“No, there’s nothing like that,” Derek Nepinak, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, told The Hill Times last week.
Speculation circulated last week when Mr. Atleo announced that he would be taking a temporary sick leave from his duties as the national chief of the AFN that there was a strategy from his opponents to oust him.
The Aboriginal People’s Television Network last week reported on a series of emails from chiefs and political aides criticizing Mr. Atleo’s leave, some calling for him to step down and others saying that he used his medical leave, which his doctored ordered, to garner “pity and endearment.”
Mr. Nepinak said that while First Nations across the country are united in fighting for their rights, the strategy on how to win is in question.
“We all recognize the issues that are on the ground, but in terms of how we choose to deal with it, there are different strategies at play and I think it’s time for the strategists to really try to help explain and create a better understanding of how the Indian Act regime has manipulated policies and processes for generations now. People are stepping above that now. That’s where the fraction that people are witnessing is coming from,” he told The Hill Times last week.
“It’s not in the substance of the issues, but it’s in the form and how we formulate strategy and that’s where the differences are. We still care about one another. We all still care about Shawn Atleo and we hope for a speedy recovery, but in terms of whether or not he’s the right strategist to bring this all together is a question we’ll have to answer as the weeks go by,” Mr. Nepinak said.
Mr. Nepinak, who has been a vocal proponent of not dealing with the federal government if it is only on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) terms, said that his organization’s focus is on supporting Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence in her fasting and politics surrounding the AFN leadership and “Atleo’s future is a secondary consideration.”
The Toronto Star’s national affairs columnist Tim Harper wrote last week, however, that Mr. Atleo has been receiving threats and that his opponents are actively working to undermine him.
First Nations, propelled by the Idle No More aboriginal movement and by Ms. Spence’s public fasting, are calling on the Canadian government to honour treaties; to resolve land claims; to share revenue from resource development; to increase the funding to First Nations by lifting the two per cent cap on federal transfers; to consult First Nations on legislation that affect them as outlined under Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution; to move towards repealing the Indian Act in a comprehensive and meaningful way rather than by tinkering; to commit to an inquiry on violence against indigenous women and girls; and to create better access to education.
Ms. Spence has been fasting since Dec. 11, only eating vitamins and drinking fish broth and tea. She said that she would end her fast when Mr. Harper and Governor General David Johnston came to the table to discuss honouring treaties and resource revenue sharing. A meeting was called for Jan. 11, which took place inside the Prime Minister’s Office and was closed to media. After refusing to meet with the First Nations chiefs, Mr. Johnston had a “ceremonial” meet and greet at Mr. Harper’s request.
Mr. Atleo and 19 other chiefs or elders attended the meeting with difficulty. Before going in, Mr. Atleo received a text message sent in the name of Ms. Spence saying, “Since you have decided to betray me, all I ask of you now is to help carry my cold dead body off this island.” Tim Harper also reported that those who saw the text did not believe it came from Ms. Spence, but from someone else in her circle of supporters on Victoria Island on the Ottawa River and that Ms. Spence is “being used as a pawn in an internal political struggle.”
Mr. Atleo had to leave the AFN offices through a back door because First Nations were protesting the office in an effort to keep him inside. He also entered the PMO meeting through a back door because protesters were trying to keep him out. Tim Harper also wrote that Saskatchewan regional chief Perry Bellegarde received threats about attending the meeting and chose not to go, but Mr. Bellegarde’s spokesperson refuted the comment.
“This last meeting was not what the chiefs had asked for. It’s not what chief Spence had asked for,” Mr. Nepinak said.
“It’s a continuing process that this Harper government has been following and that is to dictate prescribed and predetermined agendas, prescribed and predetermined speaking notes, and we’re sick and tired of that,” said Mr. Nepinak. “We’re not going to participate in that kind of degradation and that kind of humiliation anymore. Some chiefs will, some chiefs will go through there and sit with the Prime Minister and see about getting whatever they can in the short term, but the people who stood outside and watched have a long-term vision. That means the emancipation of our people from Indian Act policy management and that’s what’s going to change the game here in Canada.”
There was a division between chiefs who thought the meeting should have taken place on First Nations’ terms rather than dictated by Prime Minister Harper, and those who felt that cooperation was the best tactic.
AFN regional chiefs from Northwest Territories, Ontario, and Manitoba remained in solidarity with Ms. Spence and refused to attend the meeting, while others joined Mr. Atleo.
A lobbyist familiar with the issues, who did not want to be identified, said last week “you bet there is” a move to force Mr. Atleo out of the national chief’s position and that while “it doesn’t look good,” Mr. Atleo still maintains support from the majority of the chiefs who elected him rather than the general First Nations population. Mr. Atleo won the AFN leadership on the third ballot with 341 votes of 512, or 66 per cent of the vote.
“When you look at it, beyond what you saw on television, who actually went inside this meeting with Atleo, he has the majority of the chiefs. He had B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, which has been pretty vocal against, but he’s won Saskatchewan over. Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. That’s pretty much the majority,” the lobbyist said.
