Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
1998 Windspeaker December Headlines
 |
Hold on tight! Kenton Randle gets a seat full of horse at the Canadian Finals Rodeo held in Edmonton in November. The Métis man from Fort Vermilion, Alta., pocketed a cool $11,908.85 by staying on all six of his mounts with scores of 78, 82, 76.5, 84.5, 85, and 82 on his last mount. Randle wound up in third place in the bare-back riding competition. There were other Aboriginal competitors. |
Pressure builds, government balks
Healing fund accepts applications
Lawyers say spirit of Delgamuukw ignoredNew firearms legislation threatens Native lifestyle
Seven Aboriginal Senators: 40 years
Coalition addresses urban concerns
Decision's made in anger . . .- EditorialSolidarity with Guatemala - Guest Column
The above is only a partial list of all the stories featured in the December, 1998 issue of Windspeaker.
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Pressure builds, government balksBy Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
OTTAWAWith the target date for the establishment of an independent specific claims commission and tribunal rapidly approaching, federal bureaucrats are trying to persuade First Nation negotiators to lower their expectations and let the government off the hook.
April 1, 1999 is the date when a new independent specific claims commission, which would mediate land claim disputes between the government and First Nations, is due to be established. An independent tribunal with the power to decide cases, if the two sides can't work out a mutually acceptable deal through the commission, is also supposed to be part of the deal.
A joint task force, with representatives of the Assembly of First Nations, the Department of Justice and the Department of Indian Affairs, has been meeting since March 1997. Their goal has been to find a way to follow through on a promise to create the new commission and tribunal the Liberals made in the Red Book, their 1993 election platform document. Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart renewed that promise in her January 1998 action plan, Gathering Strength.
But it became obvious that the highest level of decision makers in the Canadian government were not prepared to move forward on this initiative. In mid-October, the Indian Affairs minister informed the joint task force members she was getting indications from Cabinet, the Prime Ministers Office and Treasury Board officials there were worries about the potential cost of keeping this promise.
A copy of the minutes of an Oct. 19 meeting that involved joint task force members, National Chief Phil Fontaine and Minister Stewart and her senior advisors, was obtained by Windspeaker. The five-page document shows the minister tried to convince the chiefs she couldn't sell the idea of an independent claims tribunal to Cabinet. A similar government-created body, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, had recently rendered a ruling that may force the federal government to pay $4 billion in pay equity compensation.
"The minister believes that Cabinet, that Chrétien won't accept it and that we should accept something less," joint task force member Art Manuel, chief of the British Columbia Neskonlith band, told the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.
Manuel asked the British Columbia chiefs if they were willing to accept a slower, incremental approach to settling land claims. He then asked the chiefs to pass a resolution saying they were not in favor of giving in. He wanted to force the Indian Affairs minister to take it to Cabinet and let the federal government's inner circle show their true colors.
"The argument and debate I'm having now with the other leaders is: Do we consent to proceed incrementally or do we stand on principle?," he said. "The question to you and it's your decision as you vote on this resolution is this: Do you want money now or do you want principle? If you approve the resolution we will challenge the prime minister by making sure this proposal goes to Cabinet, to his private session, to test them, to test their commitment to human rights."
The Union chiefs had no trouble in giving Chief Manuel his resolution.
With the AFN's Confederacy of Nations meeting scheduled for Dec. 8, 9 and 10 in Ottawa, the debate that has gained momentum across the country in recent months about the national chief's approach to dealing with the federal government - many chiefs worry that Chief Fontaine is working too closely with Minister Stewart - will be highlighted when this issue is raised.
While Fontaine penned a letter to the minister supporting the hard line of task force members like Manuel, sources in Ottawa say Fontaine's staff is working hard to find a compromise.
AFN spokesman Maurice Switzer said the negotiations centre around how to make the process more attractive to Cabinet and Treasury Board.
"The problem we're grappling with is the timing and financing of the payments," he said.
Dene Nation President Bill Erasmus is the AFN vice-chief with responsibility for specific claims. Unlike Chief Manuel, Erasmus is ready to work with the federal government to make the process work.
