The Assembly of First Nations waded into the political firestorm over Attawapiskat on Tuesday, passing a unanimous resolution to ask the United Nations to monitor the federal government's response to a housing emergency on the reserve. The chiefs asked the UN to appoint a "special rapporteur" to examine whether the Harper government is dealing with the crisis in a way that meets its obligations under Canadian and international treaties concerning First Nations people.
The declaration, which also calls on the federal and provincial governments to respond to communities in dire need, was added to the meeting's agenda at the last minute as the controversy over Attawapiskat grows.
The resolution asks Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan to cease imposing measures, such as the third-party manager it sent to Attawapiskat.
A spokesperson for Duncan said the government is committed to working with Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence and band council members on a solution to the housing crisis. However, chiefs were unanimous in their indignation over the government's response to the crisis on the reserve.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo said Tuesday the only way to deal with problems such as Attawapiskat is to respect treaty rights between Ottawa and First Nations, saying natives have a reason to feel angry and betrayed.
"When I spoke with Chief Spence and leadership across the North, we discussed the urgent needs, but also that the way forward is based on respectful treaty implementation and an equitable share of resources from their land – not imposed, punitive, unilateral action," Atleo said at Tuesday's meeting.
Atleo said he stands beside the remote northern Ontario community's battle to force the federal government to deal with a housing shortage, calling it a "national disgrace."
"There is only one struggle, there is one agenda, and one goal: to build a better life for all our people based on our rights, our identity and, in fact, our very survival," Atleo said.
"And we must use every tool that we have."
Atleo is preparing for a summit of chiefs from across the country with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the end of January.
He's suggested it may be a "moment of reckoning" between Ottawa and First Nations.
In Attawapiskat, Spence declared a state of emergency in late October stating families in her community face a winter in shacks that aren't insulated and without running water.
Last week, the federal government announced it would install a third-party manager to run the reserve's finances, something that angered Grand Chief Stan Louttit.
The manager was rejected by band councillors and left Monday.
Louttit said Tuesday that he objected to how quickly the third-party manager was sent to the community, without notice and without having a plan to help with the emergency.
"If they want to come in and be a third party manager, they would say okay community we'll work with you. Here's the plan, here's our budget, here's our schedule, here's the projects. This is how we'll do it, this is how it will be in the long term, and this is our goal in terms of making conditions in your community equal to any other Canadian in the country," Louttit said during a news conference he held with Spence.
"But no they just pop in…If they're going to come in and do something, have a plan. Where is their plan? We don't know."
Spence said the government's decision to appoint a third-party manager indicates there is more concern about the community's finances, which she said are laid bare in quarterly audits, than in the housing and health crises.
"Third party is not the solution here," Spence told reporters. "We're in crisis. And I've been saying that. We've been handling our financials within one year and we even got the deficit down. But the issue is not the deficit right now, it's the crisis. These people need health assessments right now, because a lot of them are sick."
Spence said she and the local council have been working on an emergency plan, including getting quotes and ordering materials for nearly half-a-dozen new homes.
She said she will seek legal advice, and ask her fellow chiefs, about next steps.
Former prime minister Paul Martin accused the federal government of engaging in "wedge politics" rather than face the crisis in Attawapiskat head on.
"This is discrimination and it's a failure to deal with what really is one of, if not the greatest, social problems we as a country face," Martin said Tuesday in an interview with CTV's Power Play.
He also criticized the Harper government for abandoning the $5 billion Kelowna Accord that Martin had hoped to establish between the provinces, the federal government and First Nations leaders. The accord was aimed at improving education, health care, housing, accountability and other issues.
"You're talking about human lives here. We're talking about people who, as Christmas approaches, are going to be freezing in those homes," Martin said. "As a country, and an incredibly wealthy country, we just can't allow that to happen. What is happening to these people is beyond the pale by any definition."
The NDP's Charlie Angus, whose riding includes the community, said Tuesday Ottawa is provoking a political showdown with Attawapiskat that is drawing attention away from the actual housing crisis.
Angus also questioned Duncan's claims Ottawa is sending supplies and emergency help to Attawapiskat - when the only extra supplies the Ontario MP has seen delivered were boxes of doughnuts the third-party manager brought with him when he arrived at the reserve.
Since then, the Canadian Red Cross has arrived in the community to deliver aid and to help keep people warm, properly clothed and fed. Louttit said the people living on the reserve are grateful for the assistance.
He said tens of millions of dollars are needed to build proper housing for residents of the reserve.
"The backlog of housing in our community is approximately 280 houses," he said.
"Multiply that by approximately $250,000 per house. Figure out the math."
But Mark Milke, Alberta director for the Fraser Institute, said neither discrimination nor a lack of money account for the problems in First Nations communities.
Milke said the communities are too remote to remain viable, and argues that the system to distribute funds must change.
"When you give money to the top and then ask them nicely to distribute it to the bottom, are you really surprised that it doesn't make it to the bottom? The victims are those who unfortunately sit on reserves and are subject to that sort of gamesmanship, which comes along with the way the institution is set up," Milke told Power Play. "This is an institutional flaw, and it's not going to be corrected by the way with more money, more control over natural resources."
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Source: CTV news
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