Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
1998 Windspeaker May Headlines
 |
Powwow season begins! The Saskatchewan Indian Federated College held its annual powwow April 4 and 5. It attracted participants, such as Richard Thunderchild of the thunderchild First Nation (left), from across the canadian prairies and areas of the United States. The SIFC powwow is the third largest indoor powwow in North America. Estimated attendance was between 8,000 and 10,000.
Photo Credit: Brian Cross |
Ipperwash sentence to be appealed
Aboriginal people living off reserve not seeing the benefits
Feds said to be ignoring protocol
Is there some history hiding in your closet
Powwow keeps getting bigger and better
Diamond Belts attract top amateurs
A page turned all too quickly Editorial
Honored or exploited: Entertainer concerned
Responding to the critical- Guest Column
Wilting away, bit by bit - by Ken Ward
Here is a full list of the stories featured in the May, 1998 issue of Windspeaker. If you are not receiving your own copy of Windspeaker, then you have missed many of these exciting stories.
Click here for Windspeaker subscription information.No comment on tax case
Human Rights Commission reports cautious optimism
Opponents try to KO project OK
AFN to tackle accountabilityMétis woman new chief
Positive attitude will help competitorLife in the balance
Sisters sue Catholic order
Thirty percent Native employment at mine
Sun newspaper invades private funeralDiamond belts attract top amateurs
Legendary runner Deerfoot to be inducted
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
SARNIA, Ont.
The lawyer for Warren George, the last person to go to court for his role in the Ipperwash Provincial Park incident two-and-a-half years ago, is appealing his client's six-month jail sentence.
"Basically, the sentence is preposterous," said lawyer Jeff House.
Warren George was sentenced in early April after Ontario provincial court judge Greg Pockele found him guilty of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon (a car).
House said the sentence is unfair considering that an Ontario Provincial Police officer charged with negligence causing death during the Ipperwash standoff for the fatal shooting of protester Dudley George, was given a conditional sentence of two-years-less-a-day to be served in the community, not jail.
Outside the Sarnia courtroom, following the sentence, Crown Prosecutor Henry van Drunen is reported to have said that George would not get a conditional sentence like the police officer, because he doubted a conditional sentence could be served in a community "which regards Warren George as a hero."
House said his client was not considered a hero, but a victim.
George was part of an occupation at Ipperwash Provincial Park in September 1995. The occupation came after almost 60 years of dispute between the people of the Stoney Point band and the federal government. Before the Second World War, the Canadian government moved the Stoney Point members from their land to construct a new military base. The government told the band members they would get their land back after the war. That promise never materialized. Stoney Point band members have since joined the Kettle Point First Nation. Frustrations came to a boil around Labor Day of 1995 when several Stoney Pointers took control of the land within the provincial park, claiming it was a traditional burial ground. The police were called in to disperse the protesters.
One of the first clashes came as Kettle Point councillor Cecil Bernard George was trying to warn the protesters of the advancing police force. Court testimony indicates that the police force caught up to the councillor and beat him to the ground.
House said medical evidence presented at the trial noted at least 28 separate areas on the councillor's body which showed signs of blunt force trauma, consistent with being beaten by the batons carried by the police members.
House said some protesters saw the beating and tried to help the councillor.
Warren George drove a car from inside the blockade on Sept. 6, 1995, to help the 40-year-old councillor who was lying in the nearby car park. George followed a bus driven by a 16-year-old Ipperwash protester who was also going to the assistance of the man
House said his client followed the bus which forced the police officers to scatter away from the injured man lying in the middle of the car park.
As Warren George approached in the car, one officer is reported to have jumped in front of the vehicle, drawing his service revolver. George saw the man pointing the gun and swerved to avoid being shot. The car careened into a group of police officers, striking several of them.
House said testimony of the officers in court showed that the collision was not a significant one. The car was only travelling at 15 km-h, he said, and the worst injury to any of the officers was a twisted leg.
House said his client was lying on the seat of the car and put the vehicle into reverse after hitting the officers. It was then that the police opened fire.
"He tried to back up and the police officers tried to shoot at him . . . there were a dozen bullet holes in the car," he said.
