Aboriginal column pulled from Regina newspaper.

REGINA

The removal of a prominent First Nations columnist from the daily paper in Saskatchewan's provincial capital has raised concerns about the loss both of an Aboriginal perspective on local and national issues, and of an influential means of educating The Regina LeaderPost's non-Aboriginal readers about Aboriginal issues.

Doug Cuthand, one of Canada's most respected Aboriginal journalists, has been writing a weekly column for the Leader-Post and The Saskatoon StarPhoenix for close to 15 years. That has now come to an end, with Feb. 23 marking the last appearance of the column in the Regina paper.

Many of Cuthand's regular readers, in the Regina area and beyond, are already mourning the loss of regular contact with his extensive background knowledge of First Nations history, cultures, political structures, and contemporary issues.

"Taking away Doug's column is a big mistake," said Lionel Tootoosis, general manager of Living Sky Casino in Swift Current.

"Media coverage tends to be so much doom and gloom on First Nation and Aboriginal issues. Doug has been great at giving our perspective ... It has been great to see various institutions reach out and partner with the Aboriginal community and businesses to tell our story and create understanding through workshops, education and programs. This to me is a step back by The LeaderPost."

Cuthand's articles are appreciated in the nonAboriginal community as well.

"Doug's columns contribute invaluably to this process (of public education on treaty issues) while opening up other difficult national and international histories of economic, social, and cultural injustice," said Len Findlay, director of the Humanities Research Unit at the University of Saskatchewan. "He also writes compellingly about the resilience and creativity of Aboriginal peoples worldwide, about deficient Aboriginal leadership, and about successful intercultural collaborations. His analysis and commentary challenge every reader, irrespective of their ethnicity and politics."

"If, as seems likely, the global economic downturn lands emphatically in Saskatchewan in the near future, tough times will revive bigoted 'thinking' and the search for scapegoats," Findlay adds. "There are few people who can stand in the way of such an eventuality more effectively than Doug Cuthand."

Janice Dockham, The LeaderPost's editor-in-chief, defends her decision to remove Cuthand's column--along with those of eight other freelance columnists and a local cartoonist--as an aggressive but necessary means of cutting costs in a challenging economic environment for newspapers.

"We do not take these decisions lightly. In a perfect world, we would not be eliminating content from the newspaper," Dockham said. "Mr. Cuthand provided an important voice for the Aboriginal community. I recognize that ... . That's why it was there."

Dockham argues that in addition to maintaining a focus on local content, albeit now staff-written only, The LeaderPost has taken a number of other steps to ensure that the growing Aboriginal population in southern Saskatchewan are still seeing their issues and perspectives reflected in the newspaper, as well to improve the general readership's--and their own--understanding of these issues.

In the last five years, The LeaderPost has hired an Aboriginal consultant to provide cultural awareness training to all senior staff (both editorial and administrative), and produced several special supplements, including full coverage of the First Nations Summer and Winter Games, and in-depth feature articles on Aboriginal-specific topics such as residential schools and housing issues.

The LeaderPost also initiated its own, in-house training program--not affiliated with either the University of Regina's School of Journalism or First Nations University's Indian Communication Arts (INCA) program--which saw the paper take on two Aboriginal people interested in daily print journalism for a two-year internship. One of those trainees, Kerry Benjoe, is now a full-time reporter on the "city desk" (general news), and one of 21 writers in the newsroom. The paper's Web site also houses a blog called RezXtra, on "First Nations arts and life," written by independent blogger Chris Tyrone Ross.

"I hope that people understand all of the things that we are doing to try and improve our understanding, to try and improve our perspective," Dockham said. "We recognize the First Nations as a growing part of our Saskatchewan demographic, and if we are going to be relevant, if we're going to encompass that wider audience, First Nations absolutely have to be a part of that."

For his part, Cuthand regrets the loss of his regular appearances on the pages of The Leader-Post.

"I was able to affect a lot of people's attitudes about Indian people, and it wasn't to go on a rant or anything, but to just try to make people aware of the issues and give some background to them, because you need to understand ... what's the story behind the story. And a lot of times, that isn't covered in the newspaper." Cuthand noted that his columns often stir up debate both on coffee row and in the classroom.

"People don't understand Indian issues, by and large. A lot of people who complain about Indians don't even know an Indian. If you can put a human face on an issue (such as the disappearance of Aboriginal women), then it becomes something you just can't dismiss.... Society just gets pretty calloused (about) some of these things, unless you bring it to them."

Fortunately for his readership, Cuthand's column is not disappearing entirely. The StarPhoenix, which like The Leader-Post belongs to the financially-strapped CanWest newspaper chain, manages its daily operations independent of its sister paper. It has also faced editorial budget cuts, but so far has maintained Cuthand's column in their print and online editions. Cuthand also reads his columns for weekly broadcast on Missinipi Broadcasting (MBC), a La Ronge-based Aboriginal station that has expanded into the Regina radio market in the last couple of years.

Still, for sheer audience reach "it's hard to beat those newspapers," Cuthand said. "People open up the paper and they expect to see it there. Well, they're going to have to hunt for it now."

BY CARMEN PAULS ORTHNER

Sage Writer