Trust. Integrity. Reputation. Top News - July - 2003 Too close to call Third place in race can make or break a chief FNGA gone, not forgotten Nault backs Martin What good will come of prosecution? - Editorial Too many sheep, not enough shepherds - Guest Column Check out Ontario Birchbark THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF WINDSPEAKER'S JULY ISSUE ARE ONLINE IN THE ARCHIVES - ACCESS IS RESTRICTED TO SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION INFO. Too close to call Third place in race can make or break a chief Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer As predicted here last month, the campaign for Assembly of First Nations national chief will be a three-candidate affair involving incumbent Matthew Coon Come, former national chief Phil Fontaine and Roberta Jamieson, a recent arrival as an elected participant, but no stranger to the national political stage. The election will be the centrepiece of the three-day AFN annual general assembly to be held this year at the Shaw Conference Centre in downtown Edmonton from July 15 to 17. With three strong candidates in the running, many backroom organizers are predicting a heavy turnout for the election. Windspeaker contacted each campaign team shortly after the race officially began on June 12. On- and off-the-record conversations revealed the candidates all know it will be a tightly contested battle. With only three people in the running, the AFN election format that calls for the last place finisher in each ballot to be dropped will be a huge factor. All three camps are now playing the political chess game, trying to figure out how to stay out of that last place position in the first ballot and also working on a plan to attract support from the candidate who does end up being eliminated first. Each of the candidates has a solid core group of support. Coon Come brings support from his home territory in Northern Quebec. Jamieson has the allegiance of the implementation committee, a group of chiefs that formed in March 2002 to push the sovereignty agenda. Fontaine appears to have most of the all-important British Columbia First Nations Summit support along with his base of Manitoba chiefs. Coon Come, 47, has been criticized for alienating the federal government and presiding over substantial budget cuts as a result of his confrontational stand, but he offered no apologies. Vote for him and you'll get more of the same, the former James Bay Cree leader said. In fact, any First Nation leader who isn't earning the wrath of the federal government just isn't doing the job, he added. "That has always been my view. There is a strategy to undermine the leadership in this country, cutting the funding when you speak the truth, attempting to marginalize the people. To me, the greatest indicator when you're fighting for the rights of your people is when you see the reaction of the government. That means that you are doing the right thing," he said. "When I led this fight, I knew that the government would come after me. I knew that from my own experience when I was with the Crees. I was told we had no rights. So we went to the court of public opinion. When they wanted to build dams, we stopped them. When they wanted to secede from Canada and take our land without our consent, we stopped them. When they tried to cut trees on our land, we stopped them. We declared we had rights. We didn't ask the courts. For me, it goes beyond the courts. Justice will not be obtained from colonial courts. It will be obtained through the political realm. That's where I feel comfortable. That's where I will pursue advancing our causes." Fontaine believes Coon Come lost sight of the real issues. The 58-year-old former Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs grand chief, who resigned as chief commissioner of the Indian Claims Commission in order to pursue the job he lost to Coon Come in 2000, advocates getting away from confrontation and putting the attention back on the bread-and-butter issues. "In the informal surveys and polling we've done, clearly the pressing issues have to do with social conditions, and I am suggesting that we have to refocus. We have to turn our minds and attention to the serious challenge about what to do about social conditions. What are we going to do about housing, health, education, the environment, creating jobs, revitalizing our economies? And I believe there has not been, in the last while, enough serious attention on these matters. They've been given short shrift and I believe our people have been short-changed in this regard. We've been largely ineffective, set back years," he said. "The big issue, bar none, from what we've learned, is that people are interested in getting on with the job of turning things around, turning crisis situations into opportunity. Five families living in a two- or three-bedroom house don't care whether we're running from protest to protest. I believe that we've been consumed by rhetoric and we have to move beyond that. We have to focus on building strong people whose voices themselves will deliver our communities back to strength and to be self-governing." Roberta Jamieson, a 50-year-old Mohawk woman who expects to become a grandmother for the first time during the campaign, seems to be offering something in between the approaches suggested by her opponents. "I would not have stepped up to the plate if I felt that I could support one of the candidates. I do feel we're in a