‘It was noticed,’ says Yukon AFN delegate who turned his back on Pierre Poilievre’s speech

Duane Gastant’ Aucoin believes his message for Pierre Poilievre came across “loud and clear” on Thursday, when Aucoin stood with his back turned while the Conservative leader addressed the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) in Montreal.

“Him and his party are very vocal on attacking two-spirit rights across the country,” said Aucoin, who was at the assembly as a delegate from the Yukon, and as interim co-chair of the AFN’s two-spirit council.

“I just could not sit there in good conscience and just without doing something … to show that he can’t be there, preaching about reconciliation with Indigenous peoples while he attacked some of the most vulnerable communities within the Indigenous family here.”

In an interview with the National Post last year, Poilievre said he stood for “parental rights” and accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of wanting to “impose his radical ideology on other people’s kids.”

Poilievre has also said the government shouldn’t interfere with policies in provinces like Saskatchewan and New Brunswick that require parental consent before students under age 16 can change their pronouns and names at school. The AFN condemned the policies last year, saying they do “not align with the principles of self-determination.”

Aucoin, who is the Queer Yukon society director, was one of several people who stood with their backs turned while Poilievre made his first in-person speech to the AFN. Aucoin described going to hear the Conservative leader’s speech “reluctantly,” but with no intention to make any sort of protest or statement.

‘Can I stand with you?’

He said that changed once he was there and saw an Indigenous veteran standing with his back turned while Poilievre spoke.

“I was like, that makes so much sense,” Aucoin recalled.

He says he conferred with some members of the two-spirit council and other delegates and they encouraged him to go stand with the veteran.

“I went up there and I asked him, ‘Can I stand with you?’ And he said, ‘Yes, yes, of course,'” Aucoin said.

In a Facebook post after the speech, Aucoin said it was “terrifying” to stand there as people filmed and took photos of them.

Several other delegates also turned their backs to Poilievre while he spoke from the podium, while others criticized him for the actions of past Conservative governments and for not addressing some important issues.

“In your speech, you did not acknowledge missing, murdered women, you did not acknowledge the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, you did not acknowledge the inherent title rights where my people come from,” said delegate Judy Wilson to loud applause.

Aucoin said he feels his own silent protest was effective. He said that afterward, everybody was “giving us hugs and shaking our hands and just thanking us for what we did.”

“It was noticed,” he said.

Aucoin said he made his silent statement in order to stand up to a “bully to our two-spirit family across the country.”

He said nobody from the Conservative Party has reached out to him since then, and that he does not expect them to.

“They took off pretty fast after they were done, after they received an earful from all the chiefs there. Pierre Poilievre couldn’t have exited that hall any faster,” Aucoin said.