"We recognize it's going to take some time," he said during a phone interview on Nov. 21. "We think we've got the commitment. I believe there will be a tribunal with binding authority and there will be a commission and the settlements will include land and money."
Erasmus also said the federal government has admitted that outstanding claims are a legitimate debt that Canada owes.
"They recognize it's their legal obligation," he said. "That's not an item of contention. It's more an issue of economics."
Unofficial sources in Ottawa say Finance Minister Paul Martin assured Chief Fontaine, during a private meeting in late October, that Canada admits the outstanding claims are legitimate debts. However, neither the AFN nor Finance would comment on what the two men talked about during the meeting.
Some chiefs are angry the government is using the pay-equity decision as an excuse to postpone payments of land claims. They say they've been waiting in line a lot longer than the civil servants who are destined to receive the $4 billion Human Rights Tribunal award if it survives an appeal. Some call it outright racism for the government to expect Aboriginal people to step aside for such a ruling. Erasmus, like Chief Fontaine, is not willing to take such a hard line on that issue.
"When you look at the Canadian historical perspective, you'll see this whole society has been developed for the middle class Caucasian person," Erasmus said. "If it was say 100 years from now, say 2082 - 100 years after the passage of the Constitution Act - then it shouldn't be tolerated. But I don't see this as racism. It's more of an evolution of thinking. I'm sure, in the end, they'll support this process."
There are more than 400 outstanding specific claims on the books right now. Indian Affairs officials are not sure what those claims could eventually represent in terms of settlement dollars. The consensus among the chiefs is that the claims are worth billions. Close to 200 claims have been settled during the last 20 years with an average worth of just over $4 million. Those numbers could sky-rocket if the federal government gives up control of the process. The federal Justice department, at this moment, decides which claims are legitimate and will be accepted for negotiation and which won't be.
"It's a conflict of interest," Manuel said. "It is wrong - morally wrong - for the Canadian government to be involved in a land claim process where they are judge and jury over whether they stole our land from us."
Manuel is not willing to be as trusting when dealing with the federal government as Chief Fontaine and Erasmus appear to be. He views the timing of the government's decision to back away from its promise with great suspicion.
His staff at the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council have met with economists in an effort to gain some ammunition to pressure the government if it backs away from doing what it has already admitted is the right thing. He believes justice delayed is justice denied and he also feels Canada is getting a free ride by not including the value of the outstanding land claim debts in the accounting of its assets. Manuel believes a trip to Wall Street, New York City's financial district, to alert international government bond raters to this fact might be the right move to convince Minister Martin to move the claims up his priority list.
Vancouver Sun business writer Clive Austin believes that Canada's total assets, estimated in the business community at between $700 billion and $1 trillion, are substantial enough to withstand the introduction of a debt of a even a couple of billion dollars without being downgraded. He said, however, that a change in a bond rating would mean a great increase in the cost of borrowing money, which would in turn mean a significant cost to taxpayers.
Chief Manuel believes this tactic will work with Cabinet and Treasury Board. The fight that's looming, it appears, will be one of deciding whether to follow the hard line of Manuel or the more conciliatory line of the national chief. That fight will be staged in Ottawa in early December.
The Minister of Indian Affairs has promised to take the idea of the claims tribunal to Cabinet and fight for it, sources say, but she would rather the chiefs accepted the current fiscal realities and allowed her to ask for a little bit now and a little bit later.
She'll get her answer after the chiefs assembly in Ottawa.
Healing fund accepts applicationsBy David Wiwchar
Windspeaker Contributor
OTTAWAThe doors to the much-anticipated Aboriginal Healing Fund will open next month, according to director Paul Chartrand.
Applications will be available as of Dec. 2 for the $350 million set aside by the federal government to help communities and families devastated by the effects of residential schools.
Secretary of the Healing Fund, and one of 17 directors, Chartrand said the program begins funding programs in early 1999, allocating all of the funds within the next 10 years.
"The money is for healing," said Chartrand. "We will consult with First Nations people to find out what is needed for communities, families and individuals who have suffered the effects of residential schools."
Sixty-six residential schools operated in Canada from the mid-1800s until 1984, and according to Chartrand, the Aboriginal Healing Fund will not only help school survivors who were sexually and physically abused at many of the schools, but will also address the inter-generational effects the schools had on First Nations communities.
