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Sunday, Jan 6, 2013 4:30 PM UTC

Canadian prime minister to meet with aboriginal community

A movement called Idle No More has caught Stephen Harper's attention

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Topics: stephen harper, aboriginal rights, Canada, first nations, Activism,

Canadian prime minister to meet with aboriginal community(Credit: AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Patrick Doyle)

In what the Guardian hails as the biggest social movement in North America since Occupy, Canada’s Idle No More has spent the last month organizing peaceful protests, forming dance flashmobs and staging events of solidarity to demand that Canada revise its recent omnibus bill, C-45, which protesters argue infringes on the treaty and land rights of Canada’s aboriginal peoples.

Canada’s Prime Minster Stephen Harper has now granted the request of the Attawapiskat community’s Chief Theresa Spence, agreeing to meet with aboriginal leaders to discuss the bill. But Spence, who has been fasting for 27 days in protest, currently has no plans to stop. ”I’ll still be here on my hunger strike until that meeting takes place,” she said. “We’ll see what the results are … because there are a lot of issues that we need to discuss.”

Spence has been fasting in a teepee on an island in view of the Parliament, where temperatures are below zero degrees.

Harper will meet with the First Nations leaders on Jan. 11.

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com. More Prachi Gupta.

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