Phil Fontaine

Former three-term National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Moving Forward:  Towards Reconciliation

Tuesday, February 9, 2016
4:10pm to 6:00pm
Emmanuel College, 73 Queen's Park Crescent, Room 001

Former three-term National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine is an articulate advocate for indigenous peoples. He has a proven track record of opening the lines of communication and bringing people together in a common cause for a better future and to resolve issues of the past.

Fontaine, the youngest son in an Ojibway family of 12 children, has been instrumental in facilitating change and advancement for First Nations people from the time he was first elected to public office as chief, when he was 28 years old.

An advocate for human rights and a survivor of residential school abuse, Fontaine’s crowning achievement is the residential schools settlement. At $5.6billion in individual compensation, Fontaine negotiated the largest settlement in Canadian history – for the largest human rights violation in Canadian history – arising out of the 150-year Indian residential school tragedy.