Trust. Integrity. Reputation. Top News - June - 2005 Volume 23 - Number 3 Tapes paint premier into a corner Lawsuit launched against First Nations University B.C. brews over action plan Nothing more scary than change - Editorial Wit and substance absent from the House- Guest Column Check out Ontario Birchbark The entire contents of Windspeaker's June issue is available online in the AMMSA Archives. Access is restricted to online subscribers only. CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION INFO. Tapes paint premier into a corner By Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer. Forest, Ont. Tape recordings played publicly for the first time this month show that at least one Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer believed that former Ontario premier Mike Harris was pushing for police to use violence to break up a 1995 Native protest. Mere hours after the recordings were made on Sept. 6, 1995, Dudley George was shot dead by Acting Sgt. Kenneth Deane, who was later convicted of criminal negligence causing death. George was one of a handful of Native protesters who peacefully occupied Ipperwash Provincial Park to draw attention to the fact that a burial ground was being desecrated at the site, a claim that government documents later vindicated. The recordings are of a phone conversation between Inspector Ron Fox, the OPP Ontario legislature liaison, and Ipperwash incident commander Inspector John Carson. The tapes were played at the Ipperwash inquiry on May 18. In one tape, Fox provides Carson with details of a meeting to which he had been summoned on the afternoon Sept. 6, just prior to the evening shooting. At that meeting, premier Harris, and various cabinet ministers and deputy ministers, voiced their opinions about what the province and OPP should do. It was a newly elected government at the time-in office just shy of three months-and facing its first high profile Native protest. On the tape, Fox told Carson that "The political people are really pushing ... they are pushing to get this done quick. "We're dealing with a real redneck government ... They are f***ing barrel suckers. They just are in love with guns," Fox said, later adding, "There's no question, they don't give a s**t less about Indians." "They just want us to go kick a**," Carson responded. Later on the tape, Fox talked about what Harris said, and appeared to feel, about the situation. "The premier is quite adamant that this is not an issue of Native rights, and in his words, 'We've tried to pacify and pander to these people for too long. It's now time for swift affirmative action ... I think the OPP have made mistakes on this one. They should have just gone in,'" Fox quoted Harris. Fox stated his belief that Harris was "not getting the right advice, or if he is getting the right advice, he's certainly not listening to it in any way, shape or form." Opposition members in the legislature accused Harris of playing a role in the death of Dudley George. He denied it. The former premier filed a libel suit against the Globe and Mail for reporting on those allegations, but the lawsuit was dropped after he retired from politics. Sam George, brother of Dudley, said the tapes vindicate his family's nine-year fight to find out the truth. "It is now clear that former premier Harris was involved in events that led to my brother's death, and that he has been misleading the public about his involvement ever since," said George. Family lawyer Murray Klippenstein said the tapes are evidence that the Harris government acted wrongfully in a way that led to the death of Dudley George and then attempted to cover it up. "The family has long feared that the shooting of their brother originated at the highest level of the Ontario government and these tapes are some major evidence suggesting that they have been right all along," he said. "The family will now continue their fight for all of the truth to come out, and for holding the powerful people accountable who have been concealing this critical information from them and from the public for all these years." "These tapes appear to show that Ontario veered for a dangerous moment towards the characteristics of a police state, where politicians treat the police as their personal armed forces, and in this case the force was directed against a small and already victimized sector of society. This is going to have to be examined very seriously in the ongoing public inquiry," said Andrew Orkin, Klippenstein's co-counsel. During a telephone interview hours after the tapes were played, Windspeaker asked Klippenstein if there'd been any last minute attempts at the inquiry to keep the tapes from being played. "Not lately. They've been suppressed and concealed for 10 years, but the jig was up now," he said. Klippenstein was asked if he expected anyone to dispute the authenticity of the tapes. "I don't think anybody is going to dispute that these are tapes of what this officer said. It's significant that this is a senior OPP officer who is a quality eyewitness. I doubt that he knew he was being recorded so I think we have frank and honest observations. That's partly what makes the results so scary," he said. The tapes were recorded as part of a routine OPP policy at the time to have the phone lines recorded in situations where the police are in a confrontational situation, "precisely to ensure accountability," Klippenstein added. "Unfortunately, there were a couple of unrecorded lines as well. They did set up one or several phone lines that were not recorded and apparently they set them up specifically to avoid recording on those lines." The lawyer discovered after hearing the tapes, long before they were released to the public, that "barrel sucker" is police slang for someone who's a little too fond of guns. Top Lawsuit launched against First Nations University By Stephen LaRose, Windspeaker Contributor, Regina A dispute between the