The lawyer said his client was justified in trying to swerve out of the way of the police officer who pointed the gun at him.
"He turned rapidly to the right because he didn't want to get shot," said House.
It was during the gunfire that Dudley George, another protester, was shot and killed by one of the police officers. The court heard that 70 shots were fired in all, by the police officers during the incident.
House said he doesn't understand why his client is the only one of those charged to be sentenced to jail time.
The other protesters, including the youth who drove the bus, were acquitted.
Adding to the frustration, House said he was the defence lawyer for the youth and believed that Warren George's case was similar.
The jail sentence surprised the lawyer and Warren George's family.
"I didn't have a sense that things were not going well until [Pockele] read his sentence," said House.
The lawyer strongly believes that Warren George's defence is sound and the court proceedings were flawed.
Warren George had every right to try and help a person being beaten by law enforcement members, House said. The only reason he hit the officers with his car is that he was forced to turn into them.
"It's not negligence to try and avoid being shot."
House is appealing the sentence and conviction based on those two points, as well as the granting of the conditional sentence to the police officer.
He said the Criminal Code calls for parity or fairness in cases containing similar circumstances. That was not upheld in this instance, he said.
"The officer was charged with criminal negligence causing death, and he received a conditional sentence. Then, Warren George was convicted - and wrongly convicted in my opinion - and he was given jail time," said House.
The appeal is not expected to be heard by the Ontario Court of Appeal until after summer. In the meantime, Warren George has been released from custody on bail and is awaiting the appeal.
"I conveyed the wishes of the community, the council and the family for an independent investigation," Fontaine said. "This matter will be raised with the justice minister and I expect that we will receive an answer fairly soon."
In an initial interview, Tsuu T'ina Nation administration spokesman Peter Many Wounds, said no one is certain exactly what took place or what the events were leading up to the fatal shooting of the mother and her child.
"We don't know for sure all of the events that occurred," Many Wounds said. "Obviously there was an incident. Obviously there is a mother and child dead. It's a tragedy and we're trying to find out exactly what happened."
Whitney exonerated both the social worker and band police of any wrongdoing and said they had been following department procedure in dealing with the incident.
"To the best of the knowledge that we have, all of the appropriate steps were taken and that we need to continue, we need to have the continuance of those programs in our community." However, Tsuu T'ina Nation Mount Royal College students Marlene Owl Simon and Cory Cardinal do not share Whitney's view that the social worker and the band police officer are totally blameless. Simon said they were too aggressive in attempting to seize Jacobs' children.
"The Child and Family Services, they just go up to a house and take the children away," Simon said. "If the people wanted that we could keep the White child and family services out there." Simon said that the social worker's qualifications to handle the type of situation she was confronted with should be questioned. She also feels that the worker and the band police did not need to involve the RCMP.
"I don't think they should have been involved," Simon said. "They should have sent somebody ahead or somebody who Connie would talk to, maybe another family member, to go in there and talk with her."
Cardinal, chief of the colleges Native student society, the Four Directions Lodge, agreed with Simon that the events prior to Voller's deadly shotgun blast could have and should have been handled better.
"If that was a White person they wouldn't have shot right away," Cardinal said. "She had a weapon, they knew that, why would they come and confront her like that with so many children in the house."
He said the shooting of the Tsuu T'ina mother and child could have a negative effect on the relationship between the RCMP and First Nation communities.
"I think that it's going to cause a lot of resentment not just in Tsuu T'ina but on other reserves as well with the RCMP," Cardinal said. "You're going to have people afraid to call in the police because they won't know how they're going to act.
"If you have an incident like that, don't you think they would have negotiators or experts in the field."
The shooting came just two days after a First Nations Justice Conference was held in Calgary to discuss ways of reintroducing traditional methods of justice administration to First Nation communities. The consensus among the delegates to the conference was that family and community need to be involved directly in finding root causes of problems in First Nation communities and possibly avoid situations like the one in Tsuu T'ina.
