Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
1997 Windspeaker November Headlines
Province anxious to curb child prostitution
Ex-prostitute sheds light on sex trade
Cree soccer player off to play in England
Former medic praises 'real' veterans of war - column
Feds criticized
A question of bias - editorial
1997 CANDO AWARDS
Delegates offered tools for success
Kitsaki Development Corp. Economic Developer of the year
Chief an economic visionary for the community
Kitsaki is built to last ... and prosper
Corporation fills needs of northern BC
Corporation leads way to self-sufficiency
Nisga'a first woman president of CANDO
Cases of diabetes expected to triple
Time to shut down Ontario
Union president supports public inquiry
Two-year-old could be taken
Human rights commission defends status claims
Racism inherent - letter
Reader suggests plan of attack - letter
'You don't look like one' syndrome remembered - letter
Ontario girl finds her calling
The theatre files: the money is out there - column
Summit chiefs to meet with Minister Stewart
Bridge the gap
Book filled with colorful visions
Dakota House attacked
Jackson helps the homeless
Hollywood to Calgary
Grace of dance captured
500 years of Aboriginal history on display
Trial stalled when witness freezes
Environmental assessment needed
Iroquois hockey hopeful follows Orr, Lindros
Something to 'crow' about
Children at risk come from abusive homes
New faces. . . warm hearts - AIDS column
Man determined to keep medicines from becoming extinct
Native run casinos thriving side by side
November, 1997
Cree soccer player off to play in England
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
EDMONTON
Bernie Half made his third trip
of the year across the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month.
The 17-year-old Cree whose family roots are in the Saddle Lake First Nation in Alberta will join the Liverpool Junior Football Club as the team completes its exhibition season this winter. He will remain in England for the regular season which begins after the World Cup this coming summer.
Half was playing for the provincial all-star Alberta Selects in a tournament in Florida last July when he was approached about signing on for a year with the junior (18-years and under) affiliate of the English Premier League Liverpool Football Club.
He attended try-outs in Europe later that month, made the team and then came home to Edmonton. He returned to Liverpool in September and spent almost a month with the club before once again returning home to spend a couple of weeks with his mom, Linda.
It's extremely rare for a North American-trained soccer player to perform in such elite company, but the modest six-foot-tall, 160 pound centre-forward isn't getting a swelled head.
"There's lots of players better than me in my high school," Half said.
Apparently, the scouts don't agree.
Half was playing for a team that had access to all of the best soccer players in the province of Alberta when he was spotted in Florida. Of all those excellent players, only Half and one other were invited to play in England.
The Liverpool junior club can only be called a soccer factory where the talents and skills of the best players the scouts can find are finely honed. The intensity of the team's year-round training regime would be wasted on a player of inferior ability. The recruits begin their six-day-a-week workouts at 8 a.m. and continue until 5 p.m. Frequently, an evening game follows. Sundays are the players' only day off.
The level of play that Half experienced during his first month was like nothing he'd ever seen before, he reports.
"It's way different from here," he said. "It's very challenging. They play it real rough, a lot rougher than we play it here. It's more like rugby."
Playing for Liverpool - a perennial Premier League club - is the kind of thing that English school-boys dream of in the same way that Canadian kids dream of playing for the Montreal Canadiens or the Edmonton Oilers. Playing for the juniors is similar to playing Major Junior hockey. Getting the kind of coaching one receives while playing in one of the hottest of the world's soccer hotbeds is a rare experience, especially for a Canadian player. Seeing how serious they take the sport in that part of the world was a real eye-opener for the youngster who grew up in Lac La Biche, Alberta.
"It's like life to them," he said, sounding more than a bit in awe of his new playing environment.
Half said that the biggest lesson he learned during his first exposure to top level European football was just how much 11 men can do when they play as a well co-ordinated team.
"The way they play as a team is so different," he said. "The way they do it, everything has to be perfect."
The club picks up all of the junior players' living expenses and also provides tutors who travel with the team so that the high school players can combine their studies with the very demanding schedule. Soccer is a truly global sport and, during his first month with the Liverpool club, Half got to see a lot of the world.
