The Ontario government told a judge today the cost of "colonization" infrastructure built to take natural resources from upper Great Lakes Anishinaabe territory is relevant when determining those resources' modern-day value to the Crown. cbc.ca/news/indigenou… Ontario's lawyer said the Crown shouldered huge expenses exploiting the resources — so huge that extraction in the region resulted in a net Crown financial loss of between $7 billion and $12 billion during the relevant period.

Canada's civilian spy service assessed whether First Nations land rights activists who disrupt trains should be classed as a "terrorist threat" to national security alongside the likes of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, according to declassified documents. cbc.ca/news/indigenou… In this secret threat assessment, which was also shared with officials in unclassified form, CSIS's counterterror centre assessed the threat coming from "violent extremists" who engage in blockades right beneath the paragraph on Al Qaida.

Among several noteworthy sections in the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s decision on the $20-billion child welfare compensation deal was this one: The tribunal is concerned and questions why the AFN couldn’t produce a resolution from chiefs backing the deal. Rather, the tribunal noted, the AFN offered as evidence this executive decision to file a class action made by top chiefs in 2020, which I’ve obtained through court files.

According to these files, AFN became concerned “it would be sidelined” in settlement and reform talks.

The Canadian government is arguing in court that UNDRIP is a "contextual" and "interpretive aid only"—and that neither it nor the new UNDRIP act can be used to strike down new federal laws that may violate them.

Story here: aptnnews.ca/national-news/… #UNDRIP #cdnpoli A lawyer representing band members in the case says she was “disappointed but not surprised” to see the feds' "impoverished" interpretation of the new UNDRIP law.

“People had high hopes for Bill C-15. Those who were cynical about it would say, more or less, 'I told you so'."

The Canadian military’s links to neo-Nazism, white supremacy and right-wing extremism have plunged it into scandal after scandal over the past three decades and according to an internal study released today the problem is getting worse and harder to detect.aptnnews.ca/national-news/… It says a toxic, corrosive environment marked by rampant abuse of power is “repulsing” potential new recruits and will continue to harm the defence establishment’s reputation unless it’s rapidly reined it.

Officials tracked links between Mohawk activists and Wet’suwet’en chiefs last fall, fearing solidarity blockades that spread countrywide in 2020 could reignite as the Coastal GasLink pipeline enters final stages of construction, an unclassified memo shows.
aptnnews.ca/national-news/… The memo was prepared prior to a meeting last fall between the deputy minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and the Privy Council Office.

The officials were slated to discuss the "escalation of protests in Wet’suwet’en territory."

B.C. greenlit more Mounties on Wet’suwet’en territory before 3rd raid aptnnews.ca/national-news/… Chief Supt. John Brewer—the Mountie who planned the raid—confirmed that Mike Farnworth, B.C. deputy premier and solicitor general, granted the request to beef up forces on the territory by declaring an emergency under Article 9.1 of the Provincial Police Service Agreement.