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Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence, who has galvanized the Idle No More Movement, continued her hunger strike this week. The Canadian government did not meet her demand to have both Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor General David Johnston attend negotiations on the recent passage of Bill C-45 and other issues impacting indigenous communities in Canada. Spence stated, “Johnston as the Queen’s representative in Canada must attend any meeting because many treaties…were made with the Crown, the federal government and the provincial government.”

Idle No More is a Canadian First Nations movement which is challenging Bill C-45, legislation passed a month ago by the Canadian Government to circumvent treaties it signed with native groups and grab resources from First Nation Lands.

Here in California, which is home to more than a hundred indigenous tribes and has the largest Native American population in the United States, native people are facing many similar issues of disenfranchisement as their fellow tribes people in Canada. In Los Angeles this past Friday a rally was held in support of the Idle No More Movement outside the Canadian embassy in downtown LA. Indigenous activists spoke of parity between their struggles and those of indigenous activists in the North.

Uprising Correspondent Michael Casey attended the rally and filed a special report.