Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
1999 Windspeaker August Headlines
Toronto celebrates!
Buddy Big Mountain, the first Native ventriloquist, entertains the audience during the Aboriginal Voices Festival held in Toronto from June 16 to 21. The festival included a Buffalo Jump parade through the downtown, and performances by some of the hottest Aboriginal stars in entertainment today.
Photo Credit: Kenneth Williams
Federal Court upholds tax exempt rights
Treaty 8 signatory ignored
Ontario organization honors achievement
James Buller awards excellence in the arts
Lacrosse magazine has big ambitions
What is the federal government's policy? - Editorial
The above is only a partial list of all the stories featured in the August, 1999 issue of Windspeaker.
If you are not receiving your own copy of Windspeaker, then you have missed out on a great deal of news, information and humour.
Federal Court upholds tax exempt rights
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
OTTAWAA Federal Court of Canada justice has ruled that a Native woman who works for a reserve-based company doesn't have to pay income tax, even if she lives and works off reserve.
A decision on whether or not the federal government will appeal the June 9 decision in Schilling v. Canada won't be announced until Sept. 9 at the latest. The normal 30-day period during which a party to a lawsuit can file an appeal is extended to accommodate the summer holidays. That accounts for the extra two-month wait for Revenue Canada's decision on whether or not to appeal.
The parties agreed to use the Schilling case as a test case to decide the issue of whether a Native person who lives off reserve has the right to be tax-exempt. Rama Ojibway Rachel Schilling, the acting program director at Anishnawbe Health Toronto, was one of four people who were assessed by Revenue Canada and told to pay income tax on their earnings. Schilling resisted paying income tax because, as an Aboriginal person employed by the Six Nations reserve-based Native Leasing Services, she felt the Indian Act clearly stated she was exempt.
Federal Court of Canada Justice Karen R. Sharlow agreed.
Schilling contracted her services to Anishnawbe Health through Native Leasing Services as a way of shielding her income from taxation under Section 87 of the Indian Act.
In her ruling, the judge noted that Section 87 was designed to exempt the on-reserve personal property of Native people from taxation. She added that previous court decisions have defined income as personal property. Justice Sharlow then added new shape to the law by saying Native people have the legal right to arrange their affairs so their property is located on reserve and therefore immune from taxation.
That ruling vindicated years of activism and lobbying by Roger Obonsawin, the proprietor of Native Leasing Services.
Obonsawin was both elated and angered by the decision.
"Of course we were very satisfied with the decision, but the ruling of the court showed the government had no case," he said. "So why did they put us through four-and-a-half years of hell?"
He believes federal bureaucrats have used every dirty trick they could think of to intimidate Native people into not pushing their rights to the limit and they did it for the purely political reason that non-Native Canadians resent having to pay taxes when Native people don't.
Native leaders counter this resentment by saying their people paid their taxes (most of the land base of North American) up front by consenting to enter into treaties that allowed the European newcomers to live on their land as partners. A fundamental aspect of all treaties is that one nation will respect the other's jurisdiction by not imposing taxation over the other, they say, adding that any attempt to collect taxes is a repudiation of the original intent of the legally-binding treaty agreements.
Obonsawin, 56, said senior bureaucrats within Revenue Canada have either lost sight of the original intent of the treaties or they don't care about it.
"The deputy minister said to me, 'If we allow you to operate, every Indian in Canada is going to be tax exempt.' I asked him, 'Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?'" Obonsawin told Windspeaker.
The judge's ruling seems to back up Obonsawin's contention that Revenue Canada was willing to do anything to stop him.
"Under the principles of private international law, the location of a simple contract debt is the location of the debtor," the judge wrote. This is a subtle way of saying the arguments put forth by the government at trial flew in the face of common, internationally-accepted legal practices in that the employer, in this case Native Leasing Services. If that reserve-based company owed a debt to its employee, then the debt was located on reserve and protected from taxation by the Indian Act.
As it stands now, pending the Crown's decision to appeal, Native people who work for a company that serves the interests of any First Nation people and that is situated on a reserve do not have to pay income tax. Obonsawin said his company has been flooded with calls from off-reserve residents who are interested in gaining that advantage and there has already been an increase in the number of people who have registered with Native Leasing Services.
Observers have labeled Obonsawin as everything from a scam artist who was exploiting a loophole in the law for his personal gain to, as Native Women's Association of Canada President Marilyn Buffalo called him, "a true Warrior." He has his own views about the best way to protect and preserve Aboriginal rights and he has been very critical of leaders who aren't willing to fight the government for every inch. He angrily pointed out that the Assembly of First Nations did not assist him in this legal fight, which has cost his company more than $1 million, but he's not surprised.
