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Education ballot box path to power: Harper

Author

Rudy Haugeneder, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Hobbema

Volume

8

Issue

15

Year

1990

Page 1

Meech Lake hero Elijah Harper thinks education and the ballot box can do what violence can't - give Natives the power to rue themselves.

Reacting to thunderous applause and repeated standing ovations recently from about 300 people attending the second annual Maskwachees Cultural College graduation, he told Natives to use the democratic process to beat back decades of domination and discrimination by the white majority.

The Manitoba MLA said he couldn't have killed the Meech Lake accord unless he was part of the political system - and knew how it worked.

Harper alone refused to give the Manitoba legislature the unanimous approval required to pass the accord, effectively preventing Ottawa from getting the required approval of all provinces to implement the constitutional change giving Quebec distinct society status, but which didn't - despite plans from Native leaders - do the same for Canada's aboriginal people.

He said it's time Natives used the electoral system to elect their own candidates at all political levels: from school board and municipal elections to seeking provincial and federal seats.

"It isn't going to turn you into a white person," he said, noting Natives survived all government attempts to wipe out aboriginal culture.

But beating the dominant society at its own game can't be done without education, warned Harper, urging the 91 graduates to become much-needed Native professional people like doctors and lawyers, as well as potential politicians who could win elections and become instruments of change to help the Native community realize its goals of economic and social self-sufficiency and political self-determination.

"We're at the crossroads in our time as aboriginal people, in our relationship with Canadian societies and governments, and the role we're going to have to play and the path we're going to have to take," he said.

Harper said the time is ripe for change, especially after the "long Indian summer" which has seen Natives across the nation man blockades that served the dual purpose f warning governments that immediate changes are needed and creating a public awareness about the desperate plight of aboriginal people.

Again stressing the "need" for education, he said it's the key to determining our destiny" because "who knows better than ourselves?"

Using himself as an example of how the non-Native system can be used as a tool of change, Harper said his one-man stand against Meech Lake has had an important impact on Manitoba politics.

Once the only Indian in the legislature, he said the recent provincial election in that province saw three other Natives elected - bringing to four the number of Natives in the 57 seat legislature.

And that, to him, is progress.

Despite being personally against violence as a means of catching the government and public's attention, Harper warned the government must act on the lessons it's learned during the past summer - or face the consequences.

"If governments don't listen," he said, "(there's) potential that the situations (Oka-like violence) might arise again."

Harper said he doubts Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's recently announced major policy changes towards Natives are sincere.

Citing Mulroney's promise to Natives, during the height of the Meech Lake crisis to set up a special commission to deal with aboriginal concerns if Natives supported the deal, Harper said Mulroney rejected the idea after the constitutional pact was killed.

That, he charged, shows the true nature of Mulroney who, Harper said, couldn't be trusted to implement the changes he recently promised.

He said Ottawa could show its sincerity be introducing three major immediate changes:

reinstating money it slashed from Native budgets for Native communications, political organizations and education and land claims research,

elevating the Indian affairs portfolio from a junior ministry to a senior one and

launching an immediate full emergency parliamentary inquiry to deal with pessing Native issues - and establishing government priorities to deal with them.

Anything short of such action would show Mulroney isn't sincere about dealing with Native frustrations, said Harper, and would clearly show recent government promises "don't hold much water."