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just thought i would include a little news, or so... hey, who knows, maybe it might unveil some people... anyhow, til then, take care... always am, mario National chief of Canada's First Nations accuses minister of 'veiled threat' DURBAN, South Africa (CP) - National aboriginal leader Matthew Coon Come stood by his allegations of racism against Canadians on Saturday, adding that federal Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault's demand for an apology was nothing more than a "veiled threat." "Over the years indigenous peoples in Canada have been told many times by Canadian governments that if we persist in telling our story internationally, or in court, we may suffer consequences," Coon Come said in remarks faxed to The Canadian Press. "Some government in Canada have then actually withheld social spending from our peoples," he added. "I fear that the Canadian minister of Indian affairs is now making such a veiled threat, using the vulnerability and dependence of our peoples on his government to try to silence me." Coon Come was responding to published remarks in Canada from Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault who strongly rejected allegations of racism in modern-day Canada by the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. "With this kind of language and talk, I believe Matthew Coon Come is going to set the agenda back for many years," Nault said in an interview Friday with the Toronto Star. "He's going to find it very difficult for people to do business with him if he's going to make those kinds of serious accusations, which we all take very seriously. People like myself ... are not just annoyed, we're just beside ourselves." In two well-attended sessions this week, Coon Come was reportedly applauded as told delegates to the international racism conference in Durban of "the oppression, marginalization and dispossession of indigenous peoples" in Canada. He described a "racist and colonial syndrome of dispossession and discrimination" and said First Nations are being "pushed to the edge of extinction." In one appearance, he shared the stage with South African Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and likened the challenge faced by aboriginals to the anti-apartheid fight which her former husband, Nelson Mandela, symbolized. Nault, speaking from his North Ontario constituency, said the attack was unjustified and that Canadians have every right to be outraged. "Quite frankly, I think Matthew Coon Come owes us an apology," he said. "There's no proof of this in modern time that the Canadian government and the general population are racist towards aboriginal people." He added that Ottawa has made native issues a priority and made strides in working with leaders to resolve differences. But Coon Come accused Nault and the Canadian government of "shooting the messenger" rather than acknowledging the "fundamental problem of our landlessness and dispossession and its practices of extinguishment of our rights and (the) social exclusion of our peoples." "Canada is one of the largest and richest countries in the world, and yet the UN Human Rights Committee ruled recently that there has been 'little or no progress' in addressing our situation and in implementing the official recommendations concerning our landlessness and poverty."