OTTAWA, April 18 (UPI) -- Canadian aboriginals will use the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver to draw attention to their unsettled land and poverty claims, leaders said.
At an Ottawa news conference, Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said he opposes any protest that would disrupt the Games. He said the worldwide protests of China's treatment of Tibet heading into the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing had been an inspiration to challenge the Canadian government, the Globe and Mail reported.
"We find the Tibetan situation compelling," he said. "We're ignored. Our proposals are dismissed. They're not taken seriously."
However, David Dennis, vice president of the United Native Nations, said organizers are already planning non-violent protests that could cause disruption to the Games.
"I wouldn't rule out blockades, I wouldn't rule out mass demonstrations, I wouldn't rule out a blockade (of the airport)," Dennis said.
David Emerson, the federal Conservative minister responsible for the 2010 Winter Games, responded to the notion of protests with skepticism, the report said.
"I think that you run the risk of backlash, depending on how these things are conducted," he told the newspaper.