"We play all over. I was in Italy, Greece and El Salvador," he said.
And he has already done something that most serious soccer fans can only dream of: a couple of his team's games in England were contested before packed houses in London's venerable Wembley Stadium.
The new Liverpudlian must aggravate a lot of his English teammates who've labored hard throughout their young lives for a spot on this elite team. Half says he just started fooling around with a soccer ball in Lac La Biche when he was seven years old. He was a natural. He didn't even start playing organized soccer until his family moved to Edmonton when he was 11.
"I guess I just sort of taught myself how to play," he said.
The soccer coach at M.E. LaZerte Composite High School in the Alberta capital might be a little upset to hear where the former LaZerte student is playing now because Half didn't even try out for his high school team. He has, however, spent the past several seasons playing on as many as three different men's teams at a time.
The junior team is designed to be a feeder system for the Liverpool professional club, but Half said he doesn't ever expect to play in the English Premier League. Part of that is his genuine modesty. But there's one other reason.
"It's just too far away," he said, admitting he gets homesick when he's so far away. "I know I'm going to learn a lot playing there and then I'll come back home and play closer to home, maybe Mexico or something like that."
The fans in England don't realize he's a Cree Indian from North America. Marcel Cardinal, an active Edmonton-area sports figure who knows Half's family, told Windspeaker the English fans have given him a Spanish nickname, assuming him to be Hispanic. Half laughed when he heard that Cardinal had let that particular cat out of the bag and verified the story.
Cardinal wants him to make a stand and proudly tell the soccer world that he's a Cree from Alberta. The quiet, unassuming teenager doesn't seem to want any part of that.
"I just play soccer," he said. "That's all I
do."
Province anxious to curb child prostitution
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
REGINA
The Saskatchewan government is trying to rescue girls - some as young as eight years old - from the streets.
Armed with posters, $250,000 in funding and a commitment to wiping out the growing business of child prostitution, the Saskatchewan departments of Justice and Social Services are letting the people closest to the problem find the answers.
"We are working with the community," said Saskatchewan Social Services spokesperson Virginia Wilkinson. "The philosophy is that the community knows best what is needed."
Since May of this year, the government began striking out at the people involved in the street-level abuse of children.
"Children involved in the sex trade are victims of child abuse," said Social Services Minister Lorne Calvers. "The people who purchase their services are child abusers. This is an extremely serious issue that we as a society must not tolerate."
Working groups in Prince Albert, Saskatoon, and Regina are meeting to discuss the best ways to eliminate the problems on their streets. Although the government says there is no one race or group that makes up the majority of children on the streets, Rick Kotowich, the chairman of the community group set up in Regina, said he feels the majority of victims are First Nation children.
"The kids we are dealing with are Aboriginals," said Kotowich speaking for the Regina Action Committee for Children at Risk,
It is not known, however, exactly how many Aboriginal children there are on the streets.
"We know the kids exist. We know they are out there even though they exist in shadows of secrecy and shadows of shame. . . We'd like to think that 100 is an exaggeration."
Children involved in the sex trade are not all prostitutes either, he said. There are a number who are actually 'pimping' other children.
"The pimp could be another 16-year-old girl [who is] putting a 10-year-old onto the streets because she's attractive, vulnerable and scared of being beaten if she doesn't."
He said it is hard to track individual cases, since some children run away from home for a few weeks at a time and end up on the streets before returning home or winding up in youth detention centres.
Whatever the number, the north central area of Regina, known for the prevalence of child prostitutes, already has the ominous handle of "The Kiddy Stroll."
How many kids, why they end up on the streets and where they go afterwards are just some of the questions the group set up in Regina needs to address, he said.
"We need to have a better understanding of this problem."
To do that, the Regina working group hopes to reach out to families, as well as the children, about the dangers of street life. The Regina group is made up of several agency representatives who work with street level people in the area. There are Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members in the group.
Although early in the development stages, Kotowich said one plan being discussed by the action group is to have a store-front centre set up in the downtown area. He said letting the kids know there is a place they can go to get help, rather than "scooping the kids from the streets," is a better alternative.
Once a child approaches the outreach centre with their problems, then a hands-on approach can begin, he said.
