APTN;

The former Liberal candidate appointed by Indigenous-Crown Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett to conduct consultations on First Nation child welfare issues was given a $437,000 contract to do eight months of work, according to internal documents.
Bennett appointed Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, chair of truth and reconciliation at Lakehead University, as her special representative on child welfare in August 2016. The appointment, which ended on March 31, was made following the January 2016 ruling from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal which found Ottawa discriminated against First Nation children by under-funding child welfare services on-reserve.
Wesley-Esquimaux, who ran for the Liberals in 2011, was required to conduct consultations on child welfare, act as a mediator and conduct media interviews and produce a report on the issue, according to the contract obtained by NDP MP Charlie Angus.

Emphasis mine.

Big Chief Librano;

While most First Nations continue to comply with Stephen Harper’s controversial financial transparency law, a National Post analysis has found the compliance rate sharply dropped after Justin Trudeau’s government dropped a key enforcement mechanism.
As a result of the Trudeau government’s rule change, some bureaucrats are worried they won’t be able to properly account for and administer the billions of dollars transferred each year to the country’s First Nations.
Moreover, the Post has learned that the drop in the compliance rate to 85 per cent this year from 92 per cent in Harper’s last year may be the fault of the federal government itself which, in some instances at least, may have failed to live up to its obligations under the First Nations Financial Transparency Act (FNFTA).

This is big;

Two First Nation chiefs say they were offered money as enticement to sign their communities up for Bank of Montreal loan agreements arranged by a Winnipeg-based financial firm that an internal document shows used “kickbacks” as a tool to secure clients.
The chiefs, from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, said they were offered money by senior officials with The Usand Group, which bills itself as a firm dedicated to helping First Nation communities participate in the “global economy,” according to its website.
They said Usand would arrange the loan agreements with the First Nation and then approach the Bank of Montreal to secure the loan. The loan total would include fees owed to Usand resulting from the firm arranging the agreement.
[…]
[A]n internal Usand document obtained by APTN National News shows that the firm listed the use of “kickbacks” as a potential tool for use in securing deals with prospective First Nation clients.
The document, a 2014 risk management plan, analyzed the potential risks associated with the use of “kickbacks.” The document outlined possible “preventive actions” to mitigate those risks along with “contingency plans” to counter any negative fallout from the use of the tactic.
The main risk associated with the use of kickbacks was the possibility “any ‘favours’ become publicized,'” said the document. The document rated the likelihood of this happening as “medium” and the potential impact as “very high.”
The document suggested that “no written record of dealings” be made of any kickback arrangements which should be shrouded in “vague langue, ie: offer to ‘give money back to community to be used at their discretion.'”
In the event a kickback deal became public, the document suggested Usand employ a “positive PR strategy with (a) communications firm.”

It gets better.

Ovide Mercredi is President of the Manitoba NDP.
Via.

As of today, the Aboriginal Affairs website shows that 197 First Nations, or roughly 33 per cent, of the bands required to file had not yet complied. That is significantly higher than the number that missed the deadline last year, when 98 per cent of bands complied with the new law.

Narrative, disrupted;

[Chief Cece Hodgson-McCauley, of the Inuvik Dene Band] claims that a lot of the bad stories told about residential schools are a lie.
“They’re only reporting the bad side, and the more you lie, the more you say it’s bad the more money you make, and the lawyers are making money because they’re pushing people to tell their stories.”
She said some people have contacted her, wanting to tell their positive stories about the schools, but are too scared to come forward.
Hodgson-McCauley wants the truth to come out, and she plans on being the person to start it.

h/t Derek