Shelve thisFirst Nations chiefs sought a meeting with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien soon after the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report was released last year. Chrétien postponed the meeting, then postponed it again. Six months after the report was first released, the chiefs are still waiting. They've declared Thursday, April 17 a National Day of Action to protest Chrétien's and the federal government's listlessness toward aboriginal rights. The 3,537-page report took five years and $50 million to research and write. Skawenati Tricia Fragnito of the Montreal Native Friendship Centre says the report has been shelved not only because of the estimated $30-billion cost of implementing its recommendations but also because of its recommendations for an aboriginal parliament to be known as the House of First Peoples.
The Day of Action includes a public demonstration to be held at noon on April 17 at Place Albert-Duquesne on the corner of Ontario and St-Urbain. Jacquie Charlton
|