Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde is hopeful the organization can restart what has been a stalled relationship with the Harper government over the past couple of years.
Since the end of 2012, the AFN has battled with the federal government in virtually every key area including education, fiscal accountability, transfer payments and changes to the Indian Act.
This tense relationship led to the early departure of former AFN Chief Shawn Atleo last spring.
Bellegarde recently met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa for what he says was a cordial meeting where a number of issues, such as Indigenous poverty and missing and murdered Aboriginal women, were discussed.
However, not long after the Harper government threatened the relationship again by posting a picture of Bellegarde and the Prime Minister on a webpage promoting the government’s controversial First Nations Financial Transparency Act.
The AFN Chief says he was not happy about the unauthorized use of his photo but he is willing to move on after the government removed it from its website and admitted it made a mistake.
“We had our staff contact the PMO staff and they immediately withdrew it. So that’s a good thing because we don’t want to be used in any shape or form to promote things we don’t support.”
The AFN will be hosting a roundtable on missing and murdered Aboriginal women at the end of the month.