Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
Top News - February - 2005
Volume 22 - Number 11
College dispute upsets students
Sweetgrass burning banned
AVR network seeks government moneySweetgrass ban is just plain wrong - Editorial
Willing to take the time to develop film - Guest ColumnCheck out Ontario Birchbark
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College dispute upsets students
Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Blood Reserve, Alta.
The administrators of the Blood Tribe's Red Crow Community College took what some might call a calculated risk that still has a small chance of blowing up in their faces.
Students entered the college having been told that their work in the Kainai studies program would be transferable for credit towards a bachelor's degree at the University of Lethbridge (U of L). Ann Gibbs, a former instructor at the school, thinks there's a chance they will not see that promise fulfilled.
But it's a small chance, say the president of the college and the university dean.
Kainai studies [Kainai is the word the Blackfoot people call themselves] was advertised as being in a "post-diploma bachelor's degree stream," even though no formal agreement with the university had been finalized. And with the agreement still not in place, some students are worried they've wasted the last two years of their lives on credits that are worthless.
Ann Fox, one of the students, says she and her family spent two years making sacrifices and working hard so she could pursue her bachelor's degree in social work. When she applied to the University of Calgary (U of C), Fox was told that her courses at Red Crow were not transferable.
Fox said she was humiliated in front of her family, especially her young children who'd had to do without mom while she did her homework and attended classes.
Windspeaker met with Gibbs and Fox, and others who do not want to be named, in Fort McLeod, Alta. on Jan 14.
"I wanted to get a degree. When I saw the advertising of Kainai studies, it was the perfect opportunity for me. After I enrolled, everything was all set," Fox said.
She was told she would earn 20 credits that could be transferred to university.
"In my second year, I planned to work into the social work program because it was being offered by University of Calgary. I thought that, because [Kainai studies] was being offered on the reserve, it would be convenient for me," she said "Right now, it's not going anywhere because I have not received anything after this two years. The agreement was that we were going to receive our two-year diploma and at the end I found out we had nothing. When I did apply to U of C and I got my letter back in August 2004, and they only accepted four credits."
College president Marie Smallface Merule said the students have been alarmed without need because negotiations with the university are on-going.
"This is such an unnecessary situation because those courses are transferable. They're not transferred as a block yet formally, because that formal agreement is being formalized. But we have an interim transitional arrangement with the university. So it's almost the same as if we had the formal block transfer agreement," she said.
The college president said Fox was told in advance that the transfer agreement was only with the University of Lethbridge.
"She knew from the start that her courses were not transferable to the U of C, that they were transferable to U of L. But she decided she wanted to switch to social work. She gets her diploma and she has all her post-secondary units for a degree still intact because that was a diploma program," she said. "[S]he knew from the start that that program transferred to U of L not U of C and it transfers in Native American Studies in U of L, not social work."
Gibbs said the school can't give diplomas because it's not accredited. Smallface Merule says she's wrong.
"We are accredited. And this is something that's misunderstood nationally. There is no national accreditation program. What you do is you go through a process where you're recognized by the different areas of the provincial government," she said. "The only way to get recognition is to work as a mainstream institution. If you're a First Nations public institution, which is what we call ourselves because we're created by our chief and council, we don't seek the accreditation that private institutions do."
She said all the students who complete Kainai studies will be allowed to transfer those courses to the University of Lethbridge because there was prior approval from the university.
"If we're going to have a course transferred to U of L, U of L has to give prior approval to the course and instructor. Those are the arts and science and Kainai studies courses we offer at Red Crow College," she said.
The agreement that will formalize the transfer of credits is expected soon, she added.
"Well, we're hoping it'll be ready by April. It will be listed in the calendar next fall. Universities are so slow."
She was asked if the students will have to wait if the agreement is not ready.
"No. No. What I've told you is right now. They can apply the courses. In any transfer a student has to have a certain GPA. And these students seem to have that GPA from my review of their transcripts. Nobody sees any problem, but until they actually apply [for further study at the university] and get their credit they can't say they're not transferable. Once that process has been completed, then they can see whether or not all their courses are transferable," she replied.
Christopher Nicol, dean of the faculty of arts and science at the University of Lethbridge, said Red Crow has been doing its due diligence to make sure the courses will be accepted.
"The historical agreement, as far as the course by course transfer, has been in place for a very long time, before I actually came here. More recently we have been working on the possibility of an agreement with the college where there might be an arrangement where courses in their Kainai studies diploma would transfer here. We haven't reached a formal agreement yet. We have been working on that since before [Red Crow] actually introduced the [Kainai studies] program," he said.
He didn't believe any students had yet applied to the university so it was impossible to know if the lack of agreement was a problem.
