Ottawa: For the first time, hundreds of First Nations Chiefs, leaders, Elders and youth gathered virtually on December 8-9, 2020 for the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Annual General Assembly (AGA).
This year’s theme was “All Our Relations: Emerging Stronger Together”, set the tone as COVID-19 leads First Nations through a challenging, unprecedented year.
AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde delivered the opening address. The AGA features discussion and decision-making on key priorities for First Nations, such as COVID-19, the UN Declaration, systemic racism, infrastructure, among other topics.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed Chiefs across Canada at the event on December 9. He said: “I hear you when you say the status quo is not enough. I hear you, and I agree. It was good to speak with and hear from you – let’s keep making progress together.”
Trudeau said: “We will accelerate work on First Nations policing, including legislating it as an essential service, while expanding the number of communities served and supporting community safety and well-being projects.”
Trudeau also promised to speed up work on a national action plan in response to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and finish lifting long-term drinking water advisories.
He added: “I understand Indigenous Services and CrownIndigenous Relations are big machines,” he said.
“But everyone is working extremely hard to get beyond the Indian Act, to get to a place where you are in control of your own finances, and communities and nations get to direct their own futures.”
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said on Tuesday that the government was giving the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) up to $1.5 million to start co-developing the legislation with the federal government.
“As an essential service, it has to be adequately resourced,” Blair told the AFN chiefs.
“When we compare the resources available to those police officers, how much those officers are paid, their equipment, the facilities that they work from, even the vehicles that they drive, there is, in my opinion, a great disparity.”
The First Nations Policing Program was created in 1991 to improve policing services on reserves and in Inuit communities. Regional Chief Kevin Hart made it clear that “we are all in this together and we must continue to support and strengthen each other through the winter.”
Delegates also heard from federal representatives including:
• Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations
• David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
• Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services
• Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage Eagle River Singers opened the annual general assembly event with a grand entry.