A girl from the Starblanket first nation near Balcarres has got the attention of Canadian rock legend Neil Young as he continues his Honour The Treaties Tour.
13 year-old Tenelle Star, was forced to cancel her facebook account after several negative comments were posted about her fight with the Balcarres school division over a hoodie with the words, “Got Land?, Thank an Indian”.
She was initially told she could not wear it to school because it was offensive to some, but the school later reversed its decision.
Neil Young says she should never have been told she could not wear the hoodie:
“Who ever asked for that to happen caused all the problems for this young lady, caused all the disparaging remarks on facebook. All of these things that happened in this young lady’s life are all on that one persons decision and it’s very simple….it should never have been done.”
Neil Young is performing in Regina tonight.
It is part of his four city, Honour The Treaties tour.
He hopes to raise at least $300,000 for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation near Fort McMurray for its legal challenge of an expansion of the oil sands project.
The chief of the band, Adam Allen, also attended the news conference with Young.
He was wearing the same Hoodie that caused the flap at the Balcarres school.
“The band has invited her as our guest to come to the show in honour of the treaties, and I stand in solidarity with her regardless.”
There is no word on whether Tennelle Star will attend tonight’s show.
The Honour The Treaties Tour wraps up in Calgary on Sunday.
Meanwhile Young is standing by his comments comparing the Alberta oil sands to the devastation of caused by dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in World War Two and has taken his criticism one step further slamming the Harper government’s pro oil sands policies and opposing the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall also got involved this week saying the Canadian rocker is entitled to his opinion, even if it is ill informed.
“I think what was particularly insensitive and just ignorant of the facts was a comparison of Hiroshima to Fort McMurray,” he says. “I think he lost a lot of credibility when he said that.”
Fellow Canadian rocker and Blue Rodeo front man Jim Cuddy agrees Young was “grossly exaggerating” when he compared the Fort McMurray oil sands to Hiroshima but says the conversation that it has triggered needs to happen.
“I think that Neil – in his own extreme, crazy way – has begun a dialogue that we have to have in this country,” he says “We have to have this dialogue. I’ve got great respect for the people in Fort Mac. I’ve been coming up here for 25 years. I know what’s it’s like and I know that these people felt personally insulted by what Neil said and I also know that these people, the dialogue that was created, they want to have that dialogue. They’re not necessarily all for expansion of the oil rigs.”
Friday’s performance is the second last show.
Neil Young and his band are not taking any money from the shows and all proceeds go to the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation which has launched a court challenge of a decision to double oil production at the Jackpine mine site north of Fort McMurray.
The goal is to raise about $75,000 and the latest reports say $65,000 has already been taken in.
Jim Cuddy and Blue Rodeo performed in northern Alberta Thursday night.
The full interview between Cuddy and MBC’s Dale Roth can be heard on the MBC Radio Network on Monday morning at approximately 10:45 a.m.