OTTAWA -- A list of demands forged among First Nations could well form the basis of at least some agreement with Stephen Harper on Friday -- assuming the much-anticipated meeting ever gets off the ground.
National Chief Shawn Atleo emerged from several days of back-and-forth talks with chiefs, elders and top Harper officials on Thursday afternoon to present his best-case scenario for the meeting.
First Nations need to see concrete action on many fronts, and immediately, if the Idle No More grassroots protests are to remain orderly, Atleo warned.
"Today our people are standing up from coast to coast to coast," he told a news conference that was delayed 24 hours so chiefs could agree on priorities. "We are absolute in our conviction and in our determination to achieve our rights.
"It's time to act."
Atleo outlined bread-and-butter demands for schools on every reserve, clean drinking water and stable funding that grows along with the size of the population.
First Nations leaders also want Harper to agree to a national inquiry into the many hundreds of aboriginal women and girls who have gone missing or been murdered.
And they want the prime minister to pull back key sections of his two budget omnibus bills that radically changed environmental oversight in favour of natural resource extraction. They want a new regime to better protect the environment instead.
For the medium term, they want Harper to set up a new process to examine the implementation of treaties. Atleo and Saskatchewan Regional Chief Perry Bellegarde want to see the process run out of the Prime Minister's Office or the Privy Council Office so that federal negotiators actually have some power. They also want to see strict timelines for delivery of results.
"There has to be a high level of commitment, ongoing," Bellegarde said.
They will also be asking Harper to designate a minister -- possibly Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver -- to bring together First Nations and provincial governments to explore how First Nations can better participate in resource extraction and share in resource revenues.
And eventually, they want Ottawa to take a clear-eyed look at the Indian Act and all legislation, through the lens of aboriginal rights as enshrined in Section 35 of the Constitution. An audit of all legislation through that lens would lead to the dismantling of the Indian Act and its eventual replacement with a regime that recognized self-determination, said B.C. Regional Chief Jody Wilson-Raybould.
"We need real remedies and real change for our people -- now. And we need action, in particular for our most vulnerable citizens," Atleo stated.
"Our demands are backed by one Supreme Court decision after another."
Some of those demands will no doubt be difficult for Harper to work with. A repeal of legislation that has already passed and is the centrepiece of Harper's policy agenda would be a hard compromise for the prime minister to swallow.
And anything that has the potential to cost billions of dollars in new funding would also be problematic.
But many of the demands were already agreed to in principle in previous meetings, and would simply require some beefing up in order to meet First Nations' standards.
The government has already agreed to have a full discussion about treaties and their modern-day implementation. Adding more accountability and negotiators with decision-making powers to the existing offer would be feasible.
Similarly, the federal government has existing initiatives on education reform and clean drinking water, and has recently committed to co-operating more closely with First Nations leaders on the education front.
On resource revenue-sharing, Ottawa has been willing to enter into negotiations in certain regions already, and meeting the demand for an exploratory process with federal and provincial ministers would not be a giant leap.
And on a national inquiry for murdered and missing women -- a long-standing request that unites many different groups of people -- an agreement by Harper would no doubt prove widely popular.
But Atleo and the two regional chiefs who flanked him could not promise that the meeting planned for Friday afternoon would actually take place.
Manitoba and Ontario chiefs have threatened not to attend unless Gov. Gen. David Johnston is also there.
Johnston had previously refused to get involved, but Harper told Johnston on Thursday to hold a separate "ceremonial" meeting with chiefs on Friday afternoon at Rideau Hall.
Some chiefs say they want Harper and Johnston to come meet them at their hotel, rather than in government buildings. Others say they'd prefer a morning meeting rather than after the Harper meeting.
Others, still, marched over to the Langevin Block on their own accord late Thursday asking -- unsuccessfully -- for immediate access to the prime minister.
Now, chiefs are meeting to see if the arrangements are enough to salvage a process that was meant to bring an end to a month-long protest by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence and quell grassroots demonstrations and blockades across the country.
"This meeting must take place," said Wilson-Raybould. "We have to meet. We have to have these discussions."
But other chiefs were sending mixed messages well into the evening on Thursday about whether they could stomach a meeting where Harper would only be present part of the time, and Johnston would only attend a separate meeting.
"Our unified position will be to the prime minister, to the Governor General and to whatever entourage he chooses to bring (Friday) -- provided that the prime minister meets the requests of Chief Theresa Spence to ensure the presence of the Governor General," said Manitoba's grand chief, Derek Nepinak.
First Nations signed their treaties with a representative of the Queen, and since this week's meetings are about modernizing those treaties, they need the Queen's representative present once again, said David Harper, grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak in the northern part of the province.
"If he's absent, there will be no dialogue."
At the heart of the insistence of the governor-general's presence is a deep distrust of Harper, explained Isadore Day, a chief from northern Ontario.
After making many commitments a year ago for fundamental change, Harper has imposed legislation and cut funding with no concern about the impact on First Nations, said Day in an interview.
The Governor General could act as a witness to Harper's commitments, he said.
"It's really important the Governor General attend, for integrity and historical context."
