David Inlet negotiations shaky

Innu leaders, government can't agree on procedure

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Negotiations between Innu leaders in Labrador and the federal government over the rebuilding of Davis Inlet are threatening to collapse.

Neither side appears able to agree on how to proceed with emergency preparations to the isolated village 300 kilometres north of Goose Bay.

In a Sept. 30 letter to federal representatives, Innu Nation President Peter Penashue and Davis Inlet Chief Katie Rich said they were encouraged Ottawa's agreement over the new mainland site for the village at Sango Bay, 15 kilometres from the Inlet.

But the Innu leaders were troubled Ottawa's insistence that the Innu people register under the federal Indian Act to access service and programs the Innu say they are already entitled to.

"The Indian Act is an outdated colonialist act which treats Aboriginal people as children," the letter read. "How can you make such a suggestion when the Human Rights Commission explicitly said one month earlier that the Innu not be required to go through a symbolic act of subordination requiring them to register under the Indian Act."

Federal officials responded with their own letter Oct. 4, saying they were asking the Innu to register under the act only out of "fairness" to other status Natives in Canada.

"We are asking the Innu to register under the Indian Act in order to qualify for the federal programming," the letter from federal negotiator Ross Reid and Indian Affairs Minister Pauline Browes said.

"It is important to emphasize that we view registration as an interim step...to a modern relationship between the Innu and the federal government."

Penasue and Rich also said federal negotiations refuse to honor Ottawa's constitutional responsibility extending certain programs and services to the community.

"Canada's failure to meet its responsibility has contributed to the cultural and social breakdown of the Innu people, including poor housing, overcrowding and lack of proper fire protection services."

Innu leaders from Davis Inlet have been negotiating with both Newfoundland and Ottawa to move the island community to a more hospitable mainland location for several months. The deplorable living conditions in the village of about 500 people first came to international attention last January when band police discovered two groups of children high on gasoline fumes and screaming about a suicide pact.

The children were airlifted to a treatment centre in Alberta where they underwent several months of substance abuse therapy and sexual assault counselling. Counsellors from Poundmaker's Lodge near Edmonton also flew to the inlet to start a treatment program for the community's adult substance abusers.

But talks between the Innu and provincial and federal officials have not gone as well. Premier Clyde Wells refused to approve the Sango Bay site for months before the province finally left the talks in August.

The Innu marched on Parliament Hill Oct. 5 to "appeal to the people of Canada."