Nation to Nation

Mary Simon's time as governor general has come to an end, closing a historic chapter for Rideau Hall, for Indigenous Peoples and Canada. This week, the Nation to Nation journalists' panel reflected on her time in office and her legacy. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Auditor General of Canada Karen Hogan joins host Karyn Pugliese on this week's episode of Nation to Nation to discuss what really happened when the federal government moved numerous First Nations to a funding system that provided more autonomy. Also on the show, Conservative MP Billy Morin discusses files he's been tracking at Indigenous Services Canada; Bill S-2, that seeks the end of the second-generation cut-off to the Indian Act and Jordan's Principle. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Karyn Pugliese is joined by chair of the First Nations Financial Management Board Harold Calla on Nation to Nation to discuss what First Nation leaders should demand at their First Ministers meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in the fall. To Calla, economic reconciliation means First Nations should be treated as governments with power to shape economic decisions that affect their lands ahead of those decisions already being made. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

With the new Liberal majority, they can now push through legislation. However, AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse hopes that actually means finally moving on long overdue laws and protections for First Nations. From clean water legislation, the second-generation cut-off in the Indian Act and the federal-provincial-territorial First Ministers meeting, there is a lot that must be done with this new majority. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Economic reconciliation is moving from an abstract idea to a practical question of how to make it real, as Prime Minister Mark Carney places economic growth, energy development, infrastructure, critical minerals, and northern expansion at the centre of his agenda. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Although the government has announced funding for emergency management for First Nations, the $55.6 million dedicated to emergency floods, wildfires and more is a far cry to what was spent in previous years. CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group and a columnist at the Hill Times Rose LeMay joins host Karyn Pugliese to talk about the funding and how the Liberal party is now one seat away of having a majority government. Also on the show, CBC Indigenous journalist Brett Forester uncovered declassified documents showing that Indigenous groups and leaders were being spied on by the RCMP in the 1970s. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

The head of the Chiefs of Ontario says the organization is eager to move ahead on an $8.5 billion agreement on long-term reform in First Nations child welfare after the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal approved a deal with the federal government on Monday. Host Fraser Needham chats with guests about the $8.5 billion deal, new NDP Leader Avi Lewis and the new head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

An Ottawa reporter who covers Indigenous affairs on Parliament Hill weighs in on Prime Minister Mark Carney's first year in office. Host Fraser Needham chats with guests on what the prime minister has or has not done yet in office, including talking about the proposed second-generation cut off to the Indian Act. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/  

MP Lori Idlout says she believes she can have more influence within the government instead of from the outside looking in. Idlout felt frustrated being a part of an opposition party that severely lacked resources due to the loss of caucus funding after the NDP were reduced to low seat numbers in the House of Commons. She joined host Fraser Needham to talk about her decision to join the Liberal Party. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Cindy Blackstock, the head of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society says the federal government's funding commitment for Jordan's Principle misses the mark. $1.55 billion in new funding for the program was announced and is supposed to see it through to the end of March of 2027. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler says residents of Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario are reaching a breaking point after being evacuated from their homes for close to two months due to a water crisis. The community has been without access to safe drinking water since early January after their water treatment system broke down. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Indigenous communities are at the forefront of anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, not only in solidarity with immigrant neighbours, but because other Native Americans are being detained as well. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

As democratic institutions face pressure in the United States, some are pointing to Russia as a warning. After a brief democratic opening, freedoms were rolled back when Vladimir Putin took power in 1999. Free press does not exist. Indigenous climate activist Daria Egereva was jailed after speaking at the United Nations. Cultural Survival is calling for her release. Why are those who lived through Russia's backslide sounding the alarm now? On this episode of APTN Nation to Nation, we speak with an Indigenous activist who fled Russia and journalist Pavel Kanygin, who now runs his independent platform from abroad. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Greenland, an Inuit-majority territory that has spent decades slowly pushing toward greater self-determination, suddenly found itself pulled back into the centre of great-power politics. For years, the territory — which is formally part of the Kingdom of Denmark — has been navigating a careful process of decolonization. That trajectory is now under pressure because of the constant talk from U.S. President Donald Trump about control and ownership of Greenland in the past few months.  • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Chiefs from across the country are proposing that the federal government be removed from having control over how the on-reserve First Nations child welfare system is run. The details are contained in a plan that was submitted by the National Chiefs' Children's Committee to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in late December. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

APTN's reporter in Iqaluit says U.S. President Donald Trump's continued threats to annex Greenland is having a direct effect on the people of Nunavut. Aside from proximity, Greenland and Nunavut are both northern and remote territories that have small populations, the majority of which are Inuit. Both are also of high interest to both Western and Eastern superpowers because of their locations in terms of strategic global defense. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

