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OTTAWA — At 30 years old, Phil Fontaine was an angry man.
A survivor of sexual abuse at a residential school, separated from his parents at a young age, forbidden from speaking his native language, the Anishinaabe from Manitoba was elected at the age of 29 as chief for the Sagkeeng First Nation, situated east of Lake Winnipeg. By his own account, he was impatient and belligerent, especially in his dealings with government bureaucrats.
The former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations mellowed over the years. He became convinced he could do more for aboriginal people through compromise and pragmatic action than angry radicalism. But he remains passionate about the need for Canada to address the appalling poverty among First Nations people. He sees resource development as one way to end that poverty.
Now 69, Mr. Fontaine works with some of this country’s largest companies – the Royal Bank of Canada and TransCanada Corp. – to advance their interests among aboriginal Canadians and to advise them on how to support First Nations communities and businesses.
For that business-friendly approach, he faces the wrath of some aboriginal activists who accuse him of selling out to corporate Canada.
After The Globe and Mail revealed he was working with TransCanada Corp. on its proposed Energy East pipeline, he was shouted down at a planned speech at the University of Winnipeg this winter, with one protester accusing him of collaborating with “the enemy that’s destroying this earth.” While attending a meeting of the Maritimes Energy Association in Halifax in March, a Mi’kmaq woman told him he was not welcome on Mi’kmaq territory.
Mr. Fontaine’s business activities – including his work with RBC, a major lender to oil sands companies – create a conflict of interest as he represents TransCanada to First Nations communities, said Clayton Thomas-Muller, a Cree from northern Manitoba who works with the Polaris Institute, an Ottawa-based advocacy group.
Mr. Fontaine shrugs off those personal attacks, reflecting the grit of a battle-scarred veteran who survived and prospered for years in the rough world of aboriginal politics. “It isn’t personal – no more than the insults and opposition and criticism I experienced when I was chief in my community, grand chief in Manitoba, or national chief for nine years,” he said over lunch at a French bistro in Ottawa’s trendy Byward Market. “It’s to be expected – one shouldn’t be surprised and neither should one be offended.”
He said his role on Energy East is to ensure First Nations communities have the information needed to make informed decisions.
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