OTTAWA—Governor-General David Johnston has agreed to meet First Nations leaders at Rideau Hall following their meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday.“The Prime Minister has asked the Gov. Gen. to host a ceremonial meeting with First Nations leaders at Rideau Hall following the working meeting on Friday afternoon, and the Gov. Gen. has accepted,” said a statement from the PMO emailed to the media on Thursday afternoon.
The announcement came just as the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs was wrapping up a news conference in Ottawa where they threatened to boycott the Friday meeting unless Johnston attended and suggested other aboriginal leaders would reveal similar positions throughout the day.
Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, who has been avoiding solid foods while living in a teepee on a small island up the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill since Dec. 11, announced on Wednesday that she would not attend the meeting unless Johnston was there.
On Tuesday, Rideau Hall announced Johnston would not attend what has been described as a “working meeting” to discuss government policy issues.
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs ended their news conference just as the announcement came, so it remains unknown whether a “ceremonial meeting” at Rideau Hall would be enough to satisfy them on this issue.
Spokespeople for Spence could not immediately be reached on Thursday.
Rideau Hall later announced the meeting would take place at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
“His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, has accepted to host a ceremonial meeting at Rideau Hall on Friday, January 11, 2013 at 6:30 p.m., where First Nations leaders will be welcomed following the working meeting with the Prime Minister and Government officials,” said a statement from the Rideau Hall press office.
Earlier at the news conference, Grand Chief Derek Nepinak warned Harper to meet the demands of aboriginal leaders and the Idle No More protest movement, which he said would involve nothing short of transformative change in the way the federal government and First Nations people relate to each other, or else “warriors” would be ready to “bring the Canadian economy to its knees.”
“We’re looking for a transformation in the relationship — a transformation that is not about slight policy shifts, slight increments in funding. We are talking about a transformation back to a nation-to-nation, treaty territory by treaty territory, relationship that recognizes our attachment to our ancestral lands,” Nepinak said Thursday.
Nepinak said that in the modern day, this could involve resource revenue-sharing, or the federal and provincial governments and First Nations people managing resources in a way that lift their communities out of poverty.
“These are demands. They are not requests. We are not requesting the prime minister to agree with us. We are demanding he agree with us. We are demanding he agrees with us because we have the power,” Nepinak said.
“The Idle No More movement has the people. It has the people and the numbers and can bring the Canadian economy to its knees. It can stop Prime Minister Harper’s resource development plan and its billion-dollar plan to develop resources on our ancestral territories. We have the warriors that are standing up now, that are willing to go that far. So we are not here to make requests. We are here to demand attention and to demand an end to 140 years of colonial rule,” Nepinak said.
Nepinak did not specify what the Idle No More movement would do to affect the Canadian economy, noting the chiefs are focusing on diplomacy.
“We don’t give direction in that regard. We are here to once again extend a diplomatic hand towards resolution to these issues and as I raised it before, this is not about Indian Act policy management. This is about transforming the relationship back to what it was intended to be, back towards what our ancestors had envisioned,” Nepinak said.
Nepinak said the Conservative government could begin with changing environmental legislation as “a goodwill gesture”, but it cannot stop there.
“The goodwill gesture could be for this government to rescind and pull back on their legislation that is impacting the environment, that’s impacting our people and our reserve lands. That is a goodwill gesture, but the real meat and potatoes (are) in implementing the real nation-to-nation, treaty-by-treaty territory process toward real implementation,” Nepinak said.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Joanna Smith
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