Money was tight leading up to the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) special assembly, held beginning March 27 in Gatineau, Que. The chiefs were convened so they could consider the organization's renewal commission report.

While accountability specialists in Canada's capital city focused on the limitations of the Conservative Party of Canada's recently announced accountability legislation, First Nation leaders launched several strikes immediately after the act was tabled on April 11, saying it goes too far and in the wrong direction.

Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine and several other chiefs took aim at the section of C-2, the Federal Accountability act (FAA), that proposes to allow greater federal government access to First Nation governments' affairs.

Comments by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on April 19 simultaneously raised the hopes and added to the concerns of residential school survivors who have been waiting for word that the residential school compensation package negotiated between the former Liberal government and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) last year would go ahead.

At a press conference in Winnipeg, Harper said his cabinet had approved the compensation deal but one party 'on the Aboriginal side' was holding up the its completion.

At a time when things were going smoothly for the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP), the organization decided that a leadership change was required.

For many in Ottawa and beyond, the decision was a real mystery.

Dear Editor:
The Canadian government has set our treaties with the Crown aside and ignores them. Moreover, the Canadian government is using their military and the RCMP with guns to kill the elderly, women and children on the reserves, poisoning our First Nations' living environment, the water ways with their industrial waste and using other strong armed intimidation.

Dear Editor:
The Chief of Defence staff and other military officers have been added to those being "PMOed," in other words subjected to their public utterances being screened by the Prime Minister's Office.
Known factors that may have contributed to this latest concentration of control may include any or all of the following.

1. General Hillier has publicly stated the pressing need for new equipment "in the very near future and actually by September would be quite good." This is in contradiction to the reality of procurement having been put on hold.

Dear Editor:
The Assembly of First Nations is always under intense scrutiny for its national leadership convention where the national chief is elected. It's transparent for all to see.

Dear Editor:
I am a Native inmate in northern Ontario doing a provincial sentence at Algoma Treatment and Remand Centre. On the treatment side of this institution, they built a sweatlodge in a concrete court, which is a great idea, however this lodge has no sacred fire pit to heat the grandfathers. They use propane above the ground. As an Aboriginal, I find this practice sacrilegious. I can't believe someone with knowledge of our traditional ceremonies would even consider this practice.

Dear Editor:
Does "open federalism," as Mr. Harper calls it, mean the weakening of federal authority and its ability to respond to national issues such as finance and social universality, or does it mean more participation of the provinces in decision making on the national level? I would agree with the latter, and fight vehemently the former.

Dear Editor:
I know that it will not be easy in selling the vision of a national Aboriginal agenda. Coming up with a slogan may be just as hard, but you can think about this slogan: Our prosperity is your prosperity.