Idle No More: First Nations Protests Take Aim at Canada's Dirty Oil Sands Erin Anderssen, Gloria Galloway, Kelly Cryderman - The Globe and Mail
go to original January 16, 2013

"Idle No More" is a worldwide indigenous movement started by the First Nation Tribes of Canada as a way to help protect the Constitutional Treaty Rights of the Indian Act. This film documents one of the many events worldwide in support of the Idle No More movement, in Seattle Washington Dec. 29, 2012. (rockpaperjet)

Plans will likely proceed for more first nations protests this week, with possible blockades of railways and highways. Politicians can also expect to be greeted by more protesters when they return to their official House of Commons duties at the end of the month. But as word grows of more protests, two of Ottawa’s most prominent aboriginal critics took steps this weekend to soften their tone.

A spokesperson for the Idle No More movement, which first galvanized the grassroots last summer, said that the organization was not “for now” supporting blockades or any illegal protests.

And Derek Nepinak, Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, clarified in a statement Sunday that none of his previous comments should be interpreted as “threats” or “calls to violence.” Mr. Nepinak has been fiercely outspoken in his criticism of Friday’s meeting between a group of chiefs and the Prime Minister.

The statement, a spokesperson said, was a response to how some of his comments about a “warrior spirit” had been translated in social media.

Aboriginal protesters held rallies and blocked roads in cities across the country this weekend. On Saturday, a crowd in Calgary blocked a main inner-city bridge across the Bow River for a number of hours. In Ottawa, Ontario chief Theresa Spence continued her hunger fast, approaching the sixth week of a diet that she says has been limited to fish broth and tea.

Last week’s meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which was attended by Shawn Alteo, head of the Assembly of First Nations, and 21 other chiefs, has been greeted with decidedly mixed reviews – with some saying it demonstrated a new movement toward resolving treaty issues, and others, including Mr. Nepinak, declaring it a “sideshow” that achieved nothing.

Those talks seem unlikely to quell demonstrations planned by first nations members across the country. But behind this resolve is an aboriginal community that remains divided.

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