Idle No More again flexed its muscles across the country yesterday, the third and largest Indigenous day of action since the grassroots movement began one month ago, on International Human Rights Day.
Blockades, round dances and protests sprouted in dozens of cities from coast to coast, bringing Native and non-Native supporters out into the streets to demand a fundamental change in the relationship between Canada and Indigenous Peoples.
Across from Parliament Hill, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several cabinet ministers met with a selection of First Nations leadership as several thousand protested outside the meeting — a face-to-face discussion demanded by 30-day hunger striking chief Theresa Spence. But the Attawapiskat leader boycotted the meeting, decrying the limited Aboriginal representation and short length.
As crowds closed the streets outside, some angrily confronted Aboriginal leaders who chose to attend the meeting, while other chiefs boycotted what they called a sham. Spence boycotted the meeting with Harper but chose to meet instead with the Queen's representative, Governor General David Johnstone, who represents the Crown's treaty obligations to Indigenous nations.
Elsewhere, thousands showed up for events in most major Canadian cities. In Montreal, at least a thousand people rallied outside the Palais des Congrès. In Vancouver, hundreds held a round dance and drummed outside City Hall. Outside Truro, Nova Scotia, members of the Millbrook First Nations blocked freight and passenger trains with a vehicle and wood palettes. In Hamilton, Ontario, protesters blocked the sprawling Highway 403 briefly. Overseas, cries of Idle No More were even heard in London, England, on the steps of the Canadian High Commission.
In Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, the four women who founded Idle No More late last year hosted a large, web-streamed meeting to strategize the movement's next steps — and how to continue confronting federal legislation such as Bill C-45, which they allege would facilitate the surrender of reserve lands and gut waterways protection.
Vancouver activist Krazie Nish, a Gitxsan and Mohawk organizer with the Turtle Island Movement, remembers attending the 1990 armed standoff near Oka, Quebec — when Canada deployed its army to quell Kanesatake Mohawks trying to prevent the destruction of their cemetery by a golf course.
She said that today's movement is reminiscent of the mass mobilization of Natives coast-to-coast 23 years ago, but activists have learned decades of lessons on fighting for their rights.
Prime Minister Harper emerged from yesterday's meeting with Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo and a handful of other Native leaders promising to focus on improving the country's relationships with Aboriginal People. But Idle No More activists vowed to continue mobilizing for Indigenous rights and self-determination.
Radek described the area around Spence's teepee on Victoria Island, only minutes from Parliament Hill, as crowded and bursting with energy as the protests raged. She cooked and delivered moose and deer meat soup for Spence's helpers on the island yesterday, and agreed that a ratcheting up of action is a likely next step for a movement that has burst forth onto the political scene in only a month, fuelled by online social media and a growing anger at the ongoing oppression of Indigenous People.