Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
June- 2000
Powwow Princess
Lillian Sparks is Miss Indian World 2000, crowned in Albequerque, New Mexico during the Gathering of Nations powwow held April 27 to 29. See her story in Windspeaker's Guide to Indian Country.Photo Credit: Bert Crowfoot
Big win for B.C. Métis
Nisga'a say goodbye to Indian ActRacist remarks produce nothing but silence
Dignity, $1.4 billion what lawsuit is about
Students expand knowledge through travel
Daishowa drops appeal
Indian control of Indian education remains the focus
Of white heroes and old men talking - Guest Column
Welcome to Canada? - Editorial
2000 Guide to Indian Country is here!
The above is only a partial list of all the stories featured in the June, 2000 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.
Big win for B.C. Métis
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
CRANBROOK, B.C.Charges laid against six Métis men under the province's Wildlife Act were dismissed on April 28 when provincial court Judge Don Waurynchuk ruled the men were exercising their Aboriginal right to hunt.
Dan LaFrance, John Grant Howse, Leonel Courchaine, Frederick Laboucane, Ronald Monsen and John Pratt expect the province to appeal the case, but they were delighted by the decision that LaFrance said vindicates their claim that the provincial government has refused to come to grips with court decisions that define Aboriginal rights.
"After April 28, I feel like a different person," he told Windspeaker, the day after the decision was handed down. "I've always said I don't need any court to tell me who I am, but now they've had to admit we have these rights and it feels different, you know? It's been a very emotional day."
The list of 14 charges included hunting without a licence, unlawfully using a motor vehicle for hunting, carrying a firearm without a licence, killing a moose out of season, illegally possessing a moose carcass and similar charges related to the killing of a white antlerless deer. None of the accused denied the charges but they pled not guilty, claiming they were Métis people with a constitutionally protected right to engage in those activities.
The judge's decision shows he was persuaded to be very sympathetic to the Métis people before him at trial. He relied on several previous cases to set the standards he needed to follow to reach his decision on the matter, including R. v Powley (a 1998 Ontario case where Métis hunting rights were upheld) and the Supreme Court of Canada decisions in Sparrow and Marshall.
Each of the accused, with the exception of Monsen whose charges were stayed because he was too ill to attend court, provided oral proof of their connection to a Métis community and convinced the judge they were in fact Métis. Once the judge accepted they had proven that, he then applied the case law with regards to the issue of what rights Métis people have.
"The evidence establishes that Métis people have suffered discrimination and prejudice from all sides including the inequality of treatment by provincial governments across Canada. Specifically, the inequality of treatment by the Wildlife Conservation officers and their political masters," the judge wrote in his decision. "It would be difficult, if not impossible, for the British Columbia provincial government to argue that they have not had enough time since the coming into force of the Constitution Act, 1982 to set up a process to determine the practice, customs or traditions of Aboriginal Métis claims that would most definitely arise. Hunting, fishing and food gathering is a pretty basic right to Aboriginal peoples."
Judge Waurynchuk noted that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that governments can only infringe Aboriginal rights if there is a compelling reason and then noted that consultation with Aboriginal people is legally required. He found that British Columbia had done nothing to take those decisions into account.
"The evidence presented at trial indicates unequivocally that the government of British Columbia has not recognized or affirmed the Aboriginal hunting rights of its Métis citizens," the judge wrote. "In this case I find that Aboriginal rights of Métis people in British Columbia to hunt moose and deer is interfered with by the regulatory scheme currently in place. There has been no consultation with the local or provincial Métis councils, associations or Elders concerning Aboriginal hunting rights."
The actions and words of the conservation officers in laying the charges were described in the judgment as "discriminatory" and "inappropriate" by Waurynchuk.
The court decision was a strongly worded, unreserved victory for Métis people and an equally strong rebuke to the provincial government. LaFrance said the decision will affect Métis rights across the country and also lends weight to claims by First Nations leaders that the British Columbia government has refused to embrace the law of the land as it deals with Aboriginal rights cases.