crisis, a political crisis in this country such that we've never seen before in our generation on relations between First Nations and government. I mean, I am witnessing the kind of daily poisoning that's going on by the kind of agenda the government of Canada seems intent on pushing forward with. So I think it is a time for very proactive leadership with a very clear view of what the AFN can and should be," she said. "I think you have to have a clear sense of what the office was created to be and ought to be about. I think the AFN has been manipulated by government over the years because it likes to pretend to be, excuse the word, but a kind of national Indian government. It isn't. It never was meant to be and I don't think it should be. "In a time when our people are reasserting their nationhood at the level of nations, you don't need people who are pretending to negotiate for all First Nations. It can't be done. We're very diverse. If there's one thing the last couple of years have demonstrated, it is the tremendous diversity. What will work in Southern British Columbia will not play in Northern Ontario and so on throughout the country. So what you need, it seems to me, is a body that understands that. That will be a strong advocate and educator and communicator amongst the Canadian public at large and will also facilitate the opportunity for First Nations to come to the table and negotiate themselves. That is the approach that the royal commission recommended. I'm not talking the 633, I'm talking the 60 or so nation-based representatives that RCAP was talking about. The bands are the starting point but the end point is nations." Top FNGA gone, not forgotten Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Ottawa When the House of Commons rose for the summer break on June 13, a week earlier than expected, Bill C-7, the First Nations governance legislation, died on the order paper. But it's not over till it's over. The First Nations governance act could be resurrected in the fall. Prime Minister Jean Chretien will have a very brief window of opportunity to reintroduce legislation in September. The House resumes on Sept. 15. Two weeks later, Liberal Party delegates must state whom they'll be supporting on the first ballot at the Liberal Party of Canada leadership convention, scheduled for Nov. 15 to 17 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. It's expected that former Finance minister Paul Martin will command a solid majority of the delegates and will immediately become the prime minister in waiting, ready to step into the party leadership when Chretien retires in February 2004. From that moment, Ottawa watchers predict Chretien's influence will be greatly reduced. Since Martin has already gone on the record as saying he would not implement C-7, MPs hoping to position themselves for advancement in a Martin government may lose interest in pushing the bill forward. First Nations technicians say only a few noteworthy amendments to the First Nations governance bill were adopted, even though almost 200 were suggested. The inclusion of a non-derogation clause, to provide an extra layer of protection for Aboriginal and treaty rights, was one. The other extended the period allowed for First Nations to develop their own governance codes from two years to three. The government introduced an amendment that calls for the creation of a national First Nations ombudsman and the establishment of a governance centre. First Nation political workers in Ottawa are being urged to remain vigilant. An internal Assembly of First Nations report stated, "the Prime Minister has said publicly that he will reconvene Parliament in the fall. But many observers say that claim is bluster for the public and that the Liberals will not want to risk damaging the party by exposing a lame-duck prime minister to daily question period criticisms of a government operating with two leaders. It is generally conceded that Paul Martin will win the Liberal leadership race and that in the fall, he will be the de facto leader. If Parliament does not reconvene until November, Bill C-7 is very unlikely to pass and it will be left to die on the order paper." Bill C-6, the Specific Claims Resolution Act, is now before the Senate. The Senate continues to sit for a few weeks after the Commons adjourned. First Nations observers believe there is a deal in place to rush the Bill through the Senate, over top of opposition from the AFN and some Aboriginal senators. Amendments proposed by the Senate would have to be ratified in the House of Commons, so that bill will not be proclaimed into law until the fall. First Nation leaders hope to find a way to knock this bill off the rails at that time and will spend the summer lobbying against it. They say it is a flawed bill that does nothing to address the concerns dealt with by a joint AFN/Indian Affairs working group. The top limit of compensation would be capped at $10 million. Only $50 million per year is set aside to deal with an immense backlog of claims. The government will continue to appoint and monitor the so-called independent body that was originally hoped to be a truly non-aligned, neutral, third party that would referee disputes over land claims involving the Crown and First Nations. Bill C-19, the First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act, is stuck in the committee stage in the Commons and will likely not advance until the fall. First Nation opponents will seek to