Is a premiers’ summit worth boycotting? – Macleans.ca

Indigenous leaders maximized attention by snubbing this year’s provincial and territorial confab. But this isn’t the table they really want a seat at.

July 17, 2017

Brad Wall is the dean among premiers—he’s represented Saskatchewan since 2007—and he joked at his 10th Council of the Federation meeting that his province’s populace may not be as keen to have him at any more of them.

But the true veteran of these annual gatherings is Clement Chartier, who was elected president of the Métis National Council in 2003—the same year premiers launched their summer meeting club and began having annual one-day meetings with Chartier and other national Indigenous leaders before the provincial and territorial premiers held their multi-day meetings, just the 13 of them.

“I’ve been going to these for the last 13 years,” Chartier told CTV News Channel on Monday. “I’m really not sure we had any effect on policy. A lot of it was simply photo ops with no substance.”

Read More: http://www.macleans.ca/politics/is-a-premiers-summit-worth-boycotting/