Melvin Good, a plaintiff in the long-running trial against the United Church of Canada and the federal government for their involvement in the abuse that occurred at the Alberni Indian Residential School, hopes the Aboriginal Healing Fund marks a new beginning for residential school survivors, as well as for their children.
"Not only did we lose our parents, our families and our communities by being shipped off to these schools, but we also lost our languages, our cultures and our whole identities as Native people," said Good. "Then we passed all the things we learned, and didn't learn, down to our children."
Chartrand said the directors have worked hard to get everything in place as quickly as possible so the healing process can begin.
"The board met in Vancouver in July, searched for an executive director in August, hired Michael Degagne to the position in October, and we're currently hiring staff for our office in Ottawa," he said.
A Métis from Manitoba and a law graduate from the University of Saskatchewan, Chartrand said the Aboriginal Healing Fund comes with a few government-imposed restrictions. Money from the fund can't be used to pay for legal actions or for the purchase of land or buildings.
Deadline for applications run from Jan. 15 to March 31, 1999 depending on the type of program funding required.
Once the Aboriginal Healing Fund is operating smoothly, Chartrand said future plans include the formation of a charitable organization designed to collect funds and donations from non-governmental sources.
Groups or individuals interested in receiving an Aboriginal Healing Fund application, as soon as they're made available, can call the Ottawa office toll-free at 1-888-725-8886.
Lawyers say spirit of Delgamuukw ignored
By Paul Barnsley
Windpseaker Staff Writer
VANCOUVERLawyers who advise Aboriginal leaders in the province of British Columbia are crying foul after watching the slow evolution of the provincial and federal governments' response to the Delgamuukw decision.
"Those people are resisting the implications of the real gains of Delgamuukw," Vancouver lawyer Stuart Rush told the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs' annual meeting on Oct. 20. "Since we won this case, the decision will have to be defended."
Rush and others find it disturbing that a court decision the political establishment finds troublesome can be resisted or even ignored. Lawyer Louise Mandell said Aboriginal people are going to have to aggressively pursue the legal rights the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled they possess because mainstream Canadian society isn't prepared to voluntarily change. In all land claim cases, she said, lawyers arguing for either the provincial or federal Crown have offered a series of what she called excuses for dispossessing the Indigenous inhabitants of the land.
"They've all been defeated," she said. "What the court said to the province is you haven't offered one legal excuse to justify the dispossession of Aboriginal people."
In the year since the Delgamuukw decision was handed down, Mandell said, it has become evident that more work needs to be done to take advantage of the legal breakthrough the case represents.
"Delgamuukw is not about sitting in the band office and waiting for the next phone call," she said. "When the federal government does nothing, which they haven't, and the province does nothing, it's not an accidental response, it's business as usual."
Assembly of First Nations Vice Chief for British Columbia, Herb George, is a lawyer who worked for his Wet'suwet'en people on the Delgamuukw case. He also believes it's time to get more aggressive about forcing authorities to comply with the law of the land as defined in the court case. He sees the provincial establishment doing its best to "pull down the blind on the window of opportunity" that Delgamuukw represents.
"The future we want is within us to take," George said. "We have to take it. When it comes to jurisdiction and authority, they're not going to give it to us. They're going to hold it away from us for as long as possible."
Chief Herb George
A seasoned Aboriginal rights lawyer who has been representing Aboriginal interests in courtrooms for 23 years, Mandell compared the way Canadian authorities are dealing with Delgamuukw to the way United States President Andrew Jackson dealt with his country's Supreme Court when it ruled that Cherokee people had land rights in the southern states. Despite the ruling, the Cherokees were forcibly removed from their land, resulting in the infamous Trail of Tears, which has been described as one of the biggest massacres in history.
Shuswap Tribal Council Chief Art Manuel believes tough measures must be employed when the executive branch of government starts pulling in the opposite direction of the judicial branch.