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Nisga'a say goodbye to Indian ActBy Jennifer Lang
Windspeaker Contributor
TERRACE, B.C.Thundering applause momentarily drowned out Nisga'a president Joe Gosnell as he told hundreds of celebrants gathered in Gitwinksihlkw that their hard-won treaty has now taken effect, ending more than a century under the Indian Act.
"We are no longer wards of the state; we are no longer wards of the government," Gosnell said, pausing to be heard over the crowd's approval.
"We are no longer beggars in our own land. We are free to make our own mistakes, savour our own victories, and stand on our own feet."
Gosnell said the treaty restores powers of self-government to the Nisga'a, who sought a formal treaty for 113 years.
"I want to say to you, welcome to the Canadian family," federal Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault said at the May 12 ceremony, where Nisga'a residents, dignitaries, and well-wishers gathered to mark the historic occasion. "Today we celebrate the coming into effect of B.C.'s first modern-day treaty, and hopefully many more to come."
British Columbia Premier Ujjal Dosanjh welcomed the Nisga'a as equals into the province.
"Let me say this loudly, for all British Columbians to hear. This treaty is about justice," Dosanjh said. "The suffocating weight and shackles of the Indian Act are gone, and gone forever."
In its place is the Nisga'a Lisims Government, a democratically elected body that will have legislative and administrative powers, allowing the Nisga'a to govern themselves and the land included in the treaty, which came into effect just after 12 a.m. May 11.
A provisional government was sworn in, and introduced 18 pieces of legislation covering fish and wildlife management, financial administration, justice, and policing.
Elections for northwestern British Columbias newest government, which will have representation from all four Nass Valley villages and the Nisga'a Nation locals in Terrace, Prince Rupert and Vancouver, will be held within six months.
One of the first orders of business will be to pass a budget.
The treaty gives the 5,500 Nisga'a ownership of 1,992 square kilometres of former reserve and Crown land in the Nass Valley and $200 million in cash.
The Nisga'a will phase in some of the treaty provisions, like the introduction of sales and income taxes, over a number of years.
Construction crews are busy completing the new legislature building, located in New Aiyansh, in anticipation of being open for business this July.
Designed to resemble a longhouse, the curving, two-storey, 23,000 square-foot building will be home to the new government, administration, and programs and services.
"We wanted to emphasize tradition and incorporate ideas of an open and accountable government," said Edward Allen, Chief Executive Officer of the Nisga'a Lisims Government.
The treaty, federally ratified and given Royal Assent in Ottawa April 13, continues to stir up controversy among observers, including B.C.'s opposition Liberal Party, which mounted a Supreme Court challenge May 15 on the constitutionality of the treaty. As well, the neighbouring Gitanyow First Nation says the treaty encroaches on its own claim.
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Racist remarks produce nothing but silence
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
SASKATOONNo editorials or columns were written about it in national mainstream newspapers.
There were no political or public affairs talk shows that took up the question or looked for an explanation.
There was nothing - nothing but silence.
When Cheryl Soucy launched a heated attack on Marji Pratt-Turo in front of the Saskatoon provincial court building on May 3, the CBC and other media outlets covered it, but that was where it ended.
As Soucy arrived at court to attend a preliminary hearing for two officers charged with the forcible confinement of a Native man, Soucy attacked the press for blowing the matter out of proportion and taking the Native side in the dispute.
Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson were suspended from the City of Saskatoon police force after admitting they abandoned Darrell Night, a 33-year-old Aboriginal man, on the outskirts of town without a coat on Jan. 28, a night when temperatures plunged to minus 26 degrees Celsius. On April 12, several weeks after an RCMP investigation into Night's complaint was completed, the officers were charged with forcible confinement and assault in connection with the case.
Soucy, a friend of the officers, exchanged words first with reporters.
"You're taking the Native side," she said to reporters. "Give it a rest."
When Pratt-Turo, a member of Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, interrupted to ask Soucy if she didn't believe Native people, including Night, should receive respectful treatment from police.
