Leaders optimistic in Constitution talks

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OTTAWA - Following a summer of frustration, the country's major Native organizations are optimistic about the outcome of the recent round of Native Constitutional talks in Toronto.

"I got the sense of more of a commitment to progress from the provinces and the federal government," said Dorothy Wabisca, vice-president of the Native Council of Canada.

Georges Erasmus, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, described the meetings as "most promising."

Said Erasmus, referring to the problems that Native groups faced in dealing with bureaucrats over the summer and early fall, "it seemed that the process has gone adrift."

The process, according to Erasmus, is now back on track because the federal ministers in charge of the process, Ray Hnatyshyny and Bill McKnight, have not given

the political direction needed.

"The best thing we can say came out of the meetings was the expression of political will," said Chief Erasmus. "There will probably be some rough areas ahead, but the future looks reasonably good."

A development that both AFN and NCC representatives welcomed at this round of ministerial talks was the higher level of participation by the provinces.

"There was more input from all the provinces," said the NCC's Wabisca.

"Before, one or two of the provinces - Ontario, Nova Scotia - would participate in the discussion and the others would just ask the occasional question. This time all the provinces, even Newfoundland, participated."

Another two ministerial level meetings and several officials' meetings are expected before the final first ministers' meeting on Native constitutional affairs, set for next spring.

In the meantime, the Association of Chiefs of Ontario, with the support of the AFN, is holding a national information rally in Toronto to explain the Native position on the amendment of the Constitution Act.

The rally starts at Queen's Park, Toronto at noon on October 29.