ROSEAU RIVER RESERVE, MAN. — ‘Well, why else are you here?” Chief Terrance Nelson shoots back. “I doubt The Globe and Mail would send you out to talk about Roseau River’s housing problems,” he says with a smirking laugh.
Mr. Nelson is a roiling mixture of bluster, determination, suspicion and contempt. He knows that the media loves controversy, and he isn’t afraid to stoke it in order to get the country’s attention.
His has been the most militant voice about the June 29 national day of action called for by the Assembly of First Nations. “There’s only one way to deal with a white man. You either pick up a gun or you stand between him and his money,” he is now famous for saying. Canadians should be “damn nervous,” he warns.
Mr. Nelson likes to point out. “Canada stands to lose up to $200-billion shaved off the GDP, and the economy won’t recover until 2009,” he boasts of the day of action’s potential impact.
“Let me ask you a question,” he says, leaning back in his swivel chair. “Is it easier to bring native people to where Canadians are at economically or to bring Canadians down to where we’re at? And then you’ll find out what the hell it’s like … You have everything to lose. That’s why you’re really afraid,” he says, leaning forward and chuckling lightly.
“The worst thing that could happen is for June 29th to fizzle, because then people will look at that and say, ‘See? The Indians just run away. All they do is threaten. All we have to do is show them who is boss.’ ”
JeffParkinson.ca 