Idle No More 1st Nat Am

no notes 817

promote primary on trans mtn

1st nations refer to cda nat am

https://www.desmog.com/2022/07/26/climate-leader-netflix-donated-to-rightwing-think-tank/

Netflix gives every impression of being one of the world’s most climate friendly corporations.

The streaming company responsible for the blockbuster climate movie “Don’t Look Up” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence plans to slash or offset all of its corporate greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2022, a goal known as net-zero.

Netflix is producing and providing a platform for documentaries, TV series, and feature films educating viewers about the climate crisis — about 160 million households globally watched one of these stories in 2020, according to the company.

“The film industry needs a leader when it comes to climate action,” Katharine Hayhoe, a chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy who belongs to an independent advisory group of experts for Netflix’s sustainability plan, has said. “I’m thrilled at how Netflix is taking on this leadership role.”

But away from the public eye there is one area where Netflix is anything but green.

The company has donated to a rightwing think tank in Canada that has also been supported financially by the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, the Exxon-owned tar sands producer Imperial Oil, and the Charles G. Koch Foundation, an organization linked to Koch Industries.

Known as the Macdonald Laurier Institute, this Ottawa-based think tank boasts of having “great influence” in pushing forward a massive tar sands pipeline expansion called Trans Mountain. That project’s greenhouse gas emissions could far eclipse any carbon reductions that Netflix promises in its “net-zero” plan.

The Macdonald Laurier Institute is a relatively new think tank. Founded in 2010, its board of directors and advisors come from some of the top legal, lobbying and financial firms in Canada. It is also a member of the Atlas Network, a U.S.-based coalition whose hundreds of partners worldwide include the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank co-founded by Charles Koch.

The Macdonald Laurier Institute has partnered with Atlas on a campaign to discourage the Canadian government from implementing laws that would give Indigenous communities greater power to push against oil and gas projects on their land.

Netflix is listed as a donor to the Macdonald Laurier Institute in the organization’s 2018 annual report, alongside Imperial Oil, the Atlas Network and several dozen other supporters. “We believe that with your help we will bring Canada closer to becoming the best governed country in the world,” the annual report says of donors like Netflix.

The Macdonald Laurier Institute, also known as MLI, didn’t respond to questions about the Netflix donation.

This might seem like an odd pairing, because Netflix by some measures is one of the most politically liberal tech companies, and MLI is arguably one of Canada’s most rightwing think tanks. But at the end of the day, Netflix is a large corporation with financial interests that could potentially be served by supporting a think tank that claims it “has been regularly recognized for our influential thought leadership in Canada.”

“Just because the Macdonald Laurier Institute is seen as more conservative, and Netflix is seen as having a more progressive agenda, doesn’t necessarily mean that their interests don’t align,” Donald Abelson, a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario who is an expert on think tanks, told DeSmog.

But Abelson cautioned against assuming that Netflix supports MLI’s full political agenda; more than likely, its donation had nothing to do with pipelines. “Let’s say you joined a political party, does that mean you agree with all the policies or platforms that emerge from that party?” he said.

Netflix’s climate satire ‘Don’t Look Up’ broke viewing records when it was released in 2021. Credit: Netflix

Netflix didn’t respond to questions from DeSmog about the size of its donation or whether it was aware of MLI’s support for Trans Mountain, a pipeline designed to export an additional 590,000 barrels per day from the tar sands.

The think tank has an entire section about the pipeline in its report naming Netflix as a donor. That section doesn’t once mention climate change and claims that a failure to build Trans Mountain “threatens Canada’s economy.”

In the year that Netflix donated to the think tank, tensions were increasing over the Trans Mountain project, a 714-mile pipeline expansion connecting the Alberta tar sands to oil-carrying supertankers in the west coast city of Vancouver.

Many environmental groups and First Nations were opposed to the project, and so was British Columbia Premier John Horgan, whose government delayed issuing crucial permits while arguing that the environmental risks of a potential oil spill couldn’t be justified.

“I do believe we have a mandate to defend the coast,” Horgan said in 2018.

Kinder Morgan, the Texas-based company building the expansion, threatened to walk away entirely. All this constituted a “nightmare” to the Macdonald Laurier Institute, which argued in a report that “the attractiveness of Canada as a place for major investments is at stake.”

In May 2018, a senior fellow at the institute named Dwight Newman testified to Canada’s Senate, where he argued that the federal government had the legal authority to override environmental opposition to the pipeline in B.C. “Canada does have the legislative powers to get this project done if there is the will to do so,” Newman said.

Two weeks later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government would pay $4.5 billion to buy the pipeline from Kinder Morgan, effectively nationalizing the project. Trudeau called Trans Mountain “a vital project in the national interest” in a tweet, just one day after his government had declared a national “climate emergency” in Canada.

The Macdonald Laurier Institute was thrilled about the role it played in the pipeline fight. It claimed in its 2018 annual report to have shaped “government efforts to deal with the constitutional issues surrounding Trans Mountain,” adding that, “We have been at the forefront of efforts to chart a way out of the pipeline impasse.”

The Macdonald Laurier Institute didn’t say in its report how much money Netflix donated that year. But it is possible to quantify the climate damage that will be caused by Trans Mountain.

The pipeline, whose cost has now risen to CAD $21.4 billion, could result in up to 15 million tons of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere annually once it’s completed in 2023, according to calculations by Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Netflix, by contrast, is now promising to cut or neutralize roughly 1 million tons of greenhouse gases related to its operations by the end of the year.

Trans Mountain threatens to wipe out those climate gains entirely.

TMX Pipeline Threatens First Nations People. It Must Be Stopped.

truthout 1020

https://truthout.org/articles/the-tmx-pipeline-threatens-first-nations-people-it-must-be-stopped/

https://theintercept.com/2018/07/17/trans-mountain-pipeline-tar-sands-canada-us-kinder-morgan/

intercept parrish

A Radically New Landscape

Just as Standing Rock shifted public understanding of the extremes to which governments would go to support fossil fuel companies, so has the Trans Mountain fight.

