The chief of the Buffalo River Dene Nation says he thinks a visit to his reserve and other communities by an United Nations official will make a major impact on the country.
Chief Lance Byhette says professor James Anaya will be in his community on Sunday morning between 9:00 a.m. to noon.
Anaya, who is the special rapporteur for the United Nations on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, is currently on a tour of aboriginal communities in Canada.
He is gauging what progress has been made to address the inequalities facing aboriginal people in Canada.
The trip is a follow-up to an earlier visit in 2003.
Byhette says he’ll be expressing to the U.N. official, some of the concerns he has regarding housing for First Nations, oil-sands leases, the permit sale of 2012, the pending federal education act for First Nation, and the Primrose Air-weapons range situation, among others.
He says he’ll also be joined by members of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations:
“For sure I strongly believe this will have a great impact. I mean if the federal governemnt, the provincial government don’t want to listen to things that are happening and we bring it to the world level and they help us out as indigenous people. I mean it’s long overdue, we as First Nations people want to be competitive and want to be one of the communities to succeed. “
Byhette says he’s had enough of the current situation and that’s why this trip is needed.