"We need to change the prime minister's mind," Manuel said. "The Cherokees were given their Delgamuukw decision in the 1830s. It turned into President Jackson versus Justice Marshall - the executive versus the judicial - and thousands died in what became known as the Trail of Tears. [Jean] Chrétien's choice now is: [Supreme Court Justice] Antonio Lamer or Andrew Jackson? That's the choice that's facing all Canadian people."
Stuart Rush said the government has a duty to embrace Delgamuukw, a duty that doesn't include looking for ways to sidestep the decision.
"The reason consultation was imposed upon government is because Aboriginal title land is land over which there is a choice about usage," the lawyer said. "If government is going to pre-empt First Nations over use of land they must consult fully, and consultation is not just a question of passing information. It's also a matter of determining how the Aboriginal interest is accommodated and the basic principle is the greater the intrusion, the greater the requirement of consultation. It's not just notice. It's not just information. It requires that your concerns are addressed."
Chief Art Manuel
Mandell and Rush both suggested that labor relations law as it applies to good faith negotiating could be used to govern Crown tactics during the consultation and negotiation process with First Nations. Rush said the negotiations must be conducted with the clear goal in mind of reaching a fair settlement and the fact that Aboriginal title has been defined and recognized in Delgamuukw means that provincial and federal governments have lost their advantage at the negotiating table because Aboriginal title is a right to ownership of the land.
Since the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that British Columbia First Nations have title to their traditional lands in the province that is equal in validity to Crown title, the power structure has shifted, the lawyers say, and sooner or later, the province and the federal government are going to have to face it.
Stuart Rush doesn't think that's going to happen without a few more decisive legal victories.
"I don't think this legal battle is over," he said.
Seven Aboriginal Senators: 40 years
By Marie Burke
Windspeaker Staff Writer
OTTAWAIn the late 1950s, the Upper House of Parliament dusted off a seat for James Gladstone, a member of the Blood tribe of Alberta. He was Canada's first Aboriginal senator and his official appointment to the Senate was made on Jan. 31, 1958.
At the time of Gladstone's appointment, a person in Canada was described as anyone but an Indian, Native people did not have the right to vote in a federal election and few treaty Indians owned land. In fact, the lawful possession of land on reserve by Aboriginal people could be approved only by the minister of Indian Affairs through a certificate of possession. The Indian Act was used to provide protection of the land-base for First Nations communities.
Gladstone was the senator for Lethbride, Alta., and though he was described as an independent, (in the Canadian Parliamentary Guide, Gladstone stated he had no political affiliation as "treaty Indians do not have the franchise") he was seen as a Progressive Conservative.
John Diefenbaker, prime minister at the time, was quoted as saying a couple of years before Gladstone's appointment, that one of the finest gestures his government could make would be to appoint a full-blooded Indian to the Senate of Canada. There was, however, a hitch. Parliament's rules required that a senator, upon appointment, must hold real property, free and clear, that was valued at no less than $4,000. A senator must also reside in the designated area, or have real property in the division for which he was appointed.
When Gladstone accepted the Senate appointment in early January 1958, he was asked to buy land off reserve. Gladstone quickly bought property near Cardston, Alta., valued at $6,700, selling some of his cattle to do so.
In his inaugural speech, Gladstone addressed the Senate in Blackfoot. The Speaker of the House recognized only the two official languages, French and English, and no one knows what Gladstone said to the Speaker that allowed him to break the Senate tradition.
Gladstone saw several changes pass through the Upper House of Parliament. In 1960, he had the satisfaction of moving the bill through the Senate that gave federal voting privileges to Indians. During his 13 years in the Senate, he was also part of various stormy revisions to the Indian Act. At the time of his appointment Gladstone was nearly 70. He retired in 1971 when he was 84 and died later that same year.
The name "the Gentle Persuader" was given to Gladstone because of his efforts to bring attention to the needs and concerns of Aboriginal people in Canada. Hugh Dempsey is the author of The Gentle Persuader, a book about Gladstone.
Aurélien Gill, a member of Mashteuiatsh Montagnais First Nation of Quebec, is the most recent Aboriginal person to be appointed to the Senate. Gill, 65, appointed on Sept.17, is the seventh Aboriginal senator to sit in the Upper House. Gill remembers meeting Gladstone at a time when Canada saw the National Indian Brotherhood forming, the predecessor to the Assembly of First Nations. Gill was part of the brotherhood movement in Quebec and the founding president of the Conseil Attikamek-Montagnais. He was the chief of his home reserve for almost 10 years and took part in the establishment of several other Aboriginal organizations in Quebec.
