Human Rights Watch has again given Canada's treatment of Indigenous people a failing grade. As Heather Yourex-West explains, the organization is highlighting how the protection of Indigenous women and girls is falling short, and the lack of access to clean drinking water for First Nations.

A prominent human-rights group says Canada is failing to address long-standing abuses, delivering a rebuke of what it calls the federal government’s inadequate climate policy and violations of the rights of Indigenous people and immigration detainees. Human Rights Watch says more than two dozen First Nations remain under long-term drinking water advisories, despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to bring that number down to zero.

According to the City of Windsor's website, the project is in the pre-feasibility assessment phase, which includes natural and cultural research and analysis, looking at the governance framework, engaging stakeholders and holding public consultations. Duckworth said members held a ceremony at Ojibway Shores Wednesday to honour the Earth. Parks Canada declined an interview with CBC News, because it wants to have Caldwell's voice "amplified on this opportunity over our own."  "It's a very spiritual time when we were out there, we were able to conduct a ceremony and recognize the water, understand the land, see the grandfather rocks that were there and ... we had two songs there," she said.

A state of emergency remains in effect for the Oneida Nation of the Thames as water levels have fluctuated from critically low to extremely high in a “very short time frame.” Oneida officials first declared a state of emergency on Dec. 15, 2022, after an “all-time low water level was recorded in the community’s water tower,” its main source of water. Community members were asked to cease all non-essential water use over the holiday period.

A new federal initiative aimed at helping Indigenous communities protect their lands and water is a "win-win for everyone," according to some Northerners. "It benefits the programs and the communities that they serve, but that benefit and that value grows beyond those communities," said Dahti Tsetso, deputy director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, which supports Indigenous Guardian programs across Canada and in the North. Tsetso has also been director of lands and resources for the Dehcho First Nations in Fort Simpson, N.W.T.

The Ktunaxa Nation says it has been left out of conversations between the federal and provincial governments and mining companies – a feeling the nation says is validated by documents revealed through a Freedom of Information request. The request to uncover the documents was made by the Ktunaxa Nation. The nation, along with local activist group Wildsight, have long been ringing the alarm bells regarding the Elk Valley’s mining pollution.

A public water blessing ceremony was held Thursday on the shores of the St. Lawrence River at the Clock Tower in the Old Port of Montreal. The ceremony was conducted by Ukrainian Bishop Bryan J. Bayda, eparch of the Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada, to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine. The water blessing is an important part of Eastern Christian traditions. It centres around the Feast of Theophany — or the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River — which is celebrated every year on Jan. 6.

LaForme, senior counsel at Olthuis Kleer Townsend, a law firm solely specializing in Indigenous issues, was also instrumental in the First Nations Drinking Water class-action settlement approved last year. Appointees to the Order of Canada will receive their insignia at an investiture ceremony with details yet to be announced.

Oneida Nation of the Thames officials have announced the cancellation of a conserve water alert in the First Nation, after a serious water shortage was first announced on Dec. 16, followed by the declaration of a state of emergency on Dec. 20. Oneida Nation, located just southwest of London, Ont., originally declared a conserve water alert due to the effect of extreme weather conditions on the First Nation's water supply. This put residents under an order to limit water use with the water reserve in the community's water tower, the primary source of water for the 546 homes and 22 buildings in the territory, at all-time low levels.

Birch Bark Coffee Company makes enjoying your morning (or afternoon - we don’t judge) coffee all the more exciting. The organic, fair-trade coffee allows you to appease your taste buds, and support Indigenous communities. Founder Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow’s (Ojibwe and Band member of Whitefish River First Nation) mission is to work towards bringing clean drinking water to every Indigenous home suffering from ‘All Water Advisories’ by providing and installing certified water purification systems. For every 100 bags of coffee sold in retail and every 50 online, Birch Bark donates one water purification system to a family in need. 

Leaders from an Oji-Cree First Nation in Treaty 9 in Ontario say they want the Canadian government to take action to properly compensate all their community members enduring a long-term boil-water advisory, after learning most of them won't be eligible for a class action settlement. In December 2021, Canada's Federal Court and Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench jointly approved an $8-billion settlement for First Nations living under drinking-water advisories lasting longer than one year.

