First Nation Leaders Enter Parliament and Scuffled by Security

Decem­ber 4, 2012….Traditional ter­ri­to­ry of the Algo­nquin Peo­ples (Ottawa, Ontario)…Okimaw (Chief) Wal­lace Fox lead a pro­ces­sion of over 300 First Nation Chiefs, lead­ers, elders, women, youth and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers dur­ing an impromp­tu ral­ly on Par­lia­ment Hill today. The First Nations move­ment is a result of frus­tra­tion over the Cana­di­an government’s cur­rent leg­is­la­tion. Bill C‑45 is being debat­ed in the house and Chiefs want­ed to take part in the dis­cus­sions of what will ulti­mate­ly affect the future of their Peo­ples.

“We put Cana­da on notice today that we are a Sov­er­eign Nation and that we won’t be inti­mat­ed by them cause we know who we are and the Rights we have as Indige­nous Peo­ples. We are dis­gust­ed by this gov­ern­ments lack of respect shown to us today when try­ing to enter into the House. We were pushed and shoved by secu­ri­ty and told we weren’t wel­come there. When a pipe is present in which it was today, no force is intend­ed or appro­pri­ate. We are assert­ing our voic­es as Indige­nous Peo­ples.”

This warn­ing comes after an inci­dent at Par­lia­ment today when MP Char­lie Angus (Tim­mins-Kapuskas­ing) invit­ed Chief Fox and nine oth­er First Nations lead­ers to enter into Par­lia­ment to call out Min­is­ter of Indi­an Affairs, John Dun­can and Min­is­ter of Nat­ur­al Resources, Joe Oliv­er to lis­ten and respond to their con­cerns over C‑45 and the debate that was tak­ing place in the house today.

“We tried to enter into the house in order to deliv­er our mes­sage to all Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment and Prime Min­is­ter Stephen Harp­er in a peace­ful way that our Inher­ent and Treaty Rights aren’t nego­tiable. We weren’t con­sult­ed on C‑45 which out­lines a new leg­is­la­tion on land sur­ren­der and want­ed to be includ­ed in these dis­cus­sions. These actions have strained a already frag­ile rela­tion­ship. We have no oth­er choice now but to take a course that will have impacts on all Cana­di­ans, ” stat­ed Oki­maw Wal­lace Fox.

Onion Lake Cree Nation is an Indige­nous Nation which believes in Sov­er­eign­ty and the Pro­tec­tion of Inher­ent & Treaty Rights. The Cree Nation has over 5000 mem­bers and is gov­erned by their own Cree Gov­er­nance Struc­ture. Onion Lake Cree Nation is locat­ed 30 min­utes north of Lloy­d­min­ster on high­way 17 and is in Treaty No.6 ter­ri­to­ry.