Young Greta Fleet Pleads For Government Help To Attawapiskat In Now-Viral Letter
"I want to make a change about this," wrote nine-year-old Greta Fleet in a letter to an Ontario member of Parliament.
Fleet had just learned that Indigenous residents in the remote, northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat did not have access to clean water, safe schools and adequate housing. An Elder had visited Fleet's London, Ont., school to give a presentation about what life was like in the Cree community, opening up the eyes of many of the young students to the stark differences between the two communities.
Appalled that this Indigenous community lived in such abysmal conditions, the Grade 4 student went home to tell her parents about the presentation.
"I felt really bad about it and also confused — like how could this be happening to people in Canada? We are all Canadians, shouldn't we all have the same opportunities? Shouldn't we all be treated the same?" Fleet told HuffPost Canada. "I really wanted to do something to help."
So, with the advice and help of her parents, she sat down to write a letter to their local Member of Parliament, Peter Fragiskatos.
"I am writing this letter to ask you as a member of Parlament (sic) to help our next-door neighbours in Attawapiskat and other Aboriginal communities. they deserve the same oppertunites (sic) and choices as us in London, like being able to go to a great school like Pearson and do art and drama and music and dance like I get to."
Fleet said that when some members of her family couldn't sign it in person due to their location, her mom Elsa Rose Eastabrook uploaded the letter to Change.org, so that folks could sign it from wherever they lived.
"All of a sudden, people I didn't know started signing it, and soon it had over 1,000 signatures," she said excitedly.
In less than a month, Fleet's letter to Fragiskatos went viral. The public support behind Fleet's letter resulted in a meeting on March 12with the Member of Parliament for London North Centre.
Greta killed it! She really really did - she spoke so well and was very impactful. 15000+ and counting Canadians signed her letter.
— Elsa Rose Eastabrook (@eastabrookyoga) March 13, 2019
Our MP is taking her letter to ottawa to share with... https://t.co/2ff18PSUSJ
"The day before my meeting with our MP, Peter Fragiskatos, I came home from a sleepover at my friend's house and there were over 12,000 signatures! Today there are over 27,000 and it's still going!"
Fleet said her meeting with Fragiskatos went really well.
"He didn't speak to me like a little kid, he made feel like a proud Canadian," said the young go-getter. "He said he would take my letter to Ottawa and share it with other MPs and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I didn't know what that was, but he explained to me what reconciliation means, and I think reconciliation is really important and should be important to all Canadians."
Attawapiskat awareness
In 2011, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, expressed his "deep concern about the dire social and economic condition of the Attawapiskat First Nation," noting the conditions were akin to those of a third-world nation.
Many of the members of this remote live in unheated shacks or trailers, with no running water. The problem is particularly serious in the winter when temperatures dip as low as -28 degrees Celsius.
"I hope for equal opportunity for Canadians," said Fleet. "If a nine-year-old like me can do something as simple as write a letter and get so much support, imagine what we could do if we all stood up together and said we have to fix this?"
The housing shortage crisis triggered a humanitarian intervention by the Red Cross in 2011, embarrassed Stephen Harper's Conservative government and magnified the dire lack of infrastructure in similar communities across the country.
A year later, the Idle No More Indigenous rights movement propelled the issues into the consciousness of the the rest of the country when Theresa Spence, then the chief of Attawapiskat, embarked on a liquids-only fast in the hopes of inciting Ottawa to take real action.
Watch "Dealing With Attawapiskat's Suicide Crisis." Story continues below.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in 2015 that his Liberal government would reshape its relationship with Indigenous peoples. However, by that point, Attawapiskat was in the depths of a suicide crisis.
The community is still rife with issues, so the $4.5 billion in new money for Indigenous communities included in the recent federal budget cannot come fast enough.
Fleet's hope for families in Attawapiskat, especially for children her age, is that they will finally have access to the same basic human rights that she took for granted, she said.
"I hope for equal opportunity for Canadians," said Fleet. "If a nine-year-old like me can do something as simple as write a letter and get so much support, imagine what we could do if we all stood up together and said, 'We have to fix this?'"
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