Thursday 10 January 2013

Idle No More

A press event was held this afternoon with the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo and with regional chiefs Jody Wilson-Raybould and Perry Bellegarde.

From here:
"We are absolute in our convictions," [Atleo] said. "We need action in particular for our most vulnerable citizens." 

Referring to the number of missing and murdered aboriginal women, Atleo's voice caught as he recalled going with a family to a morgue after a 16-year-old girl was killed. 

"This is what our people are saying. That poverty is killing our people. That the history of colonization and unilateral action on the part of governments will stop now," he said. 

Atleo, along with regional chiefs Jody Wilson-Raybould and Perry Bellegarde, laid out a number of specific requests, including treaty implementation, treaty enforcement and a new financial relationship with the Crown. 

Bellegarde says one funding formula is 19 years old and hasn't kept up with either inflation or the total First Nations population. The chiefs also mentioned resource development agreements and disputes over changes to environmental legislation the Conservative government made in its two omnibus budget implementation bills in 2012. 

"Our treaties were not meant to make us poor in our own homelands."
Watch here.

Many believe Harper cannot control and manipulate the Idle No More movement, that it is powerful beyond anything his calculating, cold chess-player's mind can comprehend, and that this will be his Waterloo.

I hope that's the case.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bravo Bravo Bravo ... Well said..

There are many things Stephan Harper, Tom Flanagan, Preston Manning cannot control or manipulate.. Attempting to comprehend an electorate that believes in a democratic reality would be a useful step for all of them.. and their rabid posse.. With almost 8 years of opportunity, they've learned nothing .. nothing

Niles said...

-flings things at Evan Solomon from the sick bed- as he breathlessly reinterprets the words of the Manitoba chief who talked about 'warriors' being willing to take blockade actions etc to mean it's a threat of warrior violence that WILL happen to bring Canada's economy to its knees.

What is WRONG with the media??? 'those whacky injuns what can't make up their minds, the poor white folks haz tried but gosh darn what can ya do when silly *natives* are silly?'

eeeyah, tom flanagan and jon ivison, I'm a sure takin' YOUR word for things.

Have some germs.

fern hill said...

Hiya, Niles, nice to see your electrons. Sorry to hear you're sick. I'm mostly over my own bout.

On Twitter, the Usual Big Swinging (White) Dicks were tut-tutting everyone on the Real Role of the Crown as opposed to some Fairy Tale version the poor benighted FNs cling to.

So, when they are not ignoring or belittling, they're trying to rile up some ruckus.

Like there hasn't been enough of that.

The media has not shone through this so far and shows no sign of improving.

Except for APTN of course.

Beijing York said...

APTN has been stellar. Adam Beach was interviewed the other morning on CBC The Current and he was so gracious and articulate when describing his 100% support for Idle No More.

As for the rest of the coverage AND THE COMMENTS they elicit, holy f&ck all that oozing racism.

Anonymous said...

Oh, thank goodness for APTN! It's the only national news source that can be trusted on reporting the reality of #idlenomore! The MSM need some serious anti-oppression training, they're so appalling in their unknowingly bigoted coverage!

Pseudz said...

The CPAC link appears to be pooched. Is it no longer available? Thanks.

deBeauxOs said...

Mmm, that link came from fernhill. It may have been changed since then.

I'll look into it, thanks Pseudz!

fern hill said...

If it was from Twitter, it was probably the live feed. I was watching as it happened.

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