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1. Facts about Aboriginal funding in Canada

   Thinking hard about history can be a useful exercise if incorrect assumptions are reformed. This was one goal of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s report on residential schools, which, in early June, published a 388-page summary of its forthcoming ...

2. Reconciliation requires debates grounded in hard data

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald Back in 1950, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development spent $922 per registered “Indian.” As of 2012, the renamed Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada spent $9,056 per registered First Nations ...

3. More money won't solve Aboriginal woes

   Appeared in the Ottawa Citizen If Canadians wonder why little progress has been made in bringing prosperity to First Nations communities, they just received another reminder from an Ottawa-based think tank that reinforces the status quo approach to ...

4. Taxpayers are generous to First Nations

   Appeared in the Vancouver Province and National Post., December 2013 Canada's taxpayers have been increasingly generous to Aboriginal Canadians over the decades but that reality is not often the narrative one hears from selected First Nations leaders ...

5. Increasing number of Aboriginals choose not to live on reserves

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald and Regina Leader Post With all the attention paid to the Idle No More movement and the off-again on-again talks between some native chiefs and the Prime Minister, one basic fact about Aboriginal life in Canada has been ...

6. Idle No More protests choose the wrong targets

   Appeared in the Vancouver Sun In the wake of the Idle No More protests that have blocked railway lines and have hinted at more mischief, multiple grievances have been advanced in place of clear-headed analyses. But none of the slogans, clichés and guilt ...

7. Why the AFN is wrong to oppose Ottawa's reforms on education

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald The recent decision by the Assembly of First Nations to reject Ottawa’s musings about reforming on-reserve education was an example of a react-first, ask-questions later approach. It was unhelpful, most of all to First ...

8. Natural resources alone won't save Canada's reserves

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald Ever since the northern Ontario reserve of Attawapiskat burst into public consciousness late last year, a plethora of pundits and politicians assert that if only reserves had more cash from the minerals or oil around them, ...

9. For many Aboriginals, life is better off-reserve

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald and Ottawa Citizen Are First Nations reserves in trouble? The recent coverage of northern Ontario’s Attawapiskat reserve and its squalid conditions suggest the answer is “yes.” So too Ottawa’s decision to put Attawapiskat ...

10. Small reserves, big salaries and new transparency

    Appeared in the National Post The federal government spends almost $12-billion annually on aboriginal matters, with much of it transferred to First Nations for governance, education, infrastructure and income assistance. That figure doesn’t include ...