Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to call Members’ attention to the new social movement called Idle No More. Idle No More started last November at a teach-in in Saskatoon which was held to protest Bill C-45. There the founders pledged to be idle no more in defending the environment and indigenous sovereignty. Thanks to social media, Idle No More spread like wildfire across Canada and around the world. In Denendeh, events took place in Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Hay River, Yellowknife, Behchoko and at the Deh Cho Bridge in my riding.
Idle No More supported the fast of Attawaspiskat Chief Theresa Spence which led to an important meeting between Aboriginal leaders and the Prime Minister on January 11th. Chief Spence helped broaden the movement’s purpose to include concerns about living conditions in First Nations communities and especially about the broken relationship between Canada and its Aboriginal peoples.
The end of Chief Spence’s fast was not the end of Idle No More. Idle No More is organizing national events on February 14th, today, in solidarity with the Women’s Memorial March, which is a national campaign for missing and murdered Aboriginal women, and Have a Heart Day, an initiative to support indigenous children. Creative acts of awareness, resistance and solidarity are being encouraged. Idle No More has done much in a very short time to educate both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians about indigenous rights and issues, and I commend them. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
