Although the former premier suggested P.E.I. might be looking to get out of its multimillion-dollar sponsorship agreement with the National Hockey League, MLAs heard Thursday that the province spent even more money on promotion at a major league event in January. 

A Mi’kmaw professor at Toronto Metropolitan University says the Liberals’ renewed interest in energy pipelines during this election campaign is not a good sign when it comes to the federal government’s duty to consult obligations.

“I’m not confident the Liberals would fully respect the duty to consult, accommodate and get consent,” Pam Palmater, chair of Indigenous governance at the university, said. “Because that’s the standard according to the Supreme Court here in Canada.”

Under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberals passed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in June 2021.

As part of UNDRIP, governments are supposed to get free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous Peoples prior to green lighting development projects that could affect their communities.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump’s continued threats to annex Canada has renewed interest in building more oil and gas pipelines in this country as a way of attaining energy sovereignty.

The Conservatives have long said there is too much red tape when it comes it comes to building pipelines and the Liberals have also indicated recently the country needs to move more quickly on these projects.

Voters go to the polls on April 28.

Information on elections

An official with Elections Canada says there are a number of barriers Indigenous voters have traditionally faced when it comes to participating in federal elections and the organization is working hard to reduce them.

“One of the things we learned is the importance of the verbal, of the spoken language versus written language,” Susan Torosian, the executive director of public affairs and civic education with Elections Canada, said. “We do a lot of work with written products on our website so you will see this time around we’ve got a few more radio ads and videos explaining the electoral process in Indigenous languages where we can find the talent. I think we’ve got about 14 radio ads in Indigenous languages and 13 explainer videos on the process. Things like what happens when you go to the polls and how do you register to vote and those kinds of things.”

Another barrier to voting that has often affected Indigenous people living in remote communities is a lack of access to polling stations that are located close by.

In this campaign, Elections Canada is expanding advance polling options in 400 Indigenous communities so these voters can cast their ballots early if they choose to do so.

The organization is working directly with communities to provide these services and because of capacity they may not be provided at the regular standard of four days with offices open for 12 hours per day.

Advance polls begin on April 18.

Getting Indigenous people into journalism

A veteran Anishinabe broadcaster is heading up a new program at Carleton University aimed at getting more Indigenous people into the journalism profession in ways that work for them.

“I think they’ll take those skills, those essential media skills – whether it’s in audio or social media, how to build a website, how to write a lead, how to write well,” Duncan McCue, who is the director of the new Certificate in Journalism in Indigenous Communities program, said. “Take those essential skills and build the kind of media that they see their community needs.”

The post Election focus on pipelines could be bad news for UNDRIP obligations, says professor appeared first on APTN News.

Another measles case has been confirmed in Saskatchewan, prompting an exposure risk in about a dozen locations between Saskatoon and North Battleford.

Members of Winnipeg city council moved a motion on Thursday to lower proposed increases to the city's residential garbage collection fee by adding a percentage point to the 5.95 per cent property tax increase that council approved earlier this year. 

Nikolaj Ehlers knows he's on the verge of a career-high season for points, but a big celebration isn't around the corner. The speedy Winnipeg Jets forward views it as part of his evolution since joining the NHL club in 2015-16 after being drafted ninth overall in 2014.

Her parents knew.

Albert and Theresa Shingoose believed their missing daughter Ashlee Shingoose was Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, before the police did.

Albert said they cried tears of joy when the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) confirmed her identity through DNA earlier this week and said her remains were in the Brady Road landfill in Winnipeg.

“My wife and I, we looked at each other, and we cried,” Albert told a news conference in Winnipeg on Thursday.

“It was a happy cry.”

The couple from remote St. Theresa Point First Nation north of Winnipeg looked sad and tired. They were surrounded by Indigenous leaders and support workers as they laid bare their pain.

“It was good to hear where my daughter is now,” Albert said. “Now, we all have to work hard to bring her home.

“We need you to get that landfill (search) going.”

Ashlee’s parents were supposed to address the WPS news conference Wednesday afternoon that publicly identified the 30-year-old mother of three, but bad weather delayed their flight into the evening.

Ashlee had been missing since March 11, 2022. Her father made several trips to Winnipeg to look for her.

He and Theresa also gave police samples of their DNA.

Their daughter was the first of four, vulnerable First Nations women to be murdered by Winnipeg serial killer Jeremy Skibicki between March and May of 2022, police said.

The other victims were Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 26, and Rebecca Contois, 24, who were all mothers and street-involved.

Theresa knew Ashlee was at risk in Winnipeg, where her daughter fled to a women’s shelter in 2016 with her three children.

“She was making it good. Then after I kind of noticed she was talking to – I would say – the wrong kind of friends. And she started taking drugs and drinking.

“Then she lost her kids (to the child welfare system).”

Ashlee was “good” and “sweet”, and her mother prayed for her.

“I’m not scared to say that I put my daughter in the hands of God,” she said, while looking down.