Clayton Thomas-Muller, who works with the climate justice organization 350, has been involved in fighting the tar sands for over a decade. “We’re in a radically new landscape, with an entirely new campaign that needs to emerge. The federal government of Canada has demonstrated just complete hypocrisy in the purchase of this pipeline using public funds,” he said. “To paraphrase Vice President Bob Chamberlain of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs … a foreign oil corporation based in Houston gave the sovereign nation of Canada an ultimatum, and Canada buckled.”

So far, one of the largest producers in the Alberta tar sands region, Suncor, has shrugged at Trudeau’s multibillion-dollar gamble, pointing out that the “normal processes didn’t work very well.” The company has declined to commit to any new investments.

The Canadian government is hoping to find another buyer for the pipeline before its deal with Kinder Morgan is finalized at the end of July. The government has sweetened the deal by offering to indemnify any buyer against losses caused by construction delays and guarantee a rate of return if the project’s future owner is unable to complete construction because of legal decisions. Still, it’s unclear that they’ll be successful in selling it until after the pipeline is built.

If they don’t, then the Standing Rock of the north will be a battle where the line between the interests of the police and the pipeline owner will be virtually indistinguishable.

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/2/headlines/wetsuweten_chiefs_in_talks_with_canadian_ministers_as_fight_against_pipeline_continues

FEB 13, 2020

The Wet’suwet’en Fight Against New Pipeline Spreads Across Canada with Blockades & Occupations

https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/02/10/climate-justice-indigenous-solidarity-wetsuweten-rcmp-raids

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Climate Justice and Indigenous Rights Advocates Rally in Solidarity With Wet'suwet'en People as RCMP Continue Raids

By Guest • Monday, February 10, 2020 - 11:54

On February 8, 2020, a Wet'suwet'en solidarity event stopped a Toronto train at Dufferin Street and Bartlett Avenue in Toronto.

By Julia Conley, Common Dreams. Originally published on Common Dreams under CC BY-SA 3.0 US.

Indigenous rights supporters held solidarity actions across Canada over the weekend as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police continued their raids on Wet'suwet'en land in British Columbia.

The Unist'ot'en Camp reported on its official Facebook page Sunday that at least 21 people had been arrested since Thursday, when, as Common Dreams reported, the RCMP conducted a violent pre-dawn raid to fulfill an injunction on behalf ofCoastal GasLink, which aims to build a pipeline in Wet'suwet'en territory in northern British Columbia.

The camp uploaded several videos over the weekend of the resistance to the police, who were reportedly set to meet with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs Saturday to discuss reconciliation regarding the injunction, which was filed despite a long-standing Canadian Supreme Court decision stating the Wet'suwet'en had not given up their homeland in the province. The RCMP reportedly refused to attend the meeting after arriving late.

According to Ricochet, the RCMP expanded its “exclusion zone” Saturday, taking control of most of the territory of the Gidimt'en, one of the five clans of the Wet'suwet'en.

“The exclusion zone has been created by the RCMP to force Wet'suwet'en land defenders off our land,” the Unist'ot'en Camp said in a statement. “It is a colonial and criminalizing tool to illegally and arbitrarily extend RCMP authority onto our lands. The massive exclusion zone, completely under RCMP authoritarian discretion, falls outside the injunction area. Chiefs and Wet'suwet'en people are illegally being denied access to their own territories.”

The neighboring Gitxsan Nation led a solidarity action on Saturday, blocking a rail line in protest of the RCMP's actions, the injunction, and the Canadian government's failure to intervene on behalf of the Wet'suwet'en people's rights.

“The Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs and their house members have fought the forcible removal from their territories as they seek to protect their sovereign rights and protect the land, water and air,” Gitxsan hereditary chief Norman Stephens told Richochet. “If their rights are being trampled, our rights are being trampled.”

Other rail blockades were reported across the country, and solidarity actions took the form of rallies and protests at government buildings in Canada as well as in the United States.

Climate action leader Greta Thunberg also expressed support for the Wet'suwet'en on social media.

“Indigenous rights equals climate justice,” Thunberg tweeted.

https://theintercept.com/2019/09/23/indigenous-climate-green-new-deal/

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Indigenous People Are Already Working “Green Jobs” — but They’re Unrecognized and Unpaid

Nick Estes

September 23 2019, 4:46 a.m.

[pix Catcher Cuts The Road, an Iraq War veteran, leads a protest march to a sacred burial ground at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, Sept. 9, 2016. A federal judge on Friday denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's efforts to halt the construction of a pipeline skirting the northern edge of the reservation on Friday; on the same day, the government ordered a the pipeline company to pause its work. ]

A GROWING CLIMATE consciousness has spurred popular support for a Green New Deal complete with calls for “green jobs” to aid in the transition away from fossil fuels. It’s a welcome development, but it’s also important to recognize the old labor of ecological stewardship — particularly that being carried out by Indigenous land defenders and Water Protectors.

“There’s an idea that we’re out there as paid activists. Wouldn’t that be great?” Anne Spice, a Tlingit researcher and land defender who has been living at Unist’ot’en Camp for several years while finishing her doctoral degree, said with a chuckle.

“There’s an idea that we’re out there as paid activists. Wouldn’t that be great?”

Founded in 2010 on unceded Wet’suwet’en land, Unist’ot’en Camp, some 750 miles north of Vancouver, Canada, aims to block the Coastal Gas Link pipeline, known as CGL, which is being constructed by TC Energy, the firm formerly known as TransCanada. But that’s not the camp’s only purpose: It was also founded to help bring the land and the community back to health after a period of intense logging that threatened moose hunts and salmon runs, elements of a land-based economy threatened by the oil pipeline.

“We are consistently doing the very thing CGL and RCMP” — the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — “are failing to do, which is ask for permission to enter territories and to gather and harvest,” Spice told me. It’s hard, meticulous work grounded in Indigenous culture and maintaining good relations, and not the quick techno-fixes some people are calling for in climate action.

The sort of land defense undertaken in the camp opens up a larger discussion about what “green jobs” are already being performed by Indigenous peoples to save our Earth — and the kind of value we assign to them.

[Climate Crimes

Read Our Complete Coverage]

Similar to how women and non-men have been historically tasked with doing the unpaid labor of housework and child-rearing, the relationship Indigenous caretakers have with the land, water, air, and nonhuman world is typically not viewed as productive. The financial, service, industrial, or technology sectors usually define what counts as a “job” — and it’s frequently bound up with polluting. Rarely is Indigenous caretaking defined as work. Yet, like unwaged caregiving work, land defense and water protection are undervalued but necessary for the continuation of life on a planet teetering on collapse.

