First Nations set to pick national chief
Election may set tone for future as aboriginal groups at crossroads in relations with Ottawa
— Canada’s First Nations chiefs gather in Winnipeg for three days this week for a momentous meeting that could set the tone for how indigenous leaders assert their demands to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in coming months.
Several hundred chiefs from the country’s largest aboriginal group — the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) — will elect a new national chief.
Will that chief be a hard-edged rebel who adopts angry, perhaps even threatening, rhetoric to get the attention of Harper and the rest of the country?
Or will he appeal to the better nature of Canadians, and try to use logic to persuade Harper to accept aboriginal demands on issues such as education funding, treaty rights, missing and murdered indigenous women and shared natural resource development?
“Our young people are getting frustrated,” said Saskatchewan Chief Perry Bellegarde, one of three leadership contenders. “They are tired of the poverty and the overcrowded housing and the systemic racism. They are tired of being held back. The relationship in Canada between indigenous peoples and governments has got to change.”
The AFN meeting comes at a precarious time because relations between indigenous leaders and the Conservative government are in a deep chill.
The election is Wednesday. Bellegarde, chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) is seen as the front-runner. He ran second to Shawn Atleo in 2009.
The other major candidate is Ghislain Picard, regional AFN chief of Quebec and Labrado and interim national chief after Atleo.
A long-shot is Leon Jourdain, former Grand Chief of Treaty 3, northwest Ontario and eastern Manitoba.
The AFN and the prime minister are at loggerheads over First Nations education. In April, the government introduced Bill C-33, to hand control of on-reserve education to First Nations, while also setting standards. The government promised $1.9 billion in new funds.
The chiefs say the bill fell short of providing sufficient funds for schools on reserves, did little to protect indigenous culture and languages, and actually gave the federal government control of the system.
Without AFN’s support, the government put the bill on ice and ignored pleas from Picard, to ditch the bill and renew talks.
On resource development, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in June recognizing a First Nation’s title to a specific tract of land in British Columbia — a decision with implications for energy projects such as the Northern Gateway pipeline.
In future, economic development on land on which title is established will require First Nations consent.