"We want to get to the kids and their family and say, 'Look, we understand the lifestyle you have chosen, but it is bad. Do you want to try and make a change?'" he said. "If they say, 'Get away from me,' we just have to let them go."
The whole idea is to let the kids decide for themselves. Strong-arm tactics could send the child back onto the streets for good.
Once they do accept help, Kotowich said the group has the capacity to refer them to any number of treatment programs or services.
Although there is little documented evidence, Lynn Mourot, a representative of the Prince Albert group working to end the child sex trade, said a good hunch about why kids end up on the streets is they are coming from troubled homes where they have been victims of verbal, physical or sexual abuse.
She said the posters created for the provincial campaign are examples of how the children should not be the focus.
"We tried to make them so they focused on the perpetrator instead of the victim. We don't want to re-victimize the victims."
The posters illustrate young, vulnerable girls on street corners being approached by men in vehicles. In the one poster, a clean cut man has rolled his car window down and is talking to the one young girl. In the back seat of the car is a baby seat.
Mourot said the posters show the public that anyone can be a predator of young girls.
The Prince Albert group is also in the process of making a game plan to deal with the growing concern of child prostitution.
Their program is expected to be operational by the end of October.
Mourot hopes to have outreach workers on the streets of Prince Albert before Christmas to help the children on a one-to-one basis. The children need to speak to people they trust, said Mourot.
"The police aren't going to be the ones these kids trust and the social workers won't gain their trust either. There's going to have to be people who get out on the streets and establish a rapport with the kids," she said.
Mourot said there are a large number of Aboriginal children who are victims on the street, but added that any child forced into this way of life is unacceptable.
"Any child who is on the street is one too many," she said.
She said the working group is hoping to make a difference on the streets one person at a time.
"If you stop one perpetrator from picking up one girl then it's a success. It's a small success, but still a success."
The Saskatchewan initiative is believed to be a good start to eventually get all children off the streets.
The government's initiative has five steps. Future plans include developing stricter law enforcement against anyone who exploits children, creating a tracking and monitoring system for perpetrators and enhancing the services available to victims. Federal laws will also be examined to make sure they do not hinder the prosecution of pimps and anyone who has sex with children.The program will continue until the problem of child prostitution is eliminated totally.
The Saskatchewan initiative is a large step forward in the war against child prostitution. But the province is but one fighting the battle. Child prostitution is an issue across Canada.
In January of this year, a report by the task force on children involved with prostitution was forwarded to Alberta's Minister of Social Services. The report calls for changes in the legal aspects of people accused of soliciting children, changes and improvements in education of children about the dangers of the streets, and the social support available for children to rely on if they do become victims. The report focuses on the need for the entire community to come together to help fight the problem.
The underlying theme of the report is that children involved in prostitution are victims and anyone involved in the solicitation of a child is committing child abuse and should be penalized accordingly.
One of the report's recommendations has already been acted on by the government. Changes were made early this summer to the Child Welfare Act. The new law recognizes that a child involved in solicitation is a victim of sexual abuse.
The new law gives the police and social service agencies a clear mandate and ability to "go onto the streets and pick up the kid," said Heather Forsyth, the author of the report and task force chair.
Forsyth, the Calgary-Fish Creek MLA, said the change in law is a major step in combating child prostitution.
She saw the response to the new law immediately in Calgary's prostitution area nicknamed "Popcorn Alley." In fact, every time a story is published in a paper, reported on the television or broadcast on the radio, it has an effect.
"Every time a story comes out, the streets go dead," she said.
The task force report has been a major factor in the awareness toward the often over-looked problem of child prostitution, she said.
The next step for the task force is to work on the implementation of the recommendations within the report.
To implement any or all of the recommendations in the report, the co-operation of the federal government is essential.
"A lot of the recommendations we made are to do with the feds," she said. "We need to get them on side."
The federal government has recently created a federal-provincial task force to gather information from across Canada on the child sex trade.
Forsyth hopes it won't be a duplication of work Alberta has already done. She said time is short and there is still a long way to go.
"I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel is very long."