Despite preserving the very elements needed to sustain life — such as clean air, water, and land — from settler states, repression against Indigenous peoples protecting their territories runs rampant.

[Related

On the Front Lines of Bolsonaro’s War on the Amazon, Brazil’s Forest Communities Fight Against Climate Catastrophe

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Indigenous Groups in Canada Prepare to Fight Trans Mountain Pipeline Extension

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/3/headlines/report_disappearance_and_murder_of_1000s_of_indigenous_women_a_canadian_genocide

In Canada, a national inquiry found that the disappearance and murder of thousands of indigenous women and girls over decades amounts to a “Canadian genocide.” The report, which was obtained by CBC News ahead of its official release today, says that “We do know that thousands of Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA (two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual) have been lost to the Canadian genocide to date” and are the result of “state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies.”

TOPICS:

https://yyy.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/07/canada-indigenous-anti-pipeline-protesters

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...The pipeline project has previously faced numerous delays, after a group of protesters constructed a blockade – named Unist’ot’en Camp – in order to prevent construction vehicles from accessing the area.

On 14 December, a British Columbia court granted TransCanada an injunction permitting them access to the construction site and ordering the removal of the blockade. Within days, activists erected the new barrier, named the Gidimt’en checkpoint.

On Sunday, Unist’ot’en Camp issued a statement of support for the Gidimt’en checkpoint: “The RCMP’s ultimatum, to allow TransCanada access to unceded Wet’suwet’en territory or face police invasion, is an act of war. Canada is now attempting to do what it has always done – criminalize and use violence against indigenous people so that their unceded homelands can be exploited for profit.”

Both the Unist’ot’en and Gitimd’en are part of the five clans which make up the Wet’suwet’en.

In recent years, British Columbia has been the site of a number of high-profile legal cases surrounding the issue of land title. Because few of the province’s First Nations signed treaties with colonial governments, the courts have often been the arbiters of land rights disputes.

The Delgamuukw v British Columbia case – which covers part of the Wet’suwet’en territory – previously found that indigenous rights to their historical territory are not “extinguished” for lack of a treaty.

Wet’suwet’en claim they retain title to the land and as a result, have sole authority to deny or grant access to the territory.

Trudeau's environmental record on the line in Canada election year

The pipeline feud comes as energy companies in Canada are facing numerous delays and barriers to their infrastructure projects, including environmental assessments and adequate consultations with indigenous communities on whose territory the projects would pass through.

Another high-profile pipeline project, Trans Mountain, was halted over the summer after a federal court determined indigenous communities had not been adequately consulted during the approvals process.

British Columbia premier John Horgan, who made headlines for his fight against the Trans Mountain pipeline, has cheered on the C$40bn liquid natural gas project – of which the Coastal GasLink is a critical piece – citing the large number of jobs and revenue that will result from its completion.

While the provincial government has said the facility will be the cleanest of its kind in the world, a report from the Pembina Institute found that the project would increase the province’s emissions by 8.6 megatonnes by 2030.

Protesters at the Gitimd’en checkpoint have vowed to prevent the project from being built on their territory.

...

WILL GEORGE - A massive battle to protect indigenous lands in British Columbia, Canada has drawn comparisons to the Standing Rock protests in the North Dakota last year against the Dakota Access Pipeline. At stake in the Canadian struggle has been a major pipeline by North America's largest energy infrastructure corporation, Kinder Morgan. After months of opposition, that included over a hundred arrests, Kinder Morgan has said the pipeline may be untenable, offering a glimpse of a partial victory for indigenous activists. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has sold himself as a climate-friendly leader, has gone as far as offering Kinder Morgan financial incentives to continue the project. Trudeau, who is currently visiting the UK was met by protesters against the pipelines holding signs that read, "Crudeau Oil." For more information visit www.protectheinlet.ca. Will George, spokesperson for Protect the Inlet, member of the Tsleil-waututh Nation

http://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/05/18/news/canadas-spies-collude-energy-sector

Part Two: Government spies collude with energy sector:

Canada's spies collude with the energy sector

By Bruce Livesey in News, Energy, Politics | May 18th 2017

Critics say the federal government is spying on environmentalists and First Nations and sharing their findings with the oil patch. File photo of oilsands by Kris Krug

This is the second installment of a two-part investigative series on government, spies and the oil industry

In the fall of 2013, Jason Augustine was in the thick of one of the most important standoffs First Nations activists have ever had with energy companies.

As a district war chief with the Mi'kmaq Warriors Society, and a member of the Elsipogtog First Nation near Rexton, a village on the east coast of New Brunswick, Augustine and his band were engaged in a protest against fracking. For weeks he and his fellow activists blocked the entrance to a compound where a fracking company had stored equipment, among other protests. Augustine notes that they did this because with fracking, "the gas (that is released) contaminates drinking water."

In October of that year, RCMP officers, with guns drawn and dispatching pepper spray, descended on the blockade, arresting 40 protesters, Augustine among them. Five RCMP vehicles were set on fire during this final confrontation. Augustine was later sentenced to 18 months of probation, and pled guilty to assaulting a police officer, two counts of obstructing a police officer, and one count of mischief. This standoff, however, galvanized attention to the issue of fracking and the province soon placed a moratorium on it.

November 1, 2013 photo of Jason Augustine outside Moncton Law Court from twitter by Jessica Doria-Brown, CBC

Yet Augustine's problems with the RCMP have continued: the 42-year-old is frequently followed by what Augustine believes are government vehicles. “And it’s just not me that’s been followed,” he remarks. “A lot of our Warriors Society members get followed. It’s just going to a different reserve and they still get followed. They are always monitoring us and trying to figure out what we are doing.”

“I see it as harassment,” he continues. “Why can’t we live our lives without being watched? We stood up for our water and our land, you know. We did that, and under our treaties we have the right to do that.”

