Sun Jul 8, 9:02 PM
By Hannah Zitner
Canadian Press
HALIFAX (CP) - People have a right to strike, protest, demonstrate and even engage in civil disobedience, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine said as he prepares for the assembly's annual general meeting in Halifax.
Roughly 500 native chiefs and delegates will meet in Halifax on Tuesday to talk about the national day of action, land claims, language retention and fishing rights at the 28th Annual General Assembly.
At key item on the agenda will be the day of action when natives and non-natives held vigils, protests and educational sessions to draw attention to issues plaguing aboriginal communities.
Fontaine said he viewed the day as a success, despite a small group that ignored his call for peaceful protests and blocked a busy section of Highway 401 in eastern Ontario.
"I'm an optimist, I always believe we can be pretty convincing and persuasive and the national day of action, in our view, has been a huge success," he said in an interview.
In response to the rogue protest that left $100 million in cargo delayed, he said people have the right to express themselves as long as they're prepared to accept the consequences.
"You have a situation where people feel oppressed and they feel that there's no way out, so they take very aggressive actions."
However, he added that he believes the best way to effect change is through negotiations with government, and cites the residential school agreement as an example.
In March, the federal government approved an agreement that would give roughly 80,000 aboriginal students who were abused in residential schools $10,000 for the first year of attendance and $3,000 for every subsequent year.
British Columbia's regional First Nations chief said the residential schools are largely responsible for the fact that native languages are dying and he wants to discuss language retention at the meeting.
"When I was young we weren't encouraged to speak because my father's generation were the ones that had the language - by and large - beaten out of them," Shawn Atleo said in an interview in Halifax.
There are 50 indigenous languages and linguists predict only three will survive at the current rate of retention, Atleo said.
"The linguists suggest that within a few decades, over the course of one generation, we could possibly see our languages only become symbolic."
Alteo said he would like to see the general public pay more attention to the language issue because it is part of the collective heritage.
Another issue on the agenda that affects both natives and non-natives is fishing rights.
Alteo, who grew up on a small fishing island off the coast of B.C., said he wants to make sure that local people - not those in far-removed downtown offices - still are the beneficiaries of the industry.
As a child, all 30 families in his village partook in the commercial fishing industry, and now he said there are only three still participating in the fishery.
"We think that at a local level we can do a much better job and distribute the opportunities in what we refer to back home as mosquito-type fisheries."
By that he means moving away from large industrial scale fishing with huge boats and licence owners who don't go near the water.
Over the course of the three-day meetings, chiefs, delegates and community members will talk about the previous year's successes and failures and discuss how, as a community, they will move forward.
Fontaine said they cannot rely on government and that the community needs to advance its plans for self-sufficiency and economic independence.
"This gathering will be about strengthening our resolve as First Nations and reminding ourselves that we have to stick together and stand united in pursuing change."