Media director resigns from AFN

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Lou Desmarais, former Assembly of First Nations' (AFN) director of media and public relations, resigned his position effective March 31st.

Desmarais did not disclose the reasons for his departure, but did have some criticism of AFN operations.

He had been in the job for two years, and previously had worked with the AFN on Indian Self-Government during the Penner Committee's work on Indian government.

Desmarais believes that the AFN has not succeeded in educating the Canadian public on the issue of Indian government.

"We missed out on a number of opportunities - opportunities that still exist - to maximize public relations and public support for Indian government," he said.

Desmarais pointed out that editorial boards are made up of people who don't have first-hand knowledge of what goes on. "They are open to meet with interest groups, governments, etcetera, for information. The AFN did very little of that."

Desmarais believes that the AFN made mistakes in dealing with the media and with other public affairs programs. "We also fell down on the availability of Indian leaders to reporters, to public affairs programs." Desmarais noted that leaders failed to see opportunities to speak on programs such as Front Page Challenge as important. "How many viewers did they miss?" he asked.

Desmarais believes that it should be a priority to Indian organizations to educate the Canadian public, and cultivate support for Indian government. "It's sad to say that most politicians - most Canadians - don't understand that Indian government is all about. But we (AFN) never developed a program to educate people." In support of high-profile information, Desmarais points to the well-publicized Penner Report on Indian government. "The Penner Report opened up everything - without the Penner Report constitutional talks would not have focussed as clearly on self-government."

"It's one thing to educate the politicians, but if you educate the public and they put pressure on politicians they respond a hell of a lot quicker," he said.

Desmarais said that "we're sort of caught in a bunker mentality, always responding to federal politicians, to various crises. Why not take the initiative and develop a full-scale program to educate the public?" He said that this is particularly important in 1986, preparatory for the First Ministers Conference in 1987, to ensure that Constitutional negotiations on Aboriginal and treaty rights continue.

"The federal government sees the 1987 FMC as the end of the FMC process."