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The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations has opened the organization's annual meeting with an impassioned plea to end racism.

Perry Bellegarde said First Nations face alarming acts of hatred and violence, and it must stop.

"Every child has a right to a safe and healthy home and to grow up in a society where they are treated with dignity and respect and have the same opportunities as other children," Bellegarde told the assembly in his opening address.

"The violence, the racism, the discrimination has to end."

Bellegarde cited the hateful reaction to murder charges against a white Saskatchewan farmer in Colton Boushie's death, counter protests to First Nations seeking the removal of a statue of Edward Cornwallis in Halifax, and a Canada Day confrontation by a group called the proud Boys at a First Nations spiritual event.