"You think it's all right to murder Indian men?" asked Pratt-Turo, a member of the Grandmothers Vigil for Justice, a mostly Native group of women who have been holding candle-light vigils outside of the Saskatchewan Justice minister's office every Thursday since the bodies of two Native men were found outside the city in early February.
"They didn't murder anybody," Soucy responded, turning her attention to the protesters.
Pratt Truro said later that Soucy then tried to blow out her candle.
"You can blow out my candle, but you can't kill me," she responded.
"You can't kill me, either," Soucy countered.
"I don't want to . . . "
"And you can't take them down, either."
"Racism - You don't have a patent on racism," Pratt-Turo said.
"Racism has dick-all to do with it," Soucy responded. "Well, if you guys had let it go, it wouldn't turn into a racist issue."
"Are you kidding . . .?
"How many people died?" another protester asked.
"But why are these two taking the blame for everyone's that dead," Soucy answered. "Yeah, I have a certain amount of racism because I've dealt with enough of . . . Natives that've caused me nothing but hell and havoc . . . broke into my home! OK!"
"White people have done that to me. My nose is broken. I have bullet holes in . . . " Pratt-Turo said.
"All right, how many beers do you drink and how much bingo do you do? And how much welfare are you guys on and how many jobs do you people have?" Soucy.
Many Native observers feel the fact that Soucy apologized two days later only underscores the seriousness of the problem. They feel she may have inadvertently proved the point the officers' accusers are trying to make with her outburst and was then advised to apologize as a means of controlling the damage to her friends' case.
Forcible confinement is a serious criminal offense. Should the officers be convicted on this charge, there's a chance they'll serve time in jail - perhaps even time in a federal institution.
Pratt-Turo later told Windspeaker she was embarrassed by the part she played in the incident, but she hoped that people across the country had a close look at a phenomenon that she said is too rarely dealt with directly in the national press. No Native person who saw the exchange was surprised by it, but many see an opportunity in Soucy's remarks.
Alfred Gay, a member of the Gull Bay First Nation in Ontario who now works as a researcher for the Lustiguj First Nation (located near the Quebec/New Brunswick border), saw the confrontation on television. He thinks all Canadians should take a hard look at what Soucy's words and actions say about Canadian society.
"Well, you know what's so funny about that is, you see it and you're kind of repulsed by it, but she speaks for all the people out there," Gay said. "Everybody's probably going to condemn her, but that's what the lawyers think, that's what the grocery store owner thinks, that's what the cab driver thinks.
"I grew up in a non-Native community and that's what the white people were saying. It's out there. She's representative of everybody from Joe Banker to Joe Welfare Recipient. Now that the issue's out there, now that we know that's in the mind of the public, how do we bring that out and allow the public to say what they think? It's like healing. If you go to a healing session or a sweat lodge, it's all those dark thoughts that you want out there."
Pratt-Turo's sister, Bernelda Wheeler, is a well-known Native journalist and writer who lives in Saskatoon. She believes Soucy was portraying widely-held attitudes towards Native people.
"The only difference is this time they caught it on camera - They caught it on tape," she said.
Wheeler said racism is an everyday reality for Native people in Saskatchewan.
"I see a legacy of racism. I grew up here and I remember as a little child going into the city of Regina and feeling - feeling - looked-down-upon and marginalized and minimalized by white people. Nobody said anything, but I felt that," she said. "The racism at that time was open and overt and ugly and horrid. I don't think they even believed that we were people."
Darrell Night's lawyer, Donald Worme, a Cree man who practices law in Regina, believes such police short-cuts are an indication of a lack of respect for basic human rights in the society at large. He believes the fact that police officers think they can treat some people in such a manner is a sign that the poor are seen as inferior members of society whose basic human rights don't deserve the same kind of respect as those who are financially well-to-do.
Native leaders all over the country are asking for a full public inquiry into alleged police abuse of Native people. There have been dozens of incidents where Native people died or suffered serious injuries at the hands of police officers. In each case, rather than responding with a full blown investigation which would seek to expose any underlying reasons for the violence, governments chose to limit the scope of the investigations so as to avoid confronting racial issues in the full light of day.