"I will pursue what I started some 40 years ago," said Gill about his Senate appointment. He describes his work as attempting to lessen the gap between Aboriginal people and the rest of society. Gill expressed his surprise at the appointment and said his intent is to contribute his all to the work that needs to be done for Aboriginal people in the Senate. Gill has barely had enough time to catch his breath since the appointment and said he has much to learn about his new position.
Like Gladstone, Gill needed to quickly purchase property off reserve when he accepted the Senate appointment. He said he does not see it so much of a question of owning land while living on reserve, but as a matter of representing an area. Gill purchased property near his home reserve only four days before Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's official announcement of his appointment. Gill is the Senator of Quebec and is listed as a Liberal in the Senate of Canada. He is required to retire from the Senate in the year 2008.
Today only four Aboriginal people are among the 104 members from across Canada that make up the Senate. Thelma Chalifoux, a Métis activist from Alberta, is listed as a Liberal representing Manitoba, and was appointed Dec. 2, 1997. Charlie Watt, a Liberal Senator of Quebec who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples was appointed Jan. 6, 1984. Willie Adams, a Liberal Senator of the Northwest Territories was appointed April 5, 1977. The other two Aboriginal people who once held seats in the Senate are Len Marchand, a Liberal from British Columbia, and the late Walter Twinn, a Progressive Conservative Senator of Alberta.
In the past 40 years, the Senate has seen only these seven Aboriginal people in the Upper House of Parliament, only seven to speak for the diverse and numerous Aboriginal people in Canada.
Coalition addresses urban concernsBy Pamela Green
Windspeaker Contributor
THUNDERCHILD FIRST NATION, Sask.Eldon Okanee and a group of like-minded individuals are challenging the election system on the Thunderchild First Nation.
Okanee, a candidate for chief in the Dec. 3 Thunderchild election, developed a seven-member party to run under the banner Coalition for Change for the seven positions on council. It becomes one of the first party-style election campaigns for Saskatchewan First Nations, and Okanee thinks it could be the beginning of a trend in band politics.
The Coalition for Change has developed an extensive party platform that it presented at a coalition candidates' forum held in Saskatoon in early November. The platform includes initiatives that provide consideration to the 500-plus Thunderchild members living off-reserve.
Voting privileges have been extended to off-reserve members for the first time in the band's election history and the voting age has been lowered to 18 from 21 years of age thanks to Okanee's lobbying efforts to the previous council.
Advance polls held on Nov. 23 in Saskatoon and Nov. 25 in Edmonton allowed urban members input into deciding who will next lead the community.
"It's something they deserve and many don't have the time, gas or vehicle to come out to the reserve to vote," said Okanee.
There are four candidates vying for the position of chief and 31 for council.
The Coalition for Change promises to create an off-reserve office, appoint an urban councilor, and designate 22 of the 40 new homes to be built in the next four years at Thunderchild to off-reserve members who want to return home.
"Urban members can't come home unless they have something to come home to," Okanee said.
But the platform's not all about off-reserve concerns. The coalition promises to seek out economic development opportunities in the natural resource and agriculture sectors, and improve access to essential services and facilities on reserve. The coalition is suggesting that a bank, post office, and laundry facilities be established at Thunderchild, as well as an arena and a swimming pool.
Okanee's vision is to lead band politics away from the old band election style where the largest family group won the seats on council.
"It was a popularity contest with candidates running for different positions alongside relatives and those with big families would get more votes and end up in office," explained Dwaine Noon, co-ordinator of the candidate's forum.
"The Coalition for Change has a unified slate of candidates to cover each position on council and voters know that this party will work well together, a radical departure from the old political alliances that worked along family lines after election," he added.
"We want to represent all the people," said Okanee.
Also new in Thunderchild is the Family Representative Assembly, a grassroots group made up of representatives from each of the 22 family groups at Thunderchild that will lobby, provide feedback and bring the concerns of community to the attention of the new council.
