(The following story by Christina Spencer appeared on the Sault Star website on February 28.)
OTTAWA — Frustrated by what they say is lack of support in the federal budget, Canada’s Natives plan another national “day of action” like the one last June in which the main CN rail line in Eastern Ontario was blocked and the country’s busiest highway was shut down.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine said yesterday Natives were already planning a peaceful day of “reaching out to Canadians” to explain the problems plaguing their communities. But he said the budget’s lack of commitment to Natives means they’ll accelerate their plans.
“Our people are becoming more frustrated, they are losing hope and losing patience,” he said.
The action day is supposed to be a peaceful show of aboriginal concerns over poverty, inadequate housing, lack of clean drinking water and insufficient education.
But Fontaine conceded frustrations could boil over as they did in 2007, when protesters blocked a quarry near the town of Deseronto, Ont., and the site of a potential uranium mine near Sharbot Lake. During the day of action, Mohawk protesters blocked a rail line and Ontario’s Hwy. 401 was shut.
“There are situations that are occurring that would suggest to me there is a distinct possibility … that the summer will be quite uncomfortable for a lot of people,” Fontaine said.
“There are many, many situations that are in a precarious state at the moment but could very easily deteriorate.”
He said despite years of submitting plans to the federal government, the AFN was “bitterly disappointed” by the Tories’ budget.
The budget announces $660 million for First Nations’ education, health programs, child services and safe drinking water. But Fontaine said only $270 million, spread over two years, is new money and that most of it depends on striking deals with provincial governments.
The AFN chief suggested federal priorities were skewed.
“It is not responsible to spend billions of dollars to rebuild Afghanistan while ignoring the poverty of First Nations here at home,” he said.