Tragedy five years ago that claimed the lives of a father and his four children on the Oneida Nation of the Thames in Ontario has the community insistent that the federal government work with them to meet their water needs. On Dec. 15, the First Nation declared a state of emergency and ordered community members to start conserving water. The water alert was issued after a member reported his tap water was coming out brown, consistent with a high iron content. An investigation indicated that the level of the aquifer from the Thames River that feeds into the Oneida water tower is low. The tower services 546 homes and 22 community buildings.

Leaders of an Indigenous community near London, Ont., are calling for the federal government to work with them to help solve chronic water supply problems after a state of emergency was issued Tuesday due to low water levels. Residents of Oneida Nation of the Thames are under an order to conserve water and limit its use with the community's water tower at an all-time low. The tower is the primary source of water for the 546 homes and 22 buildings in the territory.

The Délįnę Got'įnę government and its federal and territorial counterparts have agreed on further protection for Great Bear Lake or TsáTué, a UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve. The new agreement will enhance conservation of the area and will lead to long-term funding. It also formally recognizes the Sahtugot'ine's millennia-long stewardship in the Northwest Territories region. "It's a step in the right direction," said Danny Gaudet, the Délįnę Got'įnę government's Ɂek'wahtı̨dǝ́ or chief. "It's finally given us the ability to actually sit at the table to talk about the preservation of water, the lake, and the water bed and the land in and around Great Bear Lake."

Canada has lifted 137 long-term drinking water advisories on reserves since November 2015. That’s equal to 82 percent of long-term advisories in the last seven years, the government claims. Still, the Liberals fell short of their promise to lift all drinking water advisories by March 2021. There are currently 31 long-term advisories still in place in 27 communities. And a document tabled this week in the House of Commons shows the work doesn’t end once an advisory is lifted. According to the document, tabled in answer to a question from Conservative MP GARY VIDAL, four First Nations have seen long-term drinking water advisories recur on five water systems that previously had advisories lifted.

The Tłı̨chǫ Government expressed "concern" over the N.W.T's decision not to approve an application by Diavik Diamond Mine to begin a process of progressive reclamation. The Tłı̨chǫ raised its issue with the decision in a letter dated July 27, stating the problem is around jurisdiction. The letter was addressed to Shane Thompson, the minister of environment and natural resources, claiming he is ignoring the treaty by rejecting a recommendation by the Wek'èezhı̀ı Land and Water Board, the land management authority for the area created after the Tłı̨chǫ agreement.

The world is "running out of water," Makasa Looking Horse says, and if we don't take action soon, it will be too late. Looking Horse, from Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, is one of the hosts of the Ohneganos Ohnegahdę:gyo – Let's Talk about Water podcast, which won a 2021 David Suzuki Foundation Future Ground Prize. The prize recognizes youth-led movements. It's a podcast created, the Suzuki Foundation says, to "engage Indigenous communities and disseminate research findings by facilitating meaningful discussion about water issues and climate change."

Numerous people who lived on a First Nation in Canada - including Saskatchewan - that had a long-term drinking water advisory for more than a year are eligible to submit a claim for compensation. The First Nations Drinking Water Settlement provides compensation for both individuals and First Nations Band Councils that were impacted by long-term drinking water advisories that lasted continuously  for at least one year between Nov. 20, 1995,  and June 20, 2021.​ The deadline to apply is March 7, 2023. 

Talks on a plan to protect land and water globally are underway at the COP15 meeting in Montreal, with the host nation Canada among a legion of countries pushing for a “30×30” deal to protect 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. Agreements on the targets, approaches and language in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework have been especially slow, with ministers from around the world set to arrive tomorrow to approve on the text. Indigenous delegates and analysts are calling for the integration of Indigenous land rights, knowledge and financing to resolve the 30×30 conservation target, citing Canada’s guardians program as a successful way to meet area-based conservation goals.

The research these youth snorkelers are partaking in is part of an Indigenous-led project to map the coastal waters of Átl’ḵa7tsem, once polluted by industry, but now teeming with fish. For centuries, Indigenous communities have had their traditional knowledge and cultural traditions overlooked, if not erased. That’s reflected in the conventional maps of Canada.