"I'm from the old days, the days before core funding. Core funding was a response to the uproar over the 1969 White Paper, but the problem with it is there is a loss of independence. Originally, the leaders decided to adopt core funding for just five years in order to establish a base. Well, those five years have passed and now we're hearing, 'They owe us this money.' In this process the leaders really have become an arm of the government, and that means they can't fight rights issues. They have to make up their minds which masters they're going to serve," he said. "They're getting further and further away from the bread and butter issues and deeper into the area of service delivery."
The response to the court victory has given Obonsawin another cause to pursue. He took great offense to an opinion piece in the National Post the day after the decision was handed down. In that piece, writer Diane Francis called the decision "tax racism" and demanded that laws and agreements that result in special privileges to Native people should be changed. Obonsawin read the article in the paper that champions conservative, big business causes and took note of the point that wealthy people who are served by the publication are quite ingenious in finding ways to legally avoid paying their fair share of taxes. He wondered why the paper published a story that objected so strongly to Native people doing the same thing.
"It's hate literature as far as I'm concerned," he said. "Pure hate for Indians."
He complained to the press council in Ontario and said he discovered the National Post isn't a member. Without that avenue of appeal, he said, he turned to another, which the law says is available to him.
"I wrote to the Indian Affairs minister. She has a legal responsibility to ensure that Native rights are protected. The story was a total misinterpretation of history and all that it's doing is fueling more hate towards Indians. The least the minister could do is make a public statement condemning such sentiments," he said, adding he doesn't really expect the minister to take any action because of the negative political fallout a move like that would bring.
Should the minister not react or if Revenue Canada decides to appeal the court decision, Obonsawin has a plan already in place. He has been gathering names of Native people who are willing to participate in a class action suit against the federal government that will claim damages as a result of the government's failure to actively carry out its legal obligations to Native people.
Obonsawin is convinced that Revenue Canada is playing to the Diane Francises of this country when it makes tax policy designed to undermine the treaty rights of Native people.
"We shouldn't have to prove what's already been agreed to in the treaties," he said. "They say we should be treated like everybody else. Well, we're not like everybody else. We have agreements and those agreements were hard fought."
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Treaty 8 signatory ignoredBy Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
HAY RIVER, N.W.T.As the 100th anniversary of the northern adhesion to Treaty 8 approaches, a small group of people who believe they represent what remains of one of the treaty's original signatories is trying to re-establish what it claims is a distinct Indigenous nation that was intentionally dispersed and almost destroyed by the federal government.
Hay River resident Barbara Beck, a social worker by trade, is leading a political campaign to have the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs formally recognize her people - the Yellowknifes of Taltson River. She has spent the last five years researching her people's history and pushing federal and Treaty 8 authorities to undo the historical harm inflicted on the Yellowknifes.
There were two parts to Treaty 8. The first part applied mainly to the area south of the 60th parallel and was completed in 1899. Its centennial was marked by a ceremony last month in north-central Alberta that was attended by Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart.
In 1900, the northern adhesion, (which covered land in what is now the Northwest Territories), involving four additional signatories, was completed. Historical records uncovered by Beck reveal that her people, a distinct ethnic group separate from the Dogribs, Crees, Dene and other nations which signed the treaty, were represented at the treaty signing by their chief, Akitcho.
The Yellowknifes, also called the Copper Indians, had their own community at the time of the signing of the treaty, Beck said, but when the community's school burned down in 1958, the people were forced to move to a variety of nearby communities so their children could attend school. Beck claims federal officials, for reasons she doesn't understand and can't get anyone in government to explain, allowed the Yellowknife members to be absorbed into their new bands. That allowed the other bands to take over control and title of Yellowknife traditional lands and left the Yellowknife people without a voice or an identity.
"It's like, you buy a house and you go away for a while and when you come back someone's living in your house and using your name. How would you feel?" she asked.
Beck says the current Treaty 8 political leadership is aware that one of the rightful parties to the treaty has been wrongfully phased out, but they aren't anxious to take any action to correct the situation that would upset the status quo.
Historians have already uncovered many examples of carelessness and corruption on the part of the federal treaty commissioners who were dispatched from Ottawa to get Native people to sign treaties in western Canada in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In most cases, the government wanted to have agreements covering lands that contained resources or that were needed to complete the railroad across the prairies.
Two academics who have taken an interest in the Yellowknife people say Beck's arguments have a certain amount of merit.
Dr. C. Stuart Houston, a retired professor of radiology at the University of Saskatchewan, wrote three books about the ill-fated Franklin expedition, led by Sir John Franklin who perished on King William Island along with his crew in 1848. Houston said Beck's research into her people's history has been "intense and studious."
"Barbara has really done her homework," he said. "It's been in the government's interest to downplay Barbara's side of it, but most of what she says rings pretty true."
"That's just nonsense," he said. "There are people in the region who are direct descendants of the Yellowknife people who assisted the Franklin expedition."
