Idle No More protest at Barrie mall

By Cheryl Browne, Barrie Examiner December 26, 2012

First Nations people joined hands with sympathetic supporters to fashion a Cree round dance at Georgian Mall, Wednesday.

On what was one of the busiest shopping days of the year, hundreds of First Nations people from across Canada stopped harried shoppers in their tracks as they swelled around the fireplace on the lower level of the busy Bayfield Street mall.

To the thumping of native drums and womens’ voices rising in song, Lila Tabobondung, 68, said she was pleased with the large turnout.

“We are here from across Canada because standing up for your rights makes you feel very good,” Tabobondung said.

From the Wasauksing First Nation, Tabobondung said she’d joined the Parry Sound native demonstration on Dec. 21 as well.

“It’s nice to see the Anishinaabe people standing up for their rights,”?she said.

Several grey-haired ’60s activists felt the familiar tug of joining in a government protest and joined hands in the round dance as it threaded its way through the throngs of passersby and supporters alike.

With several signs denouncing Bill C-45, the now familiar Idle No More grassroots protest has taken root in the hearts of all First Nation people, as Chief Theresa Spencer from Attawapiskat goes into her third week of a hunger strike to protest the Conservative government’s policies.

“She’s fighting for everyone here today,” said Dave Rice, a member of the band council of the Wasauksing First Nation.

Rice said it’s time for First Nations people to band together and fight back.

“Our rights are being infringed on. They are not consulting with us, not consulting with the chiefs and councils, they’re just telling us how things are going to change in 30 days,” Rice said.

He said the Canadian government set up the councils — and knows how they run — and the distance some people travel, so pulling together a consensus of councils in that short turn-around time is setting them up to fail.

“The settlers, generations ago, signed these treaties with our people and guaranteed us hunting and fishing rights, and rights to our lands and now they’re trying to change it with this bill,” he said over the roar of approval from the crowd after a song ended.

“We aren’t doing this for ourselves any longer. We are doing this for this generation,” he said, holding up his 28-month-old foster daughter, Neveaih.

A portion of the government’s recently passed omnibus bill has more than a dozen areas of concern for the First Nations that will rewrite treaties and degrade their role in decision-making.

First Nations representatives also came from Beausoleil, Rama, Wahta First Nations, and natives from across Canada now living in Toronto attended Wednesday’s peaceful demonstration in the mall.

A placard reading ‘Idle No More, protect our lands, our water and our freedom’ waved through the air as the drums began again.

Phones and cameras from attendees and shoppers were raised overhead as people tried to capture the moment and movement of the singers, drummers and dancers.

Jared Big Canoe, of Georgina Island, said he came to stand in solidarity with all First Nations.

“The things we were promised when we signed the treaties, this whole Bill (C-45), it’s doing away with all that. These are things we were promised, so we’re all here supporting the fight against that bill,” Big Canoe said.

— With files from Ian McInroy