Pratt-Turo and her sister believe it's reflective of a national case of denial. Canadians rather smugly look at the civil rights problems experienced in the United States and tell themselves that Canada doesn't have those kinds of problems.
"They don't want to hear it. They don't want to believe they're that kind of a country," said Wheeler.
Worme also believes this case has touched a very sensitive nerve in the Canadian psyche.
"The public is in a state of denial about the human rights aspects of this issue," he said. "Part of the problem is we do have a public that is in a state of denial."
Worme suggests the bigger issue is related to economics. He sees the police acting as a tool of the haves in society, working against the have-nots.
"Yes, definitely," agreed Bob Hughes, president of the Regina-based Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism. "That is a big part of it and, obviously, in this area, Aboriginal people are certainly in the lowest economic bracket so they're going to get nailed the hardest.
Hughes, 51, saw the CBC-TV report on the exchange. As a life-long Saskatchewan resident, Hughes is worried that hate and intolerance are becoming more evident in the province.
With the farm crisis creating economic difficulties for many people in the region, an acute form of intolerance, a phenomenom that hasn't been seen since the Great Depression, appears to be on the rise in the province.
The Saskatchewan Party, a political party formed out of the remnants of the corrupt and disgraced provincial Conservative Party, is following an agenda that resembles that of the federal Canadian Alliance (formerly the Reform Party). The Saskatchewan Party is exploiting the fact that Premier Roy Romanow's NDP government is in a minority position in order to force some its far-right policies onto the political stage, including breaking the detente on Native provincial tax exemption.
Hughes said it reminds him of the tactics the Klu Klux Klan used to elect the Conservative Party in the province in the 1930s.
"We see this as heading for dangerous times," he said. "It seems to me to be history repeating itself. We have political parties provincially and federally that are hungry for power and they're using whatever issues that can arouse this kind of emotion - any kind of issue that there is a fair amount of ignorance about that they can use to build a coalition, looking back at the history of Saskatchewan and the way the Klan was used by then a Conservative Party that was hungry for power in the 1930s."
Historians note that the Klan had 40,000 members in the province at that time and a Klan meeting in Moose Jaw in 1930 attracted 10,000 people.
"Whatever they could teach people to fear and hate, they fed them and that's what I see right now," Hughes said. "It's really scary to me. I see us being manipulated."
Adding fuel to the anger of the non-Native population in the province regarding the issue is the fact that Regina is home to the RCMP training barracks. The provincial capital is an RCMP company town and the rest of the province feels that connection in varying degrees. An attack against police - deserved or not - produces strong emotional responses.
"The majority of the middle class haven't had a serious problem with the police so the media that are controlled by them slam us as being critical of people who are doing dangerous work," Hughes said.
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Dignity, $1.4 billion what lawsuit is aboutBy Bruce Weir
Windspeaker Contributor
CALGARYAfter 11 years of preparation, a case brought by the Samson and Ermineskin bands against the federal government opened in Federal Court in Calgary April 28. The bands are accusing the federal government of financial mismanagement of their money, including royalties paid on oil and gas extracted from reserve lands. Dating back some 50 years, the total damages being sought by the bands amount to almost $1.4 billion.
It was only fitting that a case which promises to be complex and far-reaching began with a prayer asking the Creator for guidance in resolving complicated issues.
The trial is expected to last more than two years. Justice Max Teitelbaum made it clear at the outset that he is keen to have the trial move as fast as possible with the intent of limiting the costs to both the plaintiffs and the Crown.
With eight lawyers in court for the Samson, four for the Ermineskin and five for the Crown, the case promises to be complex and have far-reaching implications for the relationship between Aboriginal people and the federal government.
"For the Samson Cree, the case is about issues that span the range of time," Samson lawyer James O'Reilly told the court. "We are at a crossroads of time, looking back in time and forward in time to determine who are the Indian people, where they are going and what is their relationship going to be with the Crown."
O'Reilly said the case brought by the bands can be divided into four broad categories: general and historic issues; moneys; oil and gas; and programs and services. Taken together, O'Reilly told the court, these matters will produce a case that "will be a constitutional benchmark."
