Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo has been ordered by his doctor to rest following last week's tense negotiations among First Nations leaders and a high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Here is the full text of Atleo's letter, posted today on the AFN website:
First Nations citizens have just witnessed one of the most important chapters in our recent history. Through the pressure of the grassroots, the sacrifices made by Chief Spence and her fellow strikers, and the work of many regional Chiefs and the National Executive of the AFN, we have seized the attention of Canadians and of this government.
We forced open the door to the PMO and to the Governor-General. We achieved a commitment to the personal leadership of the Prime Minister, the Privy Council Office and other senior ministers. Now they know that the whole world is watching what progress we make. Now they understand the consequences of failure.
We have a responsibility to work together to push forward our work that relates to each of the eight elements that emerged from our discussions this week – on Treaty, on comprehensive claims, resource revenue sharing, action to assess and halt provisions of legislation that contravene our rights, on the urgent needs of our communities and justice for our missing women. We have leaders in place to ensure that detailed work gets done. And now we have the public commitment of this government and this Prime Minister that they will treat these issues as their priorities.
I am proud of the support we received from First Nations citizens and Chiefs across Canada, even during the most difficult days. There were many long conference calls, late night meetings, and frustrations in the past two weeks. I regret to have to tell you that those long days have caught up with me. This weekend, my doctor ordered that I take some time now to rest and recover and I have agreed with my family that I do this now.
I ask that Regional Chief Augustine continue to chair and facilitate our National Executive meetings in my brief absence and that Regional Chief Bellegarde and Regional Chief Wilson-Raybould continue the work that they led this week on Treaty implementation and on comprehensive claims. As we did in the meeting on January 11 – we must seize the agenda and drive the next steps on each and every element. I encourage everyone to contribute fully to these next steps. I have also directed the senior staff of the Assembly of First Nations to mobilize staff working teams on these elements to provide the analysis and support required.
Finally as we have done from the very beginning, we continue to offer our support and prayers for Chief Spence, the hunger strikers and for all of our peoples standing up through peaceful demonstrations and protest. As we told the Prime Ministers – our voices, the voices of all of our citizens will not be silenced. We will drive change now.
Friends and colleagues, this has been a fateful moment in the decades of struggle by our peoples. We have secured important new ground. Now the harder, but less visible, work of turning promises into action begins. I look forward to working with all of you on those tasks in the weeks and months ahead. Together I am confident we ensure that this week marks the end of a long bitter chapter of paralysis and provocation in our relationship with the GoC, and that it truly is the beginning of a new chapter.
I will see you all very soon and will return re-invigorated and strengthened to work with you to drive this change together with all of you.
Here is Friday's statement from Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan, following the meeting:
Since 2006, our Government has taken concrete action on priorities like education, economic development and housing for First Nations.
We have built new schools, invested in clean drinking water systems, built thousands of new homes, increased funding for services for the most vulnerable members of First Nation communities, and invested in hundreds of projects to link Aboriginals with job training services.
At last year’s historic Crown-First Nations Gathering, Prime Minister Harper committed to building on that progress and today’s meeting marks another important step in that direction.
The Prime Minister participated in the full meeting and had a good, frank dialogue with all participants. While we’re pleased with the constructive discussions that took place today, there is still more work to be done to improve living conditions and economic opportunities for First Nation communities.
The agreed upon agenda items for the meeting focused on treaty implementation and economic development.
To that end, the Prime Minister agreed to:
- A high-level dialogue on the treaty relationship and comprehensive claims.
- The Prime Minister agreed with the need to provide enhanced oversight from the Prime Minister's Office and the Privy Council Office on Aboriginal matters.
- And the Prime Minister agreed to debrief the members of his Cabinet and government on today's discussions and agreed to meet with AFN National Chief Atleo in the coming weeks to review next steps.
Working together remains the best way to achieve our shared objective of healthier, more prosperous and self-sufficient First Nation communities.
Our Government remains committed to working with those Aboriginal leaders who want to work with the Government of Canada to create jobs and growth in their communities.
-Andrew Thomson
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