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A former Manitoban First Nations leader has raised the ire of Canadian officials with his appearance on Iranian television comparing aboriginal reserves to concentration camps.

Terry Nelson, former chief of Manitoba's Roseau River Anishinabe, made the comments during an interview on Sunday with Iranian Press TV in Tehran.

"The reservations were originally more or less concentration camps," Nelson said in the interview.

Nelson has been leading a delegation of First Nations trying to create closer ties with Iran. In March, the group visited the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa.

More recently Nelson was in Iran, where during the TV interview he said widespread discrimination against aboriginal people in Canada has escalated since Prime Minister Stephen Harper took office in 2006.

He also said there are more chances for First Nations youth to be incarcerated than to graduate from high school.

'We are going to go where we need to go to be able to have the voice of the First Nations heard.'—Terry Nelson

"There's no real economic development on reserves, so the reservations mostly have between 60 and 95 per cent unemployment," he said.

"This is the root cause of the artificial poverty that's on reserves. It is economic sanctions."

The Iranian television network also interviewed Dennis Pashe, a former chief of the Dakota Tipi First Nation in Manitoba.

A spokesman for John Duncan, Canada's aboriginal affairs minister, told CBC News the federal government is "disappointed that Mr. Nelson has allowed himself to be used as a pawn by the Iranian regime in yet another PR stunt to distract from their own record.

"Since 2006, our government has taken concrete steps to create the conditions for healthier, more self-sufficient First Nation communities, including legislation to protect the rights of women on reserve and improve financial transparency," Jason MacDonald said in an email.
'Canada will not take lessons from Iran'

MacDonald also said Ottawa has provided "billions in investments to ensure safe drinking water, improved K-12 education, and greater opportunities for aboriginal participation in the economy.

"We continue to work with First Nations to improve the opportunities for them to achieve the prosperity they seek and that Canada needs," he said.

"Canada will not take lessons from Iran, with its record of brutal human rights abuses and terrorism."

Closer to home, the Manitoba government said the province is not interested in weighing in on Nelson's comments.

The grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Derek Nepinak, said while Nelson is entitled to his opinion, he doesn't share that view.

While there are real issues that need to be addressed on reserves, Nelson's methods might do more harm than good, Nepinak said.

"I don't think it necessarily represents the views or perspectives of the bulk of indigenous people that live here. I think we live here peacefully within western Canadian society, and I think some of the messaging is not doing any good," he said.

Nelson said aboriginal Canadians must follow the lead of native Americans to highlight their human-rights concerns and make friends outside of North America, which is why he and Pashe came to Iran.

"The Iranian people have been dehumanized and essentially demonized in the Western press, and a lot of people have told us that we shouldn't come here; that our lives would be in danger," Nelson told the TV network.

"We are going to go where we need to go to be able to have the voice of the First Nations heard."