University of Alberta Associate Professor of Native Studies, Patricia McCormack, did research and wrote a report for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in 1997 that dealt with the competing claims of various Indigenous peoples in the region. She told Windspeaker she could not divulge the contents of her report due to a confidentiality agreement she made with the government, but she was willing to talk in general terms about the issue.
"There actually was a band at the turn of the century called the Yellowknifes," she said. "I guess the contemporary question is: 'Are they gone or have they lived on in the form of this other group?'"
McCormack backed up Beck's contention that Indian and Northern Affairs did in fact keep a Yellowknife "A" and a Yellowknife "B" band list, a fact that supports the claim there was either a split within the Yellowknife people or the bureaucratic creation of a second, artificial entity.
Most serious researchers into the history of treaties note the treaties were negotiated by a government that fully expected the Indigenous peoples would soon assimilate into the mainstream. Beck suspects the department's actions in not protecting and respecting the identity of her people is a result of the government's ulterior motive of absorbing the Indigenous peoples, thereby undermining and destroying the Yellowknifes' claim to sovereignty over the land.
Beck vows to continue fighting. She'll be in attendance when the centennial of the Treaty 8 northern adhesion is celebrated next year, pressuring federal and Native leaders to recognize her people's claim to the land.
A call to Northwest Territory Regional Director General for Indian and Northern Affairs, Robert Overvold, to get the government's position on this matter, was not returned by press time.
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Ontario organization honors achievement
By Roberta Avery
Windspeaker Contributor
MNJIKANING FIRST NATION, Ont.Like his father and grandfather before him, Stanley Sarazin of the Algonquins of Golden Lake near Pembroke, Ont. makes birch bark canoes. Now he's teaching his sons the age-old skill.
"My father was my teacher and now I'm passing it down to my sons. It's a tradition but I can't see that it's that remarkable," said Sarazin.
However that's not how the nominating committee of the Union of Ontario Indian's Lifetime Achievement Awards sees it. Sarazin was honored, along side chiefs, veterans, teachers and Elders, as one of 20 recipients of the lifetime achievement awards at a glittering ceremony at Casino Rama at the Mnjikaning First Nation on June 24.
Sarazin makes about three canoes a year and spends many hours in the woods searching for materials, but he doesn't have to search for customers - they come looking for him.
Ron Boissoneau of Ketegaunseebee, who is considered by many to be the father of the concept of First Nation self government, was also a lifetime award recipient.
The high point of his life was the day his people on the remote northern Ontario reserve turned on the taps and "we all had indoor plumbing," he told the crowd of about 800 who attended the award ceremonies.
The low point of his life was when he traveled to England to "reaffirm our treaties with the Queen, but she was too busy to see us."
One of the highlights of the evening was when Ernest H. Bisaillon of Thessalon First Nation arrived on stage to an enthusiastic standing ovation. At 98 years old, Bisaillon was the oldest recipient, and is still active in Native Affairs.
"I'm surprised. I'm not sure what I've done. I want to thank the people who put me here," he said to the cheering crowd.
Anishinabek Nation Grand Chief Vernon Roote said he hoped the awards, established to mark the Union of Ontario Indian's 50th anniversary, would become a regular event.
"We don't do this kind of thing as often as we should. We deal with a lot of internal problems but there's a lot of good work out there that should be recognized like this," he said.
"This is a very proud day for our nation," said Roote. "For many years I have dreamed about this day, where we would have the chance to honor these fine [men and women] in a ceremony that adequately reflects their service to their communities and service to their nation."
Recipients include the late Lorenzo Big Canoe from the Chippewas of Georgina Island. A beloved former chief, Big Canoe served his community in many ways. He was chief for 16 years, as well as band administrator for 15 years. He was also a member of the Indian Advisory Committee of Ontario and the National Advisory Council of Canadian Indians, and one of the founding fathers of the Union of Ontario Indians.
John (Jack) Loukes of Alderville First Nation was also a recipient. With determination, Loukes overcame adversity to become one of the first Aboriginal people in the province to obtain his Grade 13 diploma. From humble beginnings as a schoolteacher in the 1930s, Loukes dedicated his career to education and assisting young students with their educational goals. A First World War veteran, Loukes is considered by many to be a wise Elder and is well respected in the community of Alderville.
The 50th Anniversary and Lifetime Achievement Awards was organized by the Anishinabek Nation Seventh Generation Charities, which was created to provide a fund-raising base for Anishinabek Nation charitable initiatives.
