First Nations people rally for housing as class action suit heard in Winnipeg
About 100 people rallied downtown as a class action lawsuit that accuses the federal government of failing to address the housing crisis on First Nations was front and centre in a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday.
'Some of the houses are deplorable, they're not livable, and a lot of our people, they have no choice but to live there,' said St. Theresa Point First Nation Chief Raymond Flett outside the Anishininew Okimawin building on Broadway.
St. Theresa Point First Nation in Manitoba and Sandy Lake First Nation in northwest Ontario filed the suit in 2023. More than 100 First Nations have signed on. The case is being heard this week in federal court. The suit seeks $5 billion in damages.
ALEX LAMBERT / FREE PRESS
Rally participant Chloe Kakepetum (left) hugs Myrna Mawakeesic, who says she developed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease because of the constant flooding her house gets every spring in Sandy Lake, Ont. The rally, in support of a lawsuit against the federal government, was at Anishininew Okimawin on Broadway.
Flett said Ottawa has failed to provide adequate housing on First Nations.
'A house, even though it's not that old, but the material used to build that house is cheap material — they don't last,' said Flett. 'Most of the houses only have two or three bedrooms… that is not right for us, a lot of families they have four adults, five children living in a house.'
He said its hard for residents to maintain houses in small communities because of the lack of resources.
'You have a broken door and want to fix it? We can't just go to the store and buy it,' Flett said. 'You have to fly it in, and that's extra, a lot of extra money that we don't have.'
Former St. Theresa Point chief Elvin Flett, and Toronto-based firm McCarthy Tétrault LLP filed a statement of claim in June 2023 that alleged Canada 'deliberately underfunded housing on reserves,' while simultaneously isolating First Nations by imposing restrictions on their ability to provide housing for themselves.
'They're the ones that put us in there in the first place, they have to honour that,' said Raymond Flett.
The chief wants to see an equal partnership with the Canadian government to improve housing and development. Flett said he is hopeful it will happen.
The statement of claim said of the 646 houses in St. Theresa Point, 25 per cent should be condemned due to severe decay and rotting. It also said more than half of the houses in Sandy Lake require major repairs.
One woman from Sandy Lake said she developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease because of the poor condition her house is in. She said she has had trouble breathing for years because her house floods every spring.
'We want our kids to have better housing than what we have right now,' said Myrna Mawakeesic, 57, who was also part of the rally.
During Elections
Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election.
Another rallygoer said she wanted to help make a difference.
'Monkey see monkey do, when you see someone fighting for something that they like, then you'll get inspired by something you like,' said 18-year-old Kariya Kakepetum, who is also from Sandy Lake. 'What I love is my community.'
Canada argued in its 2024 statement of defence the country 'does not owe any legal obligations or duties to build and maintain houses on-reserve. The claim should be dismissed.'
St. Theresa Point, 465 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, is one of four First Nations that make up the Island Lake region in northeastern Manitoba. The community of 5,200 people is accessible by plane or ice road for six weeks out of the year.
fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
‘These are not small margins:' Doug Ford's PCs hold 21-point lead, new survey suggests
Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford greets supporters after he was re-elected as the Premier of Ontario in Toronto on Thursday, February 27, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young The next Ontario election is likely still years away but a new poll suggests that Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative party remain well ahead of their rivals. Abacus Data surveyed 1,000 adult Ontarians between June 2 and June 5 and found that if an election were held today about 49 per cent of committed voters would support Ford's PC party. The Liberals were in second with the support of 28 per cent of committed voters while the NDP were at 14 per cent and the Greens were at five per cent. About four per cent of committed voters said that they would support another party. Ford's PC party was ahead in all regions surveyed by Abacus, though the gap was the closest in Toronto where they only had a four-point lead over the Liberals, according to the poll. Notably, support for the PCs was up four points from the last time Abacus Data surveyed Ontarians in the days prior to February's election. The Liberals were down one point, the NDP were down two points and support for the Greens was changed. 'These are not small margins. A 21-point lead over the second-place Liberals is rare in any political context. But for a third-term government battling economic insecurity, it is even more remarkable,' Abacus Data CEO David Coletto said in an analysis accompanying the poll results. The Abacus Data survey also examined Ford's personal popularity level for the first time since January. It found that 44 per cent of respondents approved of the job Ford and his government are doing, up two points since the winter. Abacus says that it is the highest approval number it has recorded for Ford since August, 2023. Similarly, 33 per cent of respondents said that they had a favourable impression of Ford compared to the 33 per cent who said that they viewed him negatively. About 31 per cent of respondents viewed Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie favourably compared to the 33 per cent who viewed her negatively. NDP Leader Marit Stiles was viewed favourably by 28 per cent of respondents and viewed negatively by 25 per cent of respondents. But a comparatively higher percentage of respondents – 16 per cent – said that they did not know enough to offer an opinion. In his analysis, Coletto said that Ford currently possesses 'by far, the most defined political brand in the province' and 'remains in a very strong position' months after its re-election. 'Whether this holds depends on what happens next. The economy is still fragile. The housing crisis remains unresolved. And (U.S. President) Trump could introduce new anxieties that ripple across all levels of Canadian politics. But for now, the Ford government has time, space, and public goodwill. In politics, that is a rare combination, and one the Premier will no doubt seek to maintain and leverage to push his agenda forward,' he said. The survey was conducted using a set of opt-in panels using the Lucid exchange platform. While such polls are not assigned a margin of error, Abacus says that a comparable probability-based random sample of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
Credit rating agency says Manitoba's recent tax changes outweigh affordability offers
