Northern Ont. First Nation chief among Indigenous leaders upset with Poilievre’s AFN speech
CTV
Outgoing Nipissing First Nation Chief Scott McLeod is among several Indigenous leaders who are calling out federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre over a speech he made at the Assembly of First Nations' annual general meeting. Here is what he said.
Outgoing Nipissing First Nation Chief Scott McLeod is among several Indigenous leaders who are calling out federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre over a speech he made at the Assembly of First Nations' annual general meeting.
In his opening remarks in Montreal on Thursday, Poilievre made a reference to "our" First Peoples, offending several in attendance, including McLeod.
"They speak, you know, like they are dominant, that they have jurisdiction over us, that they're very 'parental' when it comes to First Nations," McLeod told CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca in a Zoom interview Friday.
He said it is something that needs to be corrected and recognized as being something that needs to change in the country.
"We do not belong to Canada. We were here before Canada," McLeod said.
"It just speaks volumes to the mindset that colonial governments have towards First Nations that we're not nation-to-nation in their eyes no matter how they try and tell us that, because it's not in their actions and it's not in the way they speak."
