Top News - October -2001 Published October 15, 2001 A group of girls tries out the new playground equipment at Pewasenakwan school. The new K to 3 school on Onion Lake First Nation had its official opening Sept. 28. Pictured are (top left) Cristen McDonald, (top right) Amanda Carter, and (bottom) Nadine Muskego. Photo by Pamela Sexsmith Sask. Justice reaching out to Aboriginal community Sculpture unveiled honoring memory of Leo LaChance Saskatchewan Métis election process in question This is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the October 2001 issue of Saskatchewan Sage. If you are not receiving your own copy of Sage, then you have missed out on a lot. Sask. Justice reaching out to Aboriginal community Cheryl Petten, Sage Writer, Prince Albert Saskatchewan Justice is working to improve its relationship with the province's Aboriginal people, according to Maxine Hodgson. Hodgson is director of the Aboriginal and Northern Justice Initiatives branch of Saskatchewan Justice, a new branch of the department established last fall. "The branch," Hodgson explained, "has a special role. It's a policy role, but also very much a support role to senior management in the department. And we're really to help the department look for ways to change the system, not only in terms of programs, but in establishing relationships with communities, working with Elders and so on. "It's to look at ways to make the systems more legitimate in the eyes of First Nations and Métis people. And it's to look for ways to build relations between First Nations and non-Aboriginal people in the province." One of the more concrete examples of Justice's efforts to work with First Nations is the new provincial courthouse in Prince Albert. The courthouse was designed after consultations with all major stakeholders, including the Prince Albert Grand Council, and the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan. The courthouse, which had its official opening Sept. 27, is the first in the province to have a circle room. The room, Hodgson explained, could be used for sentencing circles, for healing circles that are directly connected to a particular case, or family group conferencing with young offenders. The concept of having a circle room is "in context with Aboriginal peoples' concept of making a circle whole or mending a circle," said Hodgson, herself a First Nations member. The circle room in unique to the new Prince Albert courthouse, but only because it's the first provincial courthouse built "in a long, long, time," Hodgson said. "But from my experience, and with my work with the department, it's pretty clear that the department is aware that it needs to - in terms of changing to be more accessible by Aboriginal people and more user friendly by Aboriginal people - that the system has to not only look at programs, but it has to look at how it's structured in terms of facilities and so on. So I imagine that we will always in the future, consider these kinds of things." In addition to the circle room, the new courthouse has five courtrooms, the largest of which is equipped for video conferencing, which will allow future hearings to be held off-site in remote locations. The courthouse also has private access to the courtrooms for victims of crime, and private meeting rooms for victims, family, counsel, and Aboriginal court workers. Top Sculpture unveiled honoring memory of Leo LaChance Cheryl Petten, Sage Writer, Prince Albert More than 10 years after Leo LaChance was shot to death by white supremacist Carney Nerland, a sculpture of LaChance has been unveiled near the site where he fell. The sculpture was unveiled Sept. 27 on the grounds of the new provincial courthouse on River Street in Prince Albert, on the same block where LaChance was killed. LaChance, a Native trapper, died Jan. 28, 1991 after being shot by Nerland, then the Saskatchewan leader of the Church of Jesus Christ-Aryan Nations. While LaChance's death at the hands of a white supremacists angered many in Prince Albert and elsewhere, that anger grew when Nerland was charged with manslaughter rather than murder, and received a four year sentence. Despite Nerland's ties to the Aryan Nations, the police investigation found no link between his racist views and the killing of LaChance, which was viewed as an accident by investigators. In April 1991, Nerland pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge and was sent to Stoney Mountain Penitentiary. In December 1993 he was released from jail, and was put in the RCMP witness protection program. "I'm sure it's going to affect all the Aboriginal people in Canada," LaChance's sister, Roseanna Moses said of the sculpture. "This is world wide, something that happened, and, as always, the justice system never completely satisfies when something happens to Aboriginal people. You know, there never was any satisfaction for the family about the guy that did this. All he did was only a year and a half, and he was out." Maxine Hodgson is director of the Aboriginal and Northern Justice Initiatives branch of Saskatchewan Justice. She said that when the department found out the new courthouse was to be built on the site where LaChance had been shot, they consulted with some Elders, who decided a pipe ceremony was needed to clear the land. Coming out of discussions between the department, the Elders and the LaChance family, Hodgson said, "was the whole idea of 'we need to talk, we need to move on.' The Elders talked about the importance of forgiveness, but not forgetting, and Mr. Dave LaChance (Leo LaChance's brother) talked about forgiveness and getting on, but needing something that would be a reminder to all people of what had happened, and that Leo not be forgotten as a person." "It's just amazing how fate turns out," Moses said of the coincidence that the location chosen for the new courthouse was the same place where her brother died. Just months before she received the call from Saskatchewan