Marc Garneau An open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper: Let our words not be empty

werk van *

Mr. Prime Minister,
26-12-2012

Since December 11, 2012, Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation has been on a hunger strike. On behalf of her people and all First Nations, Chief Spence has asked for a meeting with you to discuss Canada’s treatment of First Nations people.

Across the country, Canadians are calling for meaningful action to support this woman.

A growing grassroots First Nations movement called “Idle No More” is gaining momentum and urging Canadians to support Chief Spence’s request for a meeting with you and its quest for Ottawa’s recognition of First Nations treaty rights.

Prime Minister, you cannot continue to ignore this request. This is not a question of not wanting to set a precedent.

Four years ago on June 11th, 2008, you called for politicians across the country, from across partisan lines, to stand in unity behind your apology for the historic wrongs of the Residential Schools system.

The date of that apology was hailed as a new chapter of engagement between our federal government and all Aboriginal peoples. In your words, that day was to be “a new beginning…a positive step in forging a new relationship between Aboriginal peoples and other Canadians, a relationship based on the knowledge of our shared history, a respect for each other and a desire to move forward together with a renewed understanding that strong families, strong communities and vibrant cultures and traditions will contribute to a stronger Canada for all of us.”

I stood that day, as a citizen of Canada, in solidarity behind that message. Those words were not only a commitment by you, but a commitment by me, indeed by all Canadians, to forge that new beginning.

Let our words not be empty. This past January at the Crown – First Nations gathering, Canada committed to re-establishing its relationship with our First Nations through mutual recognition, sharing and trust. That trust has been lost. To regain it, it must be earned. Trust is not built on a single statement. It is built step-by-step, day-by-day, through action.

I ask you to take the next step to building the “renewed understanding” we promised and grant Chief Spence and First Nations leadership a meeting to plan a course of action respecting the treatment of Aboriginal peoples.

Sincerely, Marc Garneau

* Van wie het is, ik ben vergeten het te noteren toen ik het vond.
Er was teveel. ,
Ik vond wat (en veel te weinig! ) in een (van de ) gallerie (-s) met (Inuit ?)vrouwelijke kunstenaars.
Het is van een jonge vrouw,  die me een sleutel tot een rij  andere (jongere) vrouwen  gaf
Mocht iemand de naam van de kunstenares weten  deel die kennis dan  aub.   
In erkenning van haar werk, maar ik wil ook graag meer van haar zien.

Justin Trudeau meets with hunger striking chief Theresa Spence

Dec 26, 2012

 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.”

Idle no more 21-12-12