An impassioned crowd gathering on Saint Mary’s Reserve gathered last week for a lecture by an internationally renowned aboriginal rights activist Winona LaDuke.
The economist and Harvard graduate slated shale gas, nuclear power, and cross-country bitumen pipelines as irresponsible and dangerous.
Patrick Brooks is a member of the Saint Mary’s First Nation, and he tells CHSJ News the people need to look out for the country’s interest because the government’s priority is fattening its bottom line. Brooks says traditional native ideology focuses on long-termism and protecting the earth, and is thus at odds with the agenda of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
LaDuke charged the feds with losing perspective on the energy issued, and urged the members of Saint Mary’s First Nation to work on ways to become self sufficient, like wind-generated electricity and sustainable farming.