Justice telling her of their plans to place some sort of memorial on the site, Moses had visited the site for herself. "I went there to bring some flowers on the site. I went walking from the site where he got shot. When he walked, he managed to walk about, I don't know how many yards. Even though he got shot, he managed to walk. And then I walked that path, and I was carrying these flowers, and I was walking slow, imagining, you know, the pain he felt and where I thought he fell down, just about at the place where he fell down, and on the site there, I put my flowers . . . and I thought, 'why can't the Saskatchewan Justice put some kind of memorial here?' "So I put my flowers there, and I said a little prayer for my brother, and I was wondering, 'What can I do? What can be done here to give me some sense of what happened? Anyway, I cam back home, and about a month later, or a couple of months, something like that, and they phoned me and said, did you know there's a court house being built by where your brother got shot? No, I said. I didn't know, I said. But anyway, that's when they told me that we're going to be doing something. They didn't have an idea right away what it was. Then I told them, I was there a couple of months ago. Here's what I had in mind. What a coincidence. Everything is just falling into place." In addition to serving as a memorial for her brother, Roseanna Moses hopes the sculpture will help change attitudes of the people going into the courthouse every day. "I hope this is what will change some of the attitude of the justice people -the lawyers, the judges, the RCMP and the police. The way they handle these Aboriginal people, the way they see them. Hopefully, this will help change their minds. Because this was what Leo was all about. If this thing comes through because of him, then that'll be something I would live with, and I could trust again, and live peacefully, without thinking back and being angry at the justice about what happened that day, the way the events turned out. Because we weren't very satisfied, we weren't satisfied at all. Nobody was," Moses said. "I hope it comes up strong, and gives some hope for the Aboriginal people that this is something. That, at least, they don't go in there bowing their heads down, and going to court and say 'guilty'. I hope they'll be able to put their heads up and be proud of who they are, and hopefully because of who they are, that they'll be served by the justice in favor of them." In an interview following the unveiling, Moses said the ceremony went well, although she was disappointed with the number of Aboriginal people that came out for the unveiling. "I was a bit disappointed about the support. I needed more. This is not an issue for within the immediate family anymore. This is an issue with all the Aboriginals in Canada," Moses said. "I needed to see more support from the Aboriginal people around that area, because this is an ongoing concern all the time. Don't just start crying when something happens to your family. Now is the time to start supporting these events. Show up and be heard. Be seen. I think that's the important step, to start doing that. Be there, even though you can't say anything. Just to be there and observe what's going on," she said.` She is, however, pleased with the sculpture itself, and with the part that sculpture has played in her healing process. "I feel more at peace, and I feel more like I could go there again. I feel like at least some parts of my healing, it's been done. At least the majority of it, anyway. But I guess it'll never go away," Moses said. "At least I'll be able to go there now, that there's something there for me to go. It's not just to go and, like before, just to go and be sad, there was nothing came out of this. It felt like, before, that they owed me something when I would go there. Being owed something. What is it? Something is missing here. But now it's just like part of that has been given to me." "What happened to Leo was tragic, terribly tragic," said Hodgson. "So how do we take this horrible situation, and turn it into something that reminds everyone that justice is a place that is for everyone, and everyone has to feel like they own justice; that justice is for them. And so we're hoping that by having Leo's sculpture there - there's a message on the sculpture from the family - that it certainly not only will remind Aboriginal people and make them feel better when they're walking into the system, but also to remind others that the system is about justice-it's supposed to be just and fair." Top Saskatchewan Métis election process in question Joan Taillon, Sage Writer, Saskatoon While serious doubts have been raised about the validity of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan (MNS) election results, the Saskatchewan government says it is not assuming the lead role in alleviating grassroots concerns about alleged election irregularities. Concerns about irregularities have led, however, to a review of Métis Nation of Saskatchewan election procedures in which the province and the federal government play a part. The findings could have profound implications for the Métis National Council's election results as well. The $35,000 review is being undertaken by Marilyn Poitras, a Saskatchewan-born Métis lawyer, who was approved for the job by the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan and both levels of government. Saskatchewan's minister of Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs Pat Lorje stressed that her government does not want to intervene in Métis Nation politics and that it is up to the Métis Nation to take whatever action it deems necessary when it has all the facts. At the same time, she acknowledged that they have a memorandum of understanding that commits the province to work with the Métis on various issues. "We had numerous people phoning and complaining," said Lorje about why there will be a review, "meeting