At the core of the case is Treaty 6, which was signed in 1876. The Samson joined the treaty the following year and, according to O'Reilly, it is critical the court understand the circumstances under which the treaty was signed.
In his opening remarks, O'Reilly stated the treaty has been watered down over the course of the nearly 125 years it has been in effect. The treaty predates the Indian Act. O'Reilly said no mention of the impending legislation was made at treaty time, yet it has come to govern the relationship between Natives and the federal government.
The Samson band is challenging specific sections of the act that O'Reilly characterized as "representing the colonial laws of the 19th century."
O'Reilly argued that the treaty represents the "supreme law" between the Crown and Natives because both parties agreed to it, as opposed to the Indian Act, which "was an attempt to assert power over Indian people."
The end result is that, in the eyes of the Samson and Ermineskin, "treaty rights take precedence over the Indian Act, the Indian Oil and Gas Act and other legislation."
The Crown disputes these interpretations. Crown attorney Alan Macleod told reporters the government view is that the issues surrounding oil and gas revenues ". . . do not engage the treaty. The government has the right to set prices and create laws that have a general application and seek to balance the interests of the whole country."
In an attempt to refute this argument, O'Reilly intends to take the court into "a time capsule to travel back to 1876," and examine the circumstances surrounding the signing of the treaty. This will involve the testimony of historians and will reference historical documents, including a North West Mounted Police map from 1888 and a map from the Palliser Expedition dated 1858.
"It was important then and it is more important now," O'Reilly said of the treaty. "It is not just a parchment. It is a relationship, a coming together, a meeting of minds between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people. Without the treaty, there would be no Canada today. Aboriginal people are an integral part of Confederation."
The court will move to the Samson reserve for three weeks in June to hear the testimony of Elders concerning what their ancestors said about the circumstances surrounding the treaty and what the bands understood the nature of the agreement to be.
O''Reilly stated he will argue that the treaty obligates the federal government to act with honor and respect for the Indians and that it has failed to do so. He cited the fact that no schools had been built on the Samson reserve before 1992 despite provisions in the treaty that the government would build and maintain schools on reserves.
Although he acknowledged that the money claimed by the bands was substantial, O'Reilly told the court more important issues were at stake.
"The money is important, but it's not what this is about. The Samson would take respect for the treaty over the money. If they only receive the money, it will be a loss. This case seeks to restore the dignity of Indian people."
Students expand knowledge through travel
By Yvonne Irene Gladue
Windspeaker Staff Writer
BAKER LAKE, NunavutThe Nunavut Youth Abroad Program in Baker Lake is designed for youth 16 to 21. By applying to the program, Nunavut students have the opportunity to work in southern Canada or Swaziland, Africa for six to seven weeks in the summer.
Students must complete the Canadian program before applying to the project in Africa. This program is designed to help broaden the horizons of Nunavut's youth. It will promote education and growth through work and travel. The exposure may lead the students to want higher levels of education. The participants will earn school credits while in the program.
"So far it has been very successful. In the last three years we've had only one kid drop out of the program," said Chris DaSilva, chairman. "The youth come back focused on school and on their future, which is exactly what we are trying to achieve in this program," he said.
The program was designed by a partnership of educational organizations in Nunavut. It is comprised of three Nunavut boards of education, three Inuit associations and Canadian Crossroads International. Based in Toronto, Canadian Crossroads is an organization that is responsible for cross-cultural exchange between Canadians and third world countries. It has been designed to promote global education, international citizenship and to further develop the youth as future leaders.
"A steering committee runs the Nunavut Youth Abroad Program," said DaSilva. "They do the screening of the host families and the employment and make sure that everything works well for the students. While in Africa the participants rent a house and live as a group," he said.
The program first began to take shape in 1996 with the Kivalliq Divisional Education Council. In 1997, 10 youth were selected and the participants were paired up and placed in communities such as Uxbridge, Ont., Thunder Bay, Ont., Salmon Arm, B.C., and Shelbourne, N.S.
