Prime Minister Justin Trudeau narrowly avoided an organized walkout during his speech to Indigenous leaders Tuesday after Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr called chiefs to apologize for remarks some saw as a threat to protesters opposed to contentious pipeline projects.
Quebec Chief Serge Simon, a Mohawk from Oka and a strident opponent of pipeline projects, had been assembling a group of chiefs to take a stand and turn their backs on Trudeau at the Assembly of First Nations gathering in Gatineau, Que.
Simon and others, including Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day, have said Carr's comments about "defence forces" and police sent alarm bells ringing throughout First Nations communities, and were irresponsible because of the historical significance of invoking the military as a bulwark…show more content… The test of our relationship is whether we can still move forward, together," he said. "We've already felt some headwinds. And there will be more."
'New walk together'
Trudeau also touted accomplishments made during his first year in office, and said his government has begun a "new walk together" with Indigenous people. He rhymed off what his $8.4-billion budget pledge has already done for First Nations communities.
Fourteen drinking water advisories have been lifted, he said to applause, while the government is on track to eliminate half of all those remaining in the next three years. (He promised during the last campaign to eliminate all long-term boil-water advisories within five years, where are still 75 remaining.)
He said the government's $2.6-billion cash injection to First Nations education has constructed six new schools, creating new learning spaces for some 2,000 students, with a further 31 under construction and more than 100 in the planning pipeline.
Trudeau also announced that he would support one of National Chief Perry Bellegarde's main asks: the creation of an Indigenous languages
