Maher column

Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, issued a release Thursday inviting the governor general and prime minister to meet with chiefs on Jan. 24, in the hope that it would convince Chief Theresa Spence to end her hunger strike.

On Victoria Island, across the river from Parliament Hill, Spence sat in her teepee while her supporters warmed themselves around a fire, drumming and chanting in the cold, chatting in Cree, English and French.

A couple of big fellows stood at the door of the teepee, opening the tent flap to let in supporters, who stood in line, waiting to see the chief.

Danny Metatawabin, Spence’s spokesman, eventually came out to say that Jan. 24 was too long to wait.

“At this stage, for Theresa’s health and safety, a meeting needs to take place sooner than Jan. 24,” he said.

Spence’s hunger strike, and the Idle No More protests inspired by it, have been a challenge to the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but also to the elected chiefs.

Atleo came to see Spence on Friday, sitting in the teepee with other chiefs for about two hours, then left in a rush, likely headed off to tell the PMO that the date must be moved.

On Friday, Harper’s office issued a release, stating that the prime minister would agree to meet with chiefs on Jan. 11.

The release didn’t mention Spence or Idle No More, but do not doubt that Harper agreed to the meeting because of the hunger strike

Harper had ignored it until Friday, refusing to give in to blackmail. His office rejected approaches from the Assembly of First Nations, trying to get Spence to meet instead with Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan.

But the prospect of Spence’s death, and the spread of the Idle No More protests, posed a risk that the PMO could not afford to ignore.

Spence is among a very small group of people who have won a staring contest with Harper, whose cussedness is normally a source of strength.

In this case, though, he met his match.

The showdown began in October 2011 when Spence declared a state of emergency in Attawapiskat, a fly-in community of 2,000 north of Timmins, on the shores of James Bay.

NDP MP Charlie Angus uploaded video showing the terrible conditions in the community, and the national media flew in to film the Third World shantytown.

Under fire in the House, the government pointed to the amount of federal tax dollars spent on Attawapiskat — $90 million on 2,000 people since 2006 — and imposed a third-party manager, dumping the blame for the situation on Spence.

A federal judge later ruled that decision to impose the manager was “unreasonable,” and lamented “decisions made in the glare of publicity and amid politically charged debate.”

Imposing that manager humiliated and angered Spence, but the impetus for her hunger strike came from Bill C-45, the budget omnibus bill that lifted federal environmental protection from lakes and rivers across Canada.

Her hunger strike gave a focal point to simmering aboriginal anger, and fuelled the Idle No More protests — a social-media movement similar to Occupy Wall Street.

Bill C-45 is part of the government’s key economic agenda: making it easier to exploit resources in our hinterland, leading to economic development and jobs.

Spence wants first nations to get a share of the royalties from developments.

Goodness knows whether that would really improve lives on isolated, messed up reserves like Attawapiskat, or whether the money would end up building fancy houses for chiefs, but the government and first nations must talk about resource development, the key to improving life in all of Canada’s Attawapiskats.

The status quo is unacceptable, and Harper’s government has not made changing that a priority. There aren’t many votes in tackling the knotty problems north of 60, but there is peril in ignoring them.

The Northern Gateway pipeline, for example, is likely doomed because first nations on the route oppose it.

The alternative is on display at Fort McMurray, where employers prize aboriginal workers, in part because they don’t have to fly them back to Newfoundland every few months.

This is the future for aboriginals in the north — participation in resource developments. That should be a top priority for the federal government, which is doing a terrible job on its treaty responsibilities, including education, where, amazingly, it spends dramatically less per student than the provinces do.

To get to the point where aboriginals are partners in resource developments, the government has to reckon with native leaders, which Harper has resisted.

This week, Harper wisely recognized that the time had come for that reckoning.

There’s reason to hope that something good will come from this.