Georges Erasmus, John Amagoalik, and Louis Bruyere (left to right) hold a news conference to express the feelings of Canada's Native groups on the Meech Lake Accord on May 28, 1987 in Ottawa.
Georges Erasmus, John Amagoalik, and Louis Bruyere hold a news conference to discuss the failed Meech Lake Accord to amend the Constitution on May 28, 1987 in Ottawa. In a quiet hotel room in downtown Ottawa, Georges Erasmus calmly recalls what may have been the low point in his 50-year fight for Indigenous rights.
Erasmus, 76, says there is no single highlight that stands out above the rest from his storied career but when asked about that meeting, he acknowledges the shelving of RCAP may be the lowest.Chretien retirement seen as loss, opportunity The Red Power movement was sweeping North America, and radicalism was in the air, particularly for youth, Erasmus says.He was elected brotherhood president in 1976, right in the middle of a public inquiry into the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline led by judge Thomas Berger.
Berger's report recommended a 10-year moratorium on pipeline construction, to settle land claims in the area.After leading the Dene Nation, Erasmus was elected to lead the Assembly of First Nations in 1985, taking over a heavily indebted national organization burdened by a "culture of cronyism" and suspicions of corruption.
Yet he struck a very different tone in 1988, after winning a second term, when he delivered a fiery warning of "violent political action" by the next generation if Ottawa didn't immediately deal with First Nations' legitimate grievances.37 years agoHis prediction came true in 1990 when a Kanien'kehà:ka blockade against a golf course encroaching on a burial site turned into a shootout with police and a 78-day armed standoff near Oka, Que.
Georges Erasmus, then co-chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, speaks prior to a roundtable discussion on addictions at a downtown Calgary hotel, May 26, 1993. From there, Erasmus details the rise and fall of the $350-million Aboriginal Healing Foundation, which he helped set up in 1998.
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