me on the street and so forth. There are a lot of concerns about the election." She said the previous Aboriginal Affairs minister wrote a letter that suggested "we would want to be satisfied that the elections had been full, fair, open and accountable." Poitras is studying Métis elections in the province back to 1995 and will table her final report Nov. 15. "It's emotionally charged like crazy," Poitras said on Sept. 24. "I'm still in the process of gathering everybody's stories about what happened. "It's really important that people understand that what's happening is not a public inquiry. There is such a high need for a forum for people to air their concerns that this has turned into a forum for whatever the concern happens to be, and people are misinterpreting the study as a public inquiry and that's absolutely not what's going on." She said no public hearings are being held in communities. People are volunteering to come forward with information. "The mandate is quite narrow. This is not about looking at all the problems with the election and getting rid of the current leadership. This is just about problems that happened generally over the last three elections and coming up with some recommendations to make sure the election process is fair and incorporating some democratic principles into this, so the elections run a little more smoothly. "My mandate doesn't go as far as a review of the last election so that the results don't stand," said Poitras," and lots of that is still in the internal appeal process with the MNS. I believe it still has to go to their legislative assembly in order for the decisions to be finalized. It has gone through the elections committee and it has gone through the senate." She added her recommendations are as binding as any recommendations. "It is up to the MNS to incorporate them." Lorje said, "We decided that it would be prudent to assist with the government of Canada in doing a review of the election. But I have to emphasize that we're walking a fine line here." She underlined that the federal government also has a responsibility to the Métis people. Some Métis, such as Ed Harper, president of Saskatoon local 126 for five years and a member of a group he calls Citizens for Democracy in Métis Government, are concerned that despite the review some executive members who may be in office inappropriately will be deciding on their own right to remain there. "It looks like the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan has initiated an exercise to investigate themselves, so ot speak," Harper said. "What happened is, after the election, the MNS was in negotiations with the provincial government and the federal government in order to sign an extension to their tripartite agreement." One of the conditions the Saskatchewan government imposed upon the MNS before it would sign was that the MNS would have to "reinvestigate the past election," according to Harper. He said he doesn't think the senate or the Métis elections commission had the right to "overturn the decision of the people." He said the commission "acted out of their mandate, and they threw out a lot of ballot boxes, etcetera, which affected the outcome of the election . . . on mere minor technicalities. "Certainly those reasons given by the Métis elections commission were not enough to throw out and disqualify ballot boxes throughout the province." Lorna Docken, MNS vice president said, however, that "People had been given a couple of years to get their voters' lists up to date, when our citizenship act was brought in in 1999. So I guess over a year had transpired between when the act had come in and when the election took place. "And so what happened was, people were missed off the list. And there was no such thing as declarations. So if you weren't on the list, you didn't get to vote. "Now as for myself, I was, I guess, one of the victims of this. I had given the elections office the names of my four children who are of voting age, and two of them made it on the list and two of them didn't. "I think that we all have to take a little bit of responsibility. Me, for not checking to make sure (my children's names) were on there. And then the local presidents for not making sure that their lists were up-to-date. Because the elections office was just swamped. Everybody sent their names in at the last minute, and they had to compile a voters' list out of this. That was the biggest problem. "And because of that, their ballot boxes were thrown out. Like, we have an elections act that stated that the voters' list could not be changed after a certain date, and on election day some locals actually added people onto the list." Docken said that was understandable because "everybody should have the right to vote. But rules are rules, and our rules stated that you couldn't do that." Harper said he hopes Poitras recommends they have another MNS election, "run by an unbiased third party." Alternatively he wants to see reinstated the people who were elected. He said he was "very surprised with the leadership of the MNS," that it did not refuse to "validate" the decision of the commission. The result has larger implications. "The whole situation in Saskatchewan has had a profound effect on the Métis movement at the national level," Harper said. He complains that five "individuals who were given their positions on a silver platter by the elections commission" in Saskatchewan were not voted in. "They lost the election." Harper said he is referring to four area directors and vice-president Lorna Docken. He said the five went to Vancouver in July and participated in the Métis National Council elections. With their own positions in question, Harper said he questions the legitimacy of any national votes they cast while the MNS election results are under review. As a result of his stance on these issues, Harper said MNS officials are telling his local he is no longer president, but he plans "to hang in there." Top