Indian Act role of Native Council end November 7

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OTTAWA - A national conference being held in Toronto at the beginning of next month will likely be the closing act for the Indian t Secretariat of the Native Council of Canada.

Funding for the secretariat, which has been helping non-Status Indians regain their rights under the Bill C-31 amendments to the Indian Act, runs out on November 7.

The secretariat loses its funding while applications for enstatement under C-31 continue to pour into the enstatement unit at the Indian Affairs department at the rate of thousands per month, and requests for help continue to pour into the secretariat office. "Even though I'm not being paid past November 7, I'll continue to answer the phone and help in any way I can," says secretariat head Edmond Gus.

Gus' last major production for the secretariat will be the November 1 through 3 conference being held at the Lowes-Westbury Hotel in downtown Toronto.

The conference, originally to have been the second of a series, will explain to rights and benefits open to reinstated status Indians.

The series of lectures, panel discussions and workshops explain the constitutional and statutory rights of new status Indians and the discretionary benefits that they may or may not have, along with various regional concerns and such topics as the creation of new bands.

An earlier conference, held in Ottawa in June, help explained application for enstatement under C-31, including which section various applicants should apply under.