Former WFN chief Ron Derrickson pens book about changing face of aboriginal struggle for sovereignity

WEST KELOWNA – Unsettling Canada – A National Wake Up Call is the title of a new book co-written by six-term Westbank First Nation chief Ron Derrickson.

With a forward by famed Canadian social activist Naomi Klein, the book purports to tell the story of how First Nations and Canada have found themselves at seemingly intractable odds over sovereignity and self-determiniation, and how more and more ordinary Canadians are starting to see the aboriginal point of view.

The book is co-written with Arthur Manuel, son of noted aboriginal activist George Manuel and an outspoken activist in his own right.

Locals will know Derrickson as a successful businessman, who was named grand chief by the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs in recognition of his career as a politician.

In her forward, Klein writes: "This is the back story of both grassroots and backroom struggles that created the context in which we find ourselves today, one in which a new generation of First Nations leaders is demanding sovereignty and self-determination, and more and more non-Indigenous Canadians finally understand that huge swaths of this country we call Canada is not ours — or our government’s — to sell.”

A listing on the Idle No More website says the book will be promoted at a number of events across the the country starting with a launch in Toronto, May 12 culminating in two appearances in Vancouver, May 27 and 28.

To contact the reporter for this story, email John McDonald at jmcdonald@infonews.ca or call 250-808-0143. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.