Dec 15, 2011 – 3:01 PM ET National Post
By Derek Abma
Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan met with the chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation on Thursday, amid reports that she has filed a court injunction to stop the government-appointed third-party manager from operating in the troubled community in northern Ontario.
Duncan met with Chief Theresa Spence in Thunder Bay, Ont., to discuss the situation in Attawapiskat, which has dozens of residents living in atrocious accommodations, such as sheds or temporary shelters, as winter approaches.
In a statement, the minister’s office said he told the chief that the welfare of her constituents remains a priority for him.
However, Spence reportedly told journalists in Thunder Bay on Thursday that she has filed a court injunction to stop the third-party manager who the government appointed to help deal with the crisis in the remote reserve in northern Ontario.
The chief has refused to work with the manager, who was initially asked by the community to leave.
In a statement issued after the meeting, Duncan said he and Spence had an “open and frank discussion about the third-party manager.
“His role will be first and foremost to ensure the urgent health and safety needs of residents are met as we respond to this urgent situation.”
He also said they discussed some of the government’s efforts so far to help residents, including shipments of things such as wood stoves and toilets, and renovations to the reserve’s healing lodge to provide temporary shelter. Such actions have been done in partnership with the Canadian Red Cross and Emergency Management Ontario.
The federal government is also planning to deliver 22 modular homes to the reserve once winter roads are operational later this winter.
Duncan’s office had said earlier that more emergency supplies were to be shipped to Attawapiskat on Thursday, including things such as Styrofoam insulation and beds.
Meanwhile, about 10 students from Thunder Bay’s Dennis Franklin Cromarty high school — which is primarily for native students transferred from various reserves — picketed outside the regional office for Aboriginal Affairs in Thunder Bay to support Attawapiskat residents.
One of the protesters, 20-year-old Claudia Linklater, said the government is not showing aboriginals in this country a level of respect worthy of one of the country’s three founding peoples — the English and French being the other two.
“[The government is] not listening to what we have to say,” she said. “They’re people and we’re people, and I think everyone has every right to say something to stick up for themselves — not only themselves but for everybody.”
Linklater called on the government to provide more money to First Nations communities for adequate housing, health care, education and safe water.