Wolastoqiyik, Mi'kmaq, Acadians call for Higgs's resignation as legislature reopens

The sound of noisemakers, horns and the chants fromhundreds of people some calling on Premier Blaine Higgs to resign marked the opening of a newsitting of the New Brunswick Legislature on Tuesday.

"Ho ho, Higgs must go. Ho ho, Higgs must go," chanted some in the crowd on the lawn of the legislature

Groups representingMi'kmaw, Wolastoqey and Acadian communities organized the rally to draw attention to what they consider is the Higgs government's unfair treatment of minority groups in the province.

Adopting the fashion of an Acadian tintamarre, the crowd of about 300 people marched from city hall to the legislature, where leaders, including Sitansisk First Nation Chief Allan Polchies, gave speeches lambasting the government.

"Our diversity was a catalyst that drove us to organize this event for today," he said. "Today we are combining our voices to advocate for the respect for the First Peoples and minority groups here in New Brunswick."

The relationship betweenFirst Nations and the government have been particularly strained under Higgs, with a series of moves by his government that have been called out as unfair or insensitive.

In one instance, Higgsended atax agreement that saw First Nations get to keep 95 per cent of the provincial tax they collect at on-reserve retail outlets, including gas stations and convenience stores, which generatedmillions of dollars forsome communities.

"What that does is that sets back our communities 50 years, because we are economic players in this province and we want to be fair players, but this government is setting us back," Polchies said.

WATCH | Tintamarre on lawn of legislature brings noisemakers, chants and some calls for the premier's resignation:

Hundreds gather for Tintamarre march that coincided with opening of new session of legislature

2 years ago

Duration 1:36

Led by members of the Wolastoqey, Mi'kmaq and Acadian communities, about 300 people participated in the Tintamarre to voice concerns about minority rights.

And last fall, Ted Flemming, who was attorney general at the time, sent civil servants a memo instructing them to avoid making Indigenous land acknowledgements. They were told tostick to an approved "ancestral acknowledgement" because ofa land title claim filed byWolastoqey communities claiming title to about half the province.

Language rights concerns

Alexandre Cdric Douce, theAcadian Society of New Brunswick president,was at the rally andsaid Higgs needs to act on updating the Official Languages Act.

The act needs to be independently reviewed every 10 years, and last December, the latest review resulted in a series of recommendations.

Higgs still has yet to respond to them and missed a self-imposed deadline to do so by July. On Tuesday, he promised to finally respond to the findings of that review.

"We see that [in]the last Census 2021 the French language stepping down a little bit inNew Brunswick and that's why we need some leadership from the Higgs governmentfor more protection for the Frenchlanguage," he said.

Doucet also had concerns about planned changes to French immersion, calling the program "very important for the social contract between the two linguistic communities" in New Brunswick.

Recent tumult in the Progressive Conservative Party hasrenewed concerns about the government's viewofthe French language in the province and the future of French immersion.

Former education minister Dominic Cardy announced his resignation earlier this month, and slammedHiggs for trying to rush big changes to the French immersion program for English-speaking school children.

Along with the cabinet shakeup came the appointment of Kris Austin,former People's Alliance leader,asminister of public safety.

Austin has previously criticized how bilingualism is implemented in New Brunswick. He also at one time called for a merger of the two regional health authorities, as well as relaxing bilingual hiring requirements in the civil service and the elimination of the commissioner of official languages.