Candyce Paul
English River First Nation
Candyce Paul has lived in northern Saskatchewan for more than three decades with her husband, Marius Paul. She spent many years living and learning the traditional northern culture which she is passing on to the next generation. This included designing and helping to build two log homes. She is happiest in the natural environment and tending her garden.
In 1987 she graduated from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology with an Honours Diploma in Architectural Technology. This led her to supervising construction on a large hospital addition and later to Chairing the Housing Committee at English River First Nation where she and her family live.
Candyce has also facilitated Aboriginal Head Start Programs at English River First Nation and trained facilitators in the nine Bands of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council. She assisted home-schooling her two children and then co-founded Reclaiming Our Youth Home Front School where she worked with a wide range of students.
Most recently, Candyce has taken on the role of Emergency Management Team Command for her community at English River First Nation – La Plonge to coordinate a response to the pandemic and other emergencies like flooding and forest fires.
When her community became a target of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization on a proposal to store high-level nuclear waste in her family’s territory she became the Outreach Coordinator for Committee for Future Generations. This group has been educating the public about the risks of nuclear waste and uranium mining for the past 10 years. She has served 4 terms as a board member with Inter-Church Uranium Committee Education Cooperative and was on the Steering Committee of the Western Mining Action Network for 2 years where she advocated successfully for increased representation for Indigenous participants.
Both Candyce and Marius Paul stand to protect the land, waters, and future generations from the over ambitious resource extractive industries that are targeting their part of northern Saskatchewan, from logging to peat mining, to uranium mining.