OTTAWA—An agreement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to throw his weight behind renewed efforts to deal with First Nations concerns received the cautious endorsement of NDP Leader Tom Mulcair.

“There is progress because they’re talking very openly now about an enhanced process and an accelerated process for treaty rights, that’s a good thing,” Mulcair said Sunday in an interview with the Star.

Mulcair said although hurdles remain, where provinces like B.C. have few treaties, he understood that Harper would create a cabinet-level committee to tackle treaty implementation issues. “Even though it’s bureaucratic — it is a step in the right direction.”

The thing the Conservative government has so far consistently failed to do is make First Nations concerns “a priority,” said Mulcair.

Mulcair said Assembly of First Nations’ chiefs who emerged from Friday’s high-stakes meeting at the PMO appeared confident the Conservative government would create such a committee.

But it was not itemized by either Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan or the prime minister’s spokesman afterward. And Harper’s communications director Andrew MacDougall confirmed Sunday to the Star the government would not create a new cabinet committee.

MacDougall said Harper agreed to meet with AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo in the coming weeks “to review next steps,” although it is not clear when that meeting will take place.

Still it appeared enough for now for Mulcair to urge Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence to end her hunger strike, echoing a phrase coined by former Quebec premier René Lévesque in his call for Quebecers to take a shot at a new relationship with Canada.

“I think that there has been movement and if people want to take the ‘beau risque’ of saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to go with what we have now and hold them to account on what they have offered,’ then that would be a step in the right direction,” said the NDP leader. “I don’t want her to do irreparable harm to herself.”

Some aboriginal chiefs have called on Spence to end her strike, including Cree Grand Chief Matthew Coon-Come. Konrad Sioui, a Huron Grand Chief of the Wendake reserve near Quebec City told Radio-Canada most aboriginal chiefs would nevertheless support her.

Nicole Robertson, a spokeswoman for Spence, told the Star Sunday she does not intend to end her protest though she is concerned about her fellow fasters, Manitoba elder Raymond Robinson, and Jean Sock.

“There’s been plenty of politicians that definitely have come in and tell her to do that, indigenous and non-indigenous,” she said in response to the NDP leader’s remarks, “but she’s very firm on her stance.”

Robertson said nothing had changed since Spence dismissed Friday’s meeting on the weekend. “Thirty First Nation Chiefs don’t represent nor legitimize the mandate of all First Nations,” said Spence in her weekend statement.

Mulcair said the government has itself to blame for the current upswing in tensions because since last year’s Crown-First Nations summit, “really nothing has happened, so the frustration is growing, it’s palpable especially among the young people in the First Nations and the government’s going to ignore that at its own risk.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

He said the NDP would put forward major policy proposals on aboriginal affairs this parliamentary session, adding, “There’s a lot that can be done” in the short-term.

He pointed to a roadmap laid out in 1996 by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Affairs, saying the inquiry led by René Dussault and Georges Erasmus urged Ottawa to create real self-government for First Nations.

“Give them a tax base. How can people feel involved in their own administration who want to be involved if they’re not involved financially in their own future, if it’s just a system of a cheque coming from the feds?”

Although she stressed that “no political organization can speak on behalf of Idle No More because it’s a grassroots movement,” McAdams said protests under the amorphous movement’s name will continue.

“Right now, the vision of Idle No More is that we’re peaceful and we’re working within the means of the legal boundaries,” she said.

There were sporadic protests during the weekend in different parts of the country, but it seemed many were trying to digest the import of what was achieved Friday.

Read more about: