organized and implemented.
Together, our Senior Managers and staff, enabled by our Community Leadership, under-took the daunting task of managing the impacts of the pandemic on our community’s people and band government organization. We developed an array of policies and protocols to assist in keeping the coronavirus out of our community. We also worked tirelessly to stay connected with the Sagamok community, informing our residents of what was being done in response to the pandemic and how to keep them-selves and our entire community safe from incursions of the virus into our population.
The EOCG and core group teams targeting areas of community need worked tirelessly to care for their community. I want to thank our team of dedicated managers and staff who worked together and brought so much of themselves to developing innovative ways to continue providing much needed services to our community members and demonstrating that through it all, we remain strong and committed to each other in our community.
That there have been zero active cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus reported in the Sagamok community is a testament to the resolve of our community and the work of our organization and leadership to provide for the safety and wellbeing of our community. Though much work was done to put into place to manage the unfolding pandemic situation, it was our community members who demonstrated their honourable responsibility to each other by diligently practicing safe behaviours, supporting each other and patiently doing what was asked of them to help support our community’s response. Our people are our real heroes, supporting each other.
Miigwech to everyone in our community, including our businesses and community partners, as well as our families and friends who live outside our community for your patience, kindness and love. While we have so far escaped the reach of the virus, we have all been hurt or impacted by COVID-19 in a variety of ways. For some of us, it has meant feelings of isolation and dis-connect. Many of us yearned to be able to see our children or elders or other family. Some of us lost our employment, some had their studies interrupted, and some families were split up.
Many of the problems we faced before also became more severe in their effects on our families, namely in relation to addictions and other social ills that we have been actively involved in addressing as a community of families.
The pandemic situation has changed us all, and though sometimes it’s difficult to see the good changes alongside what may have been an otherwise negative experience, the good is very much evident.
Uncompromising on the service standards we have set, we found innovative ways to do as we have always done, as well as enhancements to the ways we do things along the way. While we have indeed adapted to new work spaces and services settings, visitor protocols and limitations on close personal contact, we have also found new ways of collaborating with each other and engaging with community members.
Faced with stresses exacerbated by the pandemic, our Elders have found a space for their voices to be shared and heard. What began as a couple of concerned grandmothers in our community who came together to share a problem in their families, has grown to become a valued and integral group of Grandmas and Aunties, spawning also the Grandpas and Uncles and Sacred Spirit Sisters. These groups are composed of our people, our elders, who are committed to providing each other with support and to support the community leadership. These groups represent the most important defining characteristic of what Governance is: that is belongs with the people.
During the pandemic, we witnessed community members come forth when called upon to support community pandemic response measures, including the work of providing surveil-lance at the road access checkpoint and food security activities. We witnessed the caring of families, now checking in with each other, helping and supporting each other. We saw what “honourable responsibility” means in practice.
We have also seen individuals and families make the most out of pandemic setbacks, choosing to become closer as families or live healthier lifestyles, get out more onto our lands and safely engage in traditional activities. Families check on each other more now, calling just to talk and share. Many are learning their language and taking part in ceremony and some have even went back to school with new online availability.
Of particular pride for the Sagamok Anishnawbek organization and leadership is the achievement of receiving a Financial Management Systems Certification with the First Nation Financial Management Board. This certification brings to life Sagamok’s new Financial Administration Law that was adopted by the community leadership in the fall of 2020 after much work. The law brings about enhanced financial accountability to the Sagamok Anishnawbek organization and leadership.
This past year, we also received our ISO Quality Management Re-certification. Together with the new Financial Management Certification, the ISO re-certification provides a comprehensive accountability framework as we move towards autonomy with our financial resources and own-source revenues, placing the Sagamok Anishnawbek organization in a stronger position to respond to the evolving needs of our community members.
Together, coming out of this pandemic, we are stronger than we were before. I am confident that as a community, we are able to face anything that comes our way together.
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Z’gamok Enterprises Inc. is a corporation 100% owned by the Sagamok Anishnawbek. It is mandated to maximize the economic development opportunities of the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation within its traditional lands and within the Northern Ontario region in the resource sector and in services related to construction and resource development.
