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Metis Association President Larry Desmeules says a court ruling against the International Woodworkers of America, Local 1-207, contained discriminatory language.

Justice A.T. Cooke said in his ruling that the behaviour of the union picketers indicated they were "simply naive persons from a small northern Alberta community, many of part Native blood, who were without experience in matters of labor disputes."

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Volunteers from Metis Local 14 will be serving up home-made bannock at a booth at the Calgary Canadian citizenship food fair during the Olympics.

The bannock will be served with a host of condiments, says president Theresa Arseneau and will be open from Feb. 15 to 18 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The food fair will be constructed along Calgary's 8th Avenue Mall and will highlight foods from 60 countries.

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The Nistawoyou Friendship Centre has shifted into high gear says executive director, Gerry Cuthbert.

The centre was the subject of controversy last summer due to financial difficulties coupled with a large turnover of staff and board members. Four board members resigned and the centre was also struck from the member list of the United Way.

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Who is vandalizing Joane Cardinal-Shubert's sculpture?

Whether it is the work of another artist, a group of people with a message or just a gang of delinquents is not known, but those responsible are certainly persistent.

Six times within the last three months vandals have attacked the art work entitled Abandoned Camp ? Keeper of the Culture, an environmental sculpture by Red Deer-born artist Joane Cardinal-Shubert, which stands in front of the Muttart Gallery. And with each new attack, they go just a little bit further, says Cardinal-Shubert.

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The government faces tough negotiations with a group of about 6,000 Aboriginals living in the Torres Strait, near Papua, New Guinea, after the islanders voted to withdraw from Australia.

The Aboriginals have called upon the United Nations to help them seek the independence and the Australian government has been presented with a huge compensation claim for illegal conquest and 200 years of "devastation and deprivation."

In an attempt to address Aboriginal grievances Australian Prime Minister Hawke has promised to grant self-government.

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An Aboriginal writer from Australia raised the red and black Australian Aboriginal flag on the white cliffs of Dover claiming Britain on behalf of all Aboriginals.

Burnham Burnham staked his claim Jan. 26 while the rest of Australia was celebrating its 200th birthday. Australian Aboriginals claimed the celebrations were a ritual of mourning for their people who died in the thousands when the country was settled by Europeans shortly after it was "discovered" by Cpt. Cook in 1788.

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A former missionary was found guilty Jan. 22 of sexually abusing seven children from the Indian Village of Canyon City.

William Douglas, 57, had pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of gross indecency over the assaults which took place in the village's one-room schoolhouse in the 1960s.

Douglas could face a 20-year prison term when he is sentenced March 20.

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The Manitoba Metis Federation is the first Metis group in Canada to enter negotiations for a province-wide agreement to gain control of housing, education, economic development and family services.

Federation President Yvon Dumont announced that both levels of government had agreed to begin negotiations which would eventually lead to a fourth level of government in Manitoba. "Just about any other Metis group in Canada would like to be in this situation . . . this is the cutting edge of the definition of Aboriginal rights throughout Canada," he said.

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Aboriginal self-government can be entrenched despite the controversial Meech Lake Accord, says Liberal leader John Turner.

Speaking at a student forum at the University of Alberta Jan. 21 Turner said Liberal support for the accord only came after the government agreed to organizing further first minister conferences.

The accord gives veto power to the federal government and the ten provinces over further changes to the constitution. Before the accord, signed last summer, any amendments required the agreement of seven out of ten provinces.

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Feds to fund Aboriginal language institute

Jamie McDonell and Lesley Crossingham ? Ottawa

Native people have moved one step closer to founding an Aboriginal language institute with a promise from the Secretary of State to fund an advisory committee.

During his address to an Aboriginal language conference organized by the Assembly of First Nations Jan. 19-21, David Crombie said the committee would be formed by the organizers of the language conference to look into the form and make-up of such an institute.