From theGlobeandMail.com

National chief Shawn Atleo joins activists in call to action

GLORIA GALLOWAY - OTTAWA - Jun. 21 2013

Shawn Atleo calls the aboriginal child poverty rate 'shocking.' (Dave Chan)

The leader of this country's largest indigenous group says Friday's National Aboriginal Day is an opportunity to reconcile the difficult history that native people share with other Canadians.

But as First Nations grow increasingly frustrated with a federal government they say is oblivious to their concerns, Shawn Atleo is talking less about conciliation and more about things that will be done to drive home the urgency of the situation.

Mr. Atleo, who is about to begin his fifth year as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), pointed to a new report that says half of all native children are living in poverty - a rate triple that of non-indigenous children.

"It really should be received as shocking, and those words [in the report] have to be met with action," he said during an interview in his office in downtown Ottawa. "First Nations are not waiting, and will pursue the changes required on First Nations' terms."

National Aboriginal Day, which is observed each year on June 21, was conceived as a celebration of indigenous culture. But this year it also marks the start of what some native activists say will be months of protests.

A group called Sovereignty Summer, an evolution of the Idle No More movement, is launching a new Internet tool Friday. "It is a very slick campaign website which has some pretty up-to-date social media technologies attached to it which are going to significantly shift our game and our ability for mass mobilization, both here in the capital region in Ottawa but also across the country in every urban centre," explained Clayton Thomas-Muller, a spokesman for the group.

The AFN does not have a hand in that effort. But Mr. Atleo, who three years ago was talking hopefully about the willingness of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to work with him to resolve First Nations issues, is supportive of whatever peaceful actions are taken to make the point that the relationship is not working.

"All avenues are required," including blockades, he said. "I have spent 20 years being out on the land and being out on roads when required. And we are going to need to continue that full court press until the type of change that's required is brought about."

In 2008, Mr. Harper made a moving apology on behalf of the country for the treatment of aboriginal children at church-run residential schools.

"He said this should be the end of the kind of attitudes that created the residential schools," Mr. Atleo said. But the First Nations experience, he said, suggests there has been little change.

The Conservative government, he noted, is fighting a human rights case launched by a native agency that says Ottawa is paying 22 per cent less for child welfare on reserves than the provinces pay for non-aboriginal welfare services. It has also stalled the attempt of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was created by the settlement struck with residential school survivors, to obtain all of the documents it says are required to create a public record of the experiences endured by children at the institutions.

The government has also refused to call a public inquiry into what the Native Women's Association of Canada says are hundreds of murdered or missing aboriginal women and girls, Mr. Atleo added. And it has passed a spate of legislation that will directly affect native communities, and that First Nations say was drafted without their input and will have a negative impact on their people.

"And they are challenging us in the courts at every level even though we've won over 40 court cases," Mr. Atleo said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Harper countered that, in recent months, the government has worked with First Nations leaders to renew Canada's comprehensive claims policy, announced an education agreement to give First Nations in Northern Ontario greater control over on-reserve education, and implemented measures to help settle specific claims more quickly.

Mr. Atleo acknowledged movement on those fronts. And he said he sees a growing awareness on the part of business leaders and the public at large that there needs to be a more equitable relationship between aboriginal people and the government, especially when it comes to the sharing of resource revenues.

But so many other points of disconnect remain and "it doesn't have to be this way," Mr. Atleo said. "It's not what our collective ancestors thought we'd be doing at this juncture in our history."

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From iPolitics

First Nations groups mobilizing for "Sovereignty Summer"

By Laura Beaulne-Stuebing | Jun 19, 2013

As spring draws to a close, aboriginal groups are gearing up for a very busy few months in what's been dubbed "Sovereignty Summer" by organizers and activists.

And they're hoping to cause a hassle for the Conservative government.

Organizers from Idle No More and Defenders of the Land, a network of indigenous communities aiming to protect environmental and aboriginal rights, have banded together for the joint Sovereignty Summer campaign.

Since announcing the new alliance in March, they've been leading in-person and online training sessions to teach other activists effective ways to organize, providing what they say is an anchor to groups across the country who are interested in "escalating actions" and "putting into the national discourse the core concerns of First Nations peoples with the Harper government."

Clayton Thomas-Muller, a Sovereignty Summer campaigner, says the movement's ultimate goal is to get the federal government to sit down with aboriginal leaders - to talk, negotiate and consult with them.

It seems pretty simple.

But the feds and aboriginals have met in the past - notably, back in January Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with First Nations leaders after the Idle No More rallies and Chief Theresa Spence's hunger strike, as well as at the Crown-First Nations gathering in January of 2012 - but critics say those meetings brought little change.

Thomas-Muller says the federal government has been fudging its obligations to aboriginal people and that some of the most recognized aboriginal institutions are no longer effective.

"Our political institutions, like the Assembly of First Nations, have become very - due to the nature of their arms-length funding dependency - have become ineffective at pushing the envelope," he told iPolitics.

So, he notes, Sovereignty Summer organizers are going to do what they can to change the channel on the relationship between the federal government and aboriginal people.

"The only thing that this Prime Minister listens to is economics," Thomas-Muller said. "And so what we will see over the summer will be communities stopping business as usual, and really take a look at ways and strategies and tactics to do that."

He added, "(We're) aiming to look at basically putting up walls, putting up barriers to Canada being able to continue as business as usual."

He says that once the new season actually kicks off - this Friday June 21, which is also National Aboriginal Day - so too will Sovereignty Summer.

Thomas-Muller notes there's a big event planned for Queen's Park in Toronto on Friday - a "convergence" of the Toronto activist community - to get things started and says there will be action all throughout the summer, with something "quite significant" in early July - "that I'm not at liberty to share at this point."

It's been many months since the Idle No More movement - sparked by frustration over the federal government's C-45 omnibus budget bill and spurred on by social media - made waves nationally and internationally with rallies and affirmations of aboriginal identity.

Since its initial uprising near the end of 2012, the movement's momentum has subsided.

Andrea Landry, an aboriginal advocate who works with the National Association of Friendship Centres and the United Nations, says that while Idle No More momentum has faded - at least over the past few months - frustration's been growing in aboriginal communities.

Much of this frustration is over recent legislation passed by the federal government - she notes the navigable waters protection act and matrimonial real property legislation - and a lack of talks between government and aboriginal groups and leaders.

Landry says she's worried about the potential response this summer to what she says are the government's "empty words and empty promises." She says she's heard rumblings of blockades, which could easily lead to violence.

"I'm really hoping it doesn't have to come down to that," she said.

"Summertime is a time of ceremony," she added. "And I'm hoping that will aid in the process of keeping (things) as peaceful as possible."