OTTAWA — Like many Canadians, Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence spent a quiet Christmas morning with her family, opening presents with two of her five daughters.
But far from her home on James Bay, Spence entered the third week of a hunger strike Tuesday, an action she says won’t end until Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston agree to sit down and talk about Canada’s treaty relationship with First Nations leadership.
She did have a visitor on Boxing Day, however, Liberal Leadership hopeful Justin Trudeau came by to meet with the First Nations leader.
“It was deeply moving to meet [Theresa Spence] today. She is willing
to sacrifice everything for her people. She shouldn’t have to,” Trudeau
wrote on twitter.Spence said her strike, part of the Idle No More movement, is ultimately about respect: for treaties and for aboriginal peoples.
And to show that respect, she thinks she deserves a meeting with no one less than the prime minister and the Queen’s representative in Canada.
“A treaty is a document upon which we were supposed to build our future together and trust and honour each other,” Spence said on Christmas Day, as she sat on Victoria Island in the middle of the Ottawa River, within view of the Peace Tower.
According to First Nations elders, the treaty was expected to be in place “as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the river flows.”
Spence, who says she feels strong despite her constant hunger, stopped eating solid food on Dec. 11. She continues to take lemon water, some fish broth “to ward off sickness,” and medicinal teas prepared each morning by a friend.
So far the Prime Minister’s Office has been silent, but Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan says he is concerned about Spence’s health.
In a letter sent on Tuesday, Duncan urged Spence to end her protest and informed her that he is prepared to set up a working group between federal and First Nations representatives to discuss treaty and rights issues.
Spence has so far been unresponsive to Duncan’s repeated attempts to contact her by phone.
As the leader of a sovereign nation, Spence wants a “nation-to-nation” meeting with the leader of Canada.
“All treaties were signed by the Crown — the government — and our ancestors … the treaties are there for a reason and either the prime minister doesn’t understand them, or he doesn’t want to respect them,” she said.
Attawapiskat First Nation is part of Treaty 9, also known as the James Bay Treaty, signed by some communities in 1905, and by others in 1906.
In the summers of 1905 and 1906, treaty commissioners from Ottawa, who spoke on behalf of King Edward VII, travelled north to negotiate with aboriginal leaders in order to “open for settlement, immigration, trade, travel, mining, lumbering, and such other purposes as to His Majesty may seem meet, a tract of country.”
In return for $5 and a portion of land — called a reserve — the signatories were assured that they would receive “benefits that served to balance anything that they were giving.”
According to the text of Treaty 9, the “reserves were set apart for them in order that they might have a tract in which they could not be molested, and where no white man would have any claims without the consent of their tribe and of the government.”
For Spence and other First Nation leaders, the government has failed in its duty to consult First Nations, bringing into jeopardy the entire treaty relationship.
Bill C-45, the Conservative government’s omnibus budget bill which passed earlier this month, contains changes to the Navigable Waters Act, including waterways in First Nations territory. It also makes it easier to sell reserve land to non-natives.
There are a host of other bills coming down the pipe which leaders say take power away from First Nations leadership and put it in the hands of the federal government, thereby contravening the treaties and the nation-to-nation relationship.
Bill C-27 would require First Nations leadership to disclose their salaries, which is something many leaders already do by choice. Critics say the First Nations Education Act and Bill S-8, the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act, may seem good on the outside, but were not crafted in consultation with aboriginal leaders and therefore go against the treaty relationship.
“For First Nations, we entered into (the treaties) in good faith and we want to honour and protect the treaty,” said Spence.
Spence said she is encouraged by youth involvement as she watches Idle No More spread through malls and city halls across the country.
In order to keep in touch directly with a campaign that has been largely organized online,It’s time to get our leaders at the table with the Crown and the prime minister and really talk — not to play games no more with us.”
“As long as the land is here, the river flows and the green grass grows and the sun rises, we’re going to be here and that treaty is going to be here,” said Spence.
On Tuesday, she remained thankful for family, friends and helpers who she says are keeping her strong.
“It’s a Christmas I don’t think I’ll ever forget, but it’s good to see my children open their Christmas gifts on Christmas morning: to see them laugh and give you hugs and kisses and just being with them.”
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