As discussed in Part One of our two-part series, the federal government has created a massive and sophisticated spying apparatus – overseen primarily by the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) – designed to track the actions of First Nations and environmental activists opposed to so-called "critical infrastructure" projects, namely the tar sands, pipelines, fracking and mining. But critics of this network say it does more than just spy on people – it tries to intimidate too. More importantly, the fruits of all of this espionage are often shared with the energy sector.

As an example of intimidation, in May of 2012, the Yinka Dene Alliance in BC decided to take a “Freedom Train” across Canada to Toronto, bringing attention to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which was slated to connect the oilsands to the BC coast (last year, the Trudeau government canceled the pipeline after former PM Harper had approved it). The Alliance planned to arrive in Toronto in time for Enbridge’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Among the 37 band members who left BC on the train was John Ridsdale, the Hereditary Chief of the Na'Moks, Tsayu Clan, Wet'suwet'en, who lives in Smithers, BC.

On the train with them, recalls Ridsdale, were undercover officers, presumably RCMP or CSIS, or both. “When you have people going up and down an aisle of a train – you know you are being watched,” he says. “They were easy to pick out. They were not really trying to be undercover – they wanted us to know we were being watched.” The trip went off without incident, culminating in a rally and march in downtown Toronto.

Ridsdale says that First Nations people protesting resource development “take it for granted we are all monitored… (but) we are nonviolent and we are here to protect the land and water and freedom. We are not against development – we are against the manner (in which) they do it.”

In response to questions furnished by the National Observer, the RCMP said as part of its mandate "the RCMP does have the requirement to identify and investigate criminal threats, including those to critical infrastructure." They also noted "the RCMP has instituted a measured approach to large-scale public order events."

Wet'suwet'en First Nation Hereditary Chief Na'Moks (John Ridsdale) signs the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion in Vancouver, B.C. on Thurs. Sept. 22, 2016. Photo by Elizabeth McSheffrey

Idle No More panics the intelligence bureaucracy

Yet the culmination of this type of espionage and intimidation occurred after the birth of Idle No More. Founded in late 2012 by four Saskatchewan women in response to Harper’s omnibus bills that gutted laws designed to protect the environment over resource development projects, Idle No More led to teach-ins, blockades, protests and rallies as well as a National Day of Action. It even sparked solidarity protests in other countries.

Yet Idle No More caused panic within the federal government’s intelligence and surveillance bureaucracy, which swung into action. “Idle No More was, as far as I know, the most completely surveilled social movement in Canadian history,” says Carleton University criminologist Jeffrey Monaghan, who has studied this issue. “Every single event had intelligence gathering about it. Whether it’s open source or more covert methods. We’re talking about very remote events in like Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to the more contentious ones, like Sarnia. Every single event was being scrutinized, was being monitored and was being cataloged."

Idle No More protesters march against then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper's policies on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on December 22, 2012. Photo by Isabeau Doucet.

“On top of that, you had formations of national security working groups at the highest level of the bureaucracy having regular updates and streaming information directly to the prime minister and national security adviser and cabinet in real time.”

Indeed, a heavily-redacted 11-page report obtained by the National Post in 2014 shows that CSIS was involved in preparing an all-of-government approach to dealing with the First Nations protests. The report, and a PowerPoint presentation, revealed that Ottawa was planning for every eventuality, concerned by the decentralized, leaderless nature of Idle No More. Moreover, says Clayton Thomas-Muller, a former Idle No More organizer: "There were multiple reports of CSIS and RCMP agents contacting individuals at their homes and in public over participation in Idle No More. Any time an officer of the settler colonial state... approaches an Indigenous person, it is considered threatening, given the statistics around the criminalization of Indigenous peoples and our over-representation in Canada's jails."

Intelligence shared with energy sector

What happens to all of the information and data gathered about activists?

For one thing, some of it is shared with the energy sector. Starting in 2005, Natural Resources Canada, in collaboration with CSIS and the RCMP, began hosting twice-yearly classified briefings with executives from energy companies at CSIS’s headquarters in Ottawa - which continue to this day.“You have the RCMP and CSIS giving these briefings to the private sector – but the private sector wanting those briefings to be driven by the demands of those receiving the information,” says University of New Brunswick sociologist Tia Dafnos, who has researched this topic.

File photo of CSIS sign by the Canadian Press

In 2012, Tim O’Neill, a senior criminal intelligence research specialist with the RCMP’s Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Team, wrote an email in which he said the purpose of these meetings “is to provide intelligence briefings to select energy representatives so they are able to implement the required security precautions to protect their assets. The briefings also provide a forum for the private sector to brief the Canadian intelligence and law enforcement community on issues we would not normally be privy to.” This email noted that the energy sector executives possess at least a “Level II (Secret) Security Clearance.” Indeed, Keith Stewart, head of Greenpeace Canada’s climate campaign, estimates “there are over 200 executives in the natural resources sector who have security clearance from CSIS and RCMP around these things like critical infrastructure.”

Agendas for these briefings, that have emerged through access to information requests, show that items of discussion include issues such as “security challenges presented by Radicalized Individual Groups to Canada’s Energy Sector” and “Extremist Activities within Aboriginal Communities”, and topics such as "Improvised Explosive Devices”, or on specific projects, such as the oilsands and Northern Gateway pipeline.

These briefings are well-attended, too. On the government side, they include people from the RCMP and all of Canada’s intelligence services, as well from the departments of Natural Resources, Defence, Public Safety, Transport, Industry Canada, National Energy Board (NEB), Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., the governments of New Brunswick, Quebec and Alberta, and the federal Office of the Auditor General, among others.

On the corporate side, however, it's unclear who attends. All federal documents have been censored prior to release under access to information legislation to remove the names of companies that send executives to the meetings.

Nonetheless, in 2013, minutes to one meeting reveal that networking and coffee receptions at the briefing was sponsored by the pipeline company, Enbridge Inc., along with the (US) $250-billion Toronto-based global conglomerate, Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (Enbridge did not respond to requests for a response while Brookfield says it has been a number of years since they have participated in the briefings, and did so only because they were concerned about cyber-security and loss prevention).

