BREAKING NEWS!!! First Nations leaders marched to Parliament Hill today to oppose bill C45, Harper's Omnibus Budget Bill #IdleNoMore http://bit.ly/YxEV20
First Nations leaders have just attempted to enter into chambers on Parliament Hill in a peaceful protest to challenge the Harper government's attack on environmental protection for lakes and rivers.
Article: >>APTN News: http://bit.ly/YxEV20
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WATCH VIDEO: >> http://bit.ly/YxEV20<<
OTTAWA - First Nations leaders, upset with what they view as a lack of consultation over the omnibus budget bill #C45, have attempted to enter into the chambers on Parliament Hill.
First media reports are coming in, so lets wait to hear all of the facts as the story unfolds, video can be viewed at the link below . "Guards physically held back a group of them who had confronted Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver on Tuesday afternoon."
Article: http://bit.ly/TMsWWB
Ipolitics: First Nations Chiefs take protest to doors of the House to oppose budget bill
“The issue here is with this omnibus legislation that it’s going to strip environmental protection of lakes,” Angus said after QP, referring to changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act which remove thousands of lakes and streams from federal protection. “It’s basically declaring open season on all parts of Canada, but especially on First Nation territory,” Angus added. “No consultation. There’s a real frustration. So the desire was for some of the leaders to be able to come in and actually say, wait a minute, how come you’re pushing this through, this omnibus legislation, you haven’t spoken to us." source: http://bit.ly/SvTUn2
All References on the harper government's anti-democratic omnibus "budget bill" and the gutting of our fresh waterways, scientific research and silencing of our Canadian scientists included below:
Harper ‘Budget’ Bill Guts Protection of Rivers, Lakes -Conservatives Toss Out 130 Year-Old Law to Speed Up Pipeline Construction http://bit.ly/XnRhrZ
CBC News: Harper government budget bill erodes waterway protections
"Proposals for big pipelines and interprovincial power line projects will no longer have to prove they won't damage or destroy navigable waterways in Canada, under changes introduced by the harper government. These big projects are exempt under the new navigation protection act proposed in the harper government's second omnibus budget bill. The new act would replace one of the country's oldest laws, 'the Navigable Waters Protection Act'. It was established in 1882 and said that no one could block, alter or destroy any water deep enough to float a canoe without federal approval."
source: http://bit.ly/TzY2Qr
Ottawa Citizen: Harper government budget bill guts waterways rules, 90 per cent of protected lakes are on Conservative shores
"While revisions to the Navigable Waters Protection Act has stripped federal oversight from thousands of Canadian waterways, 90 per cent of the lakes that will still be designated as protected are in conservative territory, The list of lakes includes those surrounded by wealthy cottagers north of Toronto, in the Muskoka district of the riding held by Treasury Board President Tony Clement, a Citizen analysis shows." source: http://bit.ly/UQGIgr
WinnipegFreePress: Scientists across the world lash Harper government for pulling plug on Experimental Lakes Area (ELA)
"Scientists from Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institute, and other research centres are condemning a decision by the Harper government to shut down a world-class freshwater research program. A program called the Experimental Lakes Area, a region of 58 lakes near Kenora, Ont., that scientists have used for groundbreaking experiments, will be scrapped as part of Harper's budget cuts. Scientists are dismayed by the Harper government's move to wind down the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario. Those cuts come with 40 layoffs in Winnipeg's regional Fisheries and Oceans Canada office. Many of those who are being laid off are biologists, chemists and other scientists who form the ELA's core." source: http://bit.ly/JEHati
Montreal Gazette: Canadian scientists are being silenced by Harper government
source: http://bit.ly/Vk7Wwg, http://yhoo.it/IodahS
The Assembly of First Nations/Assemblee des premieres Nations is hosting a Special Chief's Assembly today. View the livestream here:
http://download.isiglobal.ca/afn/2012-12-04_05_06/english.html
Photo: First Nations Treaty Chiefs marched to Parliament Hill today to oppose #C45, Harper's Omnibus Budget Bill! #IdleNoMore
Photo courtesy of: Aboriginal Peoples' Commission | Commission des peuples autochtones
Shared by Derek @ Occupy Canada
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/11/15/pol-cp-first-nations-atleo-harper-letter.html
Atleo writes Harper, Duncan on First Nations 'frustration'
Assembly of First Nations chief says federal agenda has 'potential for harmful impacts'
The Canadian Press
Posted: Nov 15, 2012 11:26 AM ET
Last Updated: Nov 15, 2012 11:24 AM ET
Read 213 comments213
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Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan to express native leaders' frustration at the lack of progress on important issues.Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan to express native leaders' frustration at the lack of progress on important issues. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
The scaffold Prime Minister Stephen Harper erected in January to help boost the independence and prosperity of Canada's First Nations is being corroded by inaction, and risks collapsing in a familiar cloud of inertia and distrust, newly obtained correspondence suggests.
Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, lays bare the frustrations of Canada's native leaders in a pair of scathing letters sent last month to Harper and Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan.
The letters, obtained by The Canadian Press, decry a total lack of progress on issues Harper promised in January to address — education, comprehensive claims, treaty implementation, economic development and fiscal arrangements.
"There has been a loss of momentum and sense of frustration (that) is being felt by the First Nation leadership," Atleo writes in the three-page letter to Harper.
"This is exacerbated by the federal government's broader legislative agenda, which has the potential for harmful impacts on First Nations, including changes to environmental regulation, fisheries and criminal justice."
Indeed, Atleo accuses Harper of continuing to push legislation and a fragmented agenda he knows First Nations communities will oppose, eroding what little trust existed between natives and the Crown.
In his five-page letter to Duncan, Atleo examines each of the issues Ottawa and chiefs had agreed to tackle, and describes how bureaucratic inertia and lack of mandate have stymied each conversation.
"First Nations leadership have keenly engaged in good faith to begin a dialogue only to be met by AANDC officials indicating that they have no mandate to even enter into discussions," he writes.
As a result, Atleo continues, the progress report due next year will have nothing in it, while the government presses on with legislation impacting First Nations lives as the summit and declaration of last January never happened.
"We have been patient and reserved judgment. Neither that patience nor that demonstrated goodwill is infinite," he writes.
Government responding 'shortly'
Jason MacDonald, a spokesman for Duncan, said neither the minister nor Harper has responded in writing. Duncan will do so "shortly," MacDonald said.
"We will be responding to the national chief's letter; until we have the opportunity to do so it would be inappropriate to comment."
But a government insider close to the talks expressed similar frustration with First Nations leaders. Progress is proving elusive because First Nations themselves don't have a coherent, unified idea of what they want, the source said.
"They don't really know what they're looking for or asking for," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"It's sort of like nailing Jell-O to the wall."
Indeed, as national chief, Atleo does not represent all First Nations. Rather, he communicates to governments and the public on behalf of more than 600 chiefs who have a wide range of demands and concerns, and come from a diverse range of communities.
In practice, Atleo has been the calm face of an increasingly angry population, urging the federal government to work with him before the anger boils over.
The letters suggest that boiling point may soon be at hand.
He wants Harper and Duncan to give bureaucrats a clear mandate and inject their political will into processes that are floundering. He also wants a neutral assessment of education funding, and a neutral body to decide on comprehensive land claims.
"There is a growing and deepening frustration across the country," Atleo writes.
"As people of good faith, we remain hopeful that momentum and commitment will be restored. However, the need for a change of direction, for a demonstration of meaningful good faith on the part of the Crown, is now urgent and essential."
Harper presses on with agenda
The dysfunctional working groups stand in stark contrast to the spirit of co-operation that emerged last winter in advance of the Crown-First Nation Gathering in January.
Though the summit itself did not produce any material gains for First Nations, Harper, his cabinet and chiefs agreed to several detailed processes on the underlying problems facing many reserves.
Now, talks on comprehensive land claims are going nowhere because federal bureaucrats don't have a mandate to negotiate new solutions, Atleo writes.
Indeed, Duncan has taken comprehensive claims in a new direction, telling First Nations involved in protracted talks that Ottawa will walk away unless compromises are in the offing.
On treaty implementation, government representatives have not shown up at key events, Atleo writes in his letter to Duncan. On economic development, he complains that the government has caused delays.
And on education — the focus of much of Harper's and Atleo's attention for the past two years — the joint government-First Nation process collapsed a month ago. Chiefs complained they were not included in the development of legislation and a plan to move forward, while Ottawa issued numbers suggesting education funding for First Nations was already largely sufficient.
For its part, the federal government is going to go ahead with education reform, whether the AFN is supportive or not. Duncan has said he will work with willing First Nations to design legislation by 2014 that will set up regional school boards and allow for a larger First Nations control over administration and curriculum.
It's a way of breaking the logjam that will continue as long as more formal processes with the AFN continue to flounder, said the government source.
"The government is just going to press on with its agenda," he said. "You work with the coalitions of the willing."
