[Blackbear]

[PK] Chief Nelson Asks Oprah To Expose Sex for Survival Arising From
Poverty of Indigenous Peoples Date: 24/02/2007 7:22:56 PM Eastern Standard Time
Subject: Chief Nelson Asks Oprah To Expose Sex for Survival Arising From
Poverty of Indigenous Peoples

Please see attached letter.

Chief Nelson can be reached at __
(mailto:chieftnelson@rrafn.com>)



ROSEAU RIVER ANISHINABE
FIRST NATION GOVERNMENT
P.O. Box 30, GINEW, Manitoba R0A 2R0

(204) 427-2312 fax: (204) 427-2584

_chieftnelson@rrafn.com_ (mailto:chieftnelson@rrafn.com)


Chief asks Oprah to expose Winnipeg Child Prostitution!
February 25th 2007
While Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine believes that
filing a Human Rights complaint will embarrass Canada to increase funding,
Chief Terrance Nelson of Roseau River is betting that an Oprah Winfrey show on
over 500 murdered and missing indigenous women and “survival sex”
prostitution of hundreds of indigenous children in Winnipeg would do more to get a
response from the Conservative government.
Minister of Indian Affairs Jim Prentice’s immediate response to AFN’s
filing of the human rights complaint was to sidestep the deaths of hundreds of
indigenous women and blame the victims on the child prostitution issue. Prentice
said that Ottawa already spends an awful lot of money on Indians.
The issue of indigenous land claims and benefits of the hundreds of billions
of dollars received by the federal government each year from resource
extraction taxes and income taxes on Canadians working in resource extraction did
not show up in the response.
Chief Nelson sent an email to the producers of the Oprah Winfrey show and is
waiting for a response. Whether he gets one or not is questionable, however
Oprah in her biography openly admits to being a victim of sexual abuse as a
child. If anyone has empathy to the plight of child prostitutes forced onto
the mean streets of Winnipeg, it should be Oprah Winfrey.

