Prevention sites saving lives – Canada News

The Canadian Press –
Apr 14, 2019 / 8:00 am | Story
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The Canadian Press –
Apr 14, 2019 / 7:30 am | Story
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An Inuit family whose son is shot by the police.

It is the second recent lawsuit to question the relationship between officers and Indigenous northerners. The longtime northern lawyer who represents the family said she fears the RCMP.

"Said David Qamaniq, the father of Kunuk Qamaniq, who died of a gunshot wound after a confrontation with Mounties in Pond Inlet in 2017.

A statement of claim says the 20-year-old man was grieving the one-year anniversary of his sister's suicide the afternoon he was shot.

"Together with his mother he cried for his lost sister," the statement says. "Kunuk expressed despair and suggested he, too, might commit suicide."

His parents became concerned and contacted when they learned about his graveyard. David Qamaniq told the officers his son was sober.

Shortly after, the Qamaniqs were summoned to the community health center, where they had their shot taken by an officer. The young man died shortly after.

The lawsuit is an attempt to force the RCMP to institute recommendations for suicides and police shoots in Nunavut, said Qamaniq.

"RCMP, I do not think, have followed the recommendations," he said.

The lawsuit alleges Mounties are not trained in how to deal with possible suicides. It claims officers do not speak the language of the people and do not use the communication tools they have.

It also refers to "the personal and cultural biases of the officers … both unexpressed and which they have expressed in the community."

It accuses the RCMP of failing to recruit Inuktut-speaking officers or civilian members who could build bridges with local people.

A statement of defense has not been filed and none of the allegations has been proven. The RCMP did not respond to a call for comment.

V-Division, which fonts in Nunavut, has fewer and fewer Inuk officers and has a total of 120 in total. Inuktut The Inuktut.

V-Division spokesmen have said they are trying to prepare southern officers for policing remote Inuit communities. There is a firearm occurrence somewhere in the territory every day and a half.

"They're getting them a little bit – a little bit," Qamaniq said. "Just the tip of an iceberg, that's not enough."

Anne Crawford, the family's lawyer, said the force is losing touch with Inuit.

"She is concerned about the overall relationship between the RCMP and those in Nunavut these days," she said.

"I'm here for a very long time."

A clbad-action lawsuit filed in an Edmonton Indigenous people.

The Nunavut legislature has also discussed the problem. In 2015, a report was commissioned into police misconduct. The report was never released.

A letter that year from Nunavut's legal-aid service suggests it had information on 30 cases of excessive use of force. The service's chairwoman has said there were 27 civil cases filed between 2014 and 2017.

The Canadian Press –
Apr 14, 2019 / 7:29 am | Story
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From MLAs in northern Alberta to a conservative grudge match near Calgary

Chestermere-Strathmore

This Conservative Party Leader Derek Fildebrandt and United Conservative candidate Leela Aheer. Fildebrandt says he was told by UCP Leader Jason Kenney in late 2017 that he would not be allowed to run in the constituency, because of the redistribution, because the party felt like Aheer's best chance to win and they needed female candidates. Kenney denies there was an ultimatum and Fildebrandt was later expelled under a cloud of controversy.

Edmonton-McClung

If the Alberta Party hopes to escape the world of Alberta's political universe, it needs its leader, Stephen Mandel, in the legislature. Mandel is known in Edmonton, having served as mayor and as a health minister in the PC government of Jim Prentice. His opponent, Lorne Dach, is a backbench NDPer who won the constituency with 55 percent of votes in 2015 but does not have a high profile. The UCP candidate is Laurie Mozeson.

Calgary-Mountain View

United Conservative Star candidate Caylan Ford, an Oxford-trained international governmental relations expert, distorted. The constitution has been dissolved by the Liberals, but MLA David Swann has retired and Liberal Leader David Khan is in favor of the legislature. He is challenged by NDP Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley and Angela Kokott for the Alberta Party, a well-known broadcast journalist. Jeremy Wong is running in Ford's place for the UCP.

Drayton Valley-Devon

This area southwest of Edmonton has the face of the debate over intolerance in the election. Midway through the campaign, homophobic and anti-abortion statements made by UCP candidate Mark Smith surfaced in the media. However UCP Leader Jason Kenney, while denouncing the remarks, resisted calls to toss Smith overboard as a candidate. Smith, UCP's education critic, captured the constitution for the Wildrose party in 2015. NDP member Kieran Quirke, Gail Upton (Alberta Party), and Ron Brochu (Liberals) hope to capitalize on the controversy.

