AFN chiefs will choose new national leader this week in Vancouver
Five candidates are vying to lead nation’s largest Indigenous organization
On Wednesday, chiefs from across the country will take to the Vancouver Convention Centre to vote for the Assembly of First Nations’ next national chief.
Almost 640 chiefs or their proxies, collectively representing more than 900,000 First Nations people, will choose the next leader of Canada’s largest national Indigenous organization from five candidates — including incumbent National Chief Perry Bellegarde, who has faced criticism from his rivals of being too close to the Trudeau government.
Throughout his campaign, Bellegarde has stressed that his work has gained momentum and is not yet done, adding that he hopes to keep building a new fiscal relationship with the Crown.
“You have to have a relationship with the policy and legislation decision-makers in order to influence their thinking and as an advocate organization,” Bellegarde said. “When people say the Liberals and the AFN agendas are alike, it’s because we influence their policy platform.”
But candidate Russ Diabo, who has also been a vocal critic of the organization’s leadership, said Trudeau has not been held accountable for failing to uphold Indigenous rights, and cited the Kinder Morgan’s buyout as an example.
“He’s watered down free, prior and informed consent to just the domestic duty to consult, and same thing with buying the Kinder Morgan pipeline,” Diabo said, adding he would fundamentally restructure the AFN under his leadership.
Miles Richardson, the only candidate running from B.C., has said the Crown’s relationship with Indigenous people is “at a crisis.”
“I believe the way to change that is for us to stand up in our power and exercise and assert our rights,” said Richardson, the former president of Haida Nation.
In his campaign, Richardson has stressed that the AFN must aid each First Nation to build its own nation-to-nation relationship with Canada, in order to assert their authorities.
But the AFN’s own relationship with First Nations has not been sufficient in itself, said candidate Sheila North, grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak.
“We should be following their lead. So far AFN has been acting like a government, making decisions and accepting deals on their behalf without proper and full consultation of the sovereign nations,” she said.
Katherine Whitecloud, a former Manitoba regional chief for the AFN, was not available for an interview on Sunday, but has focused a part of her campaign on empowering all First Nations in their pursuit and practice of nationhood.
“When it comes to governance, it is your right to determine how you want to govern your people because you already have those in your language and you already have those understandings in your traditional knowledge,” she said at a forum in Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, broadcast by APTN.
A 60 per cent majority will be needed to secure a victory on July 25. B.C. holds the most voting power, with 200 First Nations.