Albert even attended Skibicki’s trial in Winnipeg one day last summer where he announced his daughter was Buffalo Woman. He was hustled out of the courtroom by homicide investigators.

Solving 4 murders

“This investigation was certainly one of the most complex investigations in the history of our service,” said Cam Mackid, deputy chief of investigations at WPS, at the news conference on Wednesday.

It began on May 16, 2022 with the discovery of Contois’ remains in a garbage bin behind Skibicki’s apartment block.

Police charged Skibicki the next day for killing Contois and implicated himself in the deaths of Harris, Myran and Ashlee.

As his trial heard, Mackid said investigators reviewed more than 7,500 hundred hours of surveillance video … and more than 560,000 digital artifacts located on electronic devices belonging to the serial killer.

“The investigation also involved over 60 interviews, 25 different types of judicial authorizations and the seizure of over 5,000 physical exhibits, of which over 130 were submitted to the RCMP lab for forensic examination,” he added.

Investigators formed two separate task forces, Mackid said. One to probe Skibicki’s life and the other to look into Ashlee’s past.

“These efforts didn’t identify any additional victims nor did they identify Buffalo Woman nor did they establish any links between (Skibicki) and any long-term missing person files, including historical (missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls) files,” Mackid said.

“There was evidence that linked (Ashlee) to Mr. Skibicki’s suite, and at that time she was a missing person – a long-term missing person – so we were obviously very interested in looking at her as being Buffalo Woman.”

Tips from the public did not pan out either, he added.

Despite being unable to identify Buffalo Woman – a named bestowed by Indigenous Elders –  Skibicki, then 37, stood trial and was convicted on four counts of first-degree murder on July 11, 2024.

Identifying Buffalo Woman

Mackid said a Dec. 17, 2024 “post-conviction interview” with Skibicki indicated Buffalo Woman’s remains were in the city’s Brady Road landfill.

Further information shared by the killer led them to test additional exhibits that “positively identified Buffalo Woman” on March 11 and March 24, Mackid said.

“This news was delivered to the Shingoose family in person (on March 25) by detectives and a family support and resource advocate” from the WPS.

Police Chief Gene Bowers said members of the homicide, missing persons and forensic identification units worked non-stop to restore Buffalo Woman’s name.

He acknowledged the WPS’s controversial decision in 2022 not to search for the remains of Harris and Myran in the Prairie Green Landfill, despite having information the victims were there.

“We’ve had time for reflection – almost nearly three years,” Bowers said. “While we cannot undo the past, we can learn from it.

“Today, we know what needs to be done.”

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew indicated the police would be involved in the “humanitarian search” of the Brady Landfill, unlike the one at Prairie Green.

Bowers, who was only recently sworn in, asked the Indigenous community in Winnipeg to trust his leadership going forward.

“I guess, we would just ask (that) you give us a chance,” he said. “I’m committed to reconciliation, I’m committed to searching Brady for Ashlee’s remains.

“I’m standing here today in front of everybody in the community giving you my word that that will happen.”

Bowers later updated reporters on his efforts to apologize to the victims’ families for that decision. He said he’d met with or spoken to some, but not all of them.

Donna Bartlett, Myran’s grandmother, confirmed she had received a phone call from Bowers.

“I told him I would accept his apology – personal – but not from WPS,” she told APTN News.

“He said if he was in charge, there would have been a search back then.”

Mackid said recovering the victims’ remains would have been preferred to the time it took to collect evidence and test it for DNA.

Meanwhile, the premier said the search continues at Prairie Green because it is finding important items.

The post ‘It was a happy cry:’ Parents of Ashlee Shingoose express their relief their daughter has been identified appeared first on APTN News.

Eleven people from Quebec have been arrested and charged by Durham Regional Police in connection with an auto theft investigation that began at the start of this year.

The topic of security clearance is back in the spotlight as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre fields questions on why he’s the only major political party leader without that level of access to secure information. As Canadians gear up for a federal election on April 28, here are a few things to know about what parliamentary security clearance is — and what it isn’t.

The City of Swift Current is dealing with rising water levels from the spring run-off.

They've placed barricades on the Chinook Parkway near Chaplin St. bridge on the east side of Elmwood Groceries and the section along Connaught Dr. 

City officials are asking the public to stay away from those sections of the parkway.

They also closed Lee Lam Bridge last week due the rising water levels. 

Mandy Gull-Masty was elected as the first female Grand Chief of the Cree Nation Government in Quebec in 2021. Speaking at a regular meeting of the Cree Nation Government on Thursday, Gull-Masty cried as she announced she had accepted the Liberal nomination.

From developing natural resources to breaking down trade barriers, Claudia Chender shares her thoughts on the bills that defined the spring session at the legislature. Watch the NDP leader's interview with Tom Murphy.

Two government officials familiar with ongoing trade talks between Canada and the U.S. say President Donald Trump's impending tariffs on the auto industry may not be as severe as first expected.