The lobbyist said, however, that if Mr. Atleo can convince the federal government to deliver on something tangible such as health care or education and negotiate a resource revenue-sharing plan, that he will survive.
“There’s a certain element that wants to refight the July [2012 AFN] election and Idle No More came along and they’re trying to hijack Idle No More to use it,” the lobbyist said, noting that in political organizations, there will always be factions that disagree.
For example, the lobbyist noted, the Liberal Party had vicious infighting for years between former prime minister John Turner and Jean Chrétien and then Mr. Chrétien as PM and Paul Martin.
In this current situation, the lobbyist said, it is mostly First Nations who have treaties with the Canadian government who have stayed together and are possibly working to undermine Mr. Atleo, and those mostly from British Columbia without treaties who are backing Mr. Atleo.
Despite the internal politics, however, “ultimately, the feds need the AFN and the AFN needs the feds,” the lobbyist said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if the PMO throws enough goodies at Atleo to keep him in office.”
If a chief did want to remove Mr. Atleo, the ousters would have to move a motion of non-confidence for which there would be a full vote taken. The motion would have to pass by 60 per cent. If the motion were successful, the AFN’s national executive committee would take over.
The lobbyist said that the government would prefer to deal with Mr. Atleo who has a conciliatory approach, rather than those with a more confrontational approach and predicted that some version of the $5-billion 2005 Kelowna Accord will be revisited.
“Aside from money, the Kelowna Accord had something else the Tories would dearly covet—it had cross-sectional agreement from just about all of aboriginal Canada. That ain’t easy,” the lobbyist said. “All of this means that basically the status quo up to Dec. 31 [2012], is no longer an option.”
When the Conservative government came to power in 2006, it did not follow through on the previous Liberal government’s commitments made in the Kelowna Accord to invest in health, education, housing, an increase to the two per cent funding cap of federal transfers to First Nations and accountability.
Gina Cosentino, a former senior adviser to former AFN national chief Phil Fontaine who helped negotiate the Kelowna Accord, said she doesn’t believe the Canadian government will return to the Kelowna Accord agreement, but rather continue to make piecemeal announcements in policy areas it chooses to focus on. In this case, she said, the government will likely invest a small amount into education in order to say that it did something.
“I think the federal government will need to do what it needs to do to stop the bleeding,” she said. “In their head they’re still saying, ‘What are the practical things?’ They will basically say, ‘Let’s check this off,’ and they’re not tapping into the need of the people who are saying, ‘We need things to fundamentally change.’ … This Conservative government didn’t do itself any favours by killing the Kelowna Accord and saying that it was a mere press release when it was an 18-month series of negotiations that was finally hammered. It was an exercise in extremely pragmatic politics.”
Mr. Nepinak said the Kelowna Accord has been floated around, and that it’s something his organization is willing to consider.
“The nuts and bolts of it would have to be revisited in the current context under the auspices of the current Harper government, but we’re willing to look at something like that again. I’m not sure if it’s transformational enough, but it is something that we would entertain,” he said.
Meanwhile, the lobbyist said the Conservative government has dropped the ball on this file because it could not “control the narrative.” As a result, tensions have increased within First Nations communities and the federal government which could cause trouble in the AFN.
“If the inner circle at the AFN decide, ‘Well, if we keep Atleo, we can’t save the AFN’s position as the primary group [to speak with a united voice], then we have to throw the chief under the bus, nothing personal, but we will,’” the lobbyist said. “The feds have got to protect Atleo since they’ve got to preserve the AFN so there’s a mutual interest there but they’ve got to come up with something concrete soon.”
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s, Ont.), her party’s aboriginal affairs critic, criticized PM Harper for being “aggressive” in his meeting terms. “They keep using the words willing partner,” she said. “I think they should get out their dictionaries and look up what partner means, and what willing looks like and then maybe if they can reframe their misunderstanding about what a willing partner looks like, then I think we can go forward.”
Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan (Vancouver Island North, B.C.) said following the Jan. 11 meeting that the government has taken action on various aboriginal peoples’ issues.
“We have built new schools, invested in clean drinking water systems, built thousands of new homes, increased funding for services for the most vulnerable members of First Nation communities, and invested in hundreds of projects to link aboriginals with job training services,” he said. “At last year’s historic Crown-First Nations Gathering, Prime Minister Harper committed to building on that progress and [the Jan. 11] meeting marks another important step in that direction.”
Who's who in the aboriginal movement
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo
Hereditary Chief from the Ahousaht First Nation, B.C.; first elected as national chief in 2009; re-elected on the third ballot in 2012; and is currently on medical leave. Is focused on increasing two per cent funding cap and education. ‘We have arrived at a moment unlike any other in the history of our peoples.’
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island AFN Regional Chief Roger Augustine
Mi’kmaq from Eel Ground First Nation, N.B.; sits on AFN executive committee; taking over for Shawn Atleo while he is on medical leave; and attended the Jan. 11 PMO meeting. ‘Our supporters will organize and defend [the national chief]—we’ll protect the work he has done. … He’s got a strong mandate. If the chiefs are to attack a man like Shawn Atleo, people will speak.’
