Canadian Indigenous leaders travel to see Ecuador environmental disaster

“This is how much money I made working with oil pipelines in Canada.”  Phil Fontaine, right, speaks to Indigenous leaders in Ecuador Wednesday. (Karen Hinton/Submitted)

The group hopes to ally with 60 Indigenous tribes in Ecuador to help them fight Chevron in Canadian court

By Brandi Morin, CBC News, September 27, 2017

Canadian Indigenous leaders witnessed first hand this week the devastation and pollution left behind by oil companies in Indigenous lands in Ecuador.

“What we’ve witnessed here is tragic…shocking,” said former Assembly of First Nations (AFN) leader Phil Fontaine, speaking from Quito via telephone.

First Nations leader Phil Fontaine: An angry radical embraces compromise

Phil Fontaine with 2010 Winter Olympics torch, representing the Royal Bank of Canada.

by Shawn McCarthy, The Globe and Mail, May 16, 2014

At 30 years old, Phil Fontaine was an angry man.

A survivor of sexual abuse at a residential school, separated from his parents at a young age, forbidden from speaking his native language, the Anishinaabe from Manitoba was elected at the age of 29 as chief for the Sagkeeng First Nation, situated east of Lake Winnipeg. By his own account, he was impatient and belligerent, especially in his dealings with government bureaucrats.

The former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations mellowed over the years. He became convinced he could do more for aboriginal people through compromise and pragmatic action than angry radicalism. But he remains passionate about the need for Canada to address the appalling poverty among First Nations people. He sees resource development as one way to end that poverty.

Oilsands benefit First Nations

Some of the “scant evidence” of the environmental impacts of the Tar Sands referred to by Quesnel; trucks the size of houses haul earth from the Tar Sands.

Protestors show ignorance of reality of oilsands development

By Joseph Quesnel, Winnipeg Sun, January 31, 2014

Aboriginal peoples benefit from oilsands development.  That was the one reality missed by protesters at a recent lecture at the University of Winnipeg involving Phil Fontaine.

Angry protesters force Phil Fontaine off university stage

Fontaine’s speech disrupted at University of Winnipeg event, Jan 22, 2014.

Phil Fontaine’s speaking engagement at University of Winnipeg rescheduled

CBC News, Jan 22, 2014

Angry protesters took over a planned talk by First Nations leader Phil Fontaine in Winnipeg on Wednesday, resulting in the rescheduling of the event.

Fontaine was scheduled to speak at the University of Winnipeg in the early afternoon on First Nations issues in the past, present and future.

Former AFN chief Phil Fontaine hired by TransCanada Pipeline Ltd

SHAWN McCARTHY, The Globe and Mail, Dec 8, 2013

Phil Fontaine, former AFN chief, has also worked for the Royal Bank of Canada, then one of the biggest investors in Tar Sands.

On its 4,000-kilometre path across the country, TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East’s pipeline would traverse the traditional territory of 180 different aboriginal communities, each of whom must be consulted and have their concerns accommodated as part of the company’s effort at winning project approval.

Assembly of First Nations, RCMP co-operated on 2007 ‘Day of Action’

By Tim Groves and Martin Lukacs, The Star (Toronto), Fri Feb 15 2013

The Assembly of First Nations worked closely with the Mounties and provincial police to exchange information about protests and develop common stances before a national aboriginal day of action in the summer of 2007, according to RCMP documents.

The revelations are likely to provoke anger among Idle No More protesters and provide ammunition to aboriginal critics who have argued the AFN’s relationship with the federal government has become too cosy, with few gains to show for it.