First Nations chiefs boo Scheer’s stance

AFN UPSET SCHEER NOT SAYING HOW HE’S DIFFERENT FROM HARPER

Hundreds of First Nations chiefs booed Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer on Thursday when the opposition leader told them they will have to wait until his platform is released to see how he differs from former prime minister Stephen Harper.

The Assembly of First Nations chiefs were meeting in a downtown Ottawa hotel. During a question-and-answer session with the opposition leader, chiefs asked Scheer how he’s different from Harper, with one asking him to name one policy stance he holds that’s different from Harper’s and another asking how he plans to rebuild trust with First Nations people that “Harper lost.”

Chief Elaine Johnston of Serpent River First Nation in northern Ontario told Scheer that First Nations people have not had positive relationships with Conservative governments, including the new one in Ontario.

“My concern here is when you’re talking about the spirit of reconciliation, what are you going to do in that spirit of reconciliation that is going to be different than your predecessors in the Conservative government? I need to hear that because I’m not seeing it. The rhetoric is there, but there has not been positive action,” she said.

Jessica Jacobs, a councillor for Ta’an Kwach’an Council in Yukon, asked Scheer flatly how he feels about Indigenous people and issues and how he plans to try to fix the relationship between the Conservative party and Indigenous people in Canada.

“First two questions were kind of similar ... the differentiation between myself and the previous Conservative government specifically when it comes to policy. So on that I am going to have to ask you to have a little bit of patience for when our platform gets released,” Scheer said, and was hit by the wave of boos.

Scheer quickly added that Indigenous people will see change. In the last election the Conservatives did not win support from a large majority of First Nations communities and people and he wants to fix that, he said. “Part of that is coming to these kinds of meetings, in a respectful way.”

But Scheer did suggest his party would seek to protect and promote Indigenous languages, saying he and AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde have already talked about it.