Kahnawake group stages Idle No More flash mob at Angrignon

MONTREAL—Idle No More protesters began turning up in shopping malls around the country this weekend, with one group staging a flash-mob-style demonstration at Carrefour Angrignon on Monday afternoon.

Idle No More is the motto of a social movement that aims to bring focus on aboriginal rights. Supporters argue that there is a systematic destruction of indigenous rights in Canada, and they point to recent federal legislation that they say violates long-standing treaties.

A group from Kahnawake, responsible for Monday’s protest against Bill C-45, also marched across the Mercier Bridge on Dec. 20. The Kahnawake council has supported the protests against the government’s omnibus budget bill.

Demonstrators say the protests will continue until Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets with Attiwapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, who's on a hunger strike to bring attention to aboriginal issues.

Spence started the strike on Dec. 11, and has been living in a teepee on an island in the Ottawa River that many aboriginals consider to be sacred land.

She is seeking a meeting with Harper, the governor general and First Nations leaders to discuss the treaty relationship.

On Monday, Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, who is Algonquin, was rebuffed in an attempt to meet with her.

Last week, Brazeau told the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network he didn't think Spence was setting a good example for aboriginal youth.

Brazeau posted an account on Twitter of his efforts to meet Spence on Monday, saying he was first told she needed time to prepare to see him but then that she wouldn't see him at all.

"Not sure if Chief Spence's advisors made the recommendation not to meet but regardless, I respect her decision," Brazeau wrote.

Union leaders called Monday for provincial premiers to get involved in efforts to get the prime minister to sit down with Spence.

"No one level of government is solely responsible for the poor living conditions on First Nations reserves," said Paul Moist, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, in a statement. "And therefore it is in the interest of the premiers to help find a peaceful and safe resolution to this standoff."

—With files from The Canadian Press.