CLFN Chief to Trudeau: “If you have balls…come to my territory”

Kelsey Jacko speaks at the AFN AGA. Image from video.

Cold Lake First Nations Chief Kelsey Jacko challenged the federal government at the recent Assembly of First Nations (AFN) annual general assembly, and said if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had balls, he’d come to his nation.

Trudeau was not on the stage to field the challenge, but the federal government was represented by Crown-Indigenous Relations minister, Sathiyasangaree “Gary” Anandasangaree., who spoke just before Jacko’s comments.

This was his full quote:

“I have troubles when you talk about modern treaty, and you include Metis with the modern treaty. You’re disrespecting the historic treaties. There wouldn’t be a Canada if it weren’t for our treaties. You talk about nation to nation…I don’t even know if you look at the resolutions. Resolution 35 dealing with Treaty. You talk about nation to nation, you come talk to me. You don’t come to this AFN table. You want respect, you have to at least treat us the same. You say hi on the street when I pass you. Natural Resource Transfer Act. We shouldn’t be struggling in our lands,” said Jacko last Wednesday.  

“We should be the Saudis of Canada. Why are our people sleeping on the streets? That’s not right. Our people are suffering from addictions and everything. My community is being overlooked. Even the structure of AFN. It’s troublesome when the big bands as littler bands. Even the formulas with the monies handed out, it’s very troublesome. We’ve got limited time here to talk, so I’m going to give my time, my rest of my minutes, to my brother here from Beaver Lake. We’re holding a Treaty meeting 1-11 in Cold Lake, August, 26 to 30th, you’re invited to come. The Governor General will come. 

“And the King if you’re listening — come. And Trudeau, if you have balls enough, come to my territory.”

Beaver Lake Cree Nation’s Chief Gary Lameman spoke right afterwards.

“We are co-hosting this Treaty 1-11 gathering on the on the shores of beautiful Cold lake. It’s an open invitation to all to talk about everything on our sacred treaties. What I wanted to mention was the opioid pandemic. I think there needs to be more energy put towards our opioid pandemic that’s going on here and destroying our people at an alarming rate.

“Minister, you know this, and we’ve talked about this before, I just want to talk to you about putting more energy, resources, funds towards this opioid pandemic. The evolution of addiction is alarming, and we need to keep up with this. So our First Nations, we need to have the resources to fight the way this addiction problem is going. So I ask you to start talking to the other ministers, talk to the Prime Minister and tell them, ‘okay, let’s start putting some some muscle towards this,’ some financial muscle and resources.”