The border issue Indigenous communities are talking about this election
Members of Ottawa's Indigenous community say they're worried about the impact Canada-U.S. relations could have on friends and family who live on reserves near or severed by the American border.
CBC went to the Odawa Native Friendship Centre to find out what voters there are thinking about ahead of the federal election. In several conversations, border mobility came up as a pressing concern.
Michele Bourque is a retired federal public servant who was taking part in a quilting class at the non-profit Odawa centre, which provides a variety of programming for Ottawa's urban Indigenous population.
She's from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation in southwestern Ontario, which sits just across the border from Port Huron, Mich.
"I worry about people going back and forth, and I know a lot of people have stopped going back and forth because of the fear of problems [of] being searched," Bourque said.
Border mobility
It's a concern shared by many Indigenous families, according to Gabriel Pangowish, the general manager at Odawa, who pointed to the example of Akwesasne, a territory that is severed by the Canada-U.S. border.
"The reserve is on both sides of the border and those people, they just need to show a status card to be able to get across. Will this change now because of the government down there?" he questioned.
Pangowish said the uncertainty is especially hard on families who live and work on different sides of the border.
"It's a huge issue," he said, adding that Indigenous people, such as the Ojibway, historically lived on both sides of the border.
"So a lot of the families there, they would travel back and forth, not even thinking about this [as a] border, because before colonization that was their territory," he explained.
Cost of living
Anita Armstrong, Odawa's executive director, said while border issues do come up in discussion, concerns around cost of living are also top of mind for people in Ottawa's Indigenous community.
She said Odawa's food bank has grown to serve nearly 90 families, up from about 45 families just two years ago.
"We have even staff members who are utilizing the food bank at times. So it's definitely top of mind, and it affects everybody," she said.
Odawa is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary, and Armstrong said it will be a wonderful celebration. Sadly, she said, the centre is still dealing with the same issues it was decades ago.
"But we can't give up. We just have to keep ensuring that we honour our children," Armstrong said. "Our children are gifts from the creator, and we have to remind our community members and clientele that those little ones are our future leaders."
She's hoping for a "fair government" that recognizes the needs of the local Indigenous community.
"We just need to make sure that we can support them and continue doing so. All of our programs are vital to the healing and of our community members," Armstrong said, adding that she would like to hear more talk on the campaign trail of issues affecting Indigenous communities.
"Obviously we recognize the agenda is huge, but we just want to make sure that we ... are represented. It's been rather quiet," she said.
The Assembly of First Nations has released its election priorities and is seeking commitments from party leaders on economic reconciliation, Canada-U.S. trade and border mobility, calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and calls for justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Calgary Herald
30 minutes ago
- Calgary Herald
History Rhymes: Guy Gavriel Kay's new novel begins with a poet protagonist and a royal murder
In Guy Gavriel Kay's new novel, Written on the Dark, there is a segment where the powerful but ruthless Duke de Barratin is leading a group of men through the countryside and stops to get a blessing from a cleric. Instead, the cleric chides the Duke for the chaos he is causing, which triggers the royal's nasty sense of entitlement. Article content In January, the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde made headlines after she gave a sermon at the interfaith prayer service following Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration. She called on Trump to show compassion towards the marginalized groups that he was already intending to target and persecute. Article content Article content Trump and his followers went ballistic. Meanwhile, an American book reviewer whom Kay has known for years received an advance-reading copy of Written on the Dark the very next day. Article content Article content 'I said 'You know I wrote that a year-and-a-half, two years ago,'' says Kay, in a Zoom interview with Postmedia. 'It is an example of history not repeating but rhyming. I wasn't making any direct (reference.) I couldn't have been, I'm not prophetic in that way. I wasn't making any direct association with right now. But he said he didn't sleep that night, thinking about history and power and the people who push back against power. That effect, I love to achieve.' Article content Kay is a veteran novelist who uses reflections of historical backdrops for his fantasy fiction. The famous quote 'history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes' is one of his favourites. It guides his work. Article content Article content 'I like looking into history and finding things that evoke, associate with, trigger thoughts about the present without trying to pin anything down to specific repetitions,' he says. Article content Kay's 16th novel is set in a world meant to reflect a turbulent Medieval France, called Ferrieres in the book, during the Hundred Years War. His hero, Thierry Villar, is a tavern poet who becomes entangled in the dangerous power struggles among members of royalty after he is enlisted by the king's provost to help investigate the brutal murder of the Duke of Montereau, the king's brother and advisor. The country teeters towards civil war as the powers behind the assassination become clear. Article content So, yes, Written on the Dark begins with a tantalizing murder mystery, although it doesn't take long for the reader to learn who the culprit is. Kay says the early sparks of inspiration for the novel came from rereading Dutch historian Johan Huizinga's 1919 classic Autumntide of the Middle Ages, which had just been reissued as a handsome, illustrated coffee table book. It is about 14th- and 15th-century France and Burgundy, a time and place that Kay had not spent much time evoking in previous novels.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