For Further Information
Contact Chief Terrance Nelson
204-782-4827

Oprah Winfrey
Dear Oprah
In September 1989, I organized a Run for Human Rights from Winnipeg to
Chicago to petition Jesse Jackson to help us expose the violations of Human Rights
in Canada. Jackson who was running for Democratic Nomination for President
at the time did not or could not respond. We were told that Jesse Jr. was
going to meet with us at the end of the 900 mile run but that was either
cancelled or called off. At the time, the then new CNN gave us fantastic coverage and
Chicago Times had a front page picture of one of people at the end of our
run. I thank Ted Turner for giving us the 1989 CNN coverage.
The following year, 4000 Canadian army soldiers were facing off against the
Mokawks at Oka Quebec where a Surete du Quebec police officer had been killed
trying to forcefully clear out an armed blockade of Mohawks who refused to
allow the town of Oka to expand their nine hole golf course over a known
Mohawk grave site.
1990 was the start of the Gulf War so very little was ever known in the
United States of the issues of indigenous land claims or human rights violations
against indigenous peoples in America’s northern neighbor. Seventeen years
later, Americans still know little of issues north of the border. You have a
book club that tries to get Americans to read and know more about their world,
outside of the constant US media focus on the lives of Britney Spears, Anna
Nichol Smith and other A-list actors.
Child prostitution in Canada, some as young as eight years old, a list of
over 500 murdered and missing indigenous women, over fifty percent of the
people killed at the hand of police are indigenous, police brutality, leaving
indigenous men to die in 40 below weather, RCMP on tape talking of smear
campaigns against indigenous protesters, 95 per cent of some women’s jail being
indigenous, these are only some of the issues. The real issue is that Canada is a
resource wealthy country where 60 metals and minerals are mined, with 87% of
all Canadian exports going to the United States. Seventy-two percent of all
foreign investments in Canada comes from the States.
American money drives Canadian policies. Canada is United States largest
trading partner and largest supplier of foreign oil, Canada having long passed
Saudi Arabia as the biggest US oil supplier. With the environmental and
weather disasters in the southern Gulf of Mexico states hurting the refinery
capacity of the US, Canadian oil is even more critical to the 20 million barrels
of oil that United States uses. Enbridge is proposing a 36” pipeline to sent
800,000 barrels of oil a day to the United States. That pipeline alone
represents 4 percent of all American oil needs. Roseau River and other First Nation
along the proposed will stop that pipeline until Canada sits down with us
and begins real negotiations on stopping the human rights violations against
our people.
On June 29th 2007, the world will hear about Canadian indigenous peoples as
the Assembly of First Nations, our national organization representing over
six hundred Canadian Indian reservations passed a resolution calling for a
national day of protest to include railway blockades and other forms of
disrupting the Canadian economy. The United States should not ignore the human rights
issues in Canada. If all trade with Canada stopped, the American economy
would be hit and hit hard, probably a lot harder than most Americans think.
We will need people worldwide and especially Americans to know, our “long
train of abuses and usurpations”, that led us to take such drastic action. As a
long time activist and person of conscience I know what it is like to be
ignored and have the media black out your issues, if you forgive the pun. Maybe
it should be white out your issues.
I was in Iraq in 1998 with a camera crew. We took 25 hours of broadcast
quality footage on the conditions that Iraqi suffered under the 12 years of
economic sanctions. We video-taped children dying in the hospitals without
medicines or painkillers. I interviewed the Iraqi Minister of Health and he accused
the US on camera of using depleted uranium against the Iraqi people. Someone
in the United States authorized the use of depleted uranium in the shell
casing of American bombs used on Iraqi targets and it caused a four-fold increase
in leukemia amongst the population. If you saw the footage of children
writhing in excruciating pain, you would wonder why we hanged Saddam Hussein and
never once put anyone on trial in the United States for causing the deaths of
Iraqi children. I have always wondered who authorized the use of depleted
uranium.
While today, the US media does not ignore the Iraqi issue, we as indigenous
people in Canada continue to be ignored because for the last hundred and
fifty years we have never been violent in attacking the immigrants to our lands.
While terrorism is appalling and condemned by United States, the American
government seems to always ignore human rights when the people who are being
victimized are passive. They always bring up Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
as examples of non-violence to the oppressed but the truth is these movements
were successful because there were men like Malcolm X who made the choice for
the Kennedys simple: choose the non-violent preacher or deal with the
militant. I would never dispute that King was a brilliant hard-working, passionate
leader who died for his beliefs, but without Malcolm X, his job to attract
the support of the white establishment would have been a lot harder.
I am a director in the American Indian Movement, the only representative
from the Canadian side to sit on the board of directors. I am the Chief of
Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation, Chairman of the Council of Chiefs for the
Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council, a group of nine First Nations in southern
Manitoba. I sit at the executive of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, a political
organization of 64 Manitoba First Nations. I have written five books, did
several video documentaries, including a seven-minute video on Iraq, called a War
on Children, a 30 minute and 10 minute video on Canadian indigenous people
called Not So Gentle Neighbor.
I am wondering if you, Oprah, are interested in doing a show on the deaths
of hundreds of Canadian Indian women who have been murdered by people like
mass murderer Pickton in British Columbia who got away with the murders for so
long because these were “prostitutes” and indigenous women. It seems that if
these were blond blue-eyed daughters of wealthy people, the killing would
have been investigated so much earlier on and that would have saved a lot of the
49 women that Pickton is accused of killing. There is also a “highway of
death” in B.C. where another mass murderer is operating in that no one has yet
been able to identify and capture.
In last week’s Winnipeg Free Press, there is articles detailing the
testimony from an inquiry that identifies hundreds of indigenous children, some as
young as eight prostituting themselves on the streets of Winnipeg in what is
being termed as “survival sex” selling their bodies to eat.
Here is what our national Assembly of First Nations did this week.
_http://www.afn.ca/article.asp?id=3374_
(http://www.afn.ca/article.asp?id=3374)

