Saskatchewan was one of the last stops for a special United Nations investigator on aboriginal rights.
James Anaya spent a long day in the province visiting a small reserve in the north, then meeting privately with 16 delegations in the south.
It was an early start to a long day for the U.N. rapporteur at the impoverished Buffalo River Dene nation, about 350 kilometers north of Prince Albert.
A delayed flight to Regina took him to a meeting with government officials, then it was a one hour drive to Fort Qu’Appelle where Anaya met privately with a number of delegations at the Treaty Four Governance Centre.
“I’m here to listen and to develop a report and I’m listening to both government and indigenous peoples.”
At his side all day long was FSIN chief Perry Bellegarde, who also made a presentation to Anaya during his private session in Fort Quappelle.
“You know when there’s so much wealth around them but you still see there’s still so much poverty. So he’s picking up that impact, that’s what he’s getting, that’s what he’s seeing.”
Other speakers included Idle No More Co-Founder Sylvia McAdam who says Anaya has the power to affect change.
“There’s remedies that are within his mandate and I’m hopeful those remedies will be triggered.”
Other groups granted an audience with Anaya included the all nations hope aids network. C.E.O. Margaret Poitras says more needs to be done.
“Well why are we dying still of HIV and Aids and why are babies being born with this?”
Anaya’s nine days Canadian fact finding mission ends with an interim report that he will be releasing in Ottawa today.
He will then compile a final report that will be submitted to the United Nations next September.
The report is expected to show that not much progress has been made for Canada’s Aboriginal people since the last time a report was done about 10 years ago.