SASKATOON – Members of the Idle No More movement are calling on the chief of the Assembly of First Nations to refuse to accept a high-profile award.
AFN Chief Shawn Atleo is expected to receive an Indspire Award for Education on Friday in Saskatoon.
Indspire is the new name for what used to be known as the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation.
Dion Tootoosis is one of the people calling on Atleo to reject the honour.
Tootoosis says the government’s failure to allow grassroots people into a recent meeting on education is one of the main reasons behind their call.
Tootoosis says the government is denying treaty rights to First Nations people by not allowing them to have a meaningful say in how their children are educated.
“They opened the door for us to be part of this process and now they’ve blocked us out,” he says. “On top of that we weren’t allowed to make any other suggestions. They allowed the chiefs into the actual room, we were actually kept out of the room by security.”
The meeting dealt with a proposed First Nations Education Act and was put on by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Saskatoon.
The afternoon session of the meeting was closed to the public.
Atleo was not immediately available for comment.
(CJLR)
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