Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
An ancient Indigenous knife unearthed during the renovation of Centre Block will be the first artifact found on Parliament Hill to be returned to the stewardship of the Algonquin people who live in the Ottawa region.
Archeologists say the return of the stone knife, which is estimated to be 4,000 years old, is a historic move that officially recognizes Indigenous Peoples inhabited the land -- considered unceded territory -- that is now the site of Parliament Hill.
The Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, an Algonquin First Nation based about 130 kilometres north of Gatineau, Que., and the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, about 150 kilometres west of Ottawa, are to share ownership of the artifact.
It will be displayed on Parliament Hill when the refurbishment of Centre Block finishes and the building reopens, which is not expected to happen until at least 2030.
Until then, it will be shown in Indigenous communities, including schools, according to Doug Odjick, a member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg council.
The knife, shaped from Onondaga chert quarried in Ontario or New York state thousands of years ago, is not the first Indigenous artifact found in the parliamentary precinct. Shards of pottery and a shell bead were found on Parliament Hill in the 1990s.
However, Ian Badgley, manager of the archeology program at the National Capital Commission, said the knife's discovery had prompted a new approach by the federal government to returning First Nations artifacts.
"It's the first time that the government of Canada has accepted a pre-contact artifact as indicating use of Parliament Hill by the Indigenous population," said Badgley, who is also archeological consultant to the two First Nations who will take stewardship of the knife.
"It's one artifact, but it is really remarkable how it has spawned an interest in the Canadian government in working with the Anishinaabe Algonquins."
Jeremy Link, a spokesman at Public Services and Procurement Canada, said: "Discussions are ongoing on how to transfer joint ownership of this artifact to the communities."
The knife's discovery, by archeologists working on the revamp of Centre Block, coincided with the capital's first archeological field school, aimed at training First Nations archeologists.
The field school, which this year excavated the site of an Algonquin camp in Ottawa, will now be an annual event near the capital.
There are plans to establish field schools across Canada to train First Nations archeologists and give Indigenous Peoples greater control over their own excavations.
For many thousands of years, the Ottawa Valley was a trading hub for First Nations from across North America, because of its location at the confluence of rivers, which made travel by canoe easier. This has made the capital region a rich seam for archeologists.
They have dug up pre-contact artifacts originating from across North America, including shell beads and alligator teeth, and knives and other tools made from stone found far from Ottawa.
These were likely passed on as trade goods by different Indigenous communities over many seasons.
"The things that have been found in and around Ottawa have come from places as far as New York, to Hudson Bay to the West Coast as far as California," said Odjick, who is responsible for the education, culture and language portfolio on the band council.
"The knife that was found on Parliament Hill still has a point. It's about two-and-a-half inches long and it kind of looks like a spearhead. It definitely had a handle. It was from the early Woodland to late Archaic period, 2,500 to 4,000 years old."
The two First Nations who will share the knife are in talks with the federal government about "showing it off," said Odjick. "We would like it to be at the main entrance of Parliament."
The refurbished Centre Block is to have more Indigenous elements, including carvings by Indigenous people who are being recruited to work there, according to Public Services and Procurement Canada which is in charge of the renewal project.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2021
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.