Aboriginal leader calls for action on first nation poverty

from The First Perspective

by Joseph Quesnel

A prominent First Nation organization is poised to release a plan calling for drastic action against poverty within in Aboriginal communities.

National Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations will be hosting a breakfast session from tomorrow on Parliament Hill to Call for Action Against First Nations Poverty and launch The $9B Myth Exposed report.

"Ignoring poverty within our borders is contrary to our nature as Canadians," said National Chief Phil Fontaine. "A federal budget is less than a month away, and another federal election is looming on the horizon. Tomorrow, we will be reminding parliamentarians, and all Canadians, that they have the political will to make poverty history."

Buzz Hargrove, National President of the Canadian Auto Workers Union and author of Labour of Love: The Fight to Create a More Humane Canada will speak in support the Assembly of First Nations' National Campaign to Make Poverty History: The First Nations Plan for Creating Opportunity.

At this time, the AFN will release The $9B Myth Exposed: Why First Nations Poverty Endures.

Chief Shirley Castel of Pukatawagan First Nation (MB) and Chief Connie Gray-Mackay of Mishkeegogamang (ON) whose communities' abject levels of poverty were recently featured in the Globe and Mail and Winnipeg Free Press will also be present.