An aboriginal report.

I was asked to cover the Annual General Assembly of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples for Windspeaker, an aboriginal publication based in the West. My report appeared in the June 2000 Windspeaker. The following is an edited version.

"Where's the President, he would know." Somebody had just asked the auditor how $40,000 'deferred' in the Annual Financial Report had been spent. The auditor didn't know.

"There's the President, let's ask him," said the Chair. Harry Daniels, retiring President, peered at the figures, scratched his head behind his cowboy hat and finally replied: "I don't remember."

The 174 delegates who converged on Ottawa on Friday, April 29, 2000, for the annual general assembly of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) were chiefs of tribes and others responsible for the welfare of native people. Founded thirty years ago as the Native Council of Canada, the Congress has the goal of protecting the interests of all who claim to be aboriginals. As of April, its membership consisted of an estimated 1.2 million in Canada, with 79% living off the reserve and 250,000 on the reserve. (Quoted from The Forgotten People, Vol. 1 #1, Mar. 99)

Much of the discussion was no more enlightening than Harry Daniels' reply to the question put to him. Henry Wetelainen, vice-president of the Ontario Metis Association, was elected to chair the meeting, and he could not call for the minutes of the previous meeting because they had been stolen. The motions passed at that assembly were read out and approved instead. When the auditor presented his financial report, questions were raised about several items apart from the $40,000 from the Department of Human Resources referred to above. The disposition of an item of $125,000 was not adequately explained, and a sum of $130,000 set aside for the formation of a "separate corporation" had never been approved by the Board of Directors.

Someone complained about the vague terminology employed in the Auditor's Report. He replied that, because of the Access to Information Act, financial reports would have to be provided, on request, to third parties. Therefore, he said, certain information should not be included: donors "might want their money back." He added: "I am not responsible for transactions prior to 2 years ago. I trust the Board." The $40,000 discrepancy dates back at least 3-4 years, according to one delegate.

A vote to accept the auditor's report passed by a vote of 69 to 59. A subsequent request for a copy of the financial report was never acknowledged.

Federal manoeuvring

Dwight Dorey, the new president of CAP, is a Mi'Kmaq born on a reserve. He has been promoting human rights throughout his career, and was involved in the drafting of the International Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva in 1993. He began his current career as the vice-president of the Native Council of Nova Scotia from 1977 until 1982, and later served as chief and president from 1989 to 1997, during the struggle to have aboriginal peoples included in the 1982 Constitution Act with guaranteed collective aboriginal rights. He was also in office when Bill C-31 became legislation, giving status and recognition to aboriginal men, women and their children. During this period, also, the struggle to have aboriginal concerns heard and acted upon at all federal/provincial conferences on Canada's Constitution, including meetings of the First Ministers, became reality.

In a pre-election interview, Mr. Dorey was frank about his concerns. "What we are up against," he said, "is that the federal government-by policy--tends to be still dividing our communities with respect to the Indian Act legislation, (at the same time) minimizing the Supreme Court decisions wherever they impact on our people and their rights. There seems to be an effort, both on the part of the Federal Government and the Department of Justice to narrowly interpret the Court's decisions.

"On the one hand the Supreme Court, itself, has been saying--such as in the Sparrow decision--that there should be a broad and liberal interpretation of our aboriginal and treaty rights. For example in Nova Scotia, the Mi'Kmaq people have pre-Confederation treaty rights which allow them to hunt, fish and trade. But they are not getting that recognition from the system.

"In addition to this, the federal government accepts the fiduciary responsibility for Indians on lands reserved for Indians. This dates back to the British North America Act [section 91(24)]; but when you consult this, it says that the federal government is responsible for Indians and lands reserved for Indians. It does not say Indians on lands.

"Sections 25 and 35 of the 1981 Constitution acknowledge existing aboriginal and treaty rights. But the government takes a narrow interpretation of that, and tries to pass that fiduciary responsibility to the provincial governments. By policy, they say, Metis and others living off the reserve are a primary responsibility of the provincial government. But we do not accept that," says Mr. Dorey. "A lot of assistance and support is going to the bands only, not to people off the reserve who are trying to catch up to the rest of society."