As Nation to Nation looks ahead to 2026, flashpoints are forming in Indigenous–Crown politics. Long‑delayed drinking water legislation is back on the agenda, raising questions about whether promised First Nations governance over source water — and the funding to make it happen — will survive. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

On this episode of Nation to Nation, three journalists who've spent the year covering Indigenous–federal politics sat down for a blunt look at where things stand. The verdict? Canada may have entered a post-reconciliation era and the cracks are starting to show. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Two separate processes, now in motion to try to end long-standing discrimination in the federal on-reserve child-welfare system, will take important steps this month. Chiefs in Ontario are seeking approval from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for a regional reform agreement, while First Nations leaders in the rest of the country, represented by the National Chief's Children's Council (NCCC), will present their own draft plan to the Tribunal just before Christmas. That's on this episode of Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

The Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly opened this week with a blunt assessment from National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, who told delegates the federal government had fallen short on key promises. But the national chief also marked one significant win, an agreement securing a First Nations seat at the First Ministers meeting. That's on this episode of Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Sweeping changes to Bill S-2 that would eliminate the second-generation cutoff from the Indian Act will face a crucial vote in the Senate on Tuesday. If the amendments are approved, they will mark a historic step toward ending decades of gender-based discrimination in First Nations status law—but they also risk delaying the bill's original goal, resolving a Charter challenge. That's on this episode of Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

The Carney government's first budget passed with opposition support, but not everyone backed it. Nunavut MP Lori Idlout explains why she abstained. Plus, renewed plans for a gas pipeline in B.C. face opposition from Lax'yip Firekeepers. And $2.8 billion earmarked for off-reserve housing remains unspent. We hear from advocates calling for action. That's on this episode of Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Ottawa's big push on critical minerals and what it means for communities. Mark Carney calls mining Canada's way out of U.S. trade dependence. One chief in Ontario says he's being pressured to approve a project that could threaten local water. In the Yukon, a gold mine spill has damaged public trust. And an Inuk deputy minister warns Ottawa is moving forward without consent. That's on this episode of Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty says the column of zeros under projections for years beyond 2026 in the federal budget doesn't mean cuts to the department but reflects a shift in "program reform." That's on Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

After hearing from more than 50 witnesses—many of them emotional, some even angry—the Senate Standing Committee on Indigenous Peoples is preparing to go further than the government ever intended in restoring legal recognition to "non-status Indians." That's on Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

The head of the Chiefs of Ontario says the Liberal government needs to live up to its promise to reintroduce legislation that will make clean water in First Nations communities law. That's on Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

First Nations across the country are reporting the loss of funding for children's programs after the federal government changed Jordan's Principle rules last February. That includes Onigaming First Nation, in northern Ontario, which has been under a state of emergency since 2024 because deaths, including deaths by suicide, remain alarmingly high. That's on this episode of Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

The Liberal government hasn't changed, but Mark Carney's take on reconciliation has. Host Karyn Pugliese talks with a panel of journalists about what that means. Is there an Indigenous candidate in the running for the NDP leadership? Not yet. We've got news that may disappoint some. And what's unfolding in Ottawa this fall? We're watching for possible cuts to Indigenous Services Canada and whether a new pipeline from Alberta to B.C. is on the table. That's on this episode of Nation to Nation. • • • APTN National News, our stories told our way. Visit our website for more: https://aptnnews.ca Hear more APTN News podcasts: https://www.aptnnews.ca/podcasts/

The head of the Chiefs of Ontario says the Ford government is headed on a collision course with First Nations if it continues forward with legislation aimed at fast tracking development in the province. That's on the season finale of Nation to Nation.

Ontario says it remains committed to developing the area known as the Ring of Fire, but the minister of Indigenous relations says it won't happen without First Nations participation. Conservative MP Jamie Schmale says his party supports expanding energy pipelines but wants to do so in consultation with Indigenous communities. Many critical minerals are found on traditional Indigenous territories. As one APTN reporter notes, that's putting increasing pressure on communities to greenlight development. That's on this episode of Nation to Nation.

Mandy Gull-Masty on her appointment as the new minister of Indigenous Services Canada, the first Indigenous person to hold the role. Pam Palmater weighs in on Mark Carney's new cabinet. And Leah Gazan talks about the future of the NDP after the party's worst showing in federal election history.

Ontario wants to fast-track development in the Ring of Fire, but a northern NDP MPP says the Ford government is going about it all wrong when it comes to First Nations. Mark Carney calls for quicker pipeline reviews while respecting UNDRIP, yet a Yukon professor says the Liberals haven't backed that up with details. And while Alberta Premier Danielle Smith floats the idea of separation, First Nations are pushing back.

