Investigates

Members of a First Nation in Alberta say urgent action is needed to increase financial transparency in their community. Court documents raise suspicions of how band money is spent, while Elders are forced off-reserve after their house is condemned.

A band council in the Fraser Valley has been found guilty of unlawfully denying band membership and writing themselves blank cheques. Yet, council remains in power as elders die waiting for justice. Kenneth Jackson returns to a story he first broke in 2017.

A Saskatchewan government report on the Prince Albert Police is kept secret. Deaths mount at corrections facilities around town. Christopher Read investigates policing and corrections in a community with a large Indigenous population — and a lot of jails, too.

Centuries-old errors and weak enrolment criteria have put thousands of Algonquin membership claims in doubt. After an internal investigation, APTN Investigates returns to Algonquin country — and we meet a family navigating the fallout.

The sharp rise in food prices hit even harder in the North. In a joint investigation with CBC’s The Fifth Estate, Brittany Guyot visits families and experts in the North to find out the reason why their grocery bills are so high, and what needs to happen next.

This past spring, 30-year-old Gwich’in and Inuvialuk man Frank Gruben vanished without a trace from the small town of Fort Smith, NT. His disappearance has sparked concern over how the territory handles missing persons cases.

There’s a new Canada Water Act in the works, and the Trudeau government says Indigenous rights will be bolstered. APTN Investigates takes a look at what that might mean – especially for communities where clean water has been something they’ve had to fight for.

A gust of wind drifts through the prairie grass and into the city of Edmonton. A peaceful setting until you learn the history of the area. The rural city limits have long been an informal resting ground in Alberta’s capital city, where dozens of missing women’s remains have been located, many of whom worked in the sex industry. Thirty-seven women have been found in rural areas outside of the city. The rural outskirts of the city have been referred to as the “killing fields” by sex workers and advocates alike for decades.

After decades of lobbying, four communities in Vermont have been recognized by the state as Abenaki. But Abenaki in Quebec are calling the process flawed... and alleging that the groups are committing cultural identity theft on their ancestral territory.

There are still more questions than answers regarding the mysterious deaths of two Mohawk fishermen on the Bay of Quinte. APTN Investigates reporter Kenneth Jackson meets with families and community members to clear the air, fill in gaps in the police investigations – and face some difficult truths.

Two Mohawk fishermen went fishing on the Bay of Quinte eight years ago. They never came home. Police ruled that their deaths were accidental, but the families believe they were killed. APTN Investigates reporter Kenneth Jackson sets out to discover what really happened that night.

The move is on to remove people whose claims to Algonquin citizenship are based on questionable information. But legitimate Algonquin are asking themselves, has political and cultural damage already been done?

The remains of Indigenous women in Winnipeg landfills sparked outrage. Reporter Brittany Guyot speaks to those affected and uncovers just how many Indigenous women have gone missing or murdered in recent years in the city.

Two Indigenous mothers are seeking answers. Allegedly, staff at Saskatchewan hospitals told them that their babies died shortly after birth. Years later, there’s evidence these babies may have survived. The families tell Investigates’ Christopher Read that they’re now hoping for a reunion with their stolen children.

If we’re in a war against climate change, then Canada’s north is arguably on the front line of that battle. Reporter Christopher Read recently went to the Yukon to look at efforts to reduce the number of diesel generators.

They are polar opposites of Canada’s correctional system. On one side, a supermax prison is criticized for extreme isolation, excessive confinement, and no services. On the other, an Indigenous healing lodge with cultural services and many empty beds. Find out who ends up where in The Prison Within.

For years, APTN Investigates has been following the story of Odelia and Nerissa Quewezance. The Saulteaux sisters were convicted of the second-degree murder of Anthony Dolff in 1994. Their cousin admitted to killing the farmer. Still, the sisters were put in prison where they’ve been – for the most part – for nearly 30 years.

John Derek Mills is a Cree man from Waterhen First Nation. He’s a ’60s Scoop survivor with a long juvenile record. A life of crime culminated in a botched armed robbery in 1996. Originally sentenced to seven years, Mills is still behind bars nearly three decades later. He feels he has fallen through every crack in the justice system.

Although solitary confinement was abolished in 2019, it continues to operate under different names. Joey Toutsaint estimates he has spent more than 2180 days in isolation. And he says every day has been a battle to overcome his thoughts of suicide. APTN Investigates is taking viewers inside corrections facilities to see what’s really behind the overrepresentation of Indigenous Peoples in Canada’s justice system. See the four-part series here: aptnnews.ca/insidecorrections

There's a silent epidemic of sexual abuse in First Nation communities across Treaty 3 territory in northwestern Ontario. APTN speaks to survivors who say the only way to stop it is by talking about it.