Perry Bellegarde
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Perry Bellegarde (born August 29, 1962; Little Black Bear First Nation) is a
Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
advocate and politician who served as National Chief of the
Assembly of First Nations The Assembly of First Nations (, AFN) is an assembly of Canadian First Nations ( Indian bands) represented by their chiefs. Established in 1982 and modelled on the United Nations General Assembly, it emerged from the National Indian Brotherhood ...
from December 10, 2014, to July 8, 2021."Perry Bellegarde named new AFN national chief"
CBC News CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...
, December 10, 2014.
He had previously served as chief of the Little Black Bear First Nation, chief of the
Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), formerly known as the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, is a Saskatchewan-based First Nations organization. It represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan and is committed to honouring ...
, and as the Saskatchewan regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations.


Background

Born in 1961 at the Fort Qu'Appelle Indian Hospital in
Fort Qu'Appelle Fort Qu'Appelle () is a town in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan located in the Qu'Appelle River valley north-east of Regina, Saskatchewan, Regina, between Echo Lake (Saskatchewan), Echo and Mission L ...
,
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
,"BELLEGARDE, PERRY (1962–)"
''Encyclopedia of Bellegarde''.
he was raised on the Little Black Bear Indian reserve. He attended elementary and secondary schools in the nearby towns of Goodeve and Balcarres. After high school he attended the Saskatchewan Federated Indian College (now the
First Nations University of Canada The First Nations University of Canada (abbreviated as FNUniv) is a post-secondary institution and federated college of the University of Regina, based in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. FNUniv operates three campuses within the province, ...
). Later he studied business administration at the
University of Regina The University of Regina is a public university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a j ...
. Following graduation, he worked as director of personnel for the Indian Institute of Technologies.


Political career

In 1986 Bellegarde became active in tribal politics, and was elected to the Touchwood–File Hills–Qu’Appelle Tribal Council. In 1988 he was elected to the Presidency of that council, and he began an initiative to transfer management of the government's Fort Qu’Appelle Indian Hospital to First Nations control. In addition, he initiated and implemented the establishment of a new urban service delivery centre for First Nations people in the city of Regina. Bellegarde has been recognized numerous times for his work as a First Nations leader. He has been awarded the Canada 125 Medal, the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal, and the Queen's Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals. In 2018, the Province of Saskatchewan honored Bellegarde with the Saskatchewan Order of Merit ( SOM).


Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations

In May 1998, Bellegarde became Chief of the province-wide Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. In this role, he was automatically a regional vice-chair from Saskatchewan in the
Assembly of First Nations The Assembly of First Nations (, AFN) is an assembly of Canadian First Nations ( Indian bands) represented by their chiefs. Established in 1982 and modelled on the United Nations General Assembly, it emerged from the National Indian Brotherhood ...
(AFN). He served in this role until 2003. Later he was reelected to another term in the position in 2012."Perry Bellegarde, new AFN chief, has known triumphs and disappointment"
CBC News CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...
, December 10, 2014.
In this role, he endorsed
Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...
's Honour the Treaties fundraising concert tour in 2014, which raised funds for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation's legal fight against exploitation of the
Athabasca oil sands The Athabasca oil sands, also known as the Athabasca tar sands, are large deposits of oil sands rich in bitumen, a heavy and viscous form of petroleum, in northeastern Alberta, Canada. These reserves are one of the largest sources of unconventi ...
.


AFN leadership

Given his experience, Bellegarde was a strong candidate for National Chief in the AFN's 2009
leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a ...
. On the eighth ballot, he was defeated by Shawn Atleo (
Ahousaht First Nation Ahousaht First Nation is a First Nations in Canada, First Nation government based on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It administers the community of Ahousaht, British Columbia, which encompasses much of Clayoquot ...
); for six ballots the two candidates were virtually tied. He did not run in the 2012 election, in which Atleo won a second term. After Atleo resigned in 2014, an election was held that year Bellegarde ran in the 2014 election. He won on the first ballot. He identified as an early priority to seek federal government support for a judicial inquiry into the high rate of missing and murdered aboriginal women, an issue that had dominated First Nations activism in the 2010s. He contributed to the newly elected Liberal government's establishing the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women Inquiry on 3 August 2018. In June 2017, Bellegarde marched in the Toronto Pride Parade. He was the first AFN National Chief to do so. Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...
also marched in this event. On July 25, 2018, Bellegarde was re-elected to a second term as National Chief in the Assembly of First Nations' 2018 leadership election. He called for Indigenous nations to enact their own citizenship laws beyond the Indian Act. During the election campaign, he was criticised by other candidates for being too close to Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...
. In 2019, Bellegarde signed an agreement with the Canadian government that led to passage of Bill C-92: An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families. The First Nations and other indigenous peoples believed that their children were too frequently removed by social welfare authorities from tribal communities, and placed with foster families outside indigenous societies, resulting in their becoming alienated from their families, clans and cultures. The bill transferred jurisdiction over child welfare from the federal government to Indigenous governments. Bellegarde also noted the need to negotiate with provincial governments over the bill, because several provinces were reluctant to cede their jurisdiction to Indigenous governments. During the 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests, he spoke in favour of the protesters, saying that "people should never be criminalized for standing up for their lands." He promoted de-escalation of the crisis but was criticised for having been too quiet on the issue. In March 2020, he along with the
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (Inuktitut syllabics: , meaning "Inuit are united in Canada"), previously known as the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (Eskimo Brotherhood of Canada), is a nonprofit organization in Canada that represents over 65,000 Inuit acro ...
 and
Métis National Council The Métis National Council () is a representative body of the Métis people of northwestern Canada. The MNC represented the Métis Nation both nationally and internationally, receiving direction from the elected leadership of the Métis Nation's ...
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. 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 The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Most cases over the course o ...
. Bellegrade further called for direct Indigenous involvement in emergency planning for the pandemic. 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. On December 7, 2020, he announced he would not seek re-election to focus on completing important work, such as the passage of Bill C-15, before the end of his in July 2021.


Honours

Perry Bellegarde received an Honorary Doctorate in Laws on June 2, 2022, from Lakehead University, Ontario, Canada.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellegarde, Perry 1962 births First Nations activists Indigenous leaders in Saskatchewan Living people Cree people Assembly of First Nations chiefs People from Fort Qu'Appelle University of Regina alumni 20th-century First Nations people 21st-century First Nations people