In Edmonton, a city believed to be a national model for the work it has done to tackle the problem of child prostitution, it has been the community involvement which helped to shorten the length of the tunnel, said Maureen Reid, a street outreach worker with the Crossroads Outreach Program, a group dealing specifically with child prostitutes in Edmonton.
Reid said Edmonton's problem is on a much smaller scale than cities in Saskatchewan, but it is still a major concern.
She said the number of Aboriginal children on Edmonton streets is also small compared to Saskatchewan's situation. She estimates that 30 per cent of child prostitutes in Edmonton are of Native origin.
She said Saskatchewan is at the beginning of a process that Alberta has been working on for the last year.
The work done by the provincial task force, and the work still to be done, is a shining example of what can happen when the community rallies around a problem, she said.
"The task force has brought the community together to be part of the solution," she said.
Coming back from a recent conference in Ottawa on prostitution, Reid said Edmonton is recognized for the work it has already done and for the efforts it continues to take on the issue.
"They were talking about outreach programs, safe houses and john schools," she said. "Edmonton already has all that."
The city has two prostitute safe houses, one for children and youths, and the other for adults. There are a number of agencies providing outreach services, including Crossroads.The city also has a john school which takes people arrested for soliciting a prostitute and educates them about the law they have broken. The cost of the course is $400 and it is endorsed by the provincial justice department.
All of this is due to community collaboration, said Reid.
She said people have to realize that the problem is out there, no matter where they live.
"These are just kids and they are at risk. We have to quit putting our head in the sand," she said.
Reid is interested to see how and when the other recommendations of the Alberta task force report will be implemented in the months to come. She is also watching the Saskatchewan initiative with interest.
"Things are changing for the better - slowly" she said. "There's been a small reduction but what's better is there are now resources available for people who want to come off the streets."
Ex-prostitute sheds light on sex trade
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
MOOSE JAW, Sask
While working groups and government officials try to determine reasons why so many young children are on the streets of Saskatchewan, one former prostitute believes she has some answers.
Donna-Lynn, now 32, has been off the streets for three years. She spent half of her life working the streets of the major cities of Saskatchewan.
Donna-Lynn was first paid for sex when she was 12. She was on the streets, running from trouble at home. Being on the streets wasn't so bad, she said. The night of her first encounter with a child predator, she was "just wandering around, waiting for the morning. . . It wasn't safe for me to be at home."
During the night, what she described as "a nice fella" asked if she had some place to stay.
"He fed me, let me sleep in a spare bedroom and then he crawled in with me. . . He gave me some money after he was done."
Donna-Lynn's life leading up to her first attack reads like a text book on dysfunction.
Her mother was working the streets and was a drug and alcohol abuser. Donna-Lynn was taken away from home when she was seven and spent years in and out of foster homes. When she came back home, it didn't take long for things to get bad again. By the time she was 11 years old, she was on the streets. She was picked up several times by social services and spent a total of two years (on and off) in youth detention centres in Regina.
She started drinking when she was 11. Before she was 12, she was working the streets for a guy and his sister who told her she had to make money if she was going to stay with them.
"They gave me some condoms and told me to get into cars and do whatever they wanted to do and ask for $30," she said.
She soon began using drugs.
"Coke or Ritalin kept me up longer to keep me drinking longer so I could work longer," she said.
When she was 15 she got pregnant. She became depressed and went back home. She became self-abusive.
"I tried to beat the baby out of me. . . I thought of every way to try to kill myself," she said.
She had the baby and believed that she could be a good mother.
"I tried to be a mom, but I couldn't do it because I was drinking," she said.
She left the baby with her mom and went back to the streets. The baby was one of six children that Donna-Lynn has had during her life on the streets..
Looking back on it now, Donna-Lynn said the streets were as addictive as the booze and drugs.
"I became obsessed with the money and being in control. It's an addiction in itself. . . I didn't realize the addiction until I was in recovery."
For Donna-Lynn, the decision to leave the streets came in 1994. She ended up in jail. She was eaten up by drugs and she needed to see a psychologist for her mental state.
"I had hit bottom and knew that I couldn't go back to the streets," she said.