Harley Crowchild, director of the Tsuu T'ina/Stoney Corrections Society, was a delegate to the conference and he said he was in full support of family and community involvement in justice. He said he doesn't know whether the child and family services have incorporated traditional methods of problem resolution into their programs or, if so, how far the traditional approach extends. "Whatever they did they followed it by the books, I guess," Crowchild said. "They're all aware of those (traditional) methods, but I don't know if they practice it. Maybe people were a little too hasty. Maybe the RCMP were a little too hasty."
Many Wounds said the surviving children are with their father and all are staying with relatives for the meantime, but they will receive new housing, possibly within the city of Calgary. Many Wounds said funeral arrangements for Jacobs and her nine-year-old son Ty will be made known by the family following the release of the medical examiners report.
Aboriginal people living off reserve not seeing benefits
By Allison Kydd
Windspeaker Contributor
OTTAWA
The 1997 Annual Report of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, published March 24, shows that the commission is unimpressed by the federal government's response to the needs of Aboriginal people living off-reserve.
"The plight of Aboriginal people living in urban areas has historically received little attention and was not addressed in the government response to the Royal Commission," said the commission in its report.
On the other hand, the report acknowledged the importance of both the federal government's Statement of Reconciliation and its Aboriginal action plan, Gathering Strength. By these two responses to RCAP, said the report, the federal government admitted "that past treatment of Aboriginal peoples was wrong . . . and committed itself to working with Aboriginal people to build a new and better future." Unfortunately, the report continued, the action plan "focuses primarily on the situation of on-reserve Status Indians." This is one way in which the federal response "lacks the detail and long-term objectives called for by the Royal Commission." The report also pointed out the following:
There is clear evidence that the social and economic situation of Aboriginal people in urban centres is often as bad as or worse than that of those living on reserves. However, governments at all levels have been unable or unwilling to deal effectively with their needs."
The commission reports that there may be several reasons why the problems of Aboriginal people living in urban centres have not been given priority. The first is possibly the argument that Canada, because of the current economic climate, must "go slow on change." This argument is described as follows:
Despite the Royal Commission's conclusion that an investment now will pay dividends later, many argued throughout 1997 that Canada's economic situation makes the RCAP strategy unaffordable.
Response to the Royal Commission's recommendations as a whole has been mixed, said Donna Balkan, manager of Media and External Relations for the commission, when she spoke to a Windspeaker reporter on April 20. Balkan suggested that, though the Human Rights Commission does not wish to single out particular persons or publications, many feel the federal government is not in a financial position to follow through on certain RCAP recommendations.
Balkan and the report itself counter such arguments over money by pointing out that there is also a very high cost for doing nothing. The economics of the RCAP strategy was the subject of a Council for Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO) conference in October. The conference decided that the "cost of doing nothing about the high unemployment and social problems of Aboriginal peoples is already too high and is increasing rapidly." RCAP's estimate was that in 1996 alone, "the costs associated with lost income and production and attempts to remedy social problems totalled $7.5 billion."
The numbers suggest that approximately half of this expense is the cost of not meeting the needs of Aboriginal people who are living off-reserve, since "nearly half of Canada's approximately 800,000 Aboriginal people live in towns or cities, and migration to urban areas is increasing rapidly."
Furthermore, read the report,
Without fundamental changes, these costs will grow year after year, as the Aboriginal population expands and more young people look for jobs in a workplace that offers them few opportunities.
In the report's opinion, there is another reason the RCAP recommendations have not been put into effect:
The federal government has generally disclaimed responsibility on the grounds that its jurisdiction extends only to reserves. On the other hand, the provinces have generally resisted assuming responsibility for what they see as a federal problem. While the governments argue, Aboriginal people suffer."
"A lot of things are not entirely clear, such as whose responsibility it is to address the needs of non-status, non-reserve and Métis people, and that affects services and social programs," said Balkan.
According to the commission report, the plight of the Métis people has also been virtually ignored, for there is "the persistent lack of a clear government plan or policy to deal with the particular needs of the Métis."