"My sense is we haven't actually had any applicants yet who have completed that program and have the complete diploma or whatever they're offering for it at this point. But I'm pretty sure that we've got students around who have taken courses from that and are admitted as students through other programs," he said. "They've got to ultimately apply here and bring their transcripts from the college and then it'll be evaluated."
But he couldn't say when a formal agreement will be announced.
"Well, I anticipate that some agreement will eventually come about. It's hard to say what the time lines are because we've been working on this with them for over two years now and one of the issues that we face is that they have a fair bit of turn-over in their academic staffing," he said. "So every time a course [is offered] it's not often offered consecutively by the same instructor. They don't seem to have a lot of long-term academic staff at the college, which is an issue for us because most of the colleges we deal with have a cohort of tenured or long-term academic staff and you know who these people are when you're negotiating an initial agreement. So we're still, I think, waiting for information on the various instructors who'll be involved. That's an essential consideration."
He encouraged the students to follow up with university staff.
"I would say to the students that if they have concerns about the transferability of their courses to the University of Lethbridge, if they're ready to apply they should apply and find out exactly how that's going to be treated.
Gibbs said the students should not have been told they would be able to transfer their courses if there wasn't an iron-clad agreement in place.
"Of course, if we give them enough time-it's two-and-a-half years now-they will eventually have something," she said. "There's no diploma in place and they sent these students through two years of their lives. They're saying now after the fact that they're doing something. Of course they're rectifying it, to try to help themselves."Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Edmonton
In provincial jails in Alberta, a ban on smoking tobacco products has been extended to include the burning of Sweetgrass, a plant considered sacred to Aboriginal people and burned to send prayers to the Creator on the smoke.
Andrew Reid says the decision to ban Sweetgrass use means freedom of religion is now something reserved for only the non-Aboriginal people at provincial correctional facilities and he's made up his mind to do something about it.
The 46-year-old member of the Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement recently completed a four-month sentence at Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Institution (the Fort), located on the northeast edge of Edmonton. He was convicted of unlawful entry and incarcerated during the months after the smoking ban was implemented in September 2004.
Reid said guards began confiscating Sweetgrass from inmates in August in preparation for the official start of the smoking ban. He contacted a lawyer through legal aid and began legal action to overturn the ban.
"I'm going to fight it because it's wrong," he said.
The Alberta Guards Union pushed the smoking ban in all provincially-run correctional facilities for health and safety reasons. The proposal was adopted by the Alberta government shortly after an Ontario court ruled that a waitress who faced long-term exposure to second-hand smoke in the workplace was eligible for workers' compensation.
"Members of our union who work in Alberta correctional facilities are thankful that the province has introduced a smoking ban, which members have advocated for years," said Alberta Union of Public Employees President Dan MacLennan.
Mike Rennick, another union spokesman, defended the ban on burning Sweetgrass in an interview with the Edmonton Sun. He said the inmates can simply go outside if they want to burn Sweetgrass.
"If it's minus 25 and it's that important to you, then brave the cold," he told the Sun. "The Christian Bible doesn't kill me-Sweetgrass is carcinogenic."
Reid said inmates are only allowed to go outside to smudge and pray for 30 minutes each day between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. He complained that it's hard to concentrate on spiritual matters when it's minus 25 degrees Celsius and points out that the Christian inmates don't have to go outside to pray. His lawyer, Charles Davison, wrote a four-page opinion that concluded the decision could be a breach of Native inmates' charter rights.
Section 2 (a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees "freedom of conscience and religion" to all Canadians. Section 15 of the charter guarantees "equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination based on race ... [or] religion."
"Restricting when and where and how often a Native inmate may use his Sweetgrass in order to practice a basic part of his spiritual beliefs would be [as Reid has pointed out] similar to a rule which would similarly restrict when a Christian inmate would be permitted to read the Bible or pray," the lawyer wrote.
Reid said many of the inmates are finding ways to get around the smoking ban. They grind up nicotine patches used by those trying to quit smoking, mix in tea leaves and roll the substitute "tobacco" with, ironically, pages from Bibles.
"So I asked some of the guards why they don't confiscate the Bibles like they did the Sweetgrass. And they said they can't because it's too big a challenge," he said.
And incense is burned during Roman Catholic ceremonies in the chapel at the Fort. Reid asked how smoke from the incense was different from Sweetgrass smoke. He was told that the Roman Catholic practices "were part of ancient history that couldn't be interfered with."
"Well, it's the same with our Sweetgrass," Reid said.
Now that he's out of jail, Reid plans to follow up the legal process and he also contacted the local media to bring attention to the matter.
"I know I'm on the right track. I just wish there was someone who'd get on the bandwagon and help me," he said.
Other observers wonder about Rennick's comments.
James Lamouche is a policy analyst with the National Aboriginal Health Organization. He works with traditional healing practices and Indigenous knowledge. He also has a bachelor of science degree and has done research in immunology and pulmonary health.
