By Nicki Thomas, Special To Sun Media
The National Day of Action for First Nations people was marked Friday by two demonstrations in the city’s core.
At the Legislature, Friends of the Lubicon Alberta (FOLA) staged a mock takeover of government land to raise awareness about the plight of the Lubicon Cree, a 500-member band living 450 km north of Edmonton.
The Lubicon say they were left out of the signing of Treaty 8 over a century ago and have been fighting with the government over land claims ever since.
Today, they have no reserve land, no running water, inadequate infrastructure and are affected by a litany of health problems -- including high rates of tuberculosis, cancers, suicide, alcoholism and birth complications, they say.
They claim that oil exploration and forestry activity has contaminated local lakes and streams and devastated the wildlife they once depended on for food and income from trapping.
Cosanna Preston, a member of FOLA, said Canada continues to violate the rights of their own people despite international outcry from groups like Amnesty International and the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
At Canada Place, native leaders and supporters chanted slogans and displayed signs of protest against the inequalities suffered by First Nations people.
Alexis First Nations Chief Cam Alexis said there has been an erosion of government funding for health, housing, education and economic initiatives.
He said treaty rights and native people themselves must be respected by both the Canadian government and the public.
"We still exist. We want our rights respected," he said.
Ben Houle of the Whitefish Lake First Nations said that the aboriginal population is growing at three times the national average but funding has not increased accordingly.
He remembered being at a protest twenty-five years ago and said native people are fighting with the government over the same issues today as they were then.
"We don’t want our kids to do this protest in another twenty years," said fellow band member Andy Jackson.
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