Perry Bellegarde

Born in 1961 at the Fort Qu'Appelle Indian Hospital in Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan,[3] he was raised on the Little Black Bear Indian 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 (now the First Nations University of Canada),[3] and later studied business administration at the University of Regina.[3] Following his graduation, he worked as director of personnel for the 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 council in 1988, Bellegarde spearheaded the movement to transfer the Fort Qu’Appelle Indian Hospital to First Nations control,[3] and initiated and implemented the city of Regina's new urban service delivery centre for First Nations people.[3]

Bellegarde has been recognized numerous times as a First Nations leader. He has been awarded the Confederation Medal, the Saskatchewan Medal, and the Queen's Jubilee Medal on two separate occasions. In 2018, the Province of Saskatchewan recognized Bellegarde with the Saskatchewan Order of Merit.

In May 1998, Bellegarde became Chief of the province-wide Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations,[3] a position which automatically made him a regional vice-chair of the Assembly of First Nations (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]

Bellegarde was a candidate for National Chief 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] After his election, 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. On August 3rd 2018, Bellegarde successfully advocated to the newly elected Liberal government to have the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women Inquiry established.

In June 2017, he marched in the Toronto Pride Parade, the first AFN National Chief to do so.[8]

On July 25th of 2018, Bellegarde was re-elected to a second term as National Chief in the Assembly of First Nations' 2018 leadership election.[9] He campaigned on his track record of being a proven advocate, strong defender of Treaty, and someone who can work with all federal political parties, and called for Indigenous nations to enact their own citizenship laws beyond the Indian Act.[10][11] During the election campaign, he was criticised by other candidates for being too close to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.[12]

In 2019, he signed an agreement with the Canadian government that led to Bill C-92: An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, transferring jurisdiction over child welfare from the federal government to Indigenous governments.[13] He also cited the need to negotiate with provincial governments over the bill, stating that several provinces were reluctant to cede their own jurisdictions to Indigenous governments.[14]

During the 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests, he spoke out in favour of the protesters, stating that "people should never be criminalized for standing up for their lands", and called for de-escalation of the crisis but was criticised as being too quiet on the issue.[15][16][17]

In March 2020, he along with the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Métis National Council leaders met with the federal prime minister and the provincial premiers to lobby for the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into Canadian law.[18]

On the 24th of March 2020, the Assembly of First Nations declared a state of emergency over the severe risk faced by Indigenous communities due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.[19] Bellegrade further called for direct Indigenous involvement in emergency planning for the pandemic.[20]

In June 2020, he called for an overhaul of policing in Canada, including shifting towards community-based policing, zero-tolerance policies for excessive force, and increased civilian oversight, after a series of police killings of Indigenous people.[21]

On December 7th 2020, he announced he won't seek re-election so he could focus on completing important work, such as Bill C-15, before his term ends in July, 2021.[22][23]