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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Aboriginal and non-aboriginal Yellowknifers took to the streets to block traffic at a busy downtown intersection over the lunch hour on Friday to support the Idle No More Movement's Global Day of Action.

A crowd of close to 200 people participate in a rally in support of the Idle No More movement at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and 50 Street Friday. Participants blocked the intersection for much of the lunch hour, holding a drum dance in one of Yellowknife's busiest intersections. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo

Between 150 and 200 participants gathered at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and 50 Street, one of Yellowknife's busiest, to show solidarity with the movement. Volunteers handed out information to passersby while others prepared stew and bannock in a heated tent temporarily erected in the parking lot of Centre Square Mall.

"There are a lot of people involved in organizing and stuff like that. It does take a lot of time, but it's for a really good cause," said Melaw Nakehk'o, co-organizer of Idle No More - Denendeh. "It feels really good that we can be a part of that and that we can encourage everybody to come out as a community."

As members of the movement held demonstrations throughout Canada and internationally Friday, in Ottawa a much-anticipated working meeting took place between Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo, other native leaders, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other representatives from the federal government.

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus was in Ottawa from Tuesday to Saturday last week, along with Chief Lloyd Chicot from Kakisa, K'atlodeeche First Nation Chief Roy Fabian and Dene elder Francois Paulette.

The delegation from the Dene Nation took part in discussions with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) executive leading up to Friday's meeting but opted to boycott the meeting with the prime minister because of its location and the fact that the Governor General was not included.

"We, from the Dene, decided not to go," Erasmus said at a press conference in Yellowknife on Monday. "Primarily because we've decided to support Attawapiskat, Ont., Chief (Theresa) Spence, who has been on a hunger strike now for 34 days and if a meeting happened without the Governor General, then it meant she would continue on her hunger strike. So, we didn't want to be responsible in the event that she dies, we don't want people to say we went to that meeting that perpetuated her hunger strike."

Erasmus added that he has no regrets about his decision to boycott the meeting.

The Dene Nation delegation did attend Friday night's ceremonial meeting with the Governor General at Rideau Hall, staying only for comments made by Spence and other leaders and leaving the meeting before the planned dinner along with Spence and her supporters.

Results of the meeting are still unclear, Erasmus said Monday, although it does seem that progress was made on improving treaty implementation negotiations as well as re-opening discussions around resource revenue sharing.

"It seems that the door is open," said Erasmus, adding that he hoped for a more detailed debrief on the meeting during a planned conference call with AFN leadership on Tuesday.

While any progress on native rights in Canada is good news, Nakehk'o said Friday she does not believe the changes lobbied for can be addressed by a single meeting.

"No ... the relationship rebuilding is going to take quite a while. As for the Idle No More movement ... it's going to continue," she said.

"In Denendeh, a lot of our concerns are with the changes to environmental (protection) and the changes in our right to consult."

Former Dene national chief Noeline Villebrun, who participated in Friday's rally in Yellowknife, agreed there is an extreme lack of consultation with aboriginal groups on the part of the federal government. This lack of consultation violates treaties struck between early European settlers and First Nations groups, she said, and those treaties are what made Canada possible.

"They promised my ancestors that if they moved out of the bush into communities, under council of orders, that they would assist them, not make them dependent. And so, what they have is us dependent on their little bits of money and policies that weigh us down - the Indian Act," said Villebrun. "My treaty, that my ancestors signed on July 25, 1900, is not fulfilled and this is why I say and do what I do."

While Idle No More promotes awareness about aboriginal inequality and other issues, it is an all-inclusive movement open to all Canadians, said Nakehk'o.

Katrina Nokleby, an environmental engineer based in Yellowknife, participated in the demonstration on Friday, holding a sign that read: "Environmental engineer; I stand in solidarity with Idle No More in support of Mother Earth!"

It was not the fact that she is a non-aboriginal person that made her hesitate in getting involved in the Idle No More movement, she said, but fear of professional backlash.

"Career-wise I'm a little more concerned with being vocal," she said. "But I'm at the point where I feel that something needs to be said and I would rather be part of the solution than part of the problem. I feel I have to stand up."

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