Leader sees organization grow in influence

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Dwight Dorey, national leader of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP), is finding he has the ear of many powerful people around the country these days. He admits CAP's decision to participate in the First Nations governance act consultations is the main reason why.

Dorey sat down with Windspeaker for a lengthy interview on April 26. The national chief of the organization that purports to represent off-reserve and non-status Native people was prepared to talk tough against accusations CAP was bought and paid for with close to $1 million in extra funding for its part in the consultations.

Many observers say that when the Assembly of First Nations refused to participate in Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault's First Nations governance act consultation it forced the federal government to look to off-reserve and non-status Native people for input. Without Aboriginal participation, Nault would have been put in a position of legislating changes to the Indian Act without talking to Native people, leaving the government in a precarious legal position.

Critics say CAP's participation may give the government an out on that score. Dorey insists CAP's participation will result in a stronger voice for his constituents, a group marginalized by the assembly chiefs.

"If it was them who were participating and we weren't, would it be viewed that they are bought and paid for, too? I don't think it's fair," said Dorey. "That's always been the way they look at it. They look at us taking away from them as opposed to us going for something separate, but all for ourselves. It's not to take away from what they're getting. I'm not after their so-called piece of the pie. I want my own pie.

"This is something I've had to address with other people? chiefs-some of them have asked me, why is it that we're involved when they've taken a position not to? We represent a lot of status Indians off reserve, Bill C-31 people in particular. I'm one myself. A lot of the people that have been involved in the congress in the last 30 years are those kind of people. They haven't any means of participation through their bands and these are the kinds of issues that are being discussed through this governance act that really impact them."

The chiefs made their own problems by ignoring their off-reserve members, he argued.

He said his organization was paid to participate in the consultations but it doesn't intend to be a rubber stamp for anything the minister proposes.

"One could argue that we're bought off, but until the minister reports or tables legislation, we don't know what the heck it is. Even then, for us, that's going to be the telling point as to whether or not we've actually had an impact on this process or not. I don't see it as a buy-off so much as a concern as to whether or not our voice is going to be heard," he said. "That's our biggest concern. This argument about a buy-off doesn't bother me at all. I'm more concerned, after having participated in the process, the end result might be that all we had to say was falling on deaf ears. Then I've really got a problem. At least in terms of the JMAC (Joint Ministerial Advisory Committee) report, I feel that we've made a significant contribution to the process."

If what results of the consultation process isn't good enough for his people, Dorey said he will become the government's loudest critic.

"I don't feel comfortable criticizing an action the government might take or initiate if I've been given an opportunity to participate in a consultation process and I don't. Some, I suppose, like the AFN, might view it's easier to argue against something if you're not part of it. But on the other hand, if you're given the opportunity to have your say and be involved in the process of finding or determining what the end result is going to be then it's hard to take a position against it," he said.

When legislation comes down, that's when the process really starts, he said.

"And I understand, fromwhat the minister has told me, that there's still going to be an extensive period of consultation. Once the legislation comes forward, then there's going to be time for us to go back to our people in the communities and have another round of consultations and find out what they like and don't like," he said. "I understood this was going to happen prior to us agreeing to participate in the first stage and it certainly helped me and my board make the decision to participate.

"Just on a pure position of influence, it really was an opportunity, as I saw it, for the congress to be having a greater impact if the AFN was not playing. In other words, if the AFN would have been participating with us, I don't think our voice would have been as influential in the process."

When he was first elected, Dorey wrote to National Chief Matthew Coon Come and asked for a meeting so the on- and off-reserve groups could come to a meeting of minds. He said he has still to receive a reply.

"I wouldn't say it's too late, but I made a request of him and the other leaders to come together on what I thought was a very important issue that we should have been coming together on and that was the fishing rights of the Mi'kmaq people on the East Coast when all hell was breaking loose down at Burnt Church and I couldn't even get an acknowledgement of my letter, let alone a reply to it," the CAP leader explained. "So I said, 'fine, if you want to do your thing your own way, I'll do my thing my way.' If I was to be invited by the AFN or the [Metis National Council] or IJK to participate in a leaders' meeting, I'll be there. I'm not going to get my nose out of joint and say, 'You wouldn't come play with me so I'm not going to play with you.' I don't work that way."

While his organization has benefited from participating in the governance act consultations, Dorey believes off-reserve people will also benefit. He believes that, as a result of his relationship with the minister, the department of Idian Affairs is slowly moving away from its policy of only dealing with on-reserve people.

"I believe we are, and it's not just limited to INAC, it's the federal government. This ministerial group that the prime minister set up is focusing on the Aboriginal issues and they are suggesting to us it's time to look outside the box. That process has gotten started and we haven't gotten to talking about anything of substance with them but I expect we are going to be getting to that point sometime in the near future," he said.

Most First Nation observers suspect the prime minister's reference group of ministers is mostly concerned with saving money by reducing expenditures. Dorey thinks that's a legitimate concern, but he thinks the ministers will quickly discover that cutting expenditures isn't the answer to solving the social problems experienced by Native people.

"One would expect that that's going to be the first approach," he said. "But I think they're going to find that it's going to come down to a need for new initiatives, for a different way of doing things. There's going to be, I suppose, cases or scenarios where it's not going to take more money. It's just going to be shifting the existing money around a little bit. In other areas I think they're going to see a need to come up with some new money as well."

Dorey believes the prime minister is committed to doing something concrete about First Nation social woes.

"In my view, how far we go on the Aboriginal agenda is going to centre a whole lot on what the prime minister does, whether he decides to stay around for a while or he packs it in early. That' a big issue, too," he said. "I really think that the prime minister thinks that he himself has to make some amends because he's never been able to live down the '69 White Paper. I've just got that feeling."

Dorey said a combination of things that leads him to his conclusion.

"[The prime minister has] certainly not been able to shake that dogmatic kind of labl. I really believe he's clearly indicating that the Aboriginal situation is a priority of his. Some would say it's kind of late in his tenure as the prime minister that he's doing it, but it may be that it's part of his legacy that he has to rectify or set things straight. I believe he is the kind of man who has a real concern," Dorey said. "He certainly was instrumental in getting Aboriginal and Metis rights into the Constitution."

But many First Nation technicians say the White Paper policy just went underground after it was rejected in 1969.

"I think in many respects the White Paper went underground within government, more at the bureaucratic level. What I'm saying is, he's willing to change that. How far he's willing to go with it, that's the question," he said. "That's where we come in and me, in my position now, it's critical for an organization like the congress to be representing off-reserves. I don't know where it's going to go. Here's the opportunity for CAP to steer the direction that the government will take that impacts on off-reserve people."

Now that CAP is gaining in stature and influence, many wonder if it's ready to function as a high profile national organization.

"I believe so but I'd be the first to admit that I have some work to do internally. We've got weak links as everybody has so we have to do some work in those areas. Part of those kind of issues or problems that we have internally, for example, we don't even have an active affiliate in Saskatchewan. That's one of the reasons I'm out here. I'm meeting with some of the people and we're going to be working on that. There's other areas and other problems and issues," he said. "But to me, when people can see that someone like myself or the organization is demonstrating that the congress is speaking for the off reserves and is starting to be heard, is starting to make some progress, that's when you start getting people wanting to be participating. In the past when you haven't been hearing