November 26, 2015

Attention: The Right Honourable Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
The Honourable Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould
mcu@justice.gc.ca
The Honourable Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada Carolyn Bennett
carolyn.bennett@parl.gc.ca
.
Dear Sir/Madams:
Re: Burns Lake First Nations People and John Furlong
Its time that our voices are heard.
We, the undersigned, call upon the Prime Minister to request that John Furlong step
down from Share the Podium until we are heard.
In her September 2015 judgment, the judge made comments about us without hearing
from us. No-one had time to listen to us. They should have talked to us before any
decision was made.
The judge said Laura Robinson distributed a flyer, but we saw no flyer. We
communicate not in writing, but by mouth. When we heard Laura was coming to Burns
Lake, most people assumed it was to talk about residential schools. Laura talked to
those people and, after they left, she talked to usthose of us who had had Mr.
Furlong as their PE teacher. Many of usmembers of the Lake Babine Nationswere
not at the Burns Lake Band office.
The judge said Laura contaminated our memories. But she didnt. We all have bad
memories of Mr. Furlong, but over the years we havent talked much about them. It
would be good if we talked more together.
When we saw him on TV, the anger came back. Is he still around? we thought. After
the Olympics, we found out he hadnt even mentioned Burns Lake in his book.
Someone said Laura damaged us. That is not true. Mr. Furlong was one who damaged
us. He was part of a system that damaged our dreams.

Someone on the Whitecaps said on the Internet, native people just want more
money. We never asked for money. We just wanted our stories heard.
Please direct your reply to Cathy Woodgate
cathywoodgate@hotmail.com
.
Thank you.
Signed,
Hereditary Chief Richard Perry
Hereditary Chief Ronnie Alec
Hereditary Chief Ronnie Matthew West
Henry Michel
Maurice Joseph
Cathy Woodgate
Molly Charlie
Ann Tom

CC.Jesse Brown, CanadaLand

jesse@jessebrown.ca
Sandra Garossino, National Observer
info@vancouverobserver.com
Jenny Uechi, Vancouver Observer
jenny@nationalobserver.com
Matthew McKinnon,The Walrus
matthew@thewalrus.ca

Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee

andrew@andrewnikiforuk.com
Bob Mackin, The Tyee
bob.mackin@mac.com

Charlie Smith, The Georgia Straight

c_smith@straight.com

Natasha Hassan, The Globe and Mail

comment@globeandmail.com
Michael Harris, I-Politics
michaelharris@ipolitics.ca

Michael Huffington Post Canadian blog team,

cablogteam@huffingtonpost.com
Jesse Kline, The National Post
jkline@nationalpost.com

Kate Heartfield, The Ottawa Citizen

kheartfield@ottawacitizen.com

Jordan Himelfarb The Toronto Star

oped@thestar.ca
,
jhimelfarb@thestar.ca
Harvey Enchain,
Vancouver Sun
henchin@vancouversun.com