Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
Top News - September - 2004
Volume 22 - Number 6
Assembly of Vice-chiefs? Hooky playing chiefs disrupt annual meeting
Youth council to help next generation
Mitchell gone, Scott on scene
Set an example- follow the rules - Editorial
From wretched ugliness to glamour doll-dom - Guest ColumnCheck out Ontario Birchbark
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Hooky playing chiefs disrupt annual meeting
Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Charlottetown P.E.I.
The Assembly of First Nations' habit of not playing by its own rules has caused trouble again, this time in Charlottetown at its annual general meeting held July 19 to 22.
Only two of the more than 60 resolutions filed by chiefs concerned with a variety of pressing matters were dealt with over the course of four days. A golf tournament was fit into the schedule, however, as was a banquet and dance in honor of New Brunswick and P.E.I. Vice-chief Len Tomah.
Of the resolutions dealt with, one concerned child and family services matters. The other approved a proposed "framework for advancing the recognition and implementation of First Nations governments."
The second resolution was of central importance to National Chief Phil Fontaine's plan to work jointly with Indian and Northern Affairs on policy issues.
The other resolutions did not get debated because, late in the afternoon of Day 2, the question of quorum was raised. Once the voting delegates present were counted, it was clear that a significant number of chiefs or their proxies had gone AWOL. Since the body could not function without a quorum, despite the fact that as much as half-a-million dollars was expended to hold the meeting, the resolutions were referred to the national executive for action, a decision that caused some sparks.
It has become accepted practice that resolutions are referred to the 11-member executive body for approval if they are not dealt with during the assembly.
Dave General, a councillor with Six Nations of the Grand River (Ontario) and proxy for Chief Barbara Allison of the Lower Similkameen First Nation (British Columbia), stood at a meeting floor microphone to say the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) charter did not allow for such a practice.
The battle over when the charter is followed and when it isn't has surfaced at all recent AFN meetings. During a sometimes heated session last December at the group's Ottawa confederacy, the AFN wrestled with the idea of what to do when accepted practice conflicts with what's written in the charter. At that meeting, British Columbia chief Doug Kelly called for a return to the charter rules on voting. Kelly said the charter allowed only a limited number of chiefs from each region to vote at confederacy meetings. Many chiefs, led by Six Nations Chief Roberta Jamieson, fought back against that motion arguing the charter had been ignored for many years and the accepted practice had become that every chief in attendance could vote, as is the rule for annual general meetings.
In response to that argument, all the chiefs were allowed to vote at the Ottawa confederacy, but were put on notice that the charter would rule at the next confederacy in Saskatoon.
When General argued in Charlottetown against sending the unresolved resolutions to the executive committee, meeting co-chair Luc Laine ruled against him and the AFN charter saying that it was the accepted practice to do so. No announcement was made as to whether ignoring the charter for that decision would be a this-time-only action.
The fight revealed once again the deep divide within the assembly.
General, loyal to the chiefs who oppose Fontaine, was trying to keep the decision-making power with the chiefs in assembly and away from the executive members who, for the most part, are loyal to the national chief.
Jamieson, who finished second to Fontaine in last summer's election, called for a special assembly to deal with the resolutions. Chief Kelly, recently elected to the three-member First Nations Summit executive task force in British Columbia, said that suggestion left him "extremely frustrated."
"We're talking about calling a special assembly because we can't get people to show up and do their job," he told the chiefs. "I have faith in my [B.C. representative on the AFN executive] to represent the interests of B.C. That's why we put him there."
Chief Stewart Phillip, a B.C. chief who belongs to the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and not the Summit, disagreed.
"This is not the assembly of vice-chiefs of Canada," he said. "This is the assembly of chiefs of Canada."
He urged that the special assembly be called to "focus on the work of the renewal commission." The renewal commission is working on recommendations that will allow the AFN to end the procedural squabbles that have plagued the organization over the last few years.
As the assembly began, Fontaine and other speakers stressed that AFN infighting had to stop. One reason, according to highly placed government sources, is that the organization received $2 million for its renewal process with the expectation that it would transform the AFN into a group that could make and keep promises in dealings with the government.
In his opening address, Fontaine appealed to all factions within the assembly, saying the AFN could accommodate all the regional differences and need not have one overarching position. He suggested solutions could be worked out that allowed "not a single goal but many goals."