The Manitoba government is expected to use more 'revenue levers,' similar to its recent income and property tax changes, as part of its plan to reduce the deficit, a credit-rating agency report says. S&P Global Ratings has affirmed the Manitoba government's existing short-term and long-term credit ratings and says the outlook for the province is stable, based in part on expected revenue changes and spending control. 'The stable outlook reflects our expectation that, despite economic growth and trade uncertainty, Manitoba will deploy revenue levers and expenditure management to generate stronger fiscal outcomes in the next two years,' the report, issued May 26, said. The NDP government, elected in 2023, has promised to reduce costs for Manitobans. It has taken out advertising to promote its cut to the provincial fuel tax, an increase to a tax credit for renters and other measures. Story continues below advertisement But the money forgone by the province for those measures is outweighed by recent tax changes that are boosting provincial revenues, a director with S&P said. That includes a change in this year's budget that will no longer see income tax brackets automatically rise in line with inflation. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'That alone is enough to offset all the affordability measures that they're putting in,' Bhavini Patel, director in S&P's Canadian international public finance group, said in an interview. The NDP government has promised to balance the budget before the next election, slated for 2027. That would end a string of annual deficits that stretches back almost continuously to 2009, with the exception of two surpluses. Part of the province's revenue growth has come from recent changes that will see many property owners and income-earners pay more. In last year's budget, the government changed the way education tax credits on property are calculated. The government estimated the change would net the province an extra $148 million a year, although that number is likely to grow due to recent increases in property assessments and taxes levied by school divisions. In this year's budget, the government stopped indexing income tax brackets and the basic personal exemption to inflation. By keeping the brackets and exemption constant as wages increase, unlike most provinces, the government is forecasting an extra $82 million in revenue. Story continues below advertisement Finance Minister Adrien Sala said he's not looking at future tax changes aimed at garnering more money, and is expecting an economic boost to increase revenue. 'I think the biggest driver of new revenues will be economic growth,' he said in an interview. He pointed to the recent start of construction of the Alamos gold mine near Lynn Lake as an example. The government is also looking at keeping annual spending growth in check in order to balance the budget, he said.
Vancouver Sun
2 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
Who's responsible for online harms? Responsibility for troubled file floats between ministers
OTTAWA — As ministers settle into their new roles, discussions are underway about who is best suited to steer the government's efforts to legislate against online harms, cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault said on Tuesday. Questions have arisen about which minister and department would be best suited to handle the complicated issue after the Liberals' proposed Online Harms Act died in Parliament when Prime Minister Mark Carney triggered a federal election in March. 'It's a good question,' said Guilbeault, who oversees the Canadian Heritage department, told reporters on his way into the Liberals' weekly cabinet meeting. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'We're having conversations to see what would be the most appropriate department to bring this forward.' Canadian Heritage had been the first department to develop and later introduce the Liberals' initial plan to combat the harms Canadian users experience online. That proposal, which was released in 2021, was met with widespread backlash over concerns about the requirement for social media companies to remove content within 24 hours after receiving a complaint. Experts had warned the provision was overly broad and risked infringing on free expression, given that companies could remove legal content. The Liberals then struck an advisory group and got to work on figuring out a Plan B. Responsibility for the bill also shifted from Canadian Heritage to the Justice Department. In early 2024, former justice minister Arif Vriani introduced Bill C-63, which proposed to create a new digital safety regulator that would be tasked with ensuring social media giants took steps to reduce users' access to content, such as child sex abuse images and incite extremism and violence. That bill was also met with backlash over its proposal to introduce stiffer sentences for hate-related offences and reintroduce a controversial section to the Canadian Human Rights Act to allow people to bring forward complaints of hate speech, which civil liberties advocates and Parliamentarians said risked violating free speech. Virani spent months defending the need for the tougher Criminal Code measures to be included in the online safety bill, but last December announced the government was prepared to split the bill to help get it passed. In January, former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation and that Parliament would be suspended until March. Emily Laidlaw, a Canada Research Chair in cybersecurity law at the University of Calgary, who sat on the government's expert advisory group, said it was a mistake for the government to have combined different provisions into the same legislation and that by the time it announced the legislation would be split, 'it was too late.' 'What I'm hoping is, when they reintroduce it, they have very firmly the platform regulation law,' she says. Should the Liberals want to propose changes to the Criminal Code or the Canadian Human Rights Act, that should be separate, she said. Justice Minister Sean Fraser told reporters on Tuesday that the government was going to look at different measures when it comes to protecting children online, but would have more to say in the months ahead. One new factor in how the Liberals may decide to proceed is the fact that Carney named to his cabinet the country's first minister responsible for artificial intelligence and digital innovation, a position currently held by former broadcaster Evan Solomon, who was elected in late April's general election. The Liberals in their last bill listed AI-generated sexualized 'deepfakes' as one of the harms companies would have to take steps to tackle. Asked whether online harms would fall under his mandate, Solomon told reporters on Tuesday that it was 'up for debate.' 'But probably yeah.' Laidlaw said while she does not believe the government needs to start a new round of consultations, it ought to take a second look at the scope of harms it is seeking to tackle. For example, she suggested there was room to include the issue of identity fraud. 'I actually think it should be broadened to include some of the ways that AI can be used to facilitate harm, so it might not just be the typical social media on Instagram.' Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