But the lure pulled her out one more time. Shortly after she went back she was abducted by a man, and had to throw herself out of a moving car, getting her legs run over in the escape. The man fled as other motorists began to pass the scene.
"I was lying there in the gravel and I started praying because I didn't want to die that way," she said. "I tried to go back out and stand there, but I just couldn't do it anymore."
Almost 20 years after it started, she began her recovery. Donna-Lynn discovered a lot of things about the reasons she was on the streets once she was in recovery.
With the street life now behind her, Donna-Lynn said her reasons for being there are clear.
"It all came down to the fact that I thought God was against me," she said. "I knew abuse very, very well."
Donna-Lynn even said her Native ancestry was a part of the problem. She didn't feel accepted in society.
"I'm a half breed and in the city I was too dark and on the reserve I was too white. On the streets it didn't matter. As long as you had something to offer, it didn't matter," she said.
Control is the biggest factor, she said. Coming from a broken home, and having a long history of being a victim, being in control of who you are with, when you do it and what you do is a strong draw, she said.
"Standing in the street was OK for me because I could tune the whole world out,' she said.
Donna-Lynn is now looking at the Saskatchewan government's attempts to wipe child prostitution from the streets with a little skepticism. She said the children need to be treated like adults by the agencies that are trying to help them.
"Just getting them off the streets and throwing them into a home isn't going to do squat," she said. Most of the kids on the streets don't trust anyone, especially the social services system, she said.
Instead of support groups, and outreach workers with their diplomas and certificates, Donna-Lynn said the kids need to be helped by people who have been in the same situation.
"You can't do it without people like me," she said.
She said people who have gone through the system themselves can help to determine what brings kids to the streets, what keeps them out there and what eventually makes them stop.
The problem of child prostitution has grown in Saskatchewan, she said. When Donna-Lynn was working the corners, she said there were very few young girls. The ones that were out there were quickly dealt with at a street level.
"It seems like it was more controlled in my day. They had rules about kids being out there. In my time, there were our own groups who watched out to make sure that there were no kids out there."
When a child is ready to come off the streets, there is only a small window of opportunity for outreach workers to deal with. Too much pressure can send the child back, and not enough won't help.
Donna-Lynn said experienced people can make a difference if they let the child make the first move.
If things are to improve, people need to combat family violence, and start changing some of the lifestyles of children.
"Kids are angry today. We are building more recreation centres, but there's no money in them, so kids just stand around.
Donna-Lynn still has ties to the street. Her oldest daughter is currently working the streets and while Donna-Lynn fights to stay on the straight and narrow, her mother is also in the recovery process.
Donna-Lynn has turned many things in her life around, including the pride of her Native ancestry. Instead of using it as a reason to be out on the streets, she now uses her ancestry to inspire her.
"I'm a Native person and I danced for the first time in 1995 at a powwow.," she said. "I like [powwow dancing] and it's the best high that I've had ever in my entire life, and I don't get a hang-over after, just my feet get sore."
Donna-Lynn has been travelling to communities in Saskatchewan telling school-aged children about her experiences. She hopes that her stories will make a difference.
Human rights commission defends status claim
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
ST. GEORGE'S, Nfld.
For almost 50 years, the status of Mikmaq people in Newfoundland has been in question, but with the recent release of a report from the Canadian Human Rights Commission, some light may be shed on their plight.
Since Newfoundland joined confederation in 1949, the Mikmaq people in the province have been refused status under the Indian Act and their communities have not been recognized as bands. It wasn't until 1984 that one of the 12 Mikmaq communities became a legal band in the eyes of the federal government.
Since then, the remaining communities have been fighting for the opportunity to be officially recognized under the Indian Act.
The communities united under the Federation of Newfoundland Indians and, through the federation, sued the federal government in 1989 for breach of fiduciary duty and for the unfair treatment. The case is still before the courts.
With the Human Rights Commission report, the group has what FNI president Brendan Sheppard called a document that "could help the entire Mikmaq community in the future. . . I would consider this report one of the better [pieces of evidence] so far for our people."
The report calls for the federal government and Mikmaq leaders to negotiate outside of a courtroom and come up with a solution.
