Wawmeesh Hamilton

Rodney Dangerfield got more respect than Indigenous issues did during last nights federal leaders debate. https://aptnnews.ca//fractured-indigenous-issues-segment-/

Pictures from a story I did recently for the National Observer. The story is about Haisla Outreach, an outreach program funded and operated by the Haisla First Nation in Northern B.C. Haisla Outreach support worker James Harry used to get high in the alleys of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Today, five years sober and drug free, Harry searches those same streets and alleys for other Haisla members who are struggling with addiction to get them into treatment and off the streets.

Why aren't we hearing from First Nations leaders, advocates and organizations about the Oppenheimer homeless camp issue? I ask for two reasons. One, I recently walked through the homeless camp on Powell and Dunlevy streets. From what I saw, more than half of the some 200 residents are Indigenous men, women and some elderly. The second reason I ask is that the deadline to vacate the park is today. Service providers have found shelter for some, but residents are on the verge o...f being cast out into nothing and nowhere. Who is the face and voice for these most vulnerable of Indigenous people? Maybe First Nations leaders, advocates and organizations are working on solutions with the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Parks Board and BC Housing and we're not hearing about it. We should hear about it. If they're not involved in this, then we should hear about it. I raise this for another reason. The Indigenous residents of Oppenheimer are urban city dwellers, and the city has long been a jurisdictional ambiguous zone when it comes to programs and services for urban Indigenous people. First Nations leaders and on-reserve interest groups often say they and only they speak for all their people; that they don't distinguish them as on and off reserve. Well that distinction is being made for them, and there is no starker example of this than half the 200 Indigenous people at the Oppenheimer homeless camp. If you walked through that homeless camp and saw what I did you'd be asking the same thing.

My second piece today is in The Tyee. It's an opinion piece about the Nisga'a Lisims Government's attempt to silence a former IT manager who tried to become a whistleblower. The case continues in BC Supreme Court tomorrow. I pose that the Nisga'a are no longer a First Nation as we know them. They are a new treaty nation that is obligated to be more transparent and open about their business. The treaty brought democratic style governance to the nation almost 20 years ago. But democratic institutions like journalism that are a check on government and hold leaders accountable didn't follow. A free press would have been a benefit by reporting on the case involving the former IT manager.

I've been on a bit of a hiatus since being laid off in early summer. But I'm fighting fit and am back in the game. I've got two stories coming out today. The first is my story in the National Observer about a Haisla First Nation man who is a former addict who searches the Downtown Eastside daily for his own people who are struggling with addiction to get them off the street and off drugs. His message to them is simple but profound: I’m here on behalf of the Haisla Nation. I want you to know that you’re not alone.