Meanwhile, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., which operates the Horizon oilsands project in Fort McMurray, Alberta, was an invitee to the briefings, according to one RCMP email (the company refused to discuss its participation in these briefings when approached by National Observer). “This is how the energy companies have become part of the national security bureaucracy themselves,” observes Monaghan. “They are embedded within the bureaucracy because now, for the most part, 'critical infrastructure' is privately owned… It’s a two-way street: the police and CSIS have deputized the companies and their security actors to provide intelligence as well. This emerges from the energy companies putting pressure on the governments saying ‘You are not doing enough to stop these activists from disrupting whatever’.”

Jeffrey Monaghan, Carleton University, Ottawa, spies, Canada, oil patch

Ottawa-based criminologist Jeffrey Monaghan has researched espionage targeting environmental and First Nations activists for years. He is seen here at Carleton University. Photo by Alex Tétreault

Astonishingly, it seems that some of the information collected has been passed on to the companies before it’s even seen by all divisions of the RCMP. In a 2010 email from O’Neill, he mentions that another RCMP officer “was very concerned that the private sector was receiving intell prior to the Detachments, which of course should not be the case as the Divisional CICI (Critical Infrastructure Criminal Intelligence) analysts should be disseminating our products within their Divisions.”

CSIS spokesperson Tahera Mufti does not deny the agency shares intelligence with other parties, saying in a statement to the National Observer: "The role of CSIS is to investigate activities suspected of constituting threats to the security of Canada, and to report on these to the Government of Canada. CSIS collects and analyzes threat-related information, which is typically disseminated to government partners through intelligence reports and other intelligence-related briefings."

In a response to question by National Observer on these briefings, the RCMP said that they, "through the National Critical infrastructure Team, assists in the identification of criminal threats to Canada's critical infrastructure and develops information products that may be used by first responders and the private sector to assess and mitigate risks associated to these threats."

National Energy Board (NEB) collects intelligence on activists

The intelligence gathered is also shared with the federal energy regulator, the National Energy Board (NEB), which is supposed to be a neutral tribunal over the approval and oversight of pipelines and other projects.

Yet documents released by the NEB show that its security staff have been alarmed about protesters showing up at hearings – and gathers intelligence on who they might be. To this end, CSIS and the RCMP provides the NEB with information. In 2013, the NEB’s head of security, wrote in an email that the Board’s security team had consulted with CSIS “at national and regional levels,” noting that they would continue monitoring all sources of information with police and intelligence partners.

Emails that have come to light through access to information requests show that the NEB security staff have been in constant contact with the RCMP's Critical Infrastructure Intelligence Team (CIIT) about potential protests at hearings, too.

In 2013, for instance, a member of the CIIT wrote to NEB staff and at least one CSIS official, Tom Lanzer, regarding the risk of interference with the Board’s hearings by groups opposed to oil sands and pipeline development. Despite acknowledging that CIIT had no intelligence indicating a criminal threat to the NEB or its members, the email advises that CIIT “will continue to monitor all aspects of the anti-petroleum industry movement” and said this information was also being shared with CSIS.

In response to a query from the National Observer, the NEB did not deny it monitors people who appear before the hearings. Sarah Kiley, a communications officer with the Board, said "we are required to continuously assess any potential security risks and take the appropriate steps to make sure that our staff, our Board Members and those attending our hearings, are safe and can freely participate in our hearings. Advice, guidance and other services provided by lead security agencies support federal agencies, such as the National Energy Board, in maintaining acceptable levels of security."

Is spying on peaceful protesters legal?

But is all of this espionage and sharing of data actually legal?

Paul Champ doesn’t think so. The Ottawa-based human rights lawyer is involved in two on-going complaints launched by British Columbia's civil liberties association against the RCMP and CSIS over their role in spying on peaceful protesters. Launched in 2014, Champ says the complaints have become "bogged down... These processes are ridiculously slow and unresponsive and obviously lack transparency" and he says there is no end in sight.

Champ argues that the Mounties and CSIS have no legal grounds to spy on people who are opposed to projects that don’t even exist – which is true for most of the pipelines being discussed.

“It’s one thing if it's a pipeline that’s already been built and people are protesting that, than maybe, theoretically, there’s a threat to that critical infrastructure,” says Champ, “but here these environmental and Indigenous groups are opposed to the policy of a pipeline. And a policy, in my mind, cannot be viewed as an aspect of national security. Therefore the jurisdiction of national security by CSIS cannot be engaged.”

Lawyer Paul Champ responding to questions in the House of Commons on March 12, 2015, on Bill C-51. Screencap from Vimeo

Champ notes that in order to justify this surveillance, “there is a legal threshold that must be crossed before an individual or group can be actively investigated... We think they need some kind of grounds to suspect, in the case of the RCMP, that someone has committed a criminal offense, is about to commit a criminal offense or, in the case of CSIS, that a group is, or might be, a threat to national security as defined by the act. We have a set of legal thresholds and until they are met CSIS and RCMP should not be getting themselves involved in gathering information about groups that are otherwise lawfully exercising their democratic rights.”

Champ also notes that “there’s no authority to be a sharing their intelligence reports with third parties such as corporations. Or the NEB, for that matter. Sharing information in that way is outside their jurisdiction and the CSIS Act and is a breach of (people’s) Charter rights.”

Has this espionage under the Trudeau government continued? In fact, evidence suggests nothing has changed. After all, Trudeau has approved or supports the Kinder Morgan, Keystone XL and Energy East pipelines, and greenlit a $11.4-billion liquefied natural-gas (LNG) mega-project in British Columbia. And the twice-yearly briefings held at CSIS's headquarters with the energy sector continue.

“The bottom line is that Canada’s entire economic paradigm is fundamentally based on the oppression of Indigenous people’s collective rights, the dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their lands to provide open-door access to extractive companies to get resources to international markets to sell to the highest bidder,” says tar sands campaigner and Manitoba Cree, Clayton Thomas-Muller, who has been the target of RCMP surveillance himself. “When we look at all of the pipelines and all of the oilsands and all of the mining and all of the mega-hydro dams and the places where Canada’s most toxic and destructive industries are placed, it's in the backyards of First Nations peoples. So it’s a very big issue.”

Indeed, shortly after the Kinder Morgan and Enbridge Line 3 pipelines were approved by the Trudeau government late last year, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr gave a speech to a group of business leaders in Edmonton, where he assured them: “If people choose for their own reasons not to be peaceful, then the government of Canada, through its defence forces, through its police forces, will ensure that (your) people will be kept safe.”

