Canada premier accused of inciting hatred of aborigines

A Canadian women’s group has accused the country’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper of inciting hatred of the indigenous people in the country by falling short of condemning racial practices against them.

Ellen Gabriel of the ‘Indigenous Women of Turtle Island’ highlighted on Friday that so far she has observed a powerful and rising amount of racist reactions against the protests organized by the ‘Idle No More’ movement over aboriginal treaty rights.

The Canadian government’s failure to meet the demands of the First Nations has triggered many protests across the country.

On January 16, hundreds of demonstrators, many carrying flags and signs calling on the federal government to listen to aboriginal concerns, blocked one of the two access roads to the Ambassador Bridge, which is the major trade crossing from southern Ontario to the US.

Several other protest rallies had also been held or planned in cities nationwide, blocking rail and roadways, including the TransCanada Highway, as well as targeting oil sands mining in Western Canada.

Indigenous communities in Canada, also known as the First Nations, say they are frustrated with Ottawa’s failure to address the social and economic grievances facing many of Canada’s 1.2 million aborigines.

Canadian aborigines are also angry at government’s Bill C-45, which seeks to change the rules about aboriginal land.

The protests have intensified in the North American country after Theresa Spence, the Chief of Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario, went on a hunger strike on December 11, 2012 over the violation of the rights of the Canadian natives. She has demanded a meeting between the Canadian premier and Governor General David Johnston with First Nations leaders on the troubles of aboriginal people.

The Assembly of First Nations has also renewed its calls for a meeting with Harper and Johnston on January 24.

This comes as Spence said in a statement issued on Friday that she is growing feeble, but is still determined to see the January 24 meeting take place.

“I pray that Canada will come to the table soon, as time isn’t on my side and as each day passes, so does our health,” Spence said about herself and her co-hunger striker, Manitoba elder Raymond Robinson.

Many of Canada’s natives live in poor conditions with unsafe drinking water, inadequate housing, addiction, and high suicide rates.