Canadian Human Rights complaint on First Nations child welfare filed today
by Assembly of First Nations and First Nations Child and Family Caring Society
of Canada
Today, the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family
Caring Society of Canada formally filed a complaint today with the Canadian
Human Rights Commission regarding lack of funding for First Nations child
welfare.
“There are more than 27,000 First Nations children in state care. This is a
national disgrace that requires the immediate and serious attention of all
governments to resolve,” said National Chief Phil Fontaine. “Rational appeals
to successive federal governments have been ignored. After years of research
that confirm the growing numbers of our children in care, as well as the
potential solutions to this crisis, we have no choice but to appeal to the
Canadian Human Rights Commission.”
“I have said all along that I would rather negotiate than litigate,” added
the National Chief. “But we have the right to determine what is best for the
future of our children. Our children must have an equal opportunity to
grow-up with their families, in their communities, and in their culture. No First
Nation child should have to forgo this opportunity as a result of poverty or
an inability to access basic services.”
"First Nations leadership have been forced into the position of launching
this formal complaint against the federal government”, said Federation of
Saskatchewan Indian Nations Chief Lawrence Joseph. “It has become clear to our
leadership that governments do not respond to demonstrated, real and growing
needs in First Nations child welfare.”
"We are not interested in conflict, we are seeking a just, equitable, and
proactive resolution on behalf of our First Nations children and families,”
added Chief Joseph.
“According to the Department of Indian Affairs own website, ‘fundamental
change in the funding approach of First Nations Child and Family Services
Agencies to child welfare is required in order to reverse the growth rate of
children coming into care, and in order for the agencies to meet their mandated
responsibilities’,” noted Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First
Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. “We could not agree more. We
have worked diligently with the AFN, First Nations child and family service
agencies, and Indian Affairs to develop a detailed, evidence based solution
to the problem.”
“The federal government still has not acted on the recommendations,” added
Ms. Blackstock. “We can no longer stand still as the safety and well being of
First Nations children depends on implementing this solution so we are proud
to stand with the Assembly of First Nations in filing this human rights
complaint.”
The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing
First Nations citizens in Canada.
Contacts:
Bryan Hendry, A/Director of Communications
613-241-6789 ext. 229 or cell 613-293-6106 or _bhendry@afn.ca_
(http://www.afn.ca/mailtbhendry@afn.ca)
Nancy Pine, Communications Advisor - Office of the National Chief
613-241-6789 ext 243 or 613-298-6382 or mailto:_npine%40afn.ca_
(http://www.afn.ca/mailtnpine@afn.ca)
If you want more information on the response of the Minister of Indian
Affairs, see the article in the Globe and Mail at the following webpage.
_http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070223.wxnatives23/BNSto
ry/National/home_
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl.../National/home)
Here is part of the article.
Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, will
announce the complaint today.
Yesterday, he spoke to the Economic Club of Toronto, where he painted a grim
picture of the status quo. Describing native poverty levels as "horrific,"
he said federal polices are to blame for the hopelessness that leads
eight-year-old girls into "survival sex" prostitution and teenage boys to die fighting
in gang wars over drug money.
"This is Canada that I am talking about, Canada which has billions of
dollars in surplus," Mr. Fontaine said. "I am telling you honestly and most
sincerely that our communities right now are reaching a breaking point. The anger
and frustration are palpable. . . . Unless that anger and frustration are
addressed, I fear the consequences."
Specifically, Mr. Fontaine wants Ottawa to follow the advice of a recent
Senate committee report calling for $250-million a year to be set aside for
land-claim settlements so that native communities have more power to enter into
business arrangements with off-reserve groups.
Oprah, if you cannot do a show on the prostitution of Canadian Indian
children, can you write a letter to the Canadian government and ask them why they
allow this to continue.
Sincerely
Chief Terrance Nelson
204-782-4827

[Mato Winyan]

Does anyone know if she responded to this?