A few days later, Carr said he regretted his remarks and apologized.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idle_No_More

Idle No More is an ongoing protest movement, founded in December 2012 by four women: three First Nations women and one non-Native ally. It is a grassroots movement among the Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprising the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples and their non-Aboriginal supporters in Canada, and to a lesser extent, internationally. It has consisted of a number of political actions worldwide, inspired in part by the liquid diet hunger strike of Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence^[1] and further coordinated via social media. A reaction to alleged legislative abuses of Indigenous treaty rights by the Stephen Harper and the Conservative federal government, the movement takes particular issue with the omnibus bill Bill C-45.^[2][3] The popular movement has included round dances in public places and blockades of rail lines.

Background

After the May 2, 2011 Canadian Federal election, the Conservative federal government, led by Stephen Harper,proposed a number of omnibus bills introducing sweeping legislative changes. While omnibus bills had been presented to parliament by previous governments, the removal of protections for forests and waterways proposed in Bill C-45 led to concern among Indigenous communities and environmentalists. Of particular concern is the removal of the term "absolute surrender" in Section 208.

A number of these measures drew fire from environmental and First Nations groups. In particular, Bill C-45 overhauled the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) of 1882, renaming it the Navigation Protection Act (NPA). The NWPA had mandated an extensive approval and consultation process before construction of any kind could take place in or around any water which could in principle be navigated by any kind of floating craft. Under the new NPA, the approval process would only be required for development around one of a vastly circumscribed list of waterways set by the Minister of Transportation.^[4] Many of the newly deregulated waterways passed through traditional First Nations land.^[5]

While the NWPA had originally been intended to facilitate actual navigation, the ubiquity of waterways in the Canadian wilderness has given it the effect of strong environmental legislation by presenting a significant barrier to industrial development, especially to projects such as pipelines which crossed many rivers.^[6] The government had by this time been engaged for some years in a campaign for approval of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines project, a proposal to build a pipeline for bitumen condensate connecting the Athabasca tar sands with the Pacific Ocean, facilitating unprocessed bitumen exports to China.^[7]

Many bills affecting First Nations people have failed to be passed. Numerous attempts to introduce bills have failed due to their low priority for past federal governments, eventually dying on the order paper without being debated or passed. In 1996 Bill C-79, the Indian Act Optional Modification Act died on the order paper. In 2002, Bill C-7, the First Nations Governance Act, attempted to reform reserve administration. It died in 2003. In 2008, there was Bill C-47, the Family Homes on Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act, to redress inequity in the treatment of women. That one died on the order paper three times and is returned before Parliament, now called Bill S-2.^[8] The cancellation of the Kelowna Accords by the current federal government was seen as a betrayal by natives.^[9] Further background to this is the feeling that the federal government has repeatedly acted in bad faith with Aboriginal people's interests, and have violated treaties when it suited them. The feeling that the traditional tactics of negotiating with the federal government have become meaningless has caused support for new tactics.

Vision and goals

The founders of Idle No More outlined the vision and goals of the movement in a January 10, 2013 press release as follows:

The Vision [...] revolves around Indigenous Ways of Knowing rooted in Indigenous Sovereignty to protect water, air, land and all creation for future generations.

The Conservative government bills beginning with Bill C-45 threaten Treaties and this Indigenous Vision of Sovereignty.

The movement promotes environmental protection and indigenous sovereignty. It plans to accomplish these goals by:

(A) Implementing leadership structure and councils (Such as the Council of Women)

(B) Taking training in coordinating rallies, media, messaging and safety issues as well as in identifying provocateurs, misinformation shills, and propaganda.

(C) Placing key spokespeople and connecting with experienced experts in different areas; i.e. treaty research, indigenous rights and governance, environmental activism, writers, international spokesperson, national etc.

(D) Creating chapters across Turtle Island under the umbrella of the main INM.

(E) Requesting regular meetings with First Nations leadership to have ongoing discussions regarding third party agreements between the Government of Canada and industry corporations

To date the movement has been particularly focused on:

(A) The education and the revitalization of indigenous peoples through awareness and empowerment.

(B) Encouraging knowledge sharing about indigenous sovereignty and environmental protections.^[10]

The press release also notes that "As a grassroots movement, clearly no political organization speaks for Idle No More". Furthermore, this is not just an Aboriginal Canadian movement. These pipeline projects will be stretching beyond borders carving through critical ecosystems and landscapes in the States. Canada's large oil reserves have attracted industry to exploit, and profit, "The tar sands industry aims to create an extensive web of pipelines to deliver increasing amounts of this Canadian tar sands sludge to refineries in the United States" (Glick, page 2). Reports say that some 900,000 barrels of oil per day will be traveling from Canada tar sands through these pipelines. According to the National Wildlife Federation report, these pipelines will stretch thousands and thousands of miles through Canada and into the States and will leave devastation along its paths. "This pipeline system would virtually assure the destruction of swaths of one of the world's most important forest ecosystems, produce lake-sized reservoirs of toxic waste, import a thick, tarlike fuel that will release vast quantities of toxic chemicals into our air when it is refined in the U.S., and emit significantly more global warming pollutants into the atmosphere than fuels made from conventional oil" (Glick, page 3). These impacts are already being seen in Canada's peoples and wildlife. "Communities that live near the tar sands are already experiencing health problems linked to the pollution, and dozens of wildlife species are at risk, including millions of migrating cranes, swans, and songbirds" (Glick, page 3). With the magnitude and power of this project, these negative impacts will not end soon, and will not end in Canada. These pipelines will stretch across borders and come into our own backyards here in the states.^[10][11]

Idle No More's vision has been linked by some commentators in the press with longstanding leftist political theories of indigenism.^[12] During the protests of late 2012 and early 2013, the theoretical framework of Idle No More has been frequently articulated in the Canadian press by Pamela Palmater. Palmater has denounced what she perceives as the federal government's "assimilationist agenda".^[13] It has been suggested by others that the definition of "nation" is itself problematic.^[14]

Sylvia McAdam, a co-founder of the movement, has said that she does not condone the rail or road blockade tactics that some demonstrators have used, and has spoken in support of peaceful protest "within the legal boundaries".^[15]

History

Members of the Nipissing First Nation from southern Ontario and local non-Aboriginal supporters in Ottawa

The movement was initiated by activists Nina Wilson, Sheelah Mclean, Sylvia McAdam, and Jessica Gordon in November 2012, during a teach-in at Station 20 West in Saskatoon called "Idle No More", held in response to the Harper government's introduction of Bill C-45.

