Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada to all fans of buzzcanada blog.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

French version

First Nations Languages Studied By Zurich University

Three indigenous languages still spoken within Canada are part of a global project on mother tongues. (CBC)

Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press
Three indigenous languages still spoken in Canada are among a group being studied as researchers attempt to understand how children around the world learn their vastly different mother tongues.

The global project — spearheaded by the University of Zurich — is looking at Dene, East Cree, and Inuktitut among 10 languages.

Researchers already know that children have little problem learning to speak their native language. What's not well understood is exactly how this happens.

"We're trying to get a real sense of how children can acquire or learn any language in the world," Dagmar Jung, a senior researcher from the University of Zurich, said in an interview.

"It's a miracle that any child can actually learn any language it's exposed to when it's young.

Aboriginal Artist Nadia Myre of Quebec wins 2014 Sobey Art Award

Nadia Myre was announced as the winner of the 2014 Sobey Art Award at a gala event Wednesday at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. (Terry MacLeod/CBC)

CBC
Nadia Myre, an aboriginal multidisciplinary artist from Quebec, has won the $50,000 Sobey Art Award, one of Canada's most prestigious visual art awards.

Organizers announced Myre, a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation north of Gatineau, Que., as this year's winner at a gala event Wednesday night at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

"Myre has built a distinctive visual vocabulary by translating her experience and that of others into works that employ traditional crafts within a contemporary, multidisciplinary practice," a statement from the Sobey Art Award jury reads in part.

Alberta Aboriginals Oppose British Columbia Dam Project

The W.A.C. Bennett Dam on the Peace River is pictured on April 19, 2010 in Hudson's Hope, B.C. Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press 

Alberta aboriginals have joined British Columbia First Nations in filing legal challenges to a BC Hydro proposal for another dam on the Peace River.

The Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations have begun a lawsuit challenging Ottawa’s approval of the Site C dam project. They say its environmental assessment didn’t consider any of the dam’s possible downstream effects in Alberta.

“We wanted studies done on what the impacts would be on the Peace-Athabasca Delta,” Mikisew spokeswoman Melody Lepine said Thursday. “Those were not done.”

The lawsuit, filed in Federal Court, is in addition to a separate one filed Wednesday by four B.C. bands. They want the dam approval overturned on the grounds the project would damage their ability to exercise treaty rights.

The Alberta lawsuit points out that BC Hydro’s Site C environmental assessment stops at Peace Point, upstream of the delta, and that research ignores how the ongoing impacts of the existing Bennett Dam will add to those of Site C. The bands say the Bennett Dam has already created significant changes in the delta that were never studied when that project was built in the 1960s.

Research has since documented significant impacts on the Athabasca Delta, despite being hundreds of kilometres downstream. Nearly half of its wetlands had disappeared by 1989. Animals that depend on them, such as muskrats or ducks, had lost up to 90 per cent of their numbers.

CBC Reports On Why Foster Homes Are Relatively Rare In Manitoba First Nations

Laurie Ferland, a foster mother from the Misipawistik Cree Nation near Grand Rapids, Man., says she has applied to adopt the little girl she has cared for for nearly four years. Then, she plans to give up her foster care licence. (Karen Pauls/CBC)

Karen Pauls, CBC News
Foster parents and aboriginal leaders say it's difficult to get foster homes licensed on First Nations communities, forcing workers to send vulnerable at-risk children to cities like Winnipeg.

"The thing that was keeping me back from becoming a foster parent was we didn't have a home. We were living in and out of [my husband's] parents' home and in and out of my parents' home, taking turns finding a place to sleep," said Laurie Ferland of the Misipawistik Cree Nation near Grand Rapids, Man.

"I asked for some help because I really wanted this little girl" — an extended family member for whom she has been caring, she said — "to have a home to grow up in, and I was very lucky that our band here helped me with a home."

It's a problem many potential foster parents face. Even if they're not that far from major cities, some reserves are on bad roads or are fly-in only.

First Nations join Vancouver land deal valued at $307M

The $307-million deal includes the Jericho Lands, where a Canadian Forces garrison is currently sited, an area west of Heather Street between West 33rd and West 37th Avenues and a small parcel of land on Marine Drive at Burkehill Road in West Vancouver. (CBC)

In a deal valued at just over $307 million, three parcels of land—in Point Grey, Cambie and West Vancouver—are now held in joint ownership by a coalition of B.C. First Nations and the Canada Lands Agency.

The Jericho Lands are one of three parcels of land now jointly owned by three B.C. First Nations and the Canada Lands Agency. (Google Streetview)

The approximately 32 hectares of land were previously owned by the federal government and include the Jericho Lands (21 hectares), where a Canadian Forces garrison is currently sited, an area west of Heather Street between West 33rd and West 37th Avenues (nine hectares) that was formerly an RCMP headquarters, and a small parcel of land (two hectares) on Marine Drive at Burkehill Road in West Vancouver that was formerly owned by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The deal, announced Wednesday, makes the First Nations — the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh — 50 per cent owners of the land, with the nations given 28 per cent of the value as beneficial interest, and purchasing another 22 per cent for $68 million.