Meet with hunger-striking First Nations chief, former Ontario lieutenant governor tells Harper

Natalie Stechyson - December 27, 2012

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence Photo: Julie Oliver/ Postmedia News

OTTAWA - Theresa Spence gained an unexpected and passionately outspoken ally Thursday as a former lieutenant governor of Ontario called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to "show that he's a leader" and meet with the Attawapiskat Chief as she enters the third week of her hunger strike.

Harper need not fear meeting with Spence to negotiate better living conditions for Canada's aboriginals would show any weakness, said James Bartleman, who served as Ontario's Lieutenant Governor from 2002-2007 and is a member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation.

"If he was to do something like that, he would be doing something that he could be proud of for the rest of his life, but if he doesn't do that, I would say 'shame on him,'" Bartleman told Postmedia News on Thursday.

"If she carries on like this, I would think she would die."

Spence's strike has become the focal point for Idle No More, an aboriginal rights movement that has garnered momentum among Canada's First Nations peoples and received support from federal Opposition parties, several major unions, religious groups and academics.

Spence insists she'll starve herself to death if the prime minister doesn't meet with her. She had also sought a meeting with Gov.-Gen. David Johnston, but he has said the issue is best left to elected officials.

"I would hope that Prime Minister Harper would show that he's a leader. It is not a sign of weakness to go and see someone who is suffering and talk to them," Bartleman said Thursday.

Bartleman said he appeals to Canadians to try to get the Conservative government to pay more attention to native issues.

Bartleman, 73, spent much of his childhood living in tents and shacks on the outskirts of cottage country in Ontario, was very much affected by the "appalling," "desperate" conditions he saw aboriginal children living in during his travels north, and used much of his time in office to help aboriginal communities.

He's always had a streak of social justice in him, he said.

Now that he's retired he says he has a responsibility to speak out about the injustices he sees in the country - "particularly when they're so flagrant," Bartleman said.

His hope, he said, is that Spence's hunger strike and the Idle No More movement will go beyond a piece of legislation in the House of Commons.

"I've long said that native people are the invisible people, and native children in particular are the invisible children of Canadian society," Bartleman said.

"What we need to do is raise the consciousness of the public, and raise the consciousness of the Canadian cabinet, that these are real people. And they suffer."

Spence began her hunger strike on December 11. She wasn't taking visitors Thursday.

Since Spence pitched her tent on Victoria Island, the encampment has seen heavy rain, sleet and nearly one metre of snow.

"Spence is a very, very strong woman. She's still laughing at jokes, she's still taking her walk around the camp every day," said Thomas Louttit, an elder from Moose Factory, Ontario. "Of course, she is getting weaker every day. But her spirit is strong."

The fact that it's the holiday season also compelled Bartleman to speak out, he said.

"I just could not eat my turkey dinner and think of this determined lady in a tent in a blizzard of the Canadian winter, drinking water and taking fluids only, while the rest of Canada was celebrating the holiday season," he said.

He also doesn't think it's at all inappropriate for a former lieutenant governor to politicize himself in this way, he added.

"I would think that former lieutenant governors and former Prime Ministers and what-all have a responsibility to serve as wise men and wise women in the country, and if we were silent, how could we ever look at ourselves in the mirror?"

On Wednesday, Liberal MP and leadership contender Marc Garneau added his voice to those asking Harper to meet with Spence. NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett have both also written to Harper.

Liberal MP Justin Trudeau - another leadership contender - met with Spence on Boxing Day. NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar met with Spence the week before Christmas, and spoke at the Idle No More rally on Parliament Hill last Friday.

Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, who tried to meet with Spence on Christmas Eve but was rebuffed, said this week that Spence should be going through the "proper parliamentary process" rather than demanding a meeting with Harper.

Aboriginal Affairs minister John Duncan renewed his offer to meet with Spence on Wednesday. He also expressed concern over the chief's deteriorating health in a letter sent to Victoria Island. But Spence rejected Duncan's offer, insisting nothing short of a meeting with the prime minister would end her strike.

+++++++

From TruroDaily.com

Millbrook the site of fasting in support of Aboriginal, environmental improvements to Bill C-45.

December 29, 2012

MILLBROOK - Two women huddled for warmth, their bellies hungry, on Saturday morning to take a stand for what they believe in.

In freezing temperatures, with only the clothes on their backs and a sacred fire offering a little heat, Shelley Young, 30, from Eskasoni, and Pictou Landing Band's Rebecca Moore, 22, from Halifax, began another day of fasting and staying on the Millbrook powwow grounds. Their plight was in support of Chief Theresa Spence, of Attawapiskat, a First Nation community in northern Ontario, who has been on a hunger strike near Parliament Hill in Ottawa since Dec. 11. Spence insists on meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in response to Bill C-45, an omnibus bill that some insist will weaken environmental protection laws. For example, laws overseeing Canada's navigable waterways were limited to protect a few waterways, including affected waterways passing through land reserved to First Nations.

Young, who organized the fast on the Millbrook powwow grounds, and Moore said they have gone without food or water and lived in the harsh winter elements since Thursday at noon, when they began their fasting. They will do so until Monday at noon.

"We are shivering it out," Young told the Truro Daily News in Millbrook Saturday morning in temperatures estimated to be -10 degrees at the time.

The two women sat on simple chairs near a tipi, where they slept, discussing the situation and awaiting visitors to the site to bring wood for the fire and to gather in prayer.

"We are wearing layers and have a sacred fire for some heat. We have blankets but it's cold. I miss my (two-year-old daughter) terribly but I know it's worth it to stand up against what is wrong," said Young, adding about 100 people, as of Saturday morning, had visited them at the site.

"I hope this makes a difference," said Young, adding Spence's initiative has "thousands of supporters worldwide" including in the United States, New Zealand, Egypt and Mexico.

Young said hundreds of people throughout Nova Scotia were fasting, many in their own homes, to support the initiative, including non-natives.

"It's not just Aboriginal issues. It's a Canadian issue," said Young.

"It's about honouring the land and water and treaty rights. We don't want to lose a life" (Spence) because the prime minister won't meet with her, continued Young.

Added Moore, "we are praying for Harper to have a change of heart. What kind of person lets a woman starve for a meeting (request)?"

In addition to Spence's hunger strike, and hundreds of people fasting in support of Spence, there have been a number of rallies and protests throughout Canada, including one on the Trans-Canada Highway more than a week ago.

+++++++++