C-45 is a large omnibus bill implementing numerous measures, many of which activists claim weaken environmental protection laws. In particular, laws protecting all of the country's navigable waterways were limited in scope to protect only a few waterways of practical importance for navigation. Many of the affected waterways pass through land reserved to First Nations.

Law blog writer/observer Lorraine Land,^[16] and Idle No More itself,^[17] have identified the followingcurrent bills as affecting natives or native sovereignty:

Bill C-38 (Budget Omnibus Bill #1)
Bill C-45 (Budget Omnibus Bill #2)
Bill C-27 First Nations Financial Transparency Act^[18]
Bill S-2 Family Homes on Reserve and Matrimonial Interests or Right Act
Bill S-6 First Nations Elections Act
Bill S-8 Safe Drinking Water for First Nations
Bill C-428 Indian Act Amendment and Replacement Act
Bill S-207 An Act to amend the Interpretation Act
Bill S-212 First Nations Self-Government Recognition Bill
"First Nations" Private Ownership Act

This led to a series of teach-ins, rallies and protests that were planned by the founders in a National Day Of Action on Dec 10 which coincided with Amnesty International's Human Rights Day.^[19] These coincided with similar protests already underway in British Columbia over the Northern Gateway and Pacific Trails pipelines as well as a march and protest organized by students at the Native Education College.^[20]

The protests were timed to coincide with the announcement that Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat was launching a liquid diet to demand a meeting with Prime Minister Harper and the Governor General of Canada to discuss Aboriginal rights. The Assembly of First Nations then issued an open letter December 16 to Governor General David Johnston, calling for a meeting to discuss Spence's demands.^[21]

Also on December 17 the Confederacy of Treaty No. 6 First Nations issued a press release saying that they did not recognize the legality of any laws passed by the federal parliament, "including but not limited to Bill C-45, which do not fulfill their constitutionally recognized and affirmed treaty and Aboriginal rights; as well as the Crown's legal obligations to meaningfully consult and accommodate First Nations."^[22]

As of January 4, 2013, the main goals have been narrowed down to (1) the establishment of a nation-to-nation relationship between First Nations and the Government of Canada, rather than a relationship as defined in the Indian Act to address issues and (2) social and environmental sustainability.^[23]

Resource exploitation

The Idle No More movement generally opposes certain types of resource exploitation, particularly on First Nations territory.^[24] The movement takes this stance against resource exploitation, as attributed to First Nations sovereignty and environmental sustainability.^[25] The position is supported by many groups including non-governmental and grassroots organizations. In a human rights report on Canada, Amnesty International suggested that the government should have "respect for indigenous rights when issuing licences for mining, logging and petroleum and other resource extraction."^[26]

The Idle No More movement outlines ways by which it opposes resource exploitation, although these views are contested within the First Nations population itself. It communicates the need for treaty modernization as well as increased land claims. It also advocates against resource exploitation on First Nations land without any benefit to the First Nations.^[27][28] Furthermore, the movement argues that First Nations communities do not get an equitable share of the profits from natural resource exploitation and encourages the government to address this issue.^[26]

One demonstration reflecting opposition to resource exploitation was held at Barriere Lake in Quebec by the Algonquin people. It closed Highway 117 and was reported "to draw attention to forestry operations that they oppose on their lands."^[29][30]

In British Columbia (B.C.), the specific focus within resource exploitation is opposition to oil pipeline construction. Frank Brown, organizer of a B.C. Idle No More protest and a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation, said the B.C. group opposed proposed pipelines such as the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. Moreover, several First Nations communities, the BC Métis Federation, the Union of British Columbian Municipalities, and several local governments have passed resolutions banning pipelines in B.C. and opposing Enbridge specifically.^[31][32]

Protests in Canada

Two members of the Siksika Nation from southern Alberta and a local non-Aboriginal supporter in Ottawa

The use of flash mobs performing round dances in shopping malls became a recurring theme of the protest during the pre- and post-Christmas shopping season in 2012. On December 17 a flash mob performed a round dance at the Cornwall Centre shopping mall in Regina.^[33] The following day a similar flash mob round dance occurred at West Edmonton Mall.^[34] This tactic was also used at the Rideau Centre in Ottawa^[when?] and St. Vital Centre in Winnipeg. It spread internationally with a similar protest at the Mall of America in Minnesota. Members of the Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba blocked the Trans-Canada Highway on December 15, 2012.^[35] Members of the Driftpile First Nation also blocked a road on December 18.^[36]

The group executed their second round dance flash mob in Saskatchewan on December 20, this time at Midtown Plaza in Saskatoon. Two thousand people filled the upper and lower levels of the mall for the 10-minute dance of the flash mob. Also on this day, organizers started gathering people around the Vimy war memorial on the Saskatoon riverbank.^[37] On December 27 an online source reported that there had been 100 protests in Canada to date^[38]

On December 30, as part of a day of nationwide actions, a group believed to be involved^[who?] withIdle No More blocked the Canadian National main railway line between the country's two largest cities of Toronto and Montreal at a point near Belleville, Ontario for approximately three hours.^[39] On January 2, Waterfront Station in Vancouver was packed for a demonstration drawing hundreds of participants. Protestors danced and chanted.^[40] Protestors filled Toronto's Eaton Centre, while a simultaneous protest occurred in the West Edmonton Mall, 50 Protestors at Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, and other locations in Canada.^[41] On January 5, 2013, protests shut down multiple border crossings throughout Canada, including Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia, Ontario, International Bridge in Cornwall, Ontario, the Peace Arch crossing in Surrey, B.C., The Peace Bridge between Fort Erie and Buffalo in the Niagara region, and NWT's Deh Cho Bridge.^[42] The International Bridge in Cornwall had not been closed since a month-long dispute between Akwesasne Nation and CBSA.^[43]

On January 11, 2013, thousands of people participated in Idle No More demonstrations in all regions of Canada. In Vancouver, British Columbia, a mass march and rally was held at Vancouver City Hall. It was estimated over 1000 people attended the march which started at the Native Education College.^[44]

Solidarity protests

Indigenous protesters at an Idle No More event in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Idle No More SF Bay and other protesters against bringing tar sands to the San Francisco Bay gather outside the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, March 2018.