The 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award recipients are:
The Late Ben Wawia Sr., Red Rock First Nation
Tim Esquega, Gull Bay First Nation
Louis Kwissia, Pic Mobert First Nation
William Sault, Red Rock First Nation
Ernest H. Bisaillon, Thessalon First Nation
Ron Boissoneau, Ketegaunseebee
Alfred C. Debassige, M'Chigeeng (West Bay) First Nation
The Late Ernest L. Debassige, M'Chigeeng (West Bay) First Nation
The Late Mary Lou Fox-Radulovich, M'Chigeeng (West Bay) First Nation
The Late Ether Deleary
William B. Dolson
The Late James Mason
The Late Omer Peters
Fred Plain, Chippewas of Sarnia
Dorothy Commanda
The Late Sarah Lavalley, Algonquins of Golden Lake
Stanley Sarazin, Algonquins of Golden Lake
John (Jack) Loukes, Alderville First Nation
The Late Lorenzo Big Canoe, Chippewas of Georgina Island
The Late Elsie Knott, Curve Lake First Nation
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James Buller awards excellence in the artsBy Marie Burke
Windspeaker Staff Writer
TORONTOThe third annual James Buller Awards ceremony held on June 18 honored Aboriginal people in the arts who have achieved excellence and contributed to the area of theatre, film and television.
The Centre for Indigenous Theatre announced the winners of the four categories. Ian Ross's play fareWel , which toured in most major cities across Canada, won the James Buller award for Playwright. Best Male Performer went to Adam Beach for his performance in the movie Smoke Signals. Best Female Performer was awarded to Tantoo Cardinal for her part in the movie Smoke Signals. The award for the Advancement of Aboriginal Theatre was won by both Margo Kane of Full Circle Native Performance in Vancouver and De-Ba-Jeh-Mu-Jig Theatre Group of Ontario for their work in theatre productions.
"The awards ceremony went exceptionally well with a reception on the waterfront. We piggy-backed on the Aboriginal Voices festival and a lot of writers and filmmakers were on hand throughout the week which made it even more interesting," said Carol Greyeyes, artistic director of the Centre for Indigenous Theatre.
Greyeyes said that most of the award winners have been in some way connected to the Centre for Indigenous Theatre, which is in its 26 year of operation.
"That says a lot about the Indigenous theatre. People of CIT felt there should be an acknowledgment that they are competing against everyone else in the business. . . . It is not easy for these people, they still have to fight for roles. Our feeling is our people need to be recognized for their work," said Greyeyes.
The Centre for Indigenous Theatre or the Native Theatre School, as it is better known, was founded by James H. Buller. In the 1970s his name became known in the performing arts community as a leader in promoting the arts for Aboriginal people in Canada.
Buller's life story could very well be a drama production in itself. He was a boxer, a professional opera and musical comedy singer before he founded the Native Theatre School program. It is said his vision was that Aboriginal people would create social change through the arts.
"We are the only organization of our kind in North America and our goal is to produce self-sufficient artists to go out and learn what they need to learn," said Greyeyes.
Nominations come from across Canada from anyone who wishes to nominate an Aboriginal person working in the arts, said Greyeyes. Only members of the Centre for Indigenous Theatre can vote on the award winners.
"James Buller wanted Aboriginal people to tell our story. He felt that the arts and theatre would bring more awareness for everyone. He wanted to encourage that to happen," said Greyeyes.
Lacrosse magazine has big ambitions
By Sam Laskaris
Windspeaker Contributor
TORONTOIt's now even easier to follow one of Canada's official
sports.
LacrosseTalk, a new Canadian newspaper dedicated exclusively to
news and happenings in the sport, was launched earlier this year. Two issues have already been published. Another two are scheduled to be released later this year.
The publication is expected to continue being produced quarterly. LacrosseTalk is a publication of the British Columbia Lacrosse Association. But there's plenty of more than just coverage of B.C. events in the paper.
The publication also has Alberta and Ontario editors. And there's also coverage of activities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Officials with the paper are also keen on including Native activities in the sport, in both Canada and the United States. LacrosseTalk's third issue is expected to include a feature story on the Syracuse, New York area Onondaga Warriors, a Junior B expansion entry which has enjoyed considerable success in the Ontario Lacrosse Association this season.
"There could be a whole Native section in there," he said. "It's just a matter of getting some writers to do it."
In its first year the publication is dependent on volunteer writing submissions. In the future the paper is hoping to pay some of its writers.
Lacrosse Talk, which costs $1.75 per issue, is available at selected newstands. Some of the provincial associations are even sending out copies to all of their registered players.
"It's a very important project because it brings lacrosse together across the country," Peters said of the paper, which had 32 pages in each of its first two editions. "It's a great way to share ideas and information."
Over the years several other national lacrosse publications have come and gone.
"This is a lot bigger than anything that has been done before," Peters said. "The production and quality of it is a lot better. Everybody seems to be positive about it."
For more information on the publication contact either your own provincial lacrosse association or the British Columbia Lacrosse Association at (604) 421-9755.