Phil Fontaine told the chiefs the government was prepared to look at proposals that it had refused to consider in the past, that opportunities for First Nations needed to be seized.
"This is our time," he said, "and we have to take advantage of it. We have to move with new speed, with faster speed."
Both sides blame the other for the gridlock that currently paralyses the AFN. The opposition complained the meeting agenda was designed to take the chiefs out of the process. They said the various reports to the assembly scheduled by the national executive members-who get the last word on what will and will not be on the agenda-were designed to use up time and allow the executive to keep from addressing matters the chiefs in assembly saw as priorities.
Fontaine's supporters say those who supported Jamieson in her unsuccessful bid for the national chief's job last year are interfering with Fontaine's mandate, seeking to hi-jack the agenda for their own political purposes.
Earlier that day, Jamieson had complained on the floor about how Day 1 had played out.
"Yesterday was a very long day," she said, "with presentation after presentation after presentation. I would ask that the chair adjust things so that the chiefs can have some input."
Chippewas of Nawash Chief Ralph Akiwenzie echoed those sentiments.
"I am in favor of direct contact with the floor," he stated.
Fontaine responded.
"The executive is extremely sensitive about the views, wishes and opinions of the chiefs in assembly," he said. "We've accepted your guidance. There is nothing that we want to do that will go against your wishes and opinions."
Later, N.W.T. Vice-chief Bill Erasmus, a longtime Fontaine loyalist, launched a spirited defence of the national chief.
"If you want to criticize, step into this man's shoes," he said. "This man works and works and works-day and night. I can't keep up to him."
He chastised the opposition for trying to disrupt the proceedings.
"If people want to come here and try to control the meeting, where are we as nations?" he asked. "We want to work with you but if we're going to keep getting caught up in the minute little details of a charter that was designed 25 years ago, I don't know."Youth council to help next generation
Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Charlottetown
A program developed by members of the Assembly of First Nations' youth council is designed to help young Aboriginal people deal head on with the damages of the past.
It's called CEPS-Cultural, Economic, Political and Social-and it's intended to create a healthier next generation.
Wesley Hardisty, 23, explained the program to Windspeaker during an interview at the AFN's annual general meeting in Charlottetown in July. He had just been elected co-chair of the council three days before. Ginger Gosnell from British Columbia is the other co-chair. The youth council has a male and female member for each of the AFN's 10 regions. There are currently five vacancies on what should be a 20-member council. They meet twice a year, in December and July.
"We as a youth council have undertaken certain initiatives to make sure that youth will be raised on the truth and won't have to deal with the lies they've been taught through colonization and the residential schools and all those kinds of issues," Hardisty said.
CEPS is an "issue training model" funded by Health Canada, he said.
"I think it's going to be revolutionary. We've already put out our draft curriculum and all on the youth council have seen it and they've all agreed that it's amazing and our kids are really going to be able to bond to it."
As a way of trying out the program, 20 young people will travel to four cities in various locations across the country and attend workshops. Each of the four issue areas will be dealt with separately. The workshops will look at issues from a national prospective and then the program will be tailored to meet the specific needs of each region and will be rolled out on a regional basis, he said.
It's expected a report on the effectiveness of the process will be completed by the end of February.
"The manual is phenomenal. After it was all said and done we sat down and we looked at it. It was just like-wow! Then to have our peers comment on the draft and see the direction and why we're going this way, to see what we wanted to accomplish, they just all agreed. I'm so glad this is there for our other youth that are going to follow in our footsteps," Hardisty said. "They're not going to look at our leaders and say, 'Oh, he drinks. He does this. He does that.' They're going to look at it and say, 'I understand. I can't hold him responsible for the way that he's being. It's not his fault that he's like that. There's all these other contributing factors and this is how we are going to deal with all those contributing factors to make sure that our kids tomorrow won't have to worry about it."
The idea is to arm the next generation with the information they'll need to combat the stereotypes and ignorance directed all too often at Aboriginal people. In some cases, the youth themselves will need to revisit false or erroneous attitudes they may have absorbed about their own people and themselves. It will allow young people to get rid of what experts call "internal colonization."
