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Top News - September - 2004
Published September 20, 2004
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PM calls for more money for Aboriginal health
Clearwater roadblock draws attention to the issues
Daniels' legacy enshrined in Canadian ConstitutionThis is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the September 2004 issue of Saskatchewan Sage. If you are not receiving your own copy of Sage, then you have missed out on a lot.
PM calls for more money for Aboriginal health
Debora Steel, Sage Writer, Ottawa
The federal government has proposed expending hundreds of millions of new dollars to improve the health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Prime Minister Paul Martin says another $700 million should be spent in addition to the $1.7 billion already expended with funds targeted to improving inefficiencies in the system, prevention initiatives and increasing the number of Aboriginal health care professionals working in the field.
The announcement was made at the beginning of the first ministers meeting on health held in Ottawa Sept. 13 to 15. Before the health care concerns of the nation were put on the table for discussion, the prime minister and the provincial and territorial leaders met with Aboriginal leaders to discuss Aboriginal-specific issues.
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine, Métis National Council (MNC) President Clement Chartier and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Jose Kusugak joined Terry Brown, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada and Dwight Dorey, national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, to speak on behalf of the nation's Native peoples.
Alberta Premier Ralph Klein talked about the need for a national response to the crisis of diabetes in the Aboriginal community. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the over prescribing of prescription drugs were also highlighted as problems being dealt with in the province. He said Aboriginal health care funding needed to be predictable and flexible enough to focus on housing and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.
British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said the living conditions of Aboriginal people in his province were 20 per cent lower than those of the province's mainstream population. He said the "statistics are damning" with every statistic representing the lost dreams of an Aboriginal person and the lost future of an Aboriginal family. He reminded the prime minister that it was a legal and fiduciary responsibility of the federal government to deal with Aboriginal health concerns.
Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm said there needed to be a clarification of the roles and responsibilities for Aboriginal health. That was echoed by Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert, who also said there should be a focus on the determinates of health-housing, poverty, education-and not just on programming.
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams said action was needed immediately on broader social and cultural issues. He also said that mainstream Canada had no real appreciation for the magnitude of the health care problems facing the Aboriginal population.
Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie spoke in glowing terms of the self-government agreements achieved in his territory and how the autonomy of First Nations had led to greater improvements there.
Fontaine called on the first ministers to agree to a special meeting on Aboriginal issues and they seemed receptive to the idea.
Brown said she was encouraged by the spirit of co-operation and collaboration from the premiers, but chastised the group for not inviting the Native women's group to an earlier session of premiers and Aboriginal leaders held at Niagara-on-the-Lake, calling it embarrassing and insulting.
Dorey said he was glad to see that the premiers were putting the focus on patient care over jurisdictional issues, and hoped that his fellow Aboriginal leaders could be equally as gracious. Dorey too had not been invited to the Niagara-on-the-Lake meeting, and has complained that the AFN was encroaching on the Congress' turf when saying it represents off-reserve and non-status Indians as well as the on-reserve population.
Kusugak made it clear he wanted Inuit-specific solutions to Inuit-specific problems. "Inuit are not Indians," he said.
Chartier said he fully embraced the discussions on health and wanted the MNC to be fundamentally engaged in the process. He also told Klein he was hoping Alberta's current discussion for the advancement of Métis hunting and fishing rights gained with the Supreme Court's Powley decision could be expanded to include Métis health care concerns.
Clearwater roadblock draws attention to the issues
Cheryl Petten, Sage Writer, Clearwater River Dene NationFrom Aug. 27 to Sept. 3 Clearwater River Dene Nation and people from the nearby village of La Loche set up a roadblock on the highway that runs through its reserve. The blockade of Highway 955 was in place for just over a week, but in that time the First Nation managed to accomplish what it hadn't been able to do before-it got the attention of the provincial government and mining company Cogema Resources Inc.
Clearwater has had concerns with the actions of both parties-Cogema with the way Clearwater and La Loche had been bypassed by the employment opportunities coming out of the decommissioning of the Cluff Lake uranium mine, and the province with its practices of leasing out and selling land within Clearwater traditional territory with no involvement or input from the First Nation. Clearwater had made its concerns in these areas known to both the province and the Cogema, but nothing was being done to address the problems, Clearwater Chief Roy Cheecham said, so the decision was made to try another approach. On Aug. 27, Clearwater members moved in heavy equipment and vehicles and blocked off a section of the highway that leads to the Cluff Lake mine.
Setting up roadblocks isn't standard operating procedure for Clearwater, Cheecham said.
"Clearwater River Dene Nation is not a community that's used to blockading roads. We're very proactive, very business-minded. We're one of the bands within the Meadow Lake Tribal Council and the tribal council is very well known for business ventures and being proactive and cutting edge in discussions, negotiations and so on. But ... we weren't satisfied that things were moving in the right direction at the right speed," he said. "Was I faced with the same set of circumstances, I would do it again, because I think that was the appropriate action."
