Poll shows world favors Natives

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Canadian Native concerns are gaining enough momentum world-wide to make

life hard for resource industries working around disputed lands, a soon-to-be published international poll indicates.

"There is an absolute world-wide consensus that aboriginals in this country are being mistreated," said Angus Reid, head of the Angus Reid Group polling firm.

Citing results from a survey of 5,000 people in 17 countries, Reid said foreign opinion regards development of the Canadian wilderness to be as bad as Brazil's exploitation of the Amazon Basin.

And foreign sympathy grows when Native communities blockade logging roads,

so that international television news crews will fly to remote areas to get full coverage.

"It's at the stage when the whole thing is on the world stage," said Reid, who was addressing delegates at the Canadian Electrical Association convention.