"High Level" Talks

"I have no idea what it will do. We agreed to have a meeting, we agreed to meet with people in order to talk about those things that will assist in working with aboriginal leadership that will help in terms of the community level for jobs, growth and economic opportunity.
"When we talk about economic development ... all of those things, such as resource revenues, are part and parcel of that discussion. The federal government does not receive resource revenues and so that's a question that really will involve the provinces and that was recognized by the room."
Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan

Fred Chartrand/The Canadian Press Grand Chief Derek Nepinak of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs looks back after he attempted to get into Langevin Block for a meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo and other First Nations Chiefs in Ottawa, Friday.

Grand Chief Derek Nepinak of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs deigned to attend the meeting. He was, he claimed, in full support of Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, who opted to continue her 'hunger strike', in protest that Governor General David Johnston was not displaying sufficient contrition and respect toward First Nations by not attending the meeting between Prime Minister Harper and Minister Duncan and AFN chiefs.

Governor General Johnston's invitation to the AFN chiefs and other conference attendees to a ceremonial meeting at Rideau Hall, complete with formal dinner, simply did not meet the stipulations set down by Theresa Spence whose imperious belief that it she who sets the standards of response and government reactions to demands and not the fact that Rideau Hall has no impact on process, excluding the Governor General from attending.

And so, a large, raucous, jubilant, but critical crowd of First Nations peoples, bused in to Ottawa from all points of the Canadian compass, was on hand, surrounding the Langevin Block where the Prime Minister has his offices and where the conference was held. Speech-making, drumming, dancing and singing the order of the day. Canada's Indigenous people have spoken and Canada must heed, even unto the demands of Idle No More.

Which insists that the recently-passed omnibus budget bill that Parliament passed into law must be repealed to satisfy Aboriginal demands.  Or, at the very least Bills C-38 and C-45, which Idle No more leaders insist will impact deleteriously upon the future and fate of First Nations. Bills which were designed, in fact, to further the economic future of First Nations.

"We're quite comfortable that we have met our constitutional obligations with those bills and we believe there is every reason to proceed", said Aboriginal Affairs Minister Duncan. The government will take especial care to ensure "there is regular knowledge of any concerns that may come from the First Nations leadership" relating to future government bills.

During the conference there was some progress achieved. In the absence of regional chiefs from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario, by choice, some issues were clarified. Of the eight requests that chiefs put forward on Friday, including a "comprehensive" process for the review of claims and treaty implementations, as well as assuring First Nations a larger portion of resource development, three of the requests were agreed to.

"We have achieved some movement today. For the first time, provided a clear mandate for high-level talks on treaty implementation", National Chief Shawn Atleo stated, after the conference concluded. "I think there's a strong recognition that the power of First Nations have ... that the power is there in the people in the way that they're rising up", Chief Atleo explained in a later interview.

His chief problem at the present time is the clear and present danger that the Idle No More movement represents to the future of the Assembly of First Nations and his own status as its National Chief. The Idle No More movement has responded to the results of the conference with suggestions that more unsettling blockades and economic interference are certain to result with their general dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Tension levels have not yet abated. There is no agreement from within the First Nations communities and their national representatives. Confusion reigns. As do threats to the social and economic stability of the country through a deliberate intention by some segments of the First Nations communities to extort compliance from the Government of Canada, to their not-quite-rational demands.