Attawapiskat leader threatens civil disobedience

A regional chief who represents Attawapiskat says that a number of his counterparts in other First Nations across the country are prepared to engage in civil disobedience over Ottawa's handling of a housing crisis in the northern Ontario community.

"There's people who are ready to stand up and be counted ... to stand up and do civil disobedience so that we are heard," Stan Louttit told Evan Solomon on CBC-TV's Power & Politics.

"If the minister does not want to work with us, you may see that sooner than later," said Louttit, who presides over the Mushkegowuk Council, to which Attawapiskat belongs.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan has ordered an independent audit of Attawapiskat's finances and has appointed a third-party manager to oversee spending, after local leaders declared an emergency over substandard housing conditions.

When the outside manager, Jacques Marion, arrived in Attawapiskat on Monday, he was promptly asked to leave by the band, which said his presence was unwanted.

On Tuesday, Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence said she had met with Duncan and explained why she had declared an emergency in her community, where poor living conditions remain unaddressed two years after a sewage backup damaged homes and the health of residents. She attributed three deaths to the effects of that crisis.

In a rambling but emotional speech at the Assembly of First Nations meeting in Ottawa, Spence said her community had done its homework and fulfilled its obligations but her people were suffering and even dying because of longstanding substandard living conditions.

"We need to say, enough is enough.... And I'm asking the chiefs to tell the government that what was done to Attawapiskat First Nation … we're not going to take it no more," she said.

"We're not going to tolerate this childish behaviour from the government when we ask for assistance," Spence said.

First Nations meeting

Spence was in Ottawa Monday to meet Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo, along with several other First Nations chiefs who are in the capital to set their agenda for the next year.

With the Attawapiskat crisis top of mind, the assembly passed a resolution declaring its support for "the leadership and citizens of Attawapiskat First Nation in their efforts to address the emergency needs of their people including ensuring adequate housing and health supports."

The resolution also requested that the United Nations bring in a "special rapporteur" to find out whether Ottawa is meeting its legal obligations toward First Nations. It calls on Ottawa to respond quickly in First Nations communities afflicted by substandard living conditions, and advises the aboriginal affairs minister to work with local chiefs and councils instead of imposing new measures on them.

'We have many Attawapiskats. It's an issue that has really plagued this country.'—Shawn Atleo, Assembly of First Nations national chief

Atleo touched on the situation in Attawapiskat during a key speech on Tuesday and in a scrum with reporters later, suggesting the crisis could be a turning point.

“We have many Attawapiskats,” he said. “It’s an issue that has really plagued this country, and for the first time, Canadians in a really significant manner have really had, right in their living rooms, through the reports coming out of Attawapiskat, what our people have felt day in and day out for a long, long time.”

Atleo supported the chief’s decision to kick out the third-party manager. “Spence is doing what an elected leader in any community must do: stand up strong for her people,” he said.

“We can’t accept externally imposed solutions. That has given us the status quo that we have now.”

Ex-PM links crisis to failed Kelowna accord

Former prime minister Paul Martin says the housing crisis in the First Nations community of Attawapiskat exemplifies the problems his abandoned Kelowna agreement on aboriginal quality of life was meant to address.

“The Kelowna accord was set up to deal with this very issue,” he said Tuesday in an interview with CBC News. “As well as with education, clean water, accountability and health care.”

Former Canadian prime minister Paul Martin speaks at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16. He says the Kelowna accord was a lost opportunity.Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

In November 2005, Martin, the premiers and aboriginal leaders met in Kelowna, B.C., for the First Ministers Conference on Aboriginal Affairs. The meeting resulted in a five-year, $5-billion plan to improve the lives of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.

But within days, Martin’s minority Liberal government was defeated, triggering an election won by Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

“Unfortunately, the government simply walked away from agreements that had been made with the First Nations and aboriginal leadership and all of the provinces and territories. And they confiscated the $5 billion that the government set aside for it, and that was really most unfortunate. We lost five or six years,” said Martin.

A private member's bill put forward by Martin calling for the accord to be honoured eventually received royal assent, but such bills cannot compel the government to spend money, and the Conservatives decided to take their own course on native issues.

Martin said the crisis in Attawapiskat was “unequivocally clear.”

Deplorable living conditions

The northern Ontario First Nation near James Bay declared an emergency in late October as winter approached while some members of the community of about 1,800 huddled in unheated tents, condemned housing and portable trailers.

Harper said his government has given Attawapiskat around $90 million over the past five years, though critics noted most of that money went to infrastructure and services unrelated to housing.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan said on Monday that Marion left the community, wishing “to respect the volatile situation,” but remained in control of the First Nation’s funding.

The former prime minister said he could not understand why the government was making an issue of third-party management.

“The community has been sending the required numerous files to Ottawa on a regular basis. The $90 million, whatever the minister quoted, when you look at 2,000 people over a five-year period in a community in the far north where everything is twice as expensive as in the south, [it] should not be creating that many red lights.

“If they want the facts, the government has them. The real issue is: Deal with the personal and human tragedy.”