Fontaine: New AFN chief must fight poverty
July 21, 2009
CBC News

On the eve of the vote to choose a new leader of the Assembly of First Nations, departing National Chief Phil Fontaine says his successor must continue to look for ways to end the "onerous burden" of poverty among aboriginal Canadians….

Fontaine, …. said Canada's Aboriginal Peoples should be proud of the contribution they've made to society. There are roughly 20,000 aboriginal-owned and managed small businesses, 30,000 aboriginal students enrolled in universities and about 65 aboriginal judges, he said.

However, extreme poverty in First Nations communities will dominate the new leader's agenda, said Fontaine, who led the assembly for nine years.

"The person that comes in is going to have to continue to press our case in terms of Canada's single most important social-justice issue, and that's First Nations poverty. Our people are simply too poor," Fontaine said. "It's such an onerous burden."…