persuade Paul Martin to shelve it. Customs targets border crossings Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians Grand Chief Chris McCormick says the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency has informed First Nations that it will no longer tolerate border-crossing demonstrations. The demonstrations were held to draw attention to the fact that Canada does not recognize the Jay Treaty, which in effect erases the border for First Nations people. The U.S. does recognize this treaty. "The notice has been given to our communities that after July there'll be no more border crossings," McCormick said. He said chiefs in his Southwestern Ontario organization are hopping mad and pledging to defy the policy edict from the federal department. Top Nault backs Martin Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Ottawa Just days after he sparred publicly in the press with Liberal Party leadership front-runner Paul Martin over the First Nations governance act, the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Robert Nault, declared publicly that the former finance minister has his support in the leadership race. Some observers say it was merely a smart move by Nault, who likely would have been left out in the political wilderness when the coronation of Martin as party leader is finalized had he not jumped on board the Martin express. But other observers wonder if a back-room deal was struck by the two men and, if so, what it means for them. So far, Martin has said all the right things when talking about First Nation issues, although several attempts by this publication to get a one-on-one interview with the man have gone unanswered. First Nation leaders are cautiously optimistic they'll have a more open ear in the Prime Minister's Office when Martin takes over from the retiring Jean Chretien. Chretien has a long list of legacy legislation pending in the House and little hope that all of it will be passed into law before the current session of Parliament comes to an end. Canadian Alliance Indian Affairs critic Brian Pallister is one parliamentarian who suspects something's up. He says the First Nations governance act was approved by Cabinet, of which Paul Martin was a member, and that Martin fully endorsed the bill while in Cabinet and has recently become a vocal opponent of the legislation. Martin has publicly criticized the bill and has admitted that he would not enact it should he become Prime Minister, Pallister added. Nault's "surprising endorsement" of Paul Martin for the Liberal leadership has led to speculation that a backroom deal has been struck in exchange for the Indian Affairs minister's support, he added. "I am troubled by the flip-flop. Just days ago, Martin stated that he would not enact the FNGA, which led to Nault's challenge for a better plan to be put on the table," Brian Pallister said. "Now Nault is supporting Martin. It appears that the two have talked behind closed doors and struck a deal. So much for Paul Martin's new way of doing politics." National Chief Matthew Coon Come isn't so sure a lot should be read into the move. "I think the minister is trying to pull straws for survival of his governance act, which I believe will die on the order paper," he said. "[NDP critic] Pat Martin made reference to, and so did Pallister, that [the Liberals] were talking to the [Opposition parties] because they wanted their finance bill on elections to go through. He insinuated that there was a kind of deal there, that if they supported [the campaign finance bill] that they would allow the FNGA to die on the order paper." Alistair Mullin, spokesman for the Indian Affairs minister, said it was a simple matter of Nault deciding Martin was the best choice. "There's a number of issues that go on when a minister or a member of parliament decides who they're going to support in a leadership race. It was the minister's view that Paul Martin is just the best man for the job," he said. "Even though this is a political party, to a certain extent you have to put politics aside and ask yourself some fundamental questions about who leads the party and what kind of person, who has the quality of leadership you admire the most." Ottawa insiders aren't so sure. Those with long memories recall that in 1988, Bob Nault was first elected to parliament at age 33. His office was across the hall from another relatively new MP, Paul Martin. People forget that during Brian Mulroney's time, especially from1988 to 1993, the Liberal caucus wasn't very big. In other words, Martin and Nault have some history. Others point out that the minister of Indian Affairs was the co-chair of Sheila Copps' leadership campaign in 1993 and wonder what happened. They tend to suspect a deal was struck. They also point out that Martin's language has changed slightly since Nault endorsed him, another indication that something was decided between the two men. At first Martin said he wouldn't pass the bill. More recently he has been saying all First Nations concerns can be dealt with during the implementation phase, which would of course happen after the bill is passed. The implementation phase proposed in the bill was recently changed from two years to three. That's something Nault has been suggesting all along. It may be another sign a deal of sorts was struck. More troubling for First Nations' observers, all of this indicates Bill C-7 is far from dead, that some move may be made to push it through in the fall. Top