Ovide Mercredi
Ovide Mercredi William, OM ( born January 30, 1946 in Grand Rapids, Manitoba ) is a Canadian politician. He is a member of the Cree and was from July 1991 to July 1997 Head of the Assembly of First Nations.
Mercredis mother, a Cree, lost its status as an Indian because she had married a Métis, hence the son initially was not the authorities as a member of the Cree. In 1985 he was able to enforce the recognition. He also denied the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the relevant ministry, the right to recognition of a person as Indian.
Mercredi attended the University of Manitoba law, and had, specializing in criminal and constitutional law. During this time he became president of the first student organization of the First Nations. In 1977 he finished his studies and worked as a lawyer. He was a member of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, the Commission for Human Rights in Manitoba. In 1987, he advised the First Nations in the negotiations on the Meech Lake Accord, a constitutional amendment failed. He was appointed Vice - Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Manitoba in 1989. In the negotiations to resolve the Oka Crisis in 1990, he played an important role. He supported the Cree in the north of the province of Quebec against the Great Whale Project, a dam construction project (see # Cree contracts from 1975).
Even when he was elected on 12 June 1991 on the Federal Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, he put himself in questions of constitutional law, what gave him the debate about the Charlottetown Agreement occasion. He supported Elijah Harper against the agreement, and led a delegation of 60 representatives of their tribes. In 1994 he was re-elected as Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He sat down for the so-called Brighter Futures Program, a, an initiative against domestic violence, and for Aboriginal AIDS Initiative.
Mercredi also tied to the level of the UN contacts and also intervened in international law issues. During the uprising in the Mexican province of Chiapas in 1994, he led an Indian delegation, and was also the Commissioner for the observance of human rights on behalf of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.
Together with Mary Ellen Turpel he published in 1993 in The Rapids: Navigating the Future of First Nations.
Mercredi 's advocate peaceful methods of political struggle and was therefore proposed by the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation for World Peace for the Gandhi Peace Prize. Both in the Oka crisis of 1990, and in the battle in Gustafsen Lake in British Columbia ( 1995) he tried to intervene peacefully.
As he stated in 1996 the sovereign rights of a State of Canada, some tribes complained that he accepts so that Canada's ownership of the land of the indigenous people. However, the Mohawk rejected this stance by reference to the fact that they have never lost their sovereignty.
2005-2006 operational Mercredi a candidacy for the New Democratic Party in Churchill, gave this project, however, again.
In May 2007, Mercredi appeared in the press with the demand for compensation payments through the mobile phone companies. He called to consider air as well as a resource, such as water, and this will damaged by the rays of connection masts.
Since November 2007 he has been chancellor of the University College of the North in Northern Manitoba Sudbury. He is currently the chief of the Cree Nation Misipawistik.