What it would take to convert a jet from Qatar into Air Force One to safely fly Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump really wants to fly on an upgraded Air Force One — but making that happen could depend on whether he's willing to cut corners with security. As government lawyers sort out the legal arrangement for accepting a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, another crucial conversation is unfolding about modifying the plane so it's safe for the American president. Installing capabilities equivalent to the decades-old 747s now used as Air Force One would almost certainly consign the project to a similar fate as Boeing's replacement initiative, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers Thursday that those security modifications would cost less than $400 million but provided no details. Satisfying Trump's desire to use the new plane before the end of his term could require leaving out some of those precautions, however. A White House official said Trump wants the Qatari jet ready as soon as possible while adhering to security standards. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not provide details on equipment issues or the timeline. Trump has survived two assassination attempts, and Iran allegedly also plotted to kill him, so he's well aware of the danger he faces. However, he seems willing to take some chances with security, particularly when it comes to communications. For example, he likes to keep his personal phone handy despite the threat of hacks. He boasted this week that the government got the jet 'for free,' saying, 'We need it as Air Force One until the other ones are done.' Here's a look at what it would take to make the Qatari plane into a presidential transport: What makes a plane worthy of being Air Force One? Air Force One is the call sign for any plane that's carrying the president. The first aircraft to get the designation was a propeller-powered C-54 Skymaster, which ferried Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in 1945. It featured a conference room with a bulletproof window. Things are a lot more complicated these days. Boeing has spent years stripping down and rebuilding two 747s to replace the versions that have carried presidents for more than three decades. The project is slated to cost more than $5.3 billion and may not be finished before Trump leaves office. A 2021 report made public through the Freedom of Information Act outlines the unclassified requirements for the replacement 747s under construction. At the top of the list — survivability and communications. The government decided more than a decade ago that the new planes had to have four engines so they could remain airborne if one or two fail, said Deborah Lee James, who was Air Force secretary at the time. That creates a challenge because 747s are no longer manufactured, which could make spare parts harder to come by. Air Force One also has to have the highest level of classified communications, anti-jamming capabilities and external protections against foreign surveillance, so the president can securely command military forces and nuclear weapons during a national emergency. It's an extremely sensitive and complex system, including video, voice and data transmissions. James said there are anti-missile measures and shielding against radiation or an electromagnetic pulse that could be caused by a nuclear blast. 'The point is, it remains in flight no matter what,' she said. Will Trump want all the security bells and whistles? If the Qatari plane is retrofitted to presidential standards, it could cost $1.5 billion and take years, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that aren't publicly available. Testifying before Congress this week, Meink discounted such estimates, arguing that some of the costs associated with retrofitting the Qatari plane would have been spent anyway as the Air Force moves to build the long-delayed new presidential planes, including buying aircraft for training and to have spares available if needed. In response, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said that based on the contract costs for the planes that the Air Force is building, it would cost about $1 billion to strip down the Qatar plane, install encrypted communications, harden its defenses and make other required upgrades. James said simply redoing the wiring means 'you'd have to break that whole thing wide open and almost start from scratch.' Trump, as commander in chief, could waive some of these requirements. He could decide to skip shielding systems from an electromagnetic pulse, leaving his communications more vulnerable in case of a disaster but shaving time off the project. After all, Boeing has already scaled back its original plans for the new 747s. Their range was trimmed by 1,200 nautical miles, and the ability to refuel while airborne was scrapped. Paul Eckloff, a former leader of protection details at the Secret Service, expects the president would get the final say. 'The Secret Service's job is to plan for and mitigate risk,' he said. 'It can never eliminate it.' If Trump does waive some requirements, James said that should be kept under wraps because 'you don't want to advertise to your potential adversaries what the vulnerabilities of this new aircraft might be.' It's unlikely that Trump will want to skimp on the plane's appearance. He keeps a model of a new Air Force One in the Oval Office, complete with a darker color scheme that echoes his personal jet instead of the light blue design that's been used for decades. What happens next? Trump toured the Qatari plane in February when it was parked at an airport near Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort. Air Force chief of staff Gen. David Allvin was there, too. The U.S. official said the jet needs maintenance but not more than what would be expected of a four-engine plane of its complexity. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it would be irresponsible to put the president and national security equipment aboard the Qatari plane 'without knowing that the aircraft is fully capable of withstanding a nuclear attack.' 'It's a waste of taxpayer dollars,' she said. Meanwhile, Boeing's project has been hampered by stress corrosion cracks on the planes and excessive noise in the cabins from the decompression system, among other issues that have delayed delivery, according to a Government Accountability Office report released last year. Boeing referred questions to the Air Force, which said in a statement that it's working with the aircraft manufacturer to find ways to accelerate the delivery of at least one of the 747s. Even so, the aircraft will have to be tested and flown in real-world conditions to ensure no other issues. James said it remains to be seen how Trump would handle any of those challenges. 'The normal course of business would say there could be delays in certifications,' she said. 'But things seem to get waived these days when the president wants it.' ___ AP writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
Toronto Star
an hour ago
- Toronto Star
What it would take to convert a jet from Qatar into Air Force One to safely fly Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump really wants to fly on an upgraded Air Force One — but making that happen could depend on whether he's willing to cut corners with security. As government lawyers sort out the legal arrangement for accepting a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, another crucial conversation is unfolding about modifying the plane so it's safe for the American president.
