APTN National News
The federal government’s omnibus Bill C-45 passed through Senate today which is a main thorn in the side of all the First Nation peoples gathered in the Idle No More movement sweeping across the country.
Senate passed the bill with a vote of 50-27. It will now be sent to the Governor General who will sign off on it. It then becomes law.
Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, an Algonquin, told APTN National News he voted in favour of it as he was stopped just a short distance from a rally on Parliament Hill where people gathered to support Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence who is in her fourth day of a hunger strike.
Brazeau said many chiefs supported the bill and there’s been a lot of fear mongering in the Idle No More movement about it.
Some First Nation people say the bill attacks their sovereignty and treaty rights regarding lands in Canada.
Grand Chief David Harper of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak wrote Governor General David Johnston Friday “to urge and request” Johnston refuse to sign off on Bill C-45.
”Many of the federal laws being amended by Bill C-45 touch on our treaty lands, resources and waters, and so affects the treaty relationship,” said Harper.
