A little update since Harper agreed to meet with Chief Spence this Friday; now today - she has now refused.
This is a day late, as I was trying to post this last night when the server suddenly went down, and today things have changed also (update at the bottom).
_http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/09/pol-afn-look-ahead-friday-meeting.html
CBC said:
Theresa Spence pulls out of meeting with Harper
Hunger-striking Attawapiskat chief says Gov. Gen. David Johnston should be at meeting Friday
Earlier in the thread it was mentioned about co-opting, and think it is reasonable to assume that there are political factions who are studying these matters and making, undertaking plans to create instability (actions & press), to give it a meaningless slant, one of being disjointed, confusing, and with no real goal.
There seems, from my limited understanding, to be many fronts to this (and much old history), and many things being sought depending on who. It seems to me also that Chief Spence is being cornered on the financial improprieties from within her own community; it is often brought up in the press. Yet really, this pales to the improprieties of the ruling government et al. Whatever happened there (in this community), it may never be sorted out, and there is likely high mismanagement at the government level.
Now it seems from what can be observed, that average people in Canada are saying, wait a second, you wanted to meet with Harper and now you don't, what's with that? It should be noted that Harper represents the government, not the sovereign Crown and it is the Crown who made treaties. Chief Spence has refused more to the point that the Governor General, this David Johnson, will not be there. Without him, as a representative of the Queen (the Crown), she feels anything less cannot address treaty issues.
There will be people of different native tribes even who have separate ideas (many being undertaken presently by the Government via possible amendments the Indian Act), and there are even tribal leaders who will not see eye to eye with these recent maneuvers. However, in the words of this professor below, he is standing by what and why she is doing it the way she is doing it. Because it is treaties (sovereign issues), not general government issues (common house law), she needs the Crown to represent and has sent letters to Queen Elisabeth II at Buckingham Palace demanding a representative to hear her and her peoples plight.
Non native people do not always see these distinctions, they align with “tinkering” with the Indian Act as a means to an end and this, IMO, is what is happening, it is what Harper is doing, incremental adjustments, yet they control the end game. This bigger picture; Treaties, like in the US, too, has hundreds of years of lies and broken promises, as is the norm for the governing ruling class dealing with any others.
CBC Snip said:
Spence protesting treaty issues
The key demand of Spence, who has been declining solid food since Dec.11 as a form of protest, is a meeting between the Crown and First Nations to discuss what she characterizes as "treaty issues."
The Governor General was seen as an important participant for the meeting, because he represents the Crown, which negotiated the original treaties with aboriginal people.
Spence's news release said Johnston's "attendance is integral when discussing inherent and treaty rights."
"We have sent a letter to Buckingham Palace and requesting that Queen Elizabeth II send forth her representative, which is the Governor General of Canada," Spence said in the release.
The release from Spence's camp said Canada's legitimacy rests on the treaties made with First Nations ancestors.
[...]
'Position with integrity'
Taiaiake Alfred, a University of Victoria professor and an Idle No More supporter, told Solomon that Spence's decision not to go is a "position with integrity" because it's consistent and because the relationship between Canada and aboriginals is "nation-to-nation."
"The treaties that we're fighting so hard to have recognized and respected are treaties between nations," he said. "They're between the Crown and our people. And it's not really good enough to have the prime minister there, who is the person who is in charge of government. We need a representative of the Crown."
Alfred said the native community will splinter politically if Atleo doesn't get good results.
"I think it's a major crisis for Shawn Atleo, and it's a crisis as well for the AFN as an organization because if they can't deliver something meaningful in the minds of the people involved with Idle No More, they're in serious danger of being seen as an irrelevant force or, even worse, as part of a collaborating mechanism with the Government of Canada on their agenda."
Alfred said without progress it's going to come to a point where young people in First Nations will recognize that historically "the government only responds to trouble and they're going to find a way to make trouble for the Government of Canada in order to get a response."
[...]
Exchanges between journalists trying to visit Spence or speak with her spokespeople have been tense, with her representatives often keeping cameras and reporters at a distance and accusing the media of not conveying their message accurately.
Metatawabin told reporters Wednesday that they weren't allowed into the space where Spence was.
"Because of that leaked document with the audit report, we just don't want any negative vibes inside that fence," he said.
"Inside that teepee, in that sacred fire, it's all sacred to us ... We don't want to allow any media inside the boundaries of the sacredness of that fire, and we need to protect the chief. She needs to be at peace, focused on what she needs to do, and that's all we're asking for.
"We'll let you in when we talk about treaty [rights] and obligations and nation to nation relationship," he added.
So today, Shawn Atleo has made his demands and will further alienate Canadians, and even some tribes as he also represents a sometimes divided assembly of tribes.
_http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/01/10/pol-first-nations-chiefs-day-before-pm-meeting.html
CBC -Snip said:
'Poverty is killing our people,' AFN Chief Shawn Atleo says
Treaty enforcement, environmental protection among demands at meeting with PM
By Laura Payton, CBC News
Posted: Jan 10, 2013 10:27 AM ET
Poverty is killing First Nations people, says the country's top chief as he laid out goals for the meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper tomorrow.
Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, says the AFN has heard the voices of Idle No More activists calling for action.
"We are absolute in our convictions and in our determination to achieve our rights," he said.
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.
[…]
'Poor in our own homelands'
The chiefs also mentioned 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. But that's what we see," Bellegarde said.
Wilson-Raybould says the Indian Act needs to be fundamentally changed.
"Imposed solutions will not work," she said. "We have the solutions right across the country in terms of developing and extricating ourselves from the Indian Act."
Earlier Thursday, the prime minister's office relented slightly and scheduled a ceremonial meeting between Gov. Gen. David Johnston and First Nations leaders tomorrow.
The ceremonial meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. ET at Rideau Hall, following the working meeting, said Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Johnston had said that he wouldn't attend a working meeting on public policy, despite demands by some First Nations leaders, including Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, that he be there in his role as the Queen's representative in Canada.
[…]
Spence has limited her food intake for the past month, consuming only herbal tea and fish broth since Dec. 11. She says she will continue her protest until the meeting happens and said she wouldn't stop unless Johnston was at the meeting.
'Nothing left to lose'
First Nations people in Canada have "nothing left to lose," the grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs told reporters Thursday morning, pointing to the problems with lack of housing, unsafe drinking water and poor health in the community.
Derek Nepinak said the Idle No More movement has enough people to "bring the Canadian economy to its knees."
"It can stop Prime Minister Harper's resource development plan and his billion-dollar plan to develop resources in our ancestral territories. We have the warriors that are standing up now that are willing to go that far. So we're not here to make requests. We're here to demand attention and to demand an end to 140 years of colonial rule," Nepinak said.
[…]
The variety of First Nations stakeholder groups have brought mixed messages on what they're seeking from Friday's meeting. Spence wanted Johnston to be at the meeting with Harper and other leaders, and refused to go there if Johnston wouldn't.
Representatives from Idle No More have distanced themselves from the chiefs. The grassroots movement is also calling on the AFN to walk out of the meeting with Harper.
I remember in Quebec when the natives shut down the bridge connecting Montreal, and that was a relatively trivial matter, this has potentials to be very divisive in this country as things progress. The maneuvering, co-opting, disinformation and possibly even cases of sponsored happenings by provocateurs may well mark the days ahead.
