Exploring Theme: "COVID-19"

Government of BC – A coalition of First Nations and BC’s Provincial Health Officer have negotiated and are signing information sharing agreements that provide more detailed information about COVID-19 case numbers in nearby communities, and will enable the nations to make more informed decisions on safety measures, and provide risk guidance to their members. The...

Prince George Citizen – An open letter written by Wet’suwet’en Ts’ako ze’ (female chiefs) is being backed by 400 health care workers in B.C. calling on the province to close work camps during the pandemic. A letter addressed to Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer on Dec. 16, 2020, penned by Dr. Bilal Bagha,...

BC Information and Privacy Commissioner – Michael McEvoy has rejected the Ministry of Health’s arguments that Public Health Act emergency powers override its duty of public interest disclosure but determined on the facts of the case before him that section 25 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) did not require the...

HEILTSUK & NUU-CHAH-NULTH TERRITORIES – First Nations leaders issued a joint statement in response to the OIPC Commissioner’s ruling this morning on their application for an order for the Ministry of Health to disclose COVID-19 information under section 25(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA): “We are angry and disappointed...

The Tyee – Wet’suwet’en Elders in Witset have identified five COVID-19 cases directly linked “to workers returning from job sites at an LNG Canada plant in Kitimat and the Coastal GasLink pipeline camps closer to home. Those have led to spread of the virus within their community…That spread — the second cluster of cases there...

BELLA BELLA, BRITISH COLUMBIA – A coalition of First Nations leaders who have been calling on BC’s Ministry of Health to share COVID-19 case information with their governments for months, say they feel vindicated by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s report on systemic racism, and expect BC’s provincial health officer and Minister of Health, to implement the...

Toronto Star – COVID-19 is negatively impacting both on-reserve and off-reserve Indigenous populations. “Hospitalizations and intensive-care rates are sky high for off-reserve populations and testing is low. Both on and off reserves, about 18% of tests come back positive. The issues identified by Janet Smylie, research chair in Indigenous health knowledge and information at Well...

NationTalk – 24 civil society groups attending the third ever meeting of Federal, Provincial, Territory Ministers responsible for human rights “condemned the obstructive attitude of some governments” in advancing international human rights obligations. Groups had pressed governments to commit to nation-wide law reform that will legally require governments to adopt a collaborative, accountable, consistent, transparent,...

NationTalk – A coalition of First Nations is escalating its efforts to receive potentially life-saving COVID-19 information from the BC Ministry of Health, by applying to the Information and Privacy Commissioner for an order to disclose proximate case information about the location (not personal identity) of confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases near their communities. The...

News 1130 – The Heiltsuk, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Tsilhqot’in nations say the provincial government didn’t consult them before throwing the doors open to non-essential travel. Their priority, they say, is protecting elders and Indigenous leaders say basic safety measures are not yet in place to be able to welcome travellers to their communities....

Globe and Mail – First Nations are among the most vulnerable populations in B.C., with the most to lose – the loss of an elder represents a loss of language, culture and history. First Nations are still waiting for the BC government to respond to repeated requests for more information and resources to protect communities...

Yellowhead Institute – release of Policy Brief: “Colonialism of the Curve: Indigenous Communities and Bad Covid Data”. There is wide discrepancy on COVID-19 related health data from Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and provincial health authorities: There is no agency or organization in Canada reliably recording and releasing Covid-19 data that indicates whether or not a person...

The Indigenous Bar Association (IBA)– Calls Upon Federal, Provincial and Territorial Justice Ministers and Attorneys General to Immediately Release low-risk Indigenous Inmates over COVID-19.Specifically, we call for the immediate release of incarcerated Indigenous people and the following actions: Immediately and minimally, carry-out the release of Indigenous inmates that are low-risk, non-violent, nearly eligible for parole,...

First Nations leadership across BC is united in calling for immediate action to protect incarcerated peoples amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 outbreak at the Mission Institution is now the third largest outbreak in the Province of BC, with the first inmate tragically passing away on April 15, 2020. Senior health and corrections officials have...

Globe and Mail – Despite accounting for just under 5 per cent of the Canadian population, Indigenous people were 25 per cent of those admitted to ICUs during the first wave of H1N1. First Nations children were 21 per cent of the paediatric patients admitted to ICUs during both waves. This led to sad and...