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More specifically, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was met with Idle No More, an Occupy-type movement that claims he only amended the Indian Act because of a malevolent agenda to sell off reserve lands, and a hunger strike launched by Theresa Spence, the Chief of the Attawapiskat band that became infamous last year over a housing crisis despite millions of dollars flowing into the community.

The movement has been criticized for lacking a concrete agenda and for failing to put forth tangible solutions, but NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding includes Attawapiskat, defends the grassroots protest saying “it’s there and it’s tangible.”

“People should step back and see this movement for what it is,” he said. “It’s not ‘fix this one thing’ or ‘change that’ and everything goes back to being hunky-dory. This is about a broken relationship and how we can get back to where we need to be.”

Mr. Harper said Friday he will meet with a delegation of First Nations leaders on Jan. 11, nearly one year since his first Crown-First Nations meeting. Chief Spence, who promised to fast until she landed a meeting with him and the Governor General, will attend the rendez-vous but will keep striking until then.

Mr. Jules said he understands her frustration and the anger vocalized by Idle No More — he, too, laments the Indian Act — but the complaints, this time, do not resonate with him.

“I, like all the other people who are protesting, am opposed to poverty, but I see these recent changes as a practical approach to making it easier for First Nations to develop an economy,” said Mr. Jules, a member of the Kamloops Indian Band and chairman of the federal First Nations Tax Commission. “What [the government] is trying to do is legislate us back into the economy.”