Hardisty may be young, but he's already experienced one thing only very few people in this country can say they've experienced; he knows what goes on behind the closed doors that shield an Assembly of First Nations executive meeting from public view.
As the newly elected co-chair of the recently revived AFN youth council, the Fort Simpson, N.W.T. resident attended the executive meeting on July 19. Hardisty found it quite interesting.
"I was really there more to listen and kind of figure what their sides are on certain issues. You can always figure out who's pushing what issue and who's pushing another issue. I was listening in to figure out how the work is going on at the executive table of the highest national level for Indigenous peoples in Canada. It was pretty interesting to see and listen to exactly what they want to talk about and how they present things."
He was asked if the meeting was what he expected it would be.
"It was. I didn't have really high expectations. I knew that they all make lots of money. They get to travel all across the country and a lot of people don't. But it was pretty neat to actually sit down with them and get the meeting started and listen to the national chief's direction that he wanted this assembly to go and which issue he thought was going to be big when they were brought forward and what was going to take a lot of time and what wasn't going to take a lot of time. They went over making the meeting run as smoothly as possible a lot. So it really made me feel that they are working hard behind the scenes to make sure that this goes on as well as possible," he replied.
"They're concerned that some people have agendas that aren't going to be working for everyone else at this conference, that they're pushing their own personal agenda on this assembly. And that's not right. Everyone has to have a chance to say what they want to say but in a respectful way. That's what they're trying to ensure, that no one gets disrespected," Wesley Hardisty said.
Getting behind the closed doors is fine, he said, but if he sees something he thinks is wrong, he won't remain silent.
"My loyalty is to the youth. The youth develop what I have to say. I'm not pushing my agenda on anybody. It's what the youth council has to say that I'll have to say.
And if I tell them, this is what I saw and they say, 'Well, you can't just sit there and take it. You're going to have to tell them that you're going to start exposing these things.' That's a decision that the youth council has to make," he said.
After working on a bachelor of science degree and completing the first year of an engineering degree, he became interested in geographic information systems (GIS) and now works in that field for his home community.
"I [also] work with troubled youth in high risk so I really feel a strong connection to the issues. I see it on an everyday basis in my home community, what's wrong with our youth today and things that have worked and things that haven't worked when dealing with these issues. I also do a lot of work on a volunteer basis, so I really try to live it as much as I can so I know what I'm talking about," he said. "Also, I know I'm from a small northern community and our issues are a lot different than, say, someone from Saskatoon or Regina, and I recognize that but I'm willing to work with them to try to find a middle ground on what would work best between us. As much as they hate it, we're not going to be able to provide specific youth initiatives just for rural kids and urban kids, you know, something that's going to fix everything."
The other members of the AFN youth council are Tiffany Dionne Kloncl'aa Smith and Mark Rudyk, Yukon; Stephanie Paul and Andy Rickard, Ontario; Kathleen J. McKay and Albert Cater, Manitoba; Winona Polson, Jean-Claude Therrien, Quebec and Labrador; Patricia Duncan, Northwest Territories; Terry Young, New Brunswick and P.E.I.; Jaime Battiste, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland; Terin Kennedy, Saskatchewan; and Tony Delaney, Alberta.
TopPaul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Fredericton
Another Andy is setting up shop in the Indian Affairs minister's office.
When Prime Minister Paul Martin revealed his new cabinet on July 20, Andy Mitchell was shuffled out of Indian Affairs to become the new minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, leaving Andy Scott to become the Indian Affairs minister.
Scott, the former Chretien-era solicitor general who resigned from Cabinet in 1998 after he was overheard discussing sensitive material on a commercial flight, was also named the federal interlocutor for Métis and non-status Indians. The two jobs have never been held by one person at the same time before. And since an Inuit secretariat is also being established within the department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Scott is the first person with responsibility for all three constitutionally recognized Aboriginal peoples.
Ethel Blondin-Andrew, minister of state for northern development, and Susan Barnes, appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and federal interlocutor for Métis and non-Status Indians, are the two other cabinet members who will play direct roles in Aboriginal issues.
Barnes, MP for London West (Ontario), in 2003 was named parliamentary secretary to the minister of Justice with special emphasis on judicial transparency and Aboriginal justice. She is also a former chair of the standing committee on Aboriginal affairs and northern development.
