Attorney General Don Morgan says the Saskatchewan government has made no specific commitments to the Justice for Our Stolen Children camp.
The comments were made following a Monday meeting between the two groups in Fort Qu’Appelle.
Morgan and four other government ministers attended the meeting with about 20 members of the protest group.
He says he was glad to sit down and hear their concerns.
The protesters put forward nine requests ranging from First Nations child welfare and justice to a moratorium on adoptions and changing foster requirements to keep children in their homes rather than being apprehended.
Morgan says the idea of an adoption moratorium is not realistic.
“To do a moratorium or stop, if a child is in need, we need to deal with that,” he says. “To have a moratorium on that, or to do some of those things, some of those may not be feasible or in the best interest of children.”
The justice minister says the government wants to reach out to tribal councils and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations on how they want to proceed on the issues raised by the protesters.
“I don’t have any indication from First Nations leaders that that’s who they want to be their spokesperson.”
The protesters say they want a ministerial roundtable within the next two weeks and have expressed they do not think any action should be taken against the camp until this second meeting has taken place.
Yet Morgan will not commit to a second meeting until the camp comes down.
“We haven’t had a lot of discussion about further meetings. A show of good faith on their part would be to remove the camp or the teepees. I’m not inclined to have a meeting as long as the teepees are in place. I think if they want to have a further meeting as their group, they need to show some good faith and call for the teepees to be taken down.”
He says discussions on whether eviction action will be taken against the camp have not yet happened.
(PHOTO: Attorney General Don Morgan, courtesy of Saskatchewan.ca)