When reminded that many Canadians are poor, feel marginalized and in need, President Dorey acknowledged this but said: "That's not our struggle (which) goes back to the historic relationship that the first peoples of this country have; and it's acknowiedged in treaties and in Confederation (the BNA), in provincial legislation (the Manitoba Act), and in the Constitution.

"Historically, in Confederation, we have a special place like no other people have (except Quebec). People are trying to rewrite history. Not us. Who are the immigrants here? It's everybody else but the aboriginal peoples. Bring us up to a level with everybody else and then we can accept that everybody should be treated equally. Let us play catch up, first. That's why we have to press on the issues of our aboriginal and treaty rights, because that is the only argument that we can really put forward.

"We have had to struggle for years to try to get what was committed to us (and) acknowledged as being our rights and our benefits. What do the government (and) the non-Indian people get from those treaties? They get the territory, our traditional territory. They get the benefit of all the resources from that land, and our way of life is being destroyed. It should be a two-way street--respect what was committed to us.

"Since many in Canada, because of intermarriage between the settled and the settlers, can claim some trace of Indian blood, and since, at this time, all of these plus whomever they marry can claim some sort of status or 'non-status', one gets the impression that some native leaders would like to turn Canada back into one large reserve."

Dorey wants Indian culture, tradition, and languages given special protection, "because for a lot of the First Nations people, our culture is dying or it's dead." According to Jim Sinclair, a co-founder of the Congress of Native Peoples, there are two classes of aboriginals: the very, very well off (the chiefs and presidents of councils), and the very, very poor, who are even poorer than destitute whites. But he does not look to Ottawa for a remedy: "The solutions have to come from our people, not from the government," he said. "Issues that affect urban and rural aboriginal peoples are very different than those on reserves or in First Nations communities, because-at least on reserves and in First Nations communities-.you have an Indian chief and band council and a band office to go to for help."

But one wonders how efficacious this help is. In spite of the billions provided to them by the federal government, there are still reserves without indoor plumbing or adequate housing. "Most of our communities suffer from third-class services," according to one person. When asked why the chiefs build casinos instead of providing adequate housing for their people, a delegate said testily, "You'll have to ask them."

Health care

Discussion of health care revealed that many aboriginals do not know the extent of the benefits available to them. Viola Thomas, a woman from British Columbia (who denies that she is a Canadian), complained about the discrepancy in health care between those living on reserves and those living off them, saying that there is discrimination against the latter. But President Dorey clarified this: "The health benefits provided to status Indians are not limited to the reserve. You have access to these services even if you live off the reserve. And education is another of these benefits."

In an effort to learn about health benefits available to Metis who live off the reserve, I subsequently made fourteen phone calls to various Indian Affairs and Health Canada offices. No one clarified the issue for me. I gather that the Metis have the same access to provincial health plans as do other Canadians. This, of course, does not satisfy Ms. Thomas.

Residential schools

George Erasmus, past president of the Assembly of First Nations and Co-chairman of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, presented the report of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) set up to help rehabilitate victims of abuse in residential schools. He had received a $350,000 grant from the federal government to be used over a ten-year period for this work, and he practically, pleaded for the chiefs to apply for some of this money.

One wonders how anyone living on a reserve without indoor plumbing could resist the temptation to claim the status of a victim. Merely removing a child from its environment is regarded as an abuse. "The whole fact that residential schools existed was a cultural abuse," was a recurring theme. And bitterness against the Catholic Church was very much in evidence; Ms. Thomas wants to sue the Pope.

Erasmus talked about the fall-out or domino effect of residential schools: many people later became alcoholics, presumably as a result of their experiences. Yet alcohol was firmly entrenched in aboriginal culture long before residential schools existed, and today--long after residential schools--it is still a problem on many reserves, though some have banned it.

Other problems

Tom Flanagan, professor of political science at the University of Calgary, and author of First Nations ? Second Thoughts points out that since band leaders receive no funds from their constituents, they do not feel accountable to them. Chiefs, band leaders, and members of councils need not look after inadequate housing or anything else--nor, it would appear, are they accountable to the federal government.

Given the abuse and cultural deprivation until recent years, Canadians can all identify with the aboriginal distrust of government. Native people have another handicap--not being able to trust their own leaders, who, billions of dollars later, have not found a way to improve the status of their own people.

Doctor Ferrari worked in the public health section of the Department of Immigration for many years.