Rift opens among First Nations chiefs
‘ Now is not the time for breaking ranks’
OTTAWA — A B. C. aboriginal leader has denounced chiefs who publicly questioned the leadership of Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo on Friday.
Chiefs such as Gordon Peters, of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Nations in Ontario, had demanded Atleo and other AFN leaders boycott Friday’s meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Peters questioned Atleo’s leadership after the AFN leader, a British Columbian, went ahead with the meeting.
The bitter split in Canada’s aboriginal leadership comes during what appears to be an unprecedented grassroots uprising, led by the Idle No More movement, to demand real change in government-First Nations relations.
“That really troubles me,” said Doug Kelly, grand chief of the Sto:lo Tribal Council that represents eight First Nations in the Fraser Valley. “Now is not the time for coming apart at the seams. Now is not the time for breaking ranks and breaking discipline. Now is the time to stay together and continue to support one another to achieve change.”
Kelly made the comment as Atleo and 19 other First Nations leaders, including three from B. C., met for several hours with Harper and a handful of his cabinet ministers, including Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan, MP for Vancouver Island North.
The meeting concluded with Harper agreeing to “enhanced oversight” by his office and ongoing “high level” dialogues with First Nations on the stalled comprehensive land claims negotiation process, by far the top issue for B. C. aboriginal leaders, according to a statement from Harper’s office.
First Nations leaders, as well as a Tory- dominated Senate committee in a report last year, have complained that Ottawa’s “take- it- or- leave- it” approach has resulted in only two treaties signed over two decades.
As the meeting took place, an estimated 4,000 aboriginal Canadians and their supporters rallied on Parliament Hill, with many of them denouncing the AFN leaders who were meeting with Harper.
Peters was asked several times by reporters if he and other chiefs will publicly declare a lack of confidence in Atleo, elected to his second term this summer.
“That’s a question we’ll have to deal with after this,” Peters replied.
David Harper, grand chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak ( northern chiefs of Manitoba), said Friday he backed Atleo during the AFN leadership vote last summer but isn’t sure whether that support will continue.
“This is a test for the national chief,” Harper told the Winnipeg Free Press.
Stewart Phillip of the Union of B. C. Indian Chiefs, who joined the Idle No More rally at Vancouver City Hall on Friday, said there is nothing in the AFN constitution about how to oust an elected national chief.
Phillip, who said the AFN shouldn’t have met with Harper because of the prime minister’s “overbearing and restrictive” conditions for the meeting, expressed concern about the open divisions within the aboriginal leadership. But he said he’s confident leaders will unite to take advantage of the momentum generated by the Idle No More movement.
Peters, the Ontario native leader, said First Nations will “block all the ( transportation) corridors of this province” during a planned national day of protest on Wednesday.
Neither Phillip nor Kelly used such aggressive language, though they didn’t speak out against the use of civil disobedience tactics to force the government to make concessions.
“You’re going to get demonstrations, you’re going to get direct action,” Kelly said. “Now some of it will be peaceful and legal, and I hope that will be a strong enough message to get our governments moving in the direction we need to move.”
But he said the Sto: lo people have proven that so- called “direct action,” such as unauthorized fishing on the Fraser River, has got the federal government’s attention and forced policy changes. “If that’s what it takes that’s what it takes,” he said. “It’s not my first choice. My first choice is to sit at the table and work through these issues with good- faith negotiations.”
The AFN released a list of the
You’re going to get demonstrations, you’re going to get direct action.
DOUG KELLY GRAND CHIEF, STO: LO TRIBAL COUNCIL
demands it put to Harper and his ministers, and they include the call for reform of the comprehensive claims process that has been stalled in B. C. — just two treaties finalized in two decades of negotiations.
They called for an end to “arbitrary caps” on funding for First Nations, the establishment of schools in every First Nation community, and the establishment of a “National Public Commission of Inquiry on Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls.”
And the AFN called on the Harper government to not implement provisions in its two omnibus budget bills which weaken several environmental laws, including the Fisheries Act, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and the Navigable Waters Protection Act.
Three other British Columbians were in the Harper meeting in addition to Atleo – AFN Regional Chief Jody WilsonRaybould, and First Nations Summit executive members Ed John and Doug White.
John expressed satisfaction with Harper’s commitment to high- level oversight of the treaty process and said he isn’t troubled by chiefs criticizing their national leader. “We live in a democratic country.”