For these reasons and others, the commission's annual report, though it calls itself "cautiously optimistic," also suggests the following:
It is not within our commission's purview to comment on which
arm of government should assume direct responsibility for urban
Aboriginal people, the Métis and non-status Indians. However,
what we can say is that all governments should address this issue
as a public policy priority of the first order. The cost of failing
is simply too high.
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
TORONTO
The Friends of the Lubicon were just exercising their constitutionally-protected right of free expression when they picketed or threatened to picket customers of Japanese-owned multi-national pulp and paper corporation Diashowa, Inc., an Ontario general division judge ruled on April 14.
But that court victory for the
Toronto-based activist group was tempered by a loss in the other
issue before the court: defamation. Mr. Justice James McPherson
ruled that the use of the word "genocide" by Friends
of the Lubicon picketers was too extreme.
Chief Bernard Ominayak (left) has been working for a settlement
of the Lubicon land claim for more than a decade. He is pictured
here with former Alberta Premier Don Getty.
"Indeed, in a century that has borne witness over and over again to terrible examples of genocide, it would be an enormous injustice to link Diashowa's proposed activities with this meaning of genocide," the judge said. "Their use of the word in the Friends' campaign was cavalier and grossly unfair to Diashowa. It was also defamatory."
In adding its claim of defamation to the request for a permanent injunction against the secondary picketing of their customers, Diashowa was aiming for a symbolic victory. The company asked for - and received - only one dollar in compensation. The court also ruled that claims by the Friends that the company had broken an agreement not to log on disputed Lubicon Cree lands until after the Alberta band's land claim has been settled, were erroneous.
"After a meeting in Vancouver in 1988 between Chief [Bernard] Ominayak and Diashowa, the Lubicon maintained there'd been some sort of agreement not to log. The Friends of the Lubicon have stated that we broke the agreement, but we have always maintained no agreement was reached," said Jim Morrison, general manager of Diashowa-Marubeni International's Peace River office. "The judge reviewed the testimony and looked at the minutes from both sides and determined that there had been no agreement."
The split decision rendered by the Ontario court left both sides claiming victory.
"The ruling has profound implications for every activist, everyone who expresses opinion publicly," said Karen Wristen, a Sierra Legal Defence Fund lawyer who represented the Friends in court. "The affirmation of the democratic right of free expression in this judgment is a badly needed antidote to the growing sense of corporate control and domination of the political agenda that is perceived in the activist communities in which we work."
"It's gratifying to see the judge rule that logging is not genocide and, also, not logging is not genocide," Morrison said.
Activists have criticized the company for attempting to muzzle the Friends of the Lubicon with its attempt to secure an injunction against the picketing. Wristen, the lawyer who successfully fought that attempt, said she was surprised that the judge ruled so strongly against a powerful business interest.
"Many people were flabbergasted that there's still such a liberal judge out there," she said.
Diashowa's lawyers tried to use the labor relations laws which govern picketing to convince the judge to extend the temporary injunction against the picketers to a permanent ban. But the judge ruled that labor laws don't apply.
"The judge ruled there is no regulatory scheme which governs a consumer boycott," lawyer Wristen said.
The judge also invoked The Charter of Rights and Freedoms in his reasons for decision.
"If the great principle of freedom of expression protects a corporation . . . then is there any reason why the same principle should not protect a small group of consumers . . . from saying to fellow consumers: here is why you should not buy Diashowa's products?" the judge said.
Morrison said his company has been unfairly held hostage by the picketers. Several other resource companies have exploited the land under claim by the Lubicon Lake Cree of northwestern Alberta, he said. Diashowa may hold the rights to log in the area, but they have not yet exercised those rights, the Diashowa manager said, adding that the company has lobbied both the federal and provincial government to settle the land claim so they can get to work.
Morrison said a subsidiary company which employs about 100 people (he was not able to tell Windspeaker how many - if any - of those employees are Aboriginal) is in danger of financial ruin if logging doesn't start soon. He said he will soon be meeting with provincial officials to once again urge action.
Immediately after the court decision was handed down, the Friends of the Lubicon stated the boycott would resume within 10 days if the company did not commit to not log until the Lubicon land rights issue has been settled. Morrison said that is not a commitment the company is willing to make.