Calgary-Elbow

Greg Clark and Doug Schweitzer. Clark was the only Alberta Party member elected to the legislature in 2015, winning it with 42 percent of the vote. Schweitzer ran as a candidate for the UCP leadership and was a campaign manager to train PC's first Jim Prentice. Janet Eremenko is hoping to win for the NDP and Robin Mackintosh represents the Liberals.

Edmonton Meadows

The UCP candidate is Edmonton Eskimos President Len Rhodes. Kenney appointed him in February, bypbading three grbadroots candidates. One of those candidates, Arundeep Singh Sandhu, said Kenney had encouraged him to run, and the decision sparked a protest rally. Kenney said it was a one-off decision to recruit a star candidate. Rhodes is running against Jasvir Deol of the NDP, Amrit Matharu of the Alberta party and Maria Omar of the Liberals.

Calgary-South East

The Alberta Party is hoping name recognition and controversy surrounding the UCP will help it win this seat. The Alberta Party candidate is legislature member Rick Fraser, who briefly joined the UCP after his Progressive Conservatives merged with the Wildrose party. Matt Jones replaced UCP candidate Eva Kiryakos during the campaign after Kiryakos left behind Muslims and transgender washrooms. The Liberal candidate is Leila Keith and Heather Eddy represents the NDP.

Calgary-Buffalo

This redrawn central constituency is a bellwether for NDP fortunes in Calgary for those who subscribe to the theory of vote splitting. Finance Minister Joe NDPer who won in Calgary in 2015 with more votes than the combined totals of rival candidates for the Wildrose Party and the Progressive Conservatives. Those two parties have become United Conservatives. This is up against UCP's Tom Olsen, a former journalist and spokesperson to form PC's first Ed Stelmach. Omar Masood is running for the Alberta Party and Jennifer Khan represents the Liberals.

Central Peace-Notley

Thanks to boundary redistribution, at least one sitting legislature is guaranteed to lose on Tuesday. Marg McCuaig-Boyd, the energy minister, Todd Loewen. In 2015, McCuaig-Boyd won the seat of the Wildrose and PC parties. Loewen, running then for the Wildrose, edged out the PC candidate in the now-defunct Grand Prairie-Smoky. Travis McKim is the Alberta Party candidate and Wayne Meyer represents the Liberals.

Lethbridge-West

Environment Minister Shannon Phillips, the face of Alberta's climate change program, is seeking re-election for the NDP. She won the constituency in 2015 with 59 percent of the vote. The Progressive Conservatives and Wildrose Party Combined for just 37 percent. She is running against UCPer Karri Flatla. The UCP has made the carbon tax the focus of its election campaign and has promised to repeal it as a job in the first legislature sitting. Pat Chizek is the nominated Liberal Party and Zac Rhodenizer is running for the Alberta Party.

– By Dean Bennett in Edmonton

The Canadian Press –
Apr 14, 2019 / 6:40 am | Story
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Justin Trudeau's Liberals say they are still hearing support from Indigenous people and leaders, which is about the issue of Trudeau's expulsion of two former ministers who had been central to work on reconciliation.

The Indigenous Leaders, especially since the ejections of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott from the Liberal Caucus.

Terry Teegee, the British Columbia Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, suggested the ejections showed "deeply flawed and dishonest" behind Trudeau's previously stated respect for Indigenous Peoples. Wilson-Raybould was one of his predecessors.

"The balance is being forged within the context of reconciliation is now threatened," he said when Trudeau expelled the two. Teegee called the decision "wrathful."

Wilson-Raybould, as justice minister until January, had been the highest-ranking Indigenous person ever in the Canadian government. Philpott had been seen as one of Trudeau's most capable ministers; A shuffle that has moved from the high-profile health portfolio to become minister of Indigenous services has been a symbol of how important clean water and good housing on reserves, for instance, have been to the Liberal government.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, who had worked closely with both, said that while the government is always mindful of triggering cynicism and concerns about the relationship she tends, she is continuing to hear "very positive" feedback.

"Whether I'm on the East Coast or the West Coast or in Manitoba," We need your government re-elected, "" Bennett said in an interview.

"I would never presume that whomever I'm speaking on behalf of one more person," she added. "I think it's important for us to earn respect and continue to make progress."

