AFNQL Action Plan: A Plea to Quebeckers
Written by Jeremy Zafran on 29 September 2021
One day before the marking of the National Truth and Reconciliation Day, the AFNQL held a press conference where they spoke about their action plan on racism and discrimination. After running into continued roadblocks from the Quebec government, the Assembly of First Nations Quebec Labrador are making a plea directly to Quebeckers to commit to the fight against racism towards First Nations. Ghislain Picard is the Regional Chief of the AFNQL:
“I don’t think anyone can deny the fact that there’s a responsibility for governments to act on these issues. But, obviously, we seem to find ourselves too often in a waiting mode.”
41% of Quebeckers surveyed in a Leger poll, agree that the Government has not done enough to combat racism against First Nations. Vice-Chief of the elected women’s council, Nadia Robertson says everyone can do more:
“We need a Tsunami, we need like changes, we need to listen to these calls for actions that we have to end systemic racism. The first thing to do, to me, is to recognize the systemic racism that First Nations women go through everyday.”
A rally and March to commemorate the National Day will be held in Montreal tomorrow afternoon beginning at 1 pm at Place du Canada.