Participants are recruited into the program or chosen through schools or regional youth conferences. In the summer, 25 students gather in Ottawa for an orientation seminar. Fourteen students will be part of the Canadian phase and six will be part of the African phase.
"Over the last three years we've had applicants from 26 communities," said DaSilva. "We also choose extra students in case some of the participants drop out."
Participants are sent to work in pairs. Pairing helps the students build a support system with each other. For some of the students this is the first time away from home.
Why southern Africa?
"I guess a number of reasons. First of all, we wanted to really stretch the kids. A couple of people on our steering committee had contacts and direct experience with people in Africa. So it made sense to utilize those contacts when we were designing the program," said DaSilva. "The temperature in Swaziland is actually temperate. It is far enough away from the equator that it gets a little cool there. It is also a very safe country and easily accessible by air. We were looking for a place where the logistics would be easy," he said.
Students have a lot of contact with the people in Africa. They get to go to schools and do presentations. On previous trips, students found that the people in Swaziland were friendly and made the group feel at home.
When the participants get back home they are asked to put together a project about their experiences. They develop skills in cross-cultural awareness, community development, leadership development, career awareness and planning, global education, international citizenship, and volunteerism. Students who were successful in the program return to their communities with a positive attitude, increased confidence and self-awareness.
"The kids that did the program in Africa have really learned a lot," said DaSilva. "They feel like they can do anything and go anywhere now. Their confidence is really high," he said.
Nunavut is Canada's newest territory. Many people in this region feel optimistic about the future; however, there are a number of statistics that people in this region are concerned about. There is a high percentage of school drop-outs, high rates of suicide, high levels of drug and alcohol abuse, and a high incidence of teenage pregnancies.
This program may help translate the present reality of Nunavut youth into a positive future. Many of the youth live in remote locations and face high costs when they want to travel. Lack of training outside their communities limits their qualifications for highly skilled career opportunities. To date, five graduates of this program have stepped into a leadership role in their home community.
"I support this program wholeheartedly and I hope it will be successful and ongoing," said John Amagoalik, chief commissioner for Nunavut.By Cheryl Petten
Windspeaker Staff Writer
TORONTOA lengthy chapter in the story of the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation's battle to have their traditional territory recognized has come to an end, although the final chapter remains unwritten.
On May 4, forestry giant Daishowa dropped its appeal of a 1998 Ontario Court decision that ruled that organizing peaceful consumer boycotts was a right protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The 1998 decision was made in connection with a boycott organized against Daishowa by the Friends of the Lubicon, a non-profit organization formed to assist the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation in its attempts to have its land claim settled.
The boycott began in 1991 after the Alberta government granted Daishowa a permit to log on land within the Lubicon claim area, and ended in 1998 when Daishowa made a commitment not to log an area of 4,000 square miles - a portion of the lands claimed by the Lubicon as traditional hunting and trapping territory - until the Lubicon land claim is settled.
Following Daishowa's decision to drop its appeal, Friends of the Lubicon also dropped their cross-appeal after reaching an out-of-court settlement.
Ed Bianchi is with Friends of the Lubicon, and was one of the three main defendants in the legal action. In an interview following the May 4 announcement, Bianchi explained what is required of both parties under the settlement agreement.
"It says that, as long as Daishowa keeps its commitment not to log or buy wood from Lubicon territory, then the Friends of the Lubicon won't initiate any kind of boycott activity. By the same token, as long as the Friends don't boycott or engage in any kind of boycott activities against Daishowa, unless Daishowa breaks their commitment, then Daishowa won't pursue any legal action," he said.
"There is also in the settlement agreement a requirement that the Friends of the Lubicon notify other groups of this agreement . . . requesting respectfully that other groups cease boycott activities, if conditions are tied to the fact that there is to be no logging on Lubicon territory until the Lubicon Natives reach a land rights settlement... as long as Daishowa drops all its legal action against Friends of the Lubicon."
Bianchi said he knows of one group that continues to boycott Daishowa, the Amitie Lubicons-Quebec (ALQ) in Montreal.
