Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan is offering to meet this week with a northern Ontario chief who embarked on a hunger strike Tuesday out of frustration with the federal government.
Chief Theresa Spence of the remote Attawapiskat First Nation launched her protest with a vow to die unless the Conservative government starts showing more respect to First Nations concerns and aboriginal treaties.
Spence wants the Crown, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and aboriginal leaders to work together to forge a new relationship.
An offer was extended last week to have Duncan's parliamentary secretary visit Attawapiskat to ensure the reserve has what it needs to get through the winter, said Jan O'Driscoll, a spokesman for the minister.
Duncan, the Conservative MP for Vancouver Island North, would also be prepared to meet Spence this week in Ottawa to discuss the state of her community, he added.
But the issues go well beyond Attawapiskat, Spence said in a statement.
The Harper government has embarked on an "aggressive, assimilatory legislative agenda" that flies in the face of the United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, she complained.
And she accused Duncan's office of misleading the public about the social realities facing sa国际传媒's First Nations.
Spence was at the centre of an international media storm last year because of a winter housing crisis in her remote community.
She said she wants the federal government to withdraw Bill C-45, the government's omnibus budget legislation, which she says weakens environmental laws.
She also wants it to reverse its decision to cut funding to First Nation organizations and communities.
