| Marc Braibant |
MONTREAL (AFP) – Canada’s indigenous peoples have long shunned national elections in protest at the colonisation of their lands. But natives are expected to come out en masse for the first time next Monday to try to sway the ballot.
The push came from Perry Bellegarde, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, which represents 900,000 members of 634 tribes across Canada.
Turnout among aboriginals on Canadian reserves was 44 per cent in the 2011 elections, compared to 61 per cent for the general population.
Bellegarde himself has never voted before in a federal election but vowed to cast a ballot this round to set an example for aboriginals – in hope of gaining traction in Ottawa on issues important to natives.
Since his pitch in August, “there’s been a lot of buzz on social media” calling on indigenous people to participate in the democratic process, said Thierry Rodon, a politics professor at Laval University in Quebec following this historic movement.
This September 22, 2013 file photo shows a First Nations’ partic-ipant wearing traditional masks while waiting to take part in a ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ march in Vancouver, British Columbia. REUTERS
Canada’s First Nations number more than 1.4 million, or four per cent of the population – theoretically not enough to impact the election results.
But the race between the inc-umbent Tories, led by Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and Thomas Mulcair’s New Democrats is close. And the AFN has identified 51 electoral districts out of 338 where the aboriginal vote could decide the winner, either because of a slim margin or a high aboriginal population.
“We’re telling our members to take the time to vote in order to get a government elected that will work with us” on issues important to natives, said Robert Bertrand of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples representing Metis, off-reserve and non-treaty Indians, and some Inuit.
In power since 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has had a difficult relationship with Canada’s indigenous communities.
He earned widespread praise in 2008 for standing in Parliament and officially apologising to natives for more than a century of abuses at boarding schools set up to assimilate aboriginals.
From there, things quickly degenerated as the two sides found themselves increasingly at odds over policy.
Harper rejected calls for a national inquiry into the death or disappearance of more than 1,000 aboriginal women since the 1970s, and other specific demands to end squalid living conditions on reserves, improve health and education, and settle outstanding land claims.
The dispute led to massive protests, including rail disruptions and one chief going on a hunger strike to bring attention to the plight of Canada’s natives.
The latest took place last week in Montreal, where hundreds chanted and banged drums in a loud downtown protest, critical of parties for ignoring them. “Aboriginals count,” read placards in the march.
The AFN has not endorsed any of the political parties in this contest.