Cheecham said the First Nation has about 1,500 members, the majority of which live either on- reserve or off-reserve in the nearby community of La Loche. In the past, companies and individuals from the First Nation have done work with Cogema and one contract, for catering, is still ongoing. But with the announcement that the Cluff Lake mine was shutting down, Cheecham saw the importance of his community getting a share of the work the decommissioning would create.
Cheecham and the mayor of La Loche met with Cogema representatives months ago and Cheecham said they were led to believe the communities would get some work out of the decommissioning project. At the end of July, the news came that three companies were awarded contracts to decommission the mine, but none of them had ties to Clearwater or La Loche.
The decommissioning work is the last substantial employment that will come out of the Cluff Mine and the work could last up to three years.
"We have a lot of people that are trained as heavy equipment operators. We have lots of labourers ... the majority of the work entails putting back material that's removed in the mining process. A lot of our people can do that in both communities."
As for exactly what type of agreement has been reached between Clearwater and Cogema, or between the First Nation and the provincial government, Cheecham said he wasn't in a position to talk about it.
"In terms of details, we're not really at liberty to get into that. For one thing, we're trying to do the implementation of what we agreed to do with the company and we're going to leave it there. The other thing is we're at talks now with the Saskatchewan government and it's still very preliminary in terms of what's done so far ... there's still a long ways to go."
Daniels' legacy enshrined in Canadian Constitution
Cheryl Petten, Sage Writer, Regina
On Sept. 6, Harry W. Daniels passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Daniels was many things to many people-actor, storyteller, teacher, author, and politician on both the national and international stage. But the one thing he is most closely associated with, and the accomplishment long-time friend Tony Belcourt believes Daniels was most proud of, is his work to have the Métis people recognized in the Canadian Constitution.
Belcourt, now president of the Métis Nation of Ontario, first met Daniels 36 years ago and remembers that, even then, he demonstrated the tenacity that would help to make him a strong leader for the Métis people.
"I was vice-president of the Métis association of Alberta at the time, and Harry applied for a job as our field worker coordinator," Belcourt said. "And he didn't get the job. We didn't offer it to him. But he came back to us and he was really, as only Harry can be. He demanded another interview and wanted to know why. And so we hired him. Because he just had that much drive and we thought, 'Hey, this guy could really whip up the troops.' So we hired him and never looked back."
Daniels was president of the Native Council of Canada (NCC) from 1975 to 1981, and served in that capacity again from 1997 to 2000, after the organization had changed its name to the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
It was while he was president of the NCC that Daniels stepped into the constitutional fray and began his fight to have the Métis recognized in the new document being drafted. His efforts helped to ensure Aboriginal and treaty rights were included in the Constitution and that Indians, Inuit and Métis were all listed when Canada's Aboriginal people were defined in the document.
"I think most of Harry's lifetime, the part of his life that he was most proud of and thought the most of, were his days when he was working on the national scene with the Native Council of Canada," Belcourt said. "But I think it was that period leading up to patriation that was certainly the highlight of his life. Personally, I know that he was very proud about that period of time and what had transpired."
Daniels loved to act and to tell stories, and had a personality that commanded attention, Belcourt said.
"He was just an absolute outstanding presence of a person when he walked in the room. You just couldn't help but notice when Harry walked into the room. And he just had that kind of commanding personality."
He was very proud of the Michif language and loved to speak it, Belcourt added. But one of the things about Daniels most people will remember is his humour.
"One of the things about Aboriginal people, Métis people, is laughter is a very important medicine for us, and Harry, if there was ever a good doctor that could administer laughter it was Harry. He was just wonderful to be around. And very quick-witted. I don't know of anybody that I've ever met that's faster with a comeback than Harry," Belcourt said.
Daniels, who was known by many as "Harry the Dog" and "Harry the Hat," was born in Regina Beach, on Sept. 16, 1940. He attended the University of Saskatchewan and later Carleton University where he earned his masters degree. He was the first member of the NCC executive to be awarded an honourary presidency for life. . In June, Daniels' contributions were again recognized when the University of Ottawa presented him with an honourary degree.
"Harry was a student of life. He loved to read and to learn," Belcourt said. "He was a very intelligent man. I think because he joked around so much a lot of people never really understood how intelligent and brilliant Harry was."
In a memoriam written by Paul Chartrand, a law professor at the University of Saskatchewan and another of Daniels' many friends, the importance of Daniels' contributions is spelled out clearly.
"Harry Daniels will share with Louis Riel the honour of having introduced the rights of the Métis people in the Constitution of Canada: Riel in s. 31 of the Manitoba Act, 1870, and Harry in S. 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982," Chartrand wrote.
A memorial service was planned for Sept. 16, which would have been Daniels' 64th birthday.