The protests have also spread outside of Canada. On December 27 an online source reported that there had been 30 Idle No More protests in the United States, and solidarity protests in Stockholm, Sweden, London, UK, Berlin, Germany, Auckland, New Zealand, and Cairo, Egypt.^[38] On December 30, approximately 100 people from Walpole Island marched to Algonac, Michigan.^[41][45] CBS reported that "hundreds" attended a flash mob at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota.^[46] The Twin Cities Daily Planet called it a crowd of "over a thousand" and stated that it followed a similar protest a week earlier whereClyde Bellecourt had been arrested, as well as another flash mob at the Paul Bunyan Mall in Bemidji.^[47] On January 5, the International Bridge was closed again due to Mohawk protests from New York.^[48]

Within the United States, protests have been reported in many states: Michigan,^[41] Minnesota, Ohio,^[49] New York,^[48] Arizona,^[50] Colorado,^[50] Maine,^[51] New Mexico,^[52] Vermont,^[53] South Carolina,^[54] Washington State,^[55] Washington, D.C., Indiana and Texas.^[40]

Support

Former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, who had supported the Kelowna Accords, said that Teresa Spence's efforts made her "an inspiration to all Canadians". Former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark also met Spence and made a speech afterward saying that Canada and First Nations were on a dangerous path.^[56]

In solidarity with the movement, Council of Canadians National Chairperson Maude Barlow, author Naomi Klein, and singer Sarah Slean have returned their Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals.^[57]

Criticism

Criticism of the Idle No More movement has appeared in Canada's mainstream media, which has covered related high-profile protests such as road blockades and Spence's fast. Several newspapers, such as the Calgary Herald,^[58] and The Globe and Mail,^[59][60] have published editorials critical of the movement or of Spence's hunger strike. The Edmonton Journal questioned Idle No More organizer Tanya Kappo's opposition to individual property rights on reserves.^[61] An editorial in the Winnipeg Free Press called for a halt to Idle No More protests, and pointed to what it views as an incorrect interpretation of legislation by some protestors:

Changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act, for example, are not a threat to aboriginal resources. The government is reducing its jurisdiction to 97 lakes, 62 rivers and three oceans, while leaving the environmental management of minor streams and water bodies to municipalities and provinces. It means more local control over projects without the excessive delays and red tape of the federal government.

An amendment to a law that allows First Nations to lease their land has been described falsely as an act to allow for the sale of aboriginal land, but all it does is speed up the process for possible lease deals that aboriginal leaders themselves have sought so they can compete for economic development.^[62]

Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, who is Aboriginal and a former chief, has told media that the demonstrations lacked focus in protesting "a whole gamut of issues".^[64] He also said that democratic processes were available for participating in decision-making affecting First Nations.^[65] He criticized Teresa Spence's tactics, saying she should have used the "proper parliamentary process."^[56]The parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs stated to media that "With respect to Bill C-45, the changes to property leasing provisions, these changes respond directly to the request of a number of First Nations Chiefs to provide them with more flexibility".^[63]

Effects

The founders of the Idle No More movement have emphasized their intention for the movement to remain at its core a "grassroots" movement, led by Indigenous women; they have released a statement to say that they have a different vision than that of the "leadership" of First Nation Chiefs, saying "we have been given a clear mandate … to work outside of the systems of government."^[66] By early January 2013, Shawn Atleo, leader of the Assembly of First Nations, and other Chiefs, were beginning to "use the protests' momentum to press Ottawa on treaty rights and improved living standards."^[67] The protests have been noted for creating a stream of polarized debate online, bringing out both supporters and detractors.^[68]

January 11, 2013 meeting

The preparations were the subject of intense negotiation and debate within the AFN membership, until late in the evening of the eve of the meeting. Some chiefs voted not to participate, choosing to boycott the meeting for various reasons, including demands that more chiefs be included in the AFN delegation, questions over what to include on the meeting's agenda, and the fact that the Governor General would not be present throughout the meeting, and would be limited to a shorter ceremonial meeting after the meeting with Prime Minister Harper.^[70]On January 4, 2013, Prime Minister Harper announced a meeting with a delegation of First Nation leaders coordinated by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), to follow up on the issues discussed during the Crown-First Nations Gathering on January 24, 2012. His statement announcing the meeting made no mention of Idle No More.^[69] The meeting was held on January 11, 2013.

The day of the meeting, members of the Idle No More movement organized protests on Parliament Hill (drawing an estimated 3000 demonstrators),^[71] and in cities across Canada. Idle No More spokesperson Pam Palmater, who ran against Atleo for the position of National Chief with the AFN, said in a CBC discussion that the diverse positions expressed among the AFN chiefs "doesn't mean good things for the AFN".^[72]

The January 11 meeting was attended by National Chief Shawn Atleo and a delegation of chiefs from several provinces and the Yukon, AFN representatives from its Youth Council, Women's Council and Elders Council (Ontario and Manitoba chiefs boycotted the meeting). While it had previously been announced that Harper would only attend portions of the meeting, he attended the entire meeting. The meeting was also attended by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan, his Parliamentary Secretary Greg Rickford, Cabinet Ministers Tony Clement and Leona Aglukkaq, and senior officials from the Privy Council Office, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, and several other federal departments. The ceremonial meeting with Governor General Johnston was attended by around 100 chiefs, including Chief Theresa Spence.^[72]

After the meeting, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan stated that it would be followed by "high-level dialogue" between Harper and Atleo,^[71] including follow-up meetings and more frequent reporting on Aboriginal matters by the federal government. Matthew Coon Come, a former AFN National Chief who has been confronted by protestors, attended the meeting, stated after the meeting that the "prime minister had moved a couple of posts forward", furthering discussions on treaty process and specific land claims, and that the prime minister indicated a willingness to consult with First Nations on environmental issues and legislative matters that impact Aboriginal territories.^[72]