A newly elected Liberal MP says Elections Canada has to do a better job of making elections accessible to Indigenous voters living in remote northern ridings.

Pam Palmater says there not much new when it comes to the Conservative platform. Hill Times columnist Rose LeMay releases book on reconciliation. Resource extraction is a hot topic at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. That's on Nation to Nation.

New polling data shows more Indigenous voters are sticking with the NDP in this federal election than the general population. That's on Nation to Nation.

The Chiefs of Ontario say that while both the Liberals and Conservatives are pushing resource development in this election campaign, they need to slow down and make sure First Nations are included. That's on Nation to Nation.

A Mi'kmaw professor says the Liberals' renewed interest in energy pipelines during this election campaign is not a good sign when it comes to the federal government's duty to consult obligations. That's on Nation to Nation.

A First Nations professor at McGill University says people shouldn't expect Indigenous issues to play a prominent role in the upcoming federal election. That's on Nation to Nation.

A lawyer says the proposed settlement agreement for Indigenous people who suffered at what were then known as Indian hospitals is about much more than money. Pam Palmater says U.S. President Donald Trump is taking up a lot of oxygen in the Liberal leadership race. NDP MP Charlie Angus says Indigenous people must be included in any government effort to fight back against the Trump tariffs.

The Trudeau government formally apologized Thursday for trauma caused to generations of Inuit people in Arctic Bay because of forced relocations in the 1930s and '40s. Families were promised they could move home within two years but it never happened. That's on Nation to Nation.

Two years ago, the RCMP closed its investigation into allegations of political interference made by former Justice Minister Judy-Wilson Raybould – but Democracy Watch director Duff Conacher says the case should be re-opened. A new report looks at the costs of implementing a guaranteed basic income, a program Senator Kim Pate says is long overdue. That's on Nation to Nation.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is pushing energy and critical minerals projects, but not so fast say the Chiefs of Ontario. Trump tariff threats means Canadian energy producers are scrambling to look for other markets. A new report says despite a commitment to move away from solitary confinement, the practice is alive and well in federal prisons. That's on Nation to Nation.

NDP MP Lori Idlout is raising concerns about the looming end of a program called the Inuit Child First Initiative, which is set to expire at the end of March. She says more than 13,000 Inuit children are enrolled in the initiative. That's on Nation to Nation.

On the latest Nation to Nation, APTN reporter Karyn Pugliese spoke about the Liberal leadership race and the challenges she faced in gaining access to each of the major leadership candidates in an effort to get their views on Indigenous priorities and policy. One candidate, however, responded quickly—Karina Gould. Here's the full interview in a bonus episode of Nation to Nation.

Twelve First Nations in northern Ontario reject a government offer to settle long-outstanding treaty issues. As Trump cracks down on illegal migrants, Native Americans are getting caught up in a case of mistaken identity. That's on Nation to Nation.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford wants to develop an area known as the Ring of Fire, but Neskantaga's chief says not so fast. What do Native Americans in the U.S. have to say about President Donald Trump's inauguration? Columnist says Justin Trudeau was the best prime minister First Nations people have ever had. That's on Nation to Nation.

Donald Trump's tariff threats are dominating Canadian headlines. Veteran U.S. journalist Mark Trahant explores how Native Americans are responding. Meanwhile, with Canada's Parliament prorogued until late March, some are calling it a state of democratic dysfunction. Hill Times columnist Rose LeMay breaks it down and suggests potential solutions. As Canada-U.S. relations remain tense, inter-tribal trade expert Wayne Garnons-Williams highlights emerging opportunities for Indigenous Peoples on both sides of the border. That's on Nation to Nation.

Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu explains why the federal government is proceeding with long-term child welfare reforms for First Nations in Ontario after failing to reach an agreement with the Assembly of First Nations. AFN Regional Chief for Ontario Abram Benedict shares why his organization supports this move. Polls suggest Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives will form the next government. Toronto Metropolitan University Professor Pam Palmater warns this could be harmful to Indigenous Peoples.

Cabinet resignations have the prime minister on the ropes. The Métis National Council elects a new leader, but one political pundit questions its future. What's next for Métis self-government after the feds announce Bill C-53 won't move forward? That's on Nation to Nation.

On her one-year anniversary, AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak reflects on her leadership. B.C. Regional Chief Terry Teegee says the AFN executive should never forget who they work for. George Erasmus has a new book out about his 50 years of First Nations activism. That's on Nation to Nation.