"I'm certainly not going to do that before the end of the day and [then] we'll make arrangements," said Brant, who spoke to reporters at a barricade west of
Ontario Provincial Police shut down a section of Highway 401 between
"I know there are consequences that have to be brought forward and ones that I have to bear. I'm obviously in a position where I've done that in the past and I have to accept responsibility for my actions," said Brant.
Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, didn't openly condemn Brant's actions, despite Fontaine's earlier call for peaceful protests "to build bridges, not blockades."
"We don't want to cause a major disruption in the lives of Canadians," Fontaine told CBC News Friday. "We don’t want to disrupt the Canadian economy."
Fontaine said he believed most Canadians would understand aboriginals' frustrations with high poverty rates, deplorable living conditions, as well as health and education problems and decades of delays in resolving land claims.
"Canadians are fair-minded people," he said. "They know the situation as we've described in our communities is simply unacceptable."
Brant acknowledged the pre-emptive police shutdown of Highway 401 and cancellation of Via and CN rail services did steal some of the thunder of the protests, but said police did it for reasons of public safety.
He said the demonstrations have been successful in disrupting the economy.
"There's about $118 million a day in freight that passes down this train line and there's a great deal of commerce that travels down the 401, so I guess if we're evaluating on a monetary sense … certainly we've been successful," he said.
Brant said he intends to keep the day of action peaceful and that aboriginals aren't trying to "poke our finger in the public's eye.
"We feel the concerns and frustration they have. It's a similar frustration we have every day when we drink polluted water and bury children who commit suicide," he said. "We live a life of disruption."
Brant said the issue of aboriginal poverty is "intensely personal" because of the deaths of his twin daughters. Brant said his heavily pregnant wife had an accident while pulling water from a well because they had no running water.
However, the chief of a national aboriginal organization says road and rail blockades won't help educate Canadians about the complex issues his people face on a daily basis.
"It's unfortunate we have to see the protests today and see small pockets of people disrupt the lives of Canadians on this long weekend," said Chief Patrick Brazeau, head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
"It does shed a negative light on aboriginal peoples and we're just here to say that's not the voice of all the aboriginal population in
The group, which represents about 150,000 aboriginals living off-reserve, is not participating in the Canada-wide day of action.
"We have concerns about protests being used as a tactic to raise awareness," he said. "We have to ask Canadians to be patient today to ensure no lives are lost or disrupted."
Those comments were echoed by Rick Simon, Atlantic chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
"We don't think that we need to be standing on the highway to get our message across," he said after a meeting in Membertou, in
Past violent protests haven't changed anything, said Brazeau, citing the 1990 standoff in
"Seventeen years later, we find ourselves in the same situation," he said. "We as leaders have to look at ourselves in the mirror and do a better … collective job at educating Canadians."
Brazeau said he doesn't support Brant or his actions, saying the law should apply equally to all Canadians.
"In terms of Mr. Brant, we don't know who he represents. He's not an elected leader," he said. "As far as we're concerned, this individual does not represent the majority of the people that he claims to speak on behalf of.
"I believe there has to be the same set of rules for all Canadians, aboriginal or not," he said. "When people go this far in disrupting the lives of Canadians, I think that police forces should step in."