First Nation Means No Business

Boycott non-native businesses Friday, Manitoba chiefs urge
Last Updated: Thursday, June 28, 2007 | 10:27 AM CT
CBC News
Manitoba's Southern Chiefs Organization wants First Nations to boycott non-native businesses on Friday's national day of action — but an Ontario aboriginal leader says the boycott doesn't make sense.

The boycott would be one way to demonstrate the economic power of the native community, said Nahanni Fontaine, director of justice with SCO.

Aboriginal people as a group spend huge amounts of money, she added, but little of it stays in aboriginal communities.

"The idea is that we're sustaining our own poverty. We need to in some … tangible way, even if it's just for one day at this point, to stop buying products and services from non-aboriginal businesses."

The decision to call a boycott follows the recent SCO election of a new grand chief, Morris Shannacappo, and is the beginning of a long-term strategy of economic action, Fontaine said.

"I don't want people to think that it's personal, that it's an attack on individual business owners," she said. "It absolutely isn't. But it's about time that we need to support our own."

But the boycott is being panned by Angus Toulouse, the Assembly of First Nations' regional chief for Ontario, who says it doesn't make any sense.

"I think that we're wanting to support — and we always have — any of the businesses that are doing business with First Nations communities," he said.

"Many First Nations people and communities don't have any of these businesses in the community, so they are needing to go to a nearby municipality, nearby town or nearby city to do business."

Making life inconvenient won't help the cause of aboriginal peoples, Toulouse said.

The national day of action is intended to draw attention to the issues facing aboriginal people in Canada, such as poverty and unresolved land claims.