Anne McLellan, the deputy prime minister and minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, will take over responsibility for the Office of Residential School Resolution Canada.
The new Indian Affairs minister called Windspeaker on Aug. 12. He was in his home riding in Fredericton. Scott seems to favor an informal approach with the media. His communications staff, sounding somewhat uneasy about it, informed us he would make the call himself without the benefit of watchful functionaries.
"It's the nature of these organizations to protect their ministers," he said, chuckling as he discussed the ground rules for the interview. "Look, I'll do as much as I can. It would be pretentious, I think, for me to pretend that in three weeks I've got anything figured out. I do look forward to the opportunity. I do believe that the prime minister is seriously committed to advancing the file here. And certainly, when asking me to do this, he expressed that. Every indication is that this is something that he believes is a priority to the country."
As the minister responsible for infrastructure and housing, Scott attended the April 19 Aboriginal roundtable hosted by the prime minister. He came away from that meeting thinking there was a chance to make some progress.
"I believed at the time, and came home and told my wife, I think it was really quite historic, an opportunity to advance on a number of fronts files that are very difficult to move. I guess I was challenged to put my money where my mouth was," he said.
He didn't know at that time that he would soon be right in the middle of the process. He was asked if he sought out the top Indian Affairs job.
"The quick answer is no. Did I request this? I did not. But neither did I request anything. Am I happy to have this position? Very much so. I'm a sociologist by education. I've spent most of my life since graduating from university as a sort of social activist on disability and literacy and related subjects like regional economic development.
"I've spent some time as solicitor general and unfortunately when you're solicitor general you're faced with the terrible reality that our correctional system is home to far too many Aboriginal Canadians. I'm quite driven to take advantage of this opportunity," he said. "If you're a Canadian who wants to make a difference, this is the department where you can have the largest impact, I think, in government because I think that the needs are great, the issues are very complicated and I'm looking forward to the challenge."
Every minister receives written instructions from the prime minister when he or she is appointed. The "mandate letter" is confidential but Windspeaker asked Scott what he could tell us about it.
"Without revealing the contents of my mandate letter I can say that the prime minister was very alert, at the time of the choice of his Cabinet and the drafting of instructions, to the roundtable in April. So clearly, if one looks at what the roundtable was designed to do and what the roundtable identified as the six priority areas, that figured prominently in this," he said. "I was specifically, as minister for Indian and Northern Affairs, charged with two of the six tables as a lead. I was familiar with housing because I was charged with the lead in housing before I became the minister of Indian and Northern Affairs as the minister responsible for housing. So I knew the process and I knew where we were moving on this. My intention is to not only lead in the tables I've been asked officially to lead, but also as an advocate for the interests of a community. To sort of push my colleagues, work with them to make sure it's getting the level of attention in other very busy portfolios that it deserves."
When it was announced that Scott would have responsibility for all three Aboriginal groups, National Chief Phil Fontaine said he was concerned that the lines would become blurred and the unique requirements of First Nations would get lost in the shuffle. Scott said he was aware of the concerns.
He said he understands the logic in "depositing the responsibility for the broad series of issues that confront the community" with one person and the challenge of not "confusing the difference in the nature of the relationship that exists in each case...
"I think the reason that the prime minister has made the decision that this will be brought into one place is so that in moving forward someone is looking at all of these issues through the same lens, but I'm not seeing the same things. That's possible and I'm quite confident that I can achieve that in a way that respects the unique nature of the various organizations that we speak of."
Ottawa insiders say there are two kinds of government officials: those who believe in self-government and those who don't. Scott was asked where he stood on the issue.
"I believe, as was articulated by the prime minister, the language of nation to nation. I believe that we would be starting out this relationship in a respectful way of recognizing that there is value in moving forward from that premise," he said. "I think that there are serious social problems that need to be attended to independent of where you stand on those other legal/political positions. So, to some extent, the pragmatist in me would like to be able to make sure that we attend to those issues while we struggle with some of the more challenging political/legal issues, but I would characterize myself as believing instinctively in a respectful relationship with other governments."
Scott said he does not plan to introduce any governance legislation. Instead, talks on the six priority areas identified at the Aboriginal roundtable-lifelong learning, housing, accountability, economic development, health and land claims-will drive the agenda.