"I can't really speak about the guard union's intentions or opinions on the matter but the conclusions that they drew from the science are just not valid, in my opinion. The coumarin that they're talking about, the actual chemical, for that to be toxic or carcinogenic two things have to happen. It has to be changed into a different form and then it has to be ingested and neither of those things are going to happen if you're talking about smudging," he said.
He found it troubling that Aboriginal prisoners were not able to freely practice their traditional spiritual ceremonies.
"A lot of these people are at a point in their life where they need the traditions and the ceremonies, the rituals of our peoples, now more than ever. And I think that anything that cuts into that, any barriers for inmates to do that is not going to benefit anybody in the long run," he said.
"Sweetgrass doesn't constitute a health hazard. It has been used in a very specific way by our peoples for centuries. It's obviously got ceremonial purposes as a source for strength and connection to the Creator. It's a gift from the Creator and if it's used in the way that it was intended and has been shown to us by our ancestors, it can't do any harm."
To consider the breathing in of Sweetgrass smoke to be the same as second-hand cigarette smoke "would be a very loose definition of ingestion," Lamouche said.
"Cigarette smoke is a different thing. It's not the same as a smudging ceremony. When you're smudging you're not breathing in the entire output of the burning Sweetgrass. Obviously it's floating in the air but it's kind of disingenuous to compare smudging to smoking a cigarette," he added.
He said that incense used in Roman Catholic ceremonies could be dangerous as well, although he did not call for the banning of that practice.
"In a lot of instances, in poorly produced or cheap incense, there's a high lead content," he said. "But the thing again is that it gets into a comparative risk game. There's all kinds of chemicals that anybody would be exposed to in any building and particularly in an institution such as a corrections facility. What's the risk of ingesting the fire retardants in the carpet or things in your pillow? So I think from a scientific standpoint it's not really a valid or fair comparison."
Coumarin was used as a replacement for vanilla flavoring, but it was found to be carcinogenic when ingested.
"It naturally occurs in strawberries, apricots, cherries and cinnamon. It's a naturally occurring chemical but what makes it toxic ... it's called a rat poison in a lot of the literature but coumarin itself is not the rat poison. It has to be chemically altered to become a chemical called dicoumerol and that's the poison. Coumarin is not a poison itself, it's a precursor for a poison," Lamouche said.
Health Canada spokesperson Nathalie Lalonde said researchers in her department had only looked at the effects of coumarin when it is ingested.
"To our knowledge, no specific studies of coumarin inhalation have been conducted and therefore we cannot really properly assess the dangers linked to this practice," she said. "It is however Health Canada's policy that the inhalation of burning vegetable matter is not a safe practice. Having said that, it is not our mandate to make any distinction or make any judgement on cultural practices."
Lamouche was not surprised to hear that.
"I wouldn't expect there to be any data because throughout the history there's nothing to indicate that it's unsafe," he said. "It's been used for thousands of years in this particular way and there's nothing that would make people have any inkling that it would be toxic.
Bruce Miller, a member of Alberta's Liberal opposition party, said on Jan. 24 that he would be discussing the freedom of religion aspect of this issue when the Liberal caucus met in Calgary over the next several days.
"We're all for Aboriginal people rediscovering their traditional spirituality," he said. "And we're very, very supportive of that."
AVR network seeks government money
Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Toronto
A relative newcomer to the Aboriginal broadcasting scene in Canada has been lobbying Canadian Heritage for $15 million to complete its plan for a Canada-wide radio network.
Toronto-based Aboriginal Voices Radio (AVR) needs the money to expand into Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Kitchener-Waterloo where it has licenses to bring Aboriginal programming to the urban market.
AVR's lobbying effort is not sitting well with established Aboriginal communications societies across the country. They are against any proposal that would see AVR as the lone beneficiary of government largesse. If there is new federal money available for Aboriginal broadcasting, they say, it shouldn't just go to the new guy on the block, especially if it's to be used to undermine existing radio operations.
Nap Gardner works as an advisor for Missinipi Broadcasting in Saskatchewan. He spearheaded a fax campaign to protest an Assembly of First Nations' resolution that supports Canadian Heritage funding for AVR's expansion.
"Further be it resolved that the Assembly of First Nations support the current proposal by Aboriginal Voices Radio Inc. to the federal government for one-time funding to immediately accelerate the expansion of Aboriginal radio to all major centres across Canada," the resolution read.
A flurry of faxes to urge National Chief Phil Fontaine to reconsider that support was sent in response. The faxes were signed by the heads of the existing Native communications societies and copies sent to Canadian Heritage minister Liza Frulla.