The company will appeal the decision. Wristen said the Friends of the Lubicon may appeal the defamation decision.
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
OTTAWA
There's a new agency that will help increase the preservation of Canada's Aboriginal culture.
The Special Interest Section on Aboriginal Archives is an arm of the Association of Canadian Archivists and will be available to help communities or organizations set up their own historical archives.
All too often, photographs, documents and stories are misplaced or lost and the memories of families or cultures are left with gaping holes. The Aboriginal archives is available to train people about where to look for historical documents which may be scattered throughout their communities.
Trish Maracle, the chairperson of the interim steering committee for the new agency, hopes that with proper training and education, Native communities will be able to organize their own archives where they can store their own historical data.
Proper storage of archival material is essential for cultures to preserve their history, she said.
It is hopefully going to raise awareness that there may be some things in the back of the closet which could be on display, Maracle said.
"Many people may have photos or documents . . . and unless these things are preserved, they may be lost in the long run."
Through advice and information, the Aboriginal archives group wants to let Aboriginal people handle their own history.
Maracle is also hoping that the news of this new agency might increase the amount of historical artifacts in communities. If people know their photographs or documents can be displayed somewhere that they are comfortable with, then maybe people will be more willing to part with these items, she said.
Jim Bruce, the director of library and information services at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre, is pleased to hear about the emphasis on Aboriginal archival collections.
There is a need for Aboriginal artifacts to be collected from within communities and preserved properly, he said.
"If you don't pay attention to this preservation, this stuff is going to be gone," said Bruce. "In some bands, there are literally trailers full with loads of historical documents." These documents need the proper place to be preserved for future generations.
Old documents, papers and photographs are resource tools which people can use to increase community pride, trace the movements of ancestors and educate the youth. Unfortunately, since there, previously, has been little available assistance to band-level communities to preserve these artifacts, "there's been years of neglect and years of drift and there has been a loss of some of these resources," Bruce said.
One of the big benefits to this new program is the more personal perspective that the artifact stories will take, he said.
Most historical books are written and researched by non-Native people. To get the real story, he said archives need to go straight to the source. The new agency looks like it is trying to do that, he said.
Bruce said he is hopeful that Native community members will use the resources of the Aboriginal archives group to learn more about their own history.
"You have got to raise awareness toward the value of [preservation]," he said.
Collections of archival material is not only good for a community in the way of pride, it could also bolster a tourism economy or help community members trace back their ancestry.
The Aboriginal archives organizers are hoping to raise more awareness toward their plans at a May 27 Association of Canadian Archivists conference being held in Dartmouth, N.S. One afternoon of the three-day conference has been set aside to discuss the new agency and how it is going to work.
Maracle said she would like to eventually see the group have membership across Canada. Then, in each province, people who have been trained could assist their communities in setting up their own archives.
These community collections deserve to be created, maintained and showcased close to home, she said.
"It's people's memories and their history," she said.
The creation of the new agency was brought about from recommendations within the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report. Members of the Association of Canadian Archivists have also been looking at access and availability of Aboriginal archival material for a number of years. The association expects the new agency to assist them in learning how to work with Aboriginal communities to uncover record-keeping needs, provide training and management, and increase the accessibility of records in established archives.
Interested groups are asked to contact the Special Interest Section on Aboriginal Archives at their Ottawa office at (613) 947-0759, or through their e-mail address at SISAA@archives.ca.
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
VICTORIA
An 85-year-old retired rancher who, for many years, has been urging the prime minister and the governor general to officially apologize to Aboriginal people in Canada, is not impressed with Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Jane Stewart's latest activities.
Don Fraser was exposed to Aboriginal
culture from a very young age. He even claims a little Aboriginal
blood himself, saying some of his "mother's people"
were Aboriginal. He has been on a letter-writing campaign, trying
to make the federal authorities realize that it was government
policy which created such assimilation measures as the residential
schools and it should be the federal government and the Crown
it represents which should make the apology - not the Indian Affairs
minister.