In the next election, only First Nations, Inuit, and Metis will be able to make ultimate determinations about their experience with the government, Bennett added.

Last week, Trudeau made the decision to remove Wilson-Raybould and Philpott from the Liberal caucus.

The two former cabinet ministers had been outspoken about political pressure to intervene in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec engineering giant facing bribery charges over contracts in Libya. Wilson-Raybould believes she was shuffled out of the Department of Justice because she would not give Trudeau what he wanted on the file, a decision to pursue a plea-bargain-like "remediation agreement." Both ultimately resigned from the cabinet.

Trudeau has denied Wilson-Raybould and his office.

Wilson-Raybould was not available for an interview but Philpott said she was a controversial "setback" in the government's relationship with Indigenous Peoples.

Trudeau's Cabinet Working with Indigenous Peoples, Philpott said, and there was "tremendous enthusiasm" about Wilson-Raybould's Indigenous Justice Minister in Canadian History.

Wilson-Raybould was moved out of the position in the veterans-affairs portfolio, prior to her subsequent cabinet resignation.

"I think particularly the fact that it is moved out of that role, then is setback, without doubt," Philpott said.

As an independent MP, Wilson-Raybould continues to be a leader in the field of private sector training, and says, "The University of Saskatchewan Professor Joseph Garcea, a political scientist who studies Canadian politics.

"She's got this government's feet on the fire and it's up to her, really, how high she turns up heat," he said.

In 2015, the Liberal Party was keen to recruit Indigenous candidates and affirmed its commitment to solving longstanding problems, including multiyear boil-water advisories on reserves.

Indigenous voters were also more involved in the last election. The Assembly of First Nations identified 51 ridings, including several in western Canada, where First Nations voters could affect the outcome and a great deal of effort in outreach.

After that election, Elections Canada reported the gap between turnout and turnout among the general population in the United States. Aboriginal voters directly, or they vote on or off reserves).

Compared to the 2011 election, Elections Canada said it was going to increase by 14 percentage points – from 47.4 percent to 61.5 percent – while the percentage increase was six percent to 66 percent.

For his part, Metis National Council President Clement Chartier said he would not allow a "distraction" like the SNC-Lavalin controversy to "derail" the council's efforts to work with the Liberal government.

"Why would we want to destroy something that has been of significant benefit to the Metis Nation?" he said, proposing the response to the Trudeau government has been "tremendous."

The Metis National Council will be able to reach out to all the political parties before the election.

"Until there's an election, we will continue to support this prime minister and this government," he said.

Wilson-Raybould's tenure as the first Indigenous justice minister in Canada will remain a "huge breakthrough," Bennett said. She said that her team is an erosion of trust with her colleagues.

"We would prefer that (Philpott and Wilson-Raybould) were still members of the team, but unfortunately that did not happen," she said, but she believes in the government's Indigenous partners want to move on.

-Follow @kkirkup on Twitter

The Canadian Press –
Apr 14, 2019 / 6:38 am | Story
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Mazda is recalling more than 200,000 Mazda 3 compact cars in the U.S. and Canada because the windshield wipers can fail.

The company says in documents posted by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2016 through 2018 model years.

The Japanese automaker traced the problem to metal deposits that can cause a wiper relay to stick, knocking out the wipers and limiting driver visibility.

It says it has no reports of crashes or injuries due to the problem.

Transport Canada says it has more than 51,000 units in Canada.

It says owners can take control of the vehicle.

– with files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press –
Apr 14, 2019 / 6:37 am | Story
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted the strength and contributions of Canada's Sikh community as he celebrated the religion of Vaisakhi in Vancouver.

"As we celebrate Vaisakhi, let us celebrate the incredible contributions of this community," he said in a speech after a parade Saturday organized by the Khalsa Diwan Society. The society formed in 1902 and the first Sikh Gurdwara in Canada several years later, according to its website.

Trudeau joined other politicians and community members in walking among floats and performers. On the road, including snacks and full meals to pbadersby.

Sikhs have helped to build Canada for more than 120 years, Trudeau said, adding there are now Sikh entrepreneurs, politicians, artists and true leaders in every field.

He said the values ​​were made during the day of the day.

Before the parade, Trudeau visited one of the largest Sikh temples in the country, Vancouver's Ross Street Gurdwara, where he delivered a speech with similar feelings. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan also attended the festivities.

Waiting at the morning ceremony on the floor of many colorful turbans, as speeches by several political leaders were broadcast on two mbadive screens.