Saskatchewan AFN Regional Chief Perry Bellegarde
Chief of the Little Black Bear First Nation; sits on AFN executive committee; did not attend PMO meeting; and is focused on treaty rights and resource revenue sharing. He believes resource revenue sharing is ‘unfinished treaty business’ and that there must be a dialogue going forward but also supports peaceful protest. ‘We need dialogue. ... Let’s put our heads and minds together so we can really work in a co-operative manner to resolve these issues.’
British Columbia AFN Regional Chief Jody Wilson-Raybould
Descendant of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk and Laich-Kwil-Tach peoples, and a member of the We Wai Kai Nation; sits on AFN executive committee; and attended PMO meeting.
Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Crees Matthew Coon Come
Former AFN national chief; attended PMO meeting; and urged Theresa Spence to end her fasting. ‘The Prime Minister is not going to relinquish his executive powers to the Governor General. That’s the reality. … I don't know who is advising her. I don't know who she has surrounded herself with but I think if one is to make statements, they have to be credible, based on at least some facts, on some knowledge, and hopefully be able to compromise.’
Sto:lo Tribal Council Grand Chief Doug Kelly
Believes First Nations should unite together on common issues. ‘I’ve seen it and I’ve heard it and I’ve felt it. People can’t seem to accept the results [of AFN 2012 election]… But my chiefs want to move on. Now is not the time to fall apart.’
Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau
Algonquin from Kitigan Zibi reserve near Maniwaki, Que.; and former president of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. ‘Whether we like it or not, the AFN is the only legitimate process we have. Until chiefs agree to bring about more legitimacy to the AFN, we must support National Chief Shawn Atleo.’
Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence
Became known after Attawapiskat housing crisis occurred in 2011; began highly-publicized fasting on Dec. 11, 2012 on Victoria Island in Ottawa, Ont., drinking only fish broth, tea and vitamins; refused to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper because Governor General David Johnston did not attend meetings; is focused on treaty rights and resource revenue sharing; and is demanding the Canadian government fulfill its duty to consult First Nations.
Cross Lake First Nation elder Raymond Robinson
On a hunger strike since Dec. 13 in opposition to Bill C-45; and is asking to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss treaty rights and the failure to consult.
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak
Pine Creek First Nation chief; outspoken advocate for treaty rights, concerned with environmental impacts of Conservative government’s legislation; supports Chief Theresa Spence’s fasting; and is focused on peaceful protests. He says he believes the Canadian government should meet with First Nations on their terms rather than dictating ‘prescribed and predetermined’ solutions. ‘The Idle No More movement has the people, it has the people and the numbers that can bring the Canadian economy to its knees.’
Northwest Territories AFN Regional Chief Bill Erasmus
Dene National chief; ran unsuccessfully for AFN national chief in 2012, placing third behind Pam Palmater; and did not attend PMO meeting. ‘It's a tough one, as I outlined to you, we had a consensus. All the people that were there had a consensus; we said we were not going into the meeting unless we had some movement.’
Manitoba AFN Regional Chief Bill Traverse
Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation; and did not attend PMO meeting, remaining in solidarity with Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak.
Ontario AFN Regional Chief Stan Beardy
Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation and did not attend PMO meeting. ‘There is a tremendous amount of frustration and anger among First Nation people, especially the youth, and it is absolutely imperative at this point in time for the government to engage First Nations in a respectful and meaningful relationship. The frustration and unrest among First Nations will begin to create economic uncertainty for investments which will then affect the economic stability in this country.’
Grand Chief of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians Gordon Peters
Has been organizing protests and participating in blockades in southwestern Ontario; upset that AFN chose who could meet the Prime Minister; does not agree that chiefs should have met PM without Governor General; and promises to hold more blockades if PM and GG refuse to come to First Nations’ table. ‘There will be more coming. … It will be based on the assessment of the work that we will be able to do with the federal government.’
Pamela Palmater
Mi’kmaq from Eel River Bar First Nation, N.B.; chair of Ryerson University's Centre for Indigenous Governance; ran unsuccessfully for AFN national chief in 2012, placing second behind Shawn Atleo; outspoken advocate for non-status Indians and treaty rights; supports Chief Theresa Spence and Idle No More movement from grassroots perspective; focused on repealing legislation that negatively affects First Nations and imposed on them without prior and informed consent; and helped coordinate protests on Parliament Hill during the AFN special chiefs assembly December 2012.
Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Wallace Fox
Helped coordinate protests on Parliament Hill during the AFN special chiefs assembly December 2012; and supports Chief Theresa Spence and Grand Chief Derek Nepniak’s stance that meetings should be held on First Nations’ terms. ‘We’re not going to meet with Harper on his agenda because we initiated this as chiefs.’
Maude Barlow, president Council of Canadians
Supports Chief Theresa Spence and is encouraging Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal winners to return their medals in solidarity because the Crown refuses to meet with First Nations. Ms. Barlow says she’s going to return hers.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: BEA VONGDOUANGCHANH
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