Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is now on Day 9 of an indefinite hunger strike while living in a teepee on Anishinabe traditional territory of Victoria Island in the Ottawa River, barely a kilometre from Parliament. Yesterday Official Opposition leader Mulcair urged PM Harper to meet with Theresa Spence saying in part, "From coast to coast to coast, an unprecedented wave of grassroots action is sweeping across First Nations communities."
Attawapiskat was the focus of the mass media just over a year ago when Chief Theresa Spence decided that the deplorable conditions on their northern reserve had to change and saw no there was no other avenue than the media for help. International media and human rights groups roundly condemned the succession of Canadian governments who had, and continue to, ignore their treaty obligations to the indigenous peoples who their ancestors slaughtered and stole the land from them in the name of 'progress'.
Harper and his cronies are simply the latest, and far from the greatest, abusers of the legal and moral obligations Canada promised to abide by in the past. And they are far from unique in how aboriginal peoples are treated everywhere that our ancestors 'civilized' in the past centuries.
The 'Idle No More' movement started on Twitter just a few days ago and its momentum is sweeping it across Canada. There over 25,000 articles listed at Google. ca News this morning covering rallies in cities and towns all across Canada, far to many to mention or summarize here. But The Mud Report would like to thank Rabble.ca for their ongoing coverage of, hopefully, this tipping point in Canada's treatment of its First Nations.