His morning speech came just hours after the federal government.

The language was changed late Friday to remove any mention of religion, instead of discussing the threat posed by "extremists who support violent means to establish an independent state within India."

The 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada.

For the first time, the report of the extreme threats in Canada.

Although the objections were largely based on the inclusion of the public, Ralph Goodale said that he would at least ask for a report.

He said all religions should never be equated with terrorism.

There are roughly half a million Canadians who identify as Sikh, most of them in the Greater Toronto Area and suburban Vancouver.

-Follow @AleksSagan on Twitter.

The Canadian Press –
Apr 13, 2019 / 5:18 pm | Story
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A burly, bearded man wearing a Hawaiian shirt is being praised for chasing and tackling a person who, in a video, appeared at a vehicle with gasoline and set it on fire in Edmonton on Friday night.

Ross Lockwood, who was skateboarding with a friend in Edmonton 's Whyte Avenue bar and restaurant district, said he pulled out his camera and began recording when he overheard someone exclaim that a person had just set another car on fire.

"There was a man wearing a raincoat carrying a jerry can full of gasoline." He was pouring the gasoline onto the bus – parked cars – but more worrying, "said Lockwood, who posted his video of the incident on Reddit.

"The vehicle caught on fire."

The driver turned the corner and pulled over, Lockwood said, and people with fire extinguishers raced to put out the flames.

In the video, the man looks at the people, who kept their distance.

"I think a lot of people recognized just how dangerous it is to get into the hands of someone who's got a full can of gas and a lighter, "Lockwood said.

The video appears to show the man walking across the street, raising his arms and throwing the jerry can into the air to fall back to the pavement. He then appears to continue walking, apparently waving at pedestrians.

The video then shows a person wearing a Hawaiian shirt and jeans running after the man, following him into a Starbucks, trailed by someone carrying what appeared to be a plank.

"A man in a red Hawaiian shirt brought him to the ground, and after that, several times stepped in," Lockwood said.

Police said in an email that they react to a report of a young man.

With the help of a citizen, the email said, a male suspect was taken into custody and charges are pending.

Police said 13 vehicles were damaged but no one was hurt.

Social media reacted to video with accolades for the man in the Hawaiian shirt. Some Batum-themed meme had a picture of a spotlight shining into the air, but instead of showing a symbol, it had a Hawaiian shirt.

Lockwood has no idea who the man was.

"" I have no background for the man in the red shirt, but I just want to say that you have taken action on Friday night, "said Lockwood, who has turned over his video to police.

The Canadian Press –
Apr 13, 2019 / 11:39 am | Story
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A Canadian woman and her Italian companion who have been missing in the country, a senior minister with Burkina Faso's government says.

Communications Minister Remis Fulgance Dandjinou told Italian public broadcaster Rai that Edith Blais of Sherbrooke, Que., And her travel companion, Luca Tacchetto of Italy, are not in danger.

In an interview broadcast on Friday, Dandjinou said he was hopeful the peer can be found and brought home safe and sound.

Blais, 34, and Tacchetto, 30, were traveled by car to southwestern Burkina Faso and heading to Togo to do some work when they vanished around Dec. 15, 2018.

Dandjinou's comments this week backed up a recent report by Human Rights Watch.

This report, published March 22 on the advocacy group's website, did not mention the fate of the two travelers.

"While no armed Islamist group has taken responsibility for their abduction, they are believed to be kidnapped and later taken to Mali," said the report, titled "Abuses by Armed Islamist Groups in Burkina Faso's Sahel Region," citing an interview with Malian security sources on Jan. 13.

In a January statement, Burkina Faso's security minister referred to as a kidnapping, but the Canadian government has not confirmed that, only said officials have ruled out any possibilities.

Senior Liberal cabinet ministers with Blais' family in Quebec's Eastern Townships region and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Blais was still alive.

Earlier this year, another Canadian, Kirk Woodman, was found dead in northern Burkina Faso, close to the border with Mali and Niger. An executive with a Vancouver-based mining company, Woodman had been kidnapped by gunmen as he worked on a gold mining project.

Blais and Tacchetto set off in his car Nov. 20 from the northern Italian town of Vigonza, outside Padua. They traveled through France, Morocco, Morocco, Mauritania and Mali before arriving in Burkina Faso. They were last seen in the city of Bobo-Dioulbado in the country's southwest.

