The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations stepped aside Monday, after emergency talks with Canada’s prime minister last week failed to stem growing native unrest.
Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo cited health woes for his sudden but temporary departure related to “many long conference calls, late night meetings, and frustrations in the past two weeks.”
Atleo said in a statement that his doctor ordered him over the weekend to “take some time now to rest and recover.”
Atleo had led a delegation of 20 chiefs to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday after an escalation of nationwide demonstrations and highway blockades over squalid living conditions on reserves.
Atleo and the chiefs secured a commitment from Harper for more “high level dialogue” on native treaty issues, but many aboriginals viewed the results as inadequate and criticized Atleo’s leadership.
Native demonstrations are expected to ramp up again starting Wednesday.
The protesters have sought to highlight severe poverty and blasted changes last month to environmental and other laws they say curtail their hunting and fishing rights, and which allow tribes to lease reserve lands to non-natives.
Although the government insists the latter was meant to boost economic development, critics fear it will result in a loss of native control of reserve lands and could lead to the demise of aboriginal communities.
Canadian indigenous leader Atleo takes sick leave