New firearms legislation threatens Native lifestyleBy Marie Burke
Windspeaker Staff Writer
VANCOUVER"The legislation criminalizes the right to hunt and it certainly doesn't take into account that firearms are tools for the practice of those rights," said Ardith Walkem, a lawyer for the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs. For last three years Walkem has been working on the issues surrounding the firearms act for Aboriginal people.
"The union chiefs passed a resolution at the last assembly to fight this legislation," said Walkem. The union is planning on bringing a separate court challenge on the legislation in the coming year.
Walken said the act ignores the fact that Aboriginal people have been hunting since time immemorial.
"We have well established laws regarding safe use and practice with firearms," she said. Aboriginal people have been raised to have a different respect for firearms than other people.
In a summary that Walkem has prepared for the union outlining Criminal Code amendments that supersede the Indian Act, several issues are seen as criminalizing Aboriginal people's activities. The enforcement provisions allow police to enter and inspect any home where they reasonably believe there is a firearm or ammunition. Walkem sees the search provisions as troublesome for Aboriginal people because of the often fractured relationship they have had with the police.
As an example, if a community organizes a blockade in support of their Aboriginal rights, the police could use this legislation to search the homes of participants. This may be the case even if there is no suggestion that firearms are involved in the blockade. Walkem said the legislation could be used as a harassment tool by police.
Although owner's or occupant's permission is required for police to enter a home, the act will allow police to get a warrant to administer a search.
"The province appoints a firearms officer to approve who can hunt. This represents an intrusion into Aboriginal people's traditions," said Walken. She firmly believes the right to hunt is meaningless if it illegal for an Aboriginal person to possess the tools needed to carry out that right. Walken furthers the argument against the act by stating Aboriginal people do not hunt for sport or for hobby, but as a way of life.
While the firearms act does recognize the sustenance hunter, those who hunt to support their families, the act applies to every sustenance hunter universally.
Greg Sarasyn, his wife and their children prepare to hunt moose in Algonquin Provincial Park. It takes them two days to set up their camp. They do some scouting and moose calling and it's a way of life for them. It's what Sarsyn has been doing since he was 11 years old.
"I was gifted my first rifle when I was 14," said Sarasyn. He watched his father and grandfather hunt with guns for the main source of their food supply. It is a tradition that he wants to pass on to his children.
"I'm undecided on what I will do when the legislation comes into effect. It comes down to my fundamental beliefs," said Sarasyn, who is a policy analyst for the Union of Ontario Indians. At the next grand assembly of the organization discussion will centre on the firearms legislation and how the union will respond to it.
Sarasyn is one of several policy analysts at the union preparing background on the matter, and as an option, a plan has been formed to implement the legislation using First Nation people as educators for the Canadian Firearms Safety Course that is a requirement in getting a firearms license. The union has not ratified any decisions at this time.
An Indigenous person may not have to take the safety course if they are an Elder or state they have knowledge of the safety requirements and are supported by a statement from an Elder or community leader, or that obtaining the course would cause undue hardship.
"This can place a large burden on the Elders or community leaders," said Sarasyn. "There are some communities that have several hundred to over a 1,000 people. That makes it a fairly complex provision for us," he said. The firearms act and regulations for Aboriginal people does not look at how he was raised, he added.
"An Aboriginal right is not something that has been bestowed upon us by a treaty," said Sarasyn. It's the right of jurisdiction, a constitutional right to hunt and harvest food.
While Aboriginal people and their governments are exploring the firearms issue further, the Canadian Firearms Centre seems to be bracing itself for a fight, despite extensive consultation with Aboriginal groups to ensure the new legislation works for Aboriginal people.
"There is an issue around treaty rights," admitted Cathy Suffle, communications co-ordinator for the centre. She acknowledged that cases will come to the courts about the act. The reactions are varied but for the most part people are not happy. Yet, at the same time people want to know more about the firearm safety legislation, she said.
The new legislation contains a non-derogation clause that states the legislation will not interfere with the constitutional protection given to Aboriginal people or their treaty rights.
"These types of cases will come up. It's going to be an issue," she said.
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