Frustrated by the contents of the federal budget, Canada's aboriginals plan another national "day of action" like the one last June when the main CN rail line in eastern Ontario was blocked and the country's busiest highway shut down.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine said yesterday aboriginals 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 aboriginals 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 Deseronto and the site of a potential uranium mine near Sharbot Lake. During the day of action, Mohawk protesters blocked a rail line and Highway 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, citing the uranium mine as one example.
"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.
"This is one of the richest countries in the world. We're spending money in different parts of the world to try and fix things that are wrong there. It's not that we shouldn't do it, absolutely we have responsibilities internationally, but there's a crisis here in our country and it's not of our doing."