Perry Bellegarde
| Perry Bellegarde | |
|---|---|
| National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations | |
| Assumed office 2014 |
|
| Preceded by | Ghislain Picard (interim) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1962 Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan |
Perry Bellegarde is a Canadian First Nations and Métis activist and politician, who was elected as national chief of the Assembly of First Nations on December 10, 2014.[1] A member of the Little Black Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan, he has served as a band councillor in Little Black Bear, as chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and as the Saskatchewan regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations.[2]
Background
Born in 1962 at the Fort Qu'Appelle Indian Hospital in Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan,[3] he was raised on the Little Black Bear reserve and attended elementary and secondary schools in the nearby towns of Goodeve and Balcarres.[3] After high school he attended the Saskatchewan Federated Indian College,[3] and later studied business administration at the University of Regina.[3] Following his graduation, he worked as director of personnel for the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies,[3] before joining the Touchwood–File Hills–Qu’Appelle Tribal Council in 1986.[3] After acceding to the presidency of that organization in 1988, Bellegarde led negotiations to transfer management of the Fort Qu’Appelle Indian Hospital from the federal government to local First Nations,[3] and initiated and implemented the city of Regina's new urban service delivery centre for First Nations people.[3]
Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations
In May 1988, Bellegarde became president of the provincewide Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations,[3] a position which automatically made him a regional vice-chair of the AFN.[3] He served in this role until 2003, and was later reelected to another term in the position in 2012.[4]
In this role, he endorsed Neil Young's Honour the Treaties fundraising concert tour, which raised funds for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation's legal fight against the Athabasca oil sands.[5]
AFN leadership
Bellegarde was a candidate in the AFN's 2009 leadership election, in which he was defeated by Shawn Atleo on the eighth ballot after six successive ballots on which the candidates were virtually tied.[6] He did not run in the 2012 election, in which Atleo won a second term.
After Atleo's resignation in 2014, Bellegarde ran in the 2014 election,[7] and won on the first ballot.[1]
He has identified one of his early priorities in the position as lobbying for the federal government to establish a judicial inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women,[4] an issue which has dominated First Nations activism in the 2010s.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Perry Bellegarde named new AFN national chief". CBC News, December 10, 2014.
- ↑ "Bellegarde eyes run at AFN chief's job". Saskatoon StarPhoenix, July 16, 2008.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 "BELLEGARDE, PERRY (1962–)". Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Perry Bellegarde, new AFN chief, has known triumphs and disappointment". CBC News, December 10, 2014.
- ↑ "Saskatchewan Chief Perry Bellegarde shows solidarity with Neil Young on benefit concert tour". Metro, January 13, 2014.
- ↑ "Atleo wins AFN election after marathon vote". CTV News, July 23, 2009.
- ↑ "Perry Bellegarde to run for Assembly of First Nations leadership". CBC News, October 1, 2014.
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