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Canada is headed toward a confrontation with its First Nations people that could lead to “coherent civil action” that threatens the country’s economic lifeblood, a new book warns.

Time Bomb, written by Doug Bland, former chair of Defence Management Studies at Queen’s University, argues that the conditions are present for an uprising by First Nations people frustrated by decades of seeing their aspirations ignored by Canadian governments.

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He urges people not to minimize the risk that this frustration could turn into a rebellion, and that Canada’s critical transportation links – railways and roads – are vulnerable to protests that could shut them down and cost the economy millions.

His sober warning comes amid deeply strained relations between Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government and some aboriginal leaders.

Next week, hundreds of chiefs from the country’s largest aboriginal group, the Assembly of First Nations, will meet in Winnipeg to elect a new national chief and discuss key issues, from First Nations education, to missing and murdered indigenous women, to treaty rights.