former vice-president of the First Nations University of Canada (FNUC) and the university board of governors has gotten a number of degrees more serious. At a May 15 press conference, Dr. Wes Stevenson announced he was launching a lawsuit against the board, three months after he was suspended from his job as academic vice president, and a weekend after he was fired. "To all those responsible, this is fair warning that as of today we will launch a lawsuit that will uncover the malicious and unethical nature of what has been called the 'normal, annual audit,'" the academic said. "We will uncover the layers of lies and deceit and the many characters who were part of this conspiracy, including a board that did not have the wisdom, nor the guts, to stand up to such a tyrant," Stevenson said in apparent reference to the board chairman, Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) Vice-chief Morley Watson. Dr. Stevenson, who served as the university's administrative vice-president for the past decade before his suspension last winter, said he has never been given any reason for his dismissal by the university, nor was he allowed to defend himself in the investigation. The previous Thursday, Stevenson was handed a one-line letter from the university's president, Dr. Eber Hampton, saying that he was being fired for 'just cause.' The dismissal came three months after he and two other FNUC senior staff were suspended and escorted from the university campus by Regina police. Watson's story concerning the suspension changed as the crisis at the university deepened. On the day of the suspensions he said the action was taken in accordance with the university's annual audit. In fact, no staff members had ever been suspended in the university's history during the annual inspection of the university's financial records. Two weeks later, during the FSIN legislative assembly in Regina, Watson said he was presented with an affidavit alleging financial misconduct by the university administration. He refused to make the affidavit public, even to other members of the university's board of governors. After Stevenson's press conference, Watson told reporters that the FSIN and the university would have nothing more to say on the matter, pending the results of an RCMP investigation. The FSIN announced that it had turned over the university's financial records to the commercial crimes unit on May 15, the same day as Stevenson's press conference. The RCMP had a different story. No one from either the FSIN or the university had been in contact with anybody in the force regarding alleged financial wrongdoings at FNUC, said Heather Russell, a media affairs officer with the RCMP's F Division in Regina. Russell was contacted by Windspeaker one day after the FSIN made the announcement. Stevenson welcomed the news that the FSIN was going to the police, saying that if the university's board had any evidence of wrongdoing by him or the university administration, the RCMP should have been called in at the start of the investigation. "I welcome the opportunity to clear my name," he said. Stevenson talked about the rumors that have floating around Regina concerning the reasons for his dismissal. Though no one from the university talked to him, he said the FSIN had spread stories about financial improprieties, mostly concerning the sale of computers-"Which I have no knowledge of," he said-and private vacations taken using university travel money. Stevenson said the only case that may have caused the slightest controversy happened last year when he went on a nine-day trip to Halifax. He attended a conference for five days, but stayed an extra four days to visit friends and academic colleagues. He told reporters that during the extra days he stayed with friends and did not charge anything to the university. As well, his round-trip plane ticket cost the same as it would have if he came and went only for the conference. Two of the three people who replaced the suspended staff appear to have no experience in university academic or administrative circles. They do seem to have strong connections to the current FSIN leadership. Al Ducharme, who took over as administration vice-president, is described as a close friend of Grand Chief Alphonse Bird, while Florence Watson, the sister-in-law of Vice-chief Watson, was appointed director of finance. The board's actions, apparently done at the behest of the FSIN leadership, reflect a serious problem in governance, Stevenson said. The majority of the members of the university's board of governors are political appointees, and appear more interested in building political bases than with the welfare of the university, he alleged. The FNUC's board of governors has more members- and political employees-than the boards governing Saskatchewan's other two universities. Sixteen members are appointed by provincial tribal councils, the FSIN senate or the FSIN. Three are appointed by students. The federal and provincial governments, the universities of Regina and Saskatchewan and the FNUC faculty appoint one member each. The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada refused to grant full membership to Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, as FNUC was known before 2003, until the mid-1990s because of the overtly-political structure of the board, saying it could possibly compromise academic freedom, said Stevenson. An official from the association refused to comment on Stevenson's allegations. "We don't talk about our membership in public. Our membership criteria meetings are handled behind closed doors," said spokesman Jeff Pappone. Dr. Wes Stevenson said the university may lose its association membership in a "matter of weeks." If so, losing the accreditation could make it harder for FNUC students to have their degrees recognized by employers or other universities. The fate of the other two FNUC staff who were suspended is uncertain as