Grand Chief says Feds are sidelining Indigenous sports – National Observer

December 4th 2019

Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault tried to reassure a very “disappointed” and “discouraged” Grand Chief Wilton Littlechild on Wednesday that Indigenous sports had not fallen off the Trudeau government’s priority list.

During the last Parliament, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed a series of ministers to be explicitly responsible for sport. In his latest cabinet, however, there is no longer anyone holding this title. Instead, the responsibility for sport has been rolled into Guilbeault’s obligations as heritage minister.

This decision has led Littlechild — the grand chief of Treaty Six, a former member of Parliament and a residential school survivor, who was also on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) — to suspect the government might be marginalizing the portfolio.

Since 1977, Littlechild has worked to host Indigenous athletes from around the world in his territory. He finally saw it become a reality just two years ago, when the World Indigenous Nations Games came to Treaty Six.

Read More: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/12/04/news/grand-chief-says-feds-are-sidelining-indigenous-sports