A visit to Iran by two former First Nations chiefs from Manitoba, where they slammed Canada's treatment of aboriginals, has created the predictable backlash at home.
Terry Nelson and Dennis Pashe made the rounds in Tehran, culminating in a lengthy interview on the Iranian television outlet Press TV.
Nelson, who Press TV described as "the top Chief of Canada Aboriginals," told the audience he and Pashe were pressured not to make the trip.
"But we were pretty clear that the dehumanization, the demonization of the Iranian people has been one of the facts of Western media and we understand that because we too have also met with the crusader," he said, according to an article on the Press TV web site.
Terry Nelson, a former Manitoba First Nations leader, appeared on an Iranian TV network, accusing Canada of mistreating its aboriginal peoples.
The trip is notable because of the deep diplomatic rift between Canada and Iran mainly over the Islamic state's reported attempts to develop nuclear weapons.
Nelson, who according to the Winnipeg Free Press also travelled to Iraq in 1990 to meet Saddam Hussein, attacked Canada's record on First Nations; high unemployment, decrepit reserve housing and the disappearance and murder of some 600 aboriginal women in recent years. He reportedly referred to reserves as "concentration camps."
Nelson told the Free Press that he was only telling the truth about conditions aboriginals live under in Canada.
But the Free Press said that in an email to other chiefs on the weekend, Nelson also revealed he was in Iran to discuss the presence of First Nations astride the oil and gas pipelines that feed petroleum to the United States.
"We, the indigenous people in the three Prairie provinces are currently the most powerful people in the world. We sit on the pipelines that deliver 2.5 million barrels of oil a day to the United States...," he said in he email, according to the Free Press.
"I'm in Tehran to ask Iran to open the doors to OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) for the indigenous people of Canada."
In an interview with the Free Press, Nelson suggested aboriginal chiefs making common ground with OPEC members over oil ownership would send a powerful message to the Canadian and U.S. governments about the need to respect treaty rights.
"Any country that can influence the indigenous people has to realize what kind of leverage they have," he said. "I don't think everybody [is] understanding that the chiefs won't sit back anymore and say, 'Take our oil.'"
Predictably, the federal government was less than happy.
"We're disappointed that Mr. Nelson has allowed himself to be used as a pawn by the Iranian regime in yet another PR stunt to distract from their own record," Jason MacDonald, a spokesman for Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan, told the Free Press.
[ Related: Former Manitoba First Nation chief asks Iran for help with a human rights matter ]
Calgary Herald columnist Naomi Lakritz said Nelson had made a fool of himself in Iran.
"Nelson, Pashe and the Iranians can have all the meetings they want, but OPEC has no say over Canada's internal affairs, and as former chiefs, Nelson and Pashe have no say over aboriginal affairs. So it sounds like a meeting of equals — all equally powerless," she wrote.
Toronto Sun columnist Lorne Gunter condemned Nelson's trip and comments as the latest in a long line of provocative stunts, including a sustained attack on Jews in the media.
"On several occasions [including as recently as this week], Nelson has blamed Jewish media for the bad coverage he receives," Gunter wrote. "Since a paper I used to work for was owned for a time by a Jewish family and since it was also very critical of him, Nelson often blamed our coverage on the owners' faith."
Gunter said Nelson has no credibility with his own people, having been removed as chief by his Roseau River band council last September over questions about the band's finances and "governance issues." An auditor also questioned more than half a million dollars in loans and advances to several current and former band employees, including Nelson's daughter, that weren't included in financial statements, Gunter wrote.
"Nelson vehemently denied any impropriety and offered counter-explanations of where the money had gone, but ultimately his explanations were deemed insufficient by his own band's council, which expelled him from office," Gunter wrote.
"Not to worry. I'm sure Nelson will find all sorts of new friends in Iran."

Nelson, who according to the Winnipeg Free Press also travelled to Iraq in 1990 to meet Saddam Hussein, attacked Canada's record on First Nations; high unemployment, decrepit reserve housing and the disappearance and murder of some 600 aboriginal women in recent years. He reportedly referred to reserves as "concentration camps."

"We, the indigenous people in the three Prairie provinces are currently the most powerful people in the world.

SurplusElect wrote:We took a culture that survived and thrived for 10,000 years without our help or culture and forced them into our society of greed, land ownership economics and substances so we could get at the resources.

"Pull up their bootstraps"?

Natives are where they are because of us, and if they are having difficulty adapting to our culture - no kidding. It's our responsibility to accommodate them and we have not done a excellent job over the years as these Chiefs pointed out.

Treblehook wrote: Indian Affairs handouts, welfare and crime are sure as hell not the way out ... it hasn't worked for over 100 years and it isn't going to work now.

Treblehook wrote:The original issue of the right or wrong of these two Manitoba Indian Chiefs trapassing off to Iran and trashing Canada seems to have been hijacked somewhat.

Treblehook wrote:... Clarence Louie's message is the right message and his approach is the right approach.

First Nations chiefs blast Terry Nelson's Holocaust comparison
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/10/16/first-nations-chiefs-blast-terry-nelsons-holocaust-comparison

SurplusElect wrote:The history and present state concerning how we treat/ed Natives is embarrassing. The UN and other worldly organizations have pointed out quite a few times about how Natives are treated/disadvantaged in Canada even today, it's no lie. Look at our prison population demographics.