"I am writing to you to express ... deep concern regarding the support that AFN and you are providing to Aboriginal Voices Radio (AVR) in their current push to obtain government funding to operate a national radio network," the fax stated. "As I understand it, the chiefs in assembly supported AVR, initially, on the conditions that it was to be a commercial enterprise and not seek public funding and that it would work with the current Aboriginal radio broadcasters across Canada. This, however, has not been the case. In fact, the public funding of AVR could prove a serious detriment, if not a fatal blow, to many of the existing Aboriginal radio broadcasters who have a long history in serving their regions.
"If AVR was to become a major urban entity, we feel that our organization would not only lose revenues from Heritage, but our presence and future growth may also suffer a serious financial loss of advertising revenues," the fax stated.
Gardner told Windspeaker that government promises made to communication societies for funding to assist in upgrading equipment have yet to be realized and he doesn't think it right that AVR should be able to cut in line for funds.
"Groups really need the equipment funding that they've been promised for many years. That's what we're asserting. On the other part, we're suggesting that if there's new money then it should be open to the places where Aboriginal radio or communications is needed and not just one group," he said. "If there was a promise by the federal government to give equipment dollars then they should [keep that promise].
"If someone walks in and says 'I want $15 million' and that might jeopardize these guys who have paid their dues for 15 or 20 years, that sounds a little itchy, you know?"
Mark MacLeod is AVR's operations manager and has been director of licensing and development since 1998. He spoke to Windspeaker on Jan. 24.
At the beginning of the interview MacLeod noted a potential conflict of interest on Windspeaker's part because our parent society, the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA), operates a radio station. (In the the spirit of full disclosure, readers should know that AMMSA did not take part in the recent fax protest, however, the organization's CEO, Bert Crowfoot, did file an intervention with the CRTC when AVR applied for its Calgary lisense. Transcripts of Crowfoot's presentation to the CRTC can be found at www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/transcripts/2000/tb1101.htm.)
MacLeod said AVR's plan to reach the urban areas of Canada, set in motion in 1998, had stalled for lack of cash and the decision was made to lobby Canadian Heritage for a significant amount. He argued that northern broadcasting and the Aboriginal People's Television Network receive government funding to provide a service that commercial broadcasters do not provide and programming for the growing urban Aboriginal population should fall into the same category.
"The only market that we're broadcasting in right now is Toronto," he said, adding that AVR has spent $700,000 on equipment but doesn't have the cash to begin broadcasting in the other markets.
"In order for AVR to be as stable as we can possibly be, we have to be very careful about when we start up operations in which market because, although there is a significant capital cost involved in setting up the stations, that's not actually the biggest problem. The biggest problem is when you're looking to operate a station in a major market in Canada you're looking at about four to five thousand a month just to run your transmission facility, not including any studio space," Mark MacLeod said. "But right now we're in a situation in two markets where we have equipment that's in place but until we start broadcasting we don't have to start paying rent. That's the case in Calgary. The moment we start broadcasting in Calgary we have to start sending a cheque for $5,000 every month."
He stressed that in AVR's attempts to lobby government for money, it has emphasized that new money is needed for all Aboriginal media. MacLeod said AVR would be angry if they received money and "there was any suggestion that [government] took it away from anybody else to give it to us. Clearly they can do that and I hope that they don't do that. We're moving through our process very deliberately trying not to harm anybody who exists."
When AVR made a presentation to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, they argued that six per cent of all government funding for broadcasting should go to Aboriginal media.
"Whenever we've met we always talk about all Aboriginal media because it's important to us as someone who's emerging that we're not simply stealing from Peter to pay Paul," he said.
MacLeod believes AVR and the other societies can work together.
"Our priority is to try and make Aboriginal radio programming available to people who don't get it already. So, for instance, the western radio societies pretty much cover all of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, not so much B.C. So it's not a high priority to try and get programming in there," he said. "Our business model is definitely based on us being able to raise revenue based on reaching a mass number of people. So there's no question that we want to hit urban centres. So it's not required for us to go into any particular market that [existing societies] has got their designs on and not work something out."
Nap Gardner says AVR may say it's willing to work with the other societies, but that has not been the case so far.
"AVR has come in and applied for licensing in some of these urban areas without consultation with the people that have made plans over many, many years and have tried to progress in a fashion that is driven by the communities."
Gardner said there may be a void in some urban markets, but "the unfortunate part is that these guys have never really taken the time to speak to those communities and regions that are already within those spaces."
As far as the national chief is concerned support of AVR's funding request was based on it not harming existing businesses.
"We extended to them the same kind of support that we've extended to other communications societies. We did what we would normally do in this situation. If it's a good idea, a well-developed proposal and they need help to get started or to sustain their operations, we'd support them. In our view, anything that is good business and is successful, the spill over effects are pretty positive," Fontaine said. "I wouldn't do anything to undermine those that have been in the business for years and have struggled."