"The proper protocol would be the governor general first, then the prime minister, then the Indian Affairs minister," said Fraser. "Observing the proper protocol is important to the people who hold these offices. Until that is done, this smear still holds. Aboriginal people are deeply offended by it and that's quite understandable. The Aboriginal community has been treated rather shabbily."
When Fraser discovered that Stewart visited Edmonton on April 2 to present a framed copy of her government's apology to Aboriginal people to a museum, the soft-spoken, courtly gentleman's tone turned harsh.
"That is nothing," he said. "And it shouldn't be done. It is furthering the insult to Aboriginal people - you can tell her that from me."
In the three months since the government's Jan. 7 apology to victims of sexual and physical abuse in Indian residential schools, critics have had time to digest the form and content of the announcement. Some say the government's promise to set aside a $350 million healing fund for residential school victims can be seen as an attempt to introduce mitigating factors in any future court award of damages. Lawyers say the Crown, should it lose a civil suit brought by victims of the residential school system, can point to the healing fund as proof that the Crown has attempted to lessen the harm created by the system. That could mean a net savings in damage awards that is far in excess of $350 million.
Reform Party Indian Affairs critic Mike Scott believes that's possible.
"We are cynical enough now to believe there are forces at work, decisions taken by government, that go beyond moral principles and a sense of right and wrong into the area of limiting legal liability," he said.
Fraser focuses more on who made or didn't make the announcement. He believes the fact that the message didn't come from the very highest levels of Canada's governing institutions is an indication that the government is less than sincere in its apology.
Minister Stewart insists it's a genuine apology. When asked by Windspeaker if she was aware that many Aboriginal people would be offended by the presentation of the Statement of Reconciliation to a museum because they see it as an attempt to enshrine the government's actions as history, as a completed process, the minister said, "Yes."
She attempted to assure people that the process of dealing with the legacy of past government actions is far from over.
"This is just the beginning," she said. "We view the Statement of Reconciliation as a new beginning, as a first step. There's work going on now. Ralph Goodale [the Métis Interlocutor] is building a plan of action for Métis issues. There's work being done on an Inuit-specific response. It's all part of the federal government's broad response. We realize different Aboriginal groups have different needs and concerns and we're working on specific action plans based on the four broad principles of Gathering Strength."
Fraser's not satisfied with that answer. He has recently received
an answer to one of his letters from Progressive Conservative
Indian Affairs critic Gerald Keddy. The MP joined Fraser in urging
Prime Minister Jean Chretien to add "an apology from a higher
level." The prime minister's office acknowledged receipt
of the letters, but did not offer any indication that Chretien
is considering the issue.
By Brian Cross
Windspeaker Contributor
REGINA
Over the years, Regina resident Charles Pratt has learned a lot about organizing the nationally-renowned annual Saskatchewan Indian Federated College Powwow. He's also learned that the continued success of the event requires a year-round planning effort - something dedicated organizers have contributed each year since the SIFC powwow was born back in 1978.
"We start looking forward
to this event about a year before it happens," said Pratt,
event chairman for the past six years.
"We'll have a little break for a couple of weeks because a lot of people are kind of tired . . . but we will have a review meeting in about three weeks. We'll start right away and look at where we can improve, then we'll set our dates so we can start publicizing for next year already. It's not a full time job but it takes a lot of supervision over a long period of time," he said.
Judging by the turnout at this year's event, Pratt and his committee are doing a masterful job ensuring the SIFC powwow retains its reputation as one of the best in North America.
Between 8,000 and 10,000 people attended this year's celebration, held April 4 to 5 in Regina. All told, about 750 dancers from throughout Canada and the United States competed at the event. About 35 drum groups from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Montana, South Dakota and New Mexico also attended.
According to Pratt, the organizing committee has focused its efforts on establishing the event as one of the largest and most successful indoor powwows in North America. As it stands, the SIFC powwow is one of the largest indoor powwows on the continent.
Only two other indoor powwows - one in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the other in Denver, Colorado - rival the SIFC event in terms of size and reputation, said Pratt.
Tim Eashappie agrees with that assessment. Eashappie, who hails from Hays, Montana, has attended the SIFC powwow 12 times in the past 20 years and is impressed with the event each time he returns.
