National Chief Perry Bellegarde wants First Nations and other Canadians alike to get involved in the federal election campaign and push for reconciliation.
In his Montreal address to the Assembly of First Nations annual meeting, Bellegarde says First Nations voters need to make a point of making themselves heard in polling booths across the country.
The time is right, he says, because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recent report has captured the attention of Canadians with its description of the residential school legacy as “cultural genocide.”
This is Bellegarde’s first annual meeting as national chief.
He is also calling on the government to respect traditional territories and honour its legal duty to accommodate First Nations people.
Opposition leaders also spoke at the assembly, but federal Minister Bernard Valcourt will not be there.
Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says his party would build a road for a reserve that has been under one of the longest boil-water advisories in Canada.
Trudeau says it’s inexcusable that Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, which straddles the Ontario-Manitoba boundary, has been cut off from the outside world.
The reserve was carved from the mainland a century ago to build an aqueduct to send fresh water to Winnipeg.
It has no all-weather road and has been without clean water for 17 years.
Both the City of Winnipeg and the Manitoba government have offered to share the cost of building a road, but Ottawa has refused to commit.
Trudeau says the reserve’s situation requires what he calls an urgent response, and the Conservative government has abandoned its responsibility.
N-D-P Leader Tom Mulcair says if his party is elected this fall, he will call a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women in his first 100 days in office.
Mulcair told the Assembly of First Nations annual meeting in Montreal that he believes it’s time for a new era in relations between Ottawa and First Nations.
Mulcair says it’s time for a true nation-to-nation relationship.
(The Canadian Press)