An audit into federal grant spending on a Saskatchewan First Nation found financial records were deliberately destroyed, making it impossible to verify how millions in taxpayer dollars were used, according to internal government documents.
Auditors hired by Indigenous Services Canada said they were unable to investigate most of the allegations tied to the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation in Loon Lake, SK, after records disappeared. The community, with a population of 1,815, received $74.6 million in federal transfers over five years, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
“We understand from speaking with First Nation representatives there are concerns that documents were intentionally taken from the First Nation and destroyed or never obtained,” wrote Pricewaterhouse Coopers in its forensic audit. The firm said it had to rely heavily on interviews with people linked to the allegations due to missing files.
The audit was initiated at the request of the First Nation Council in response to complaints of financial mismanagement. In total, 29 allegations were examined, with six confirmed, six dismissed, and 17 left unresolved due to a lack of documentation.
Chief Ronald Mitsuing raised the issue with federal officials during a December 2019 meeting about the community’s suicide crisis. A confidential source also flagged concerns to the government’s assessment and investigation unit.
The final audit report, which ran 52 pages, was heavily redacted but confirmed $523,784 in questionable spending where no proof of eligibility was provided.
Federal spending on indigenous programs doubled from $10.3 billion in 2017 to $23.3 billion. The Trudeau cabinet replaced the Department of Indian Affairs with Crown-Indigenous Relations and Indigenous Services that year. A 2018 Library of Parliament report found staffing in the two new departments jumped by 49%, from 4,600 to 8,300 employees.
“That’s a lot of extra money,” said Senator Scott Tannas. “Canadians want to make sure that gets into the hands of indigenous people and doesn’t support a bloated bureaucracy in Ottawa.”
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Alex Zoltan of True North reported on April 11, 2025 that an indigenous man found guilty of participating in the biggest fentanyl lab bust in Canadian history will seek a reduced sentence on 'Gladue' grounds.
His brother has already received a reduced sentence for his part in the commission of that crime, using that sentencing principle. The sentencing judge in that case found that his indigenous background included “intergenerational trauma” — presumably because an ancestor had attended a residential school. ...
Now, what is 'Gladue sentencing?'
Simply put, it is race-based sentencing available only to indigenous people.
Gladue sentencing was created by the Supreme Court in 1999, based on a 1995 Criminal Code amendment(718.2) that singled out indigenous offenders for special treatment. In a nutshell, in certain situations an indigenous offender will not go to jail where a non-indigenous offender will, if the sentencing judge was convinced that the indigenous offender had a troubled background.
A history of residential school attendance is commonly cited in a “Gladue Report” as the reason for an indigenous offenders experiencing “intergenerational trauma” that partly excused his criminal activity.
The claim is seldom checked, and it is assumed that every indigenous person who claimed an ancestor who attended a residential school has been forever traumatized by that school attendance. In Canada that “intergenerational trauma” will be presumed to carry on down through the generations forever. Canada is the only nation in the world where this odd claim is accepted. No Canadian court has questioned it, despite the fact there is no cogent evidence to support it. But I digress.
Both Parliament and the Supreme Court expressed the hope that this race-based sentence mitigation procedure would lower the shockingly high rate of indigenous offenders who are sent to jails and prisons. However there is no evidence that it has done that, and some good evidence that it has actually made things worse.
The race-based nature of the Gladue sentencing principle also makes for some strange results. It means, for example, that the indigenous Premier of Manitoba, Wab Kinew, would theoretically be eligible for Gladue consideration, while a non-indigenous person from the worst possible background would not. This is illogical.
It means that an indigenous woman who has been assaulted or raped by an indigenous man who is her partner, relative or other person known to her — which is the case with the overwhelming majority of indigenous women victims — will often watch the perpetrator who brutalized her escape a jail sentence, while a non-indigenous woman in the same situation will watch her brutalizer go to jail for what he did.
Exactly how this special sentencing helps indigenous women and girls is not clear.
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While several provinces are implementing measures to attract doctors from south of the border, Quebec says it won’t be one of them.
In an email to The Canadian Press this week, the province’s Immigration Department says no special measures are planned to encourage American doctors to settle in Quebec.
Sante Quebec, the agency that manages health care in the province, also stated in writing that no additional measures are currently planned by the agency to facilitate the recruitment of American doctors.
The agency specified that doctors who completed their training in the United States have access to the regular permit from Quebec’s College of Physicians and must immigrate to Canada, like any other person from abroad.
Unlike Quebec, other Canadian provinces have decided to facilitate the recruitment process — Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan.
International medical graduates who wish to practice in Quebec must have the equivalence of their medical degree obtained in their country and recognized by the college.
It is also possible to obtain a restrictive license that permits practising in Quebec.
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