The most persuasive part of the 27-page document, compiled by retired Queen's University law professor Noel Lyon, is that the government has already recognized one group - the Conne River Band - as a status group under the Indian Act. If one group is recognized, others should also be allowed to be registered and recognized, the report states.
Letters from then-Indian Affairs Minister John Munro in 1982 are quoted in the report. They show the government's intent at that time was to bring other Mikmaq communities under the Indian Act. The report is highly critical of succeeding governments because to date nothing has happened.
"The eligibility of the residents of other communities for the registration as status Indians under the Indian Act, will and could be, determined within the life of the present agreement," wrote Munro in a letter to the NFI.
The agreement referred to was the Canada-Newfoundland Native Peoples Agreement, a special arrangement for the province of Newfoundland only that provided special federal programs outside the Indian Act for the Mikmaq people. The agreement began in 1981 and had a life of five years. Nothing changed for the Mikmaq people within those five years, contrary to Munro's promise that it would.
Sheppard said the people have been waiting too long, and he hopes the Human Rights Commission's report will bring that promise back to the table.
"Right now, the main focus is recognition," said Sheppard. "We want the opportunity to be placed in the Constitution of Canada, along with the programs and services [we should be receiving.]"
Sheppard wants the federal government to return to the bargaining table and make an effort to reach a deal with the 4,500 Mikmaq people now living in Newfoundland.
"There's so many things that can be negotiated here and both sides have to be willing to compromise."
John Hucker, the secretary general of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, said the report specifically stayed out of the legal realms so it could focus on the human rights aspects of the Mikmaq people.
"We are saying, 'Let's get it out of the courts and sit down together,'" said Hucker.
Although the report is aimed toward the federal government, Hucker admitted the commission has no real power to demand the implementation of any of its recommendations. He hopes the backing of the commission will be enough to bring the government back to the table with the Mikmaq people.
"We have no direct power to order anyone to do anything," he said. "We can't force them to do anything."
The report is not intended as a complaint to the government of human rights violations under the Canadian Human Rights Act, he said, but it is hoped to be considered as a form of leverage.
'We are pleased that we have been able to come in and take some initiative," he said. "I hope it will be a persuasive document."
The recommendations in the document call for an alternative system to help Aboriginal communities establish forms of self government. The report cites a need to use international law to negotiate with Aboriginal people. Under international law, all groups recognized as 'peoples' have the right to self determination. International law would better suit the needs of the Mikmaq people in their battle for recognition and rights.
The report has been forwarded to the Minister of Indian Affairs Jane Stewart, but neither the Human Rights Commission nor the Federation of Newfoundland Indians has had any response.
The Indian Affairs department said an internal review committee has been selected and will be going through the report.
Stewart could not be reached for comment, but a department spokesman said the matter may be held up because of the pending court case. Any recommendations may have to wait until a decision from any legal proceedings is released.
By Rob McKinley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
OTTAWA
Retired Queen's University law professor Noel Lyon wrote his report on the Newfoundland Mikmaq situation for the Canadian Human Rights Commission in a respectful, scholarly fashion but his conclusions nonetheless are a scathing indictment of the federal government's approach to self government issues and a vindication of objections voiced by Aboriginal leaders.
Since Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, the Mikmaq people have been denied status as Aboriginal people. Professor Lyon studied the history and concluded "these Mikmaq communities have been denied recognition as human communities and their fundamental right of self determination, the very foundation of human rights law, has been systematically suppressed."
He points out that the deputy minister of Justice informed Cabinet in 1950 that the federal government had a legal obligation to fund Aboriginal groups in all parts of the country including Newfoundland. His research reveals the government of the day chose to ignore that advice.
"This means we are faced with nearly 50 years of failure on the part of the federal government to fulfill its Constitutional obligation to the Aboriginal peoples of Newfoundland," Lyon wrote. "If a fiduciary relationship has existed between the federal government and these people, there could be a substantial legal liability arising from the continuing breach of fiduciary duty over a period of nearly 50 years."
Lyon compared the government's actions in Newfoundland to the federal inaction in 1972 when the James Bay Crees were fighting against Quebec's plan to construct its hydroelectric mega-project on their traditional lands. He pointed out that having the law on their side didn't do the Crees any good and he predicted similar problems for the Mikmaqs.