Before the year is over, Eashappie will attend about 40 powwows, travelling coast-to-coast throughout Canada and the United States.
"It [the SIFC powwow] seems to be getting bigger and better every year and there seems to be a lot more young people," he said.
"It's really important that the younger people start getting involved because they're learning about their culture and because there's so much alcohol and drugs around these days."
According to Pratt, the SIFC powwow has always been a big draw for Aboriginal youths, even if they aren't participating in the cultural events.
"A lot of young people come here just to socialize and that's important too," Pratt said.
"Even if they're not dancing or whatever, they're still looking on and they're learning something. They're learning about their roots and they're being attracted to their culture."
"There's something here that's very healthy for the individual and there's something that's very healthy for the different social groups that are here as well," Pratt continued.
"This is a very positive cultural experience for us. It's
fine art. Every culture has fine arts. The music and dancing are
the fine arts of Indian culture."
By Terry Lusty
Windspeaker Contributor
EDMONTON
Alberta boxing fans and promoters are in their glory as the fights return after a somewhat dismal and quiet winter.
An amateur card at the Canadian
Native Friendship Centre on March 11 featured a long, drawn-out
15-bout card that hit the midnight hour before it was concluded.
Jointly sponsored by the Hortie and Cougar boxing clubs of Edmonton, the 1998 Diamond Belt Championships drew a full house to watch the best fighters that Alberta and Saskatchewan have to offer, many of whom are from prairie Aboriginal communities.
The first match-up saw Alex Shirjang from Wind Warriors of Edmonton defeat Scott Red Young Man of Main Event Boxing while Cougar Boxing's Todd Cassidy (132 lb.) put down Jerry Cooper from Ft. McKay's Bear Boxing.
Of two female bouts, the first one saw Cougar's Monica Kosobudzki and Saskatoon Native Friendship Centre's Krista Mirasty (112 lbs) go at each other, toe to toe, in a real slugfest with Kosobudzki winning.
The leather really flew in the fourth bout, when Jessie Laframboise of the Regina Flying Eagles pounded out a well-deserved win over Cougar toughie, Ernesto Moreno. in the 119 lb division. Then, 132 lb. Neil Glazebrook of Calgary's Derrick Club made a valiant comeback to win over Chad Minion from Bowmont Boxing.
In the 165 lb category, Brent Kronk from Calgary Boxing took a standing eight count in the fourth and lost to Walter Pritchard of the Derrick Club. Then, a dancing Jason Adams, 119 lbs, from the Cougar Club relentlessly pursued Calgary's Kishor Limbu and went on to defeat his opponent quite handily. Another well-conditioned Cougar boxer, Sean Burke, steamrolled over Ryan Belcourt from the Hortie Gym. Belcourt took two standing eights in the third round.
Paul Wallberg from Cougar worked the inside with stunning body shots to West Pembina's Trevor Paige from Calgary who, despite a height and reach advantage, could not overcome the more powerful and talented Wallberg.
Hortie's Crystal Arcand was a true wrecking machine as she scored an easy win after forcing Sask-atoon's Pearl Sutherland to take a standing eight early in the first.
Saskatchewan managed to win three of the last five fights. Regina's 147 lb Gary Kopas handily defeated Trent Price from Prince George. Price took a standing eight in the first and second rounds and then suffered a knock-down in the third that ended it.
The 178 lb category saw Hortie's best hope in Bernie St. Pierre who came back after a first round knockdown by Saskatoon's Harley Munroe.
Another Laframboise win was posted by Danah who took out Christopher Andrews from Cougar. Although 210 lb Terry Buck from Hortie's was the stronger man, he lost by disqualification for a low blow to Hub City Saskatoon's Brian Natoneau.
The wind-up battle pitted local Edmonton favourite Michael Sound against Saskatoon's Ephrum Bellehumeur. Sound appeared well off his regular form, yet he still managed to score a win in the 165 lb category.
In the corner: Whiz kid Willard Lewis hopes to take on Vancouver's
Eric Deluca in the planned May 29 Canadian Cruiserweight Championship
bout.
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