of press time. The University of Regina Faculty Association is frustrated with FNUC's refusal to meet the union to discuss academic concerns. Since the Feb. 17 suspensions, the union has filed 10 grievances against FNUC over the matter. One of the suspended employees is a union member. Chair Dorothy Lane said the union files only two or three grievances in a normal year. The union represents academic and non-academic staff at the university, and has about 1,200 members. The chair, who was also at the press conference, said the next step is to ask for an official hearing from the Saskatchewan Labour Relations board. The stress resulting from the board of governors' actions has hurt the university's reputation and left staff and students demoralized, said a faculty member. "I would have to say that morale is lower than it has ever been," said English professor Randy Lundy, chairman of the university's academic council. Staff and students have not been given any answers as to whether any wrongdoing took place. As well, he added, the dispute could make it much harder for the university to attract top-flight students and teaching staff. Top B.C. brews over action plan By Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Victoria Windspeaker has obtained confidential documents that suggest British Columbia's Liberal government is switching gears in the way it deals with First Nations people and their constitutional rights and title to the land. In a memo that B.C. chiefs were told was "not a public document," First Nations leaders were updated on meetings that representatives from the First Nations Summit, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations were having with the province. These talks centred around the implementation of Supreme Court of Canada decisions- Delgamuukw, Taku River and Haida-that deal with Aboriginal title and the right of Indigenous peoples to be consulted about resource harvesting activities on their traditional lands. The memo states the province recognizes that its Aboriginal consultation policy, unilaterally developed and imposed by the government, doesn't work anymore in light of these decisions, and that Premier Gordon Campbell himself has expressed an interest in developing a new policy that will 'do it right, this time.' Discussions were held, the chiefs were told, on "how to bring about reconciliation through substantive change and develop an effective framework for consultation and accommodation. "We insisted that discussions be premised on respect, recognition of Aboriginal title and rights, including the inherent right of First Nation's governance, and accommodation. We discussed the need for shared planning and decision making, as well as benefit and resource revenue sharing in order to establish an effective government-to-government relationship and a meaningful process for consultation and accommodation," the memo read. Included with the memo was a five-page document entitled "A New Relationship-Implementation of Supreme Court of Canada Decisions." The document outlines a 10-point action plan that will create "new institutions or structures to negotiate government-to-government agreements for shared decision-making regarding land use planning, management, tenuring and resource revenue, and benefit sharing." A copy of a letter from government negotiator Lorne Brownsey, the deputy minister in charge of the Treaty Negotiation Office, was also sent to the chiefs for review. The letter was addressed to the 14-member Deputy Ministers' Committee on Environment and Resource Development. It informed members that the sides had reached "a general consensus on a draft vision statement." "It is my belief that these talks and the subsequent work will move British Columbia forward in a significant way on the path to reconciliation with First Nations," Brownsey wrote. He said he hoped that a "new relationship will emerge between First Nations and the province that will mean a greater degree of stability and co-operation for resource management in the province." Later adding, however, that "this agreement is not meant to be signed or to represent a definitive statement of what the future may look like." Brownsey also cautioned all the deputy ministers to "proceed with care with an enhanced attention to First Nation consultation." Not all First Nations rights advocates are happy with the action plan. In an e-mail message forwarded to Windspeaker from traditional Haida leader Guujaaw, whose people are involved with a dispute over logging on their traditional territory, wondered why the elected First Nation leaders would trust the Gordon Campbell government, given its track record on Aboriginal issues. "Over the past six years we have fought through the courts to establish that we have rights which were not given consideration by the provincial government. The Supreme Court of Canada had to rule that the province had a 'diminished view of honor,' and could not run roughshod over the interests of our people." Guujaaw pointed out that it wasn't long ago that the B.C. Liberals outraged Aboriginal people in the province. "This government also passed a referendum that would limit a treaty to five per cent with a full surrender of title, no protected areas of their own, no special rights, an obligation to pay tax. And now they are running an election boasting of the money they have derived off our lands." (The provincial election was held May 17 with the Liberals returning with a second majority.) Dr. Taiaiake Alfred, a long-time Aboriginal rights activist, also took a dim view of the plan, slamming it on his Web site. "This new relationship will see the Aboriginal organizations virtually folded into provincial government agencies in the jurisdictional areas around land and 'resource' planning," he wrote. "It is becoming very clear that there is no longer any political representation of Indigenous nationhood in British Columbia." Top