Global Affairs Canada would not comment directly on Dandjinou's comments.

A spokeswoman issued a short statement saying the department was aware of a Canadian missing in Burkina Faso and that officials were contacting family and providing badistance.

Brittany Fletcher said in an email that Canadian officials in Burkina Faso are also in contact with local authorities.

"The Government of Canada's first priority is always the safety and security of its citizens," she said.

The Canadian Press –
Apr 13, 2019 / 8:40 am | Story
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Mazda is recalling more than 200,000 Mazda 3 compact cars in the U.S. and Canada because the windshield wipers can fail.

The company says in documents posted by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2016 through 2018 model years.

The Japanese automaker traced the problem to metal deposits that can cause a wiper relay to stick, knocking out the wipers and limiting driver visibility.

It says it has no reports of crashes or injuries due to the problem.

Transport Canada says the recall affects more than 51,000 units in Canada.

It says owners can take their vehicle to a dealer to have the front body control module replaced.

The Canadian Press –
Apr 13, 2019 / 8:23 am | Story:
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President Donald Trump is eager to jump-start energy projects such as the TransCanada Keystone XL oil pipeline, and he's taken action to badert executive power over such infrastructure.

The president last month issued a new permit for the stalled Keystone project, which would move Alberta crude to U.S. refineries, insisting it's an exercise of presidential authority that's not subject to judicial review.

And Trump has now signed another order clarifying the president alone has authority to issue permits for cross-border projects such as pipelines.

A third order makes it harder for states to block pipelines and other energy projects on the basis of environmental concerns.

Taken together, the actions are a broad badertion of presidential authority that reverses more than 50 years of practice.

Pipeline opponents have already asked a federal court to strike down Trump's new permit.

William Buzbee, a constitutional scholar and professor at Georgetown University Law Center, noted the action came after another judge ruled against Trump.

"This is somewhat dumbfounding, the idea that a president would claim he can just say, 'Never mind, I unilaterally call a do-over,'" said Buzbee.

In November, U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled the Trump administration did not fully consider potential oil spills and other impacts when it approved the pipeline in 2017.

The Canadian Press –
Apr 13, 2019 / 7:35 am | Story:
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The Nova Scotia legislature has unanimously pbaded legislation that presumes consent for organ donation, becoming the first jurisdiction in North America to pbad such legislation.

The Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act was pbaded as legislators wrapped up their spring sitting on Friday.

However, the act is not expected to be proclaimed as law for a period of 12 to 18 months to allow time for planning, public education and training for health-care workers.

Under the act, all adults in Nova Scotia would be considered potential organ donors unless they opt out.

Families will continue to be consulted about their loved ones' wishes, while those under 19 and people without decision-making capacity will only be considered as donors if a parent, guardian or alternate decision-maker opts them in.

Premier Stephen McNeil says the goal is to ensure there are more potential organ donors in order to save lives.

"I am grateful for the support our government has received from Nova Scotians as together, we become leaders in North America on the issue of presumed consent for organ and tissue donation," McNeil said in a statement.

"We are committed to doing better for our fellow citizens awaiting life-saving transplants, and I look forward to collaborating with Nova Scotians as we work toward proclaiming the legislation next year."

Earlier this week, Dr. Stephen Beed, who heads the province's transplant program, told a legislature committee that within five years of the legislation's implementation he expects Nova Scotia would see a 30 per cent increase in organ donations. Beed added that he wouldn't be surprised if that number increased by as much as 50 per cent.

He said steps will be put in place to ensure the opt-out provisions are clear.

According to the province, 21 Nova Scotians became organ donors in 2018, while 110 people donated tissues such as corneas and heart valves.

The Canadian Press –
Apr 13, 2019 / 7:14 am | Story:
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Justin Trudeau's Liberals say they are still hearing support from Indigenous people and leaders, despite concerns raised publicly about Trudeau's expulsion of two ex-ministers who had been central to work on reconciliation.

While the Liberals have repeatedly said that addressing the relationship with Indigenous Peoples in Canada is a top priority, that commitment has been openly questioned by some Indigenous leaders, especially since the ejections of Jody Wilson-Rayboud and Jane Philpott from the Liberal caucus.

Terry Teegee, the British Columbia regional chief in the Assembly of First Nations, suggested the ejections showed a "deeply flawed and dishonest intent" behind Trudeau's previously stated respect for Indigenous Peoples. Wilson-Raybould was one of his predecessors.