"They had two conditions for Daishowa, one of which involved logging on Lubicon land. The other one involved dropping the lawsuit against Friends of the Lubicon. Now that we've notified ALQ that Daishowa has in fact met both of those condition, we expect them, then, to announce that their boycott is off, because that's always been their position since their boycott started.
"The other part of that agreement is, if in fact other groups do spring up with an intention to boycott Daishowa, specifically about these two conditions, these two terms, then we are obliged by the agreement to notify them in writing and to inform them about the fact that the Lubicon are satisfied with Daishowa's commitment that they're not going to log, and Friends of the Lubicon are satisfied with Daishowa's commitment that they're not going to take us to court," Bianchi said.
"There's two points I think we need to underline here. One is that by avoiding appeal, what we have done is preserve the ruling that came down in April '98 by Justice MacPherson and the Ontario Court, and that is something that is very important, because it is a ruling which . . . is a very positive ruling in terms of strengthening the rights of individual citizens and consumers to inform other individual citizens about the activities of corporations and businesses. . . . And it's a very strong, good law, which basically strengthens the rights of people in Canada to inform other people about corporations and what corporations are doing," Bianchi said.
"The other point, which we're hoping has a ripple effect, is that if Daishowa can reach an agreement with the Friends of the Lubicon, but most importantly, with the Lubicon Nation, we hope that this will serve as an example to the federal government that it is, in fact, possible to reach a negotiated settlement, and that this will somehow positively impact on Lubicon negotiations. ."
Negotiations between the Lubicon Nation and the federal government are ongoing. The two parties met in early May, and are scheduled to meet again the first week of June.
Indian control of Indian education remains the focus
By Cheryl Petten
Windspeaker Contributor
OTTAWAIndian control of Indian education continues to be the ultimate goal in the provision of education for First Nations children in Canada.
Paula Collier is education policy analyst with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). She explained the concept of Indian control of Indian education was one put forward in the 1984 document Tradition in Education, published by the National Indian Brotherhood, now the AFN.
"It is a report, we very much follow the recommendations and the guidance in it, and it speaks to Indian control of Indian education. So if you're looking for a catch phrase, there it is, and that's what we need," Collier said. "To improve the quality of our education, we need control over it. Because currently there is Indian education by non-Indians, and that's extremely problematic."
The AFN, Collier explained, has two organizations dealing with education, the Chiefs Committee on Education, and the National Indian Education Council. One of the areas both have identified as a priority for the AFN is special education.
"First Nations special education has been identified as a key priority area. So what we're looking at is developing a national First Nations special education policy so that we can ensure that we will have support for the ever-increasing need for local community programs and services," Collier said. "So this work is ongoing. There's a committee formed, of course, a working group on special education."
Another area the AFN is working on post-secondary education.
"We're just in the process of finalizing a draft for the national post-secondary education review. And it makes recommendations concerning the policies that govern post-secondary education, policies developed and implemented by DIAND," Collier said.
Collier expects the review won't be ready for release to the public until the fall, after it receives ratification by First Nations at the communtiy level.
Another initiative in the works regarding post-secondary education is the formation of an association of First Nations Higher and Adult Education Institutes.
According to Collier, the AFN is assisting in the coordination of the national association of Aboriginal controlled post-secondary institutes. The association had its first meeting in Winnipeg in March, and is still in the early stages of formation, Collier said.
"And what we're trying to do, it's not just a clearing house, it's more of brokering of courses, exchanging information, liaising with other regions," Collier said of the fledgling association."We're looking at very important issues, such as accreditation. Because what happens right now is that, even though a First Nations controlled, Aboriginal controlled post-secondary education institute offers valuable, quality programming, it's not accredited. So what we have to do is piggy-back on mainstream institutions to get that accreditation."
"I think the bottom line for everything that we do here at the AFN is that it has to be driven from the grassroots level. And that's what we promote. That's where we get our mandate. We're mandated by the chiefs and assembly. So what the community tells us, that's what we advocate, and that's what we do, because we're a politicial organization," Collier said.