"So here, if the government of Canada can't find the political will to do its Constitutional duty, the Newfoundland Mikmaqs will have no choice but to spend 15 to 20 years in our courts hoping for justice. I would expect any such legal claim to lose out to European versions of history and law," he wrote.
After soundly thrashing the approach that Canada has taken, Lyon urged the application of principles of international law.
"It is fair because it frees us from the reliance on the law created by and for one party to the dispute," he wrote. "As long as the process continues to be defined by rules and standards set by the dominant society, no measure of real self government is possible because the process itself is a denial of the inherent rights of self government of Aboriginal peoples.
"In other words, we cannot de-colonize peoples by relying on the rules and standards that were used to colonize them in the first place. . . Ultimately the federal government must act in good faith if there is to be a just resolution of the Federation of Newfoundland Indian's claim, and for that no court order is necessary or appropriate. What is required is the political will to do what is right by contemporary standards, which can be found in international human rights law."
Former medic praises 'real' veterans of war
By Kenneth Williams
Windspeaker Columnist
I was once in the army. Okay, it was really the militia, but 13 years ago I was a member of the 15th Edmonton Medical Company of Canadian Armed Forces Reserves.
It was hardly an illustrious career. I didn't go overseas. I barely got out of Edmonton. In fact, I didn't even make it to full private after one year. But to be fair to myself, that was due to scheduling problems and conflicting job commitments. I was unable to take my summers off like the other "weekend warriors" to participate in the full-time training.
Even so, I received field medical training on top of my basic military training. If you were hurt, I could fix you. Well, fix you enough to get you to a hospital where you could really be looked after. It was my job to stop your bleeding, to stop your yelling, and load your carcass into an ambulance. Fortunately, I never really had to do those things.
My medical training exposed me to what a mine, a bullet, a grenade, an artillery shell or poisonous gas could do to a body. We were also trained to treat the casualties of a nuclear war on the assumption that someone could actually survive such a thing.
It was an experience that changed my life. An experience a lot of people couldn't figure out. Some things about the army bothered them, like all the yelling and verbal abuse the recruits would be subjected to.
To be honest, it wasn't that bad. In fact, there was one sergeant in my basic training course who would try and make you laugh. He was really funny, but laughing was forbidden on the parade square. So a great battle of wills would ensue with this sergeant cracking jokes every two seconds and 30 of us soldiers biting our tongues. If any one of us so much as cracked a smile then it was push-ups for all.
I grew to love the traditions of the Canadian Armed Forces, as well as garner an incredible respect for the First Nations veterans who served before me.
I don't consider myself a veteran because I never served in any conflict. The only sacrifices I ever made were a bunch of my weekends and Wednesday afternoons. I'm thankful I never had to see a war up close. My training, however, was bad enough and I'm happy I've never really had to patch up someone who'd been wounded.
It's hard for me as a writer to come up with the words to express the great admiration, love and respect I have for the veterans who fought for Canada. That respect is even more so for the First Nations veterans who fought and died for a country that insisted they give up their treaty rights to put on a uniform.
Despite serving honorably in two World Wars, First Nations veterans came back to discover that they couldn't return to their home reserves because they were no longer "Indians." Racist attitudes meant they couldn't even go into some of the legions that their fellow veterans were welcomed into. Very few of them realized that loans were available to veterans to help them buy farms and equipment, and that money was available for university educations.
In short, they sacrificed everything and Canada turned its back on them when they returned. Despite all this, however, the vast majority of them would do it all again.
As soldiers, we honored the veterans. We knew that, at a moment's notice, Canada might call upon us to make sacrifices similar to those brave soldiers before us. It could have been in an all out war, like the one in the Persian Gulf, or as United Nations' peacekeepers.
It doesn't take much to say thank you for these veterans and
you don't have to be a former medic to appreciate their sacrifice.
Buy a poppy and on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m., take a minute to reflect
on the courage and sacrifice of all veterans. And then add another
minute for the First Nations veterans who had to fight another
war when they returned from Europe.
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