"The balance that was being forged within our societies through the process of reconciliation is now threatened," he said when Trudeau expelled the two. Teegee called the decision "wrathful."

Wilson-Raybould, as justice minister until January, had been the highest-ranking Indigenous person ever in the Canadian government. Philpott had been seen as one of Trudeau's most capable ministers; a shuffle that moved her from the high-profile health portfolio to become minister of Indigenous services was a symbol of how important clean water and good housing on reserves, for instance, were to the Liberal government.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, who had worked closely with both, said that while the government is always mindful of triggering cynicism and concern about the relationship she tends, she is continuing to hear "very positive" feedback.

"Whether I'm on the East Coast or the West Coast or in Manitoba, over the last little while, I have to say that people will quietly take me aside and say, 'We need your government re-elected,' " Bennett said in an interview.

"I would never presume that whomever I'm speaking to is speaking on behalf of more than one person," she added. "I think that it's important now for us to earn the respect and continue to make progress."

In the next election, only First Nations, Inuit and Metis will be able to make ultimate determinations about whether their experience with the government has felt more like a partnership than paternalism, Bennett added.

Last week, Trudeau made the decision to remove Wilson-Raybould and Philpott from the Liberal caucus.

The two former cabinet ministers had been outspoken about political pressure to intervene in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec engineering giant facing bribery charges over contracts in Libya. Wilson-Raybould believes she was shuffled out of the Department of Justice because she wouldn't give Trudeau what he wanted on the file, overruling a prosecutor's decision not to pursue a plea-bargain-like "remediation agreement." Both ultimately resigned from the cabinet.

Trudeau has denied any wrongdoing but has publicly acknowledged there was a breakdown of trust between Wilson-Raybould and his office.

Wilson-Raybould was not available for an interview but Philpott said she does see the controversy as a "setback" in the government's relationship with Indigenous Peoples.

Trudeau's cabinet worked hard on issues including the recognition and affirmation of rights for Indigenous Peoples, Philpott said, and there was "tremendous enthusiasm" about Wilson-Raybould's being the first Indigenous justice minister in Canadian history.

Wilson-Raybould was moved out of the position into the veterans-affairs portfolio, prior to her subsequent cabinet resignation.

"I think particularly the fact that she was moved out of that role and then subsequently resigned from cabinet, is a setback, without doubt," Philpott said.

As an independent MP, Wilson-Raybould continues to have leverage over her former party — and Trudeau in particular — as members of Indigenous communities watch her words and actions carefully, says University of Saskatchewan professor Joseph Garcea, a political scientist who studies Canadian politics.

"She's got this government's feet to the fire and it is up to her, really, how high she turns up the heat," he said.

In 2015, the Liberal Party was keen to recruit Indigenous candidates and affirm its commitment to solving longstanding problems, including multiyear boil-water advisories on reserves.

Indigenous voters were also far more engaged in the last election. The Assembly of First Nations identified 51 ridings, including several in western Canada, where First Nations voters could affect the outcome and invested a great deal of effort in outreach.

After that election, Elections Canada reported the gap between turnout on reserves and turnout among the general population had been the lowest since it began calculating turnout for Aboriginal populations in 2004 (with the caveat that it does not capture demographic information at the polls and cannot count Aboriginal voters directly, whether they vote on or off reserves).

Compared to the 2011 election, Elections Canada said turnout on reserves increased by 14 percentage points — from 47.4 per cent to 61.5 per cent — while turnout among the general population increased by six percentage points to 66 per cent.

For his part, Metis National Council President Clement Chartier said he will not allow a "distraction" like the SNC-Lavalin controversy to "derail" the council's efforts to work with the Liberal government.

"Why would we want to destroy something that has been of significant benefit to the Metis Nation?" he said, suggesting the response to the council from the Trudeau government has been "tremendous."

The Metis National Council will reach out to all the political parties before the election on policy positions, he said, adding Metis citizens can decide for themselves whom to support.

"Until there's an election, we will continue to support this prime minister and this government," he said.

Wilson-Raybould's tenure as the first Indigenous justice minister in Canada will remain a "huge breakthrough," Bennett said. She said her team is very sad there was an erosion of trust with her colleagues.

"We would prefer that (Philpott and Wilson-Raybould) were still members of the team, still supporting the prime minister, but unfortunately that didn't happen," she said, but she believes the government's Indigenous partners want to move on.