Canada's First Nations - CF help, protests, solutions, etc. (merged)

[ballz]

Something interesting about these First Nations democracies... it appears there's a chance that not everyone can vote...

To satisfy my own curiosity, I dug up the numbers when the Qalipu Mi'kmaq band was being officially formed (originally 10,000 members... then when they were going to get status, 24,000 applications... anyway...), and I was reading about the First Founding members / Second Founding members controversy that was going on when this band was being formed. I couldn't recall why being on the First Founding members list was such a big deal at the time...

Anywho, here it is http://www.thewesternstar.com/Sports/Football/2009-11-27/article-1480272/Application-numbers-high-Qalipu-Mikmaq-First-Nation-Band-will-be-reality%3A-Brendan-Sheppard/1

The second phase
Once the first founding members list is completed early next week, the second phase will begin immediately for the second founding members list.

Members on that list will not be able to vote and enjoy some of the privileges members of the first founding members will have access to at first, however, there are some programs being delivered they will be entitled to.

I don't know if that means they can't vote in the short-term only, or what the whole deal is... but it appears some of these agreements with the federal government might leave some members as second-class Status Indians... That would help explain why the cronies have been getting away with the corruption for so long. And much like you would expect, those that were selected as "first founding members" were selected on a "who you know" criteria when it comes to this Qalipu example.

 

[PuckChaser]

Here's an interesting article from C-News:

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/12/23/19164496.html

First Nations should help ailing reserves: Akwesasne chief
By Greg Peerenboom, QMI Agency

Akwesasne Grand Chief Mike Mitchell says it’s time for more prosperous First Nations to step up, and not let struggling bands rely on solely on the federal government.

Mitchell, chief of the Mohawk nation territory that straddles Ontario, Quebec and the U.S., had accompanied First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo and three other dignitaries to Attawapiskat earlier this week.

Attawapiskat, a Cree community located along the coast of James Bay, Ont., has been in a state of emergency since the end of October. Several families are living in makeshift tents and shacks in sub-zero temperatures.

“For the visit, my particular purpose and objective was for turning around the long-term planning and to create a path for the future,” Mitchell said on Friday.

While Attawapiskat has received considerable attention since it declared an emergency over its lack of proper shelter, Mitchell said a new sense of partnership will also help “over 100 other northern communities.”

“If other First Nations step forward, we can only make it better,” he said.

What a great idea, First Nations groups helping each other, pooling the Federal money and distributing it where it is most needed.

 

[GAP]

hmmmmm......that just makes it one big, long line, and guess who's in the front.....the chiefs' and friends. Right now we have 100 shorter lines, and even there, guess who's in the front.....the chiefs' and friends .........................

 

[Jarnhamar]

hmmmmm......that just makes it one big, long line, and guess who's in the front.....the chiefs' and friends. Right now we have 100 shorter lines, and even there, guess who's in the front.....the chiefs' and friends .........................

I guess troops don't 'eat first' up there 

 

[GAP]

This is not new....in the same vein.....your friend and mentor.....P.E.T.............................

Trudeau's words about aboriginals resonate
BY ROBERT HEAD, CALGARY HERALD JANUARY 3, 2012
Article Link

As one who has had the good fortune of visiting the majority of First Nations Indian Reserves in Canada and also having spent some time on the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, Ariz., while doing a year-long study into policing, I find the recent media frenzy concerning the Attawapiskat housing situation overblown and rather frustrating.

To begin, please bear with me while I record an excerpt from a speech given by a prominent Canadian, to an assembly of aboriginal people many years ago:

"So this year we came up with a proposal. It's a policy paper on the Indian problem. It proposes a set of solutions. It doesn't impose them on anybody. It proposes them - not only to the Indians, but to all Canadians - not only to their federal representatives, but to the provincial representatives, too, and it says we're at the crossroads. We can go on treating the Indians as having a special status. We can go on adding bricks of discrimination around the ghetto in which they live and at the same time perhaps helping them preserve certain cultural traits and certain ancestral rights. Or we can say you're at a crossroad - the time is now to decide whether the Indians will be a race apart in Canada or whether it will be Canadians of full status."

Those words were spoken back on Aug. 8, 1969, by then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau at the Aboriginal and Treaty Rights meeting in Vancouver.

Trudeau continued: "And this is a difficult choice. It must be a very agonizing choice to the Indian peoples themselves because, on the one hand, they realize that if they come into the society as total citizens, they will be equal under the law, but they risk losing certain of their traditions, certain aspect of a culture and perhaps even certain of their basic rights, and this is a very difficult choice for them to make and I don't think we want to try to force the pace on them any more than we can force it on the rest of Canadians. (But) here again is a choice which is, in our minds, whether outside, a group of Canadians with (whom) we have treaties, a group of Canadians who have ...many of them claim, aboriginal rights or whether we will say we'll forget the past and begin today and this is a tremendously difficult choice because, if - well one of the things the Indian bands often refer to are their aboriginal rights," Trudeau said.

"We will recognize treaty rights," continued Trudeau, those 42 years ago. "We will recognize forms of contract which have been made with the Indian people by the Crown and we will try to bring justice in that area and this will mean that perhaps the treaties shouldn't go on forever. It's inconceivable, I think, that in a given society one section of the society have a treaty with the other section of the society. We must be all equal under the laws and we must not sign treaties among ourselves. And many of these treaties, indeed, would have less and less significance in the future anyhow, but things that in the past were covered by the treaties...things like so much twine, or so much gun powder and which haven't been paid, this must be paid. But I don't think that we should encourage the Indians to feel that their treaties should last forever within Canada so that they be able to receive their twine or their gun powder.

"They should become Canadians as all other Canadians and if they were prosperous and wealthy, they will be treated like prosperous and wealthy and they will be paying taxes for the other Canadians, who are not so prosperous and not so wealthy, whether they be Indians or English Canadians or French or Maritim-ers. (This) is the only basis on which I see our society can develop as equals," said Trudeau. "But aboriginal rights, this really means saying, 'We were here before you. You came and took the land from us and perhaps you cheated us by giving us some worthless things in return for vast expanses of land and we want to reopen this question. We want you to preserve our aboriginal rights and to re-store them to us.'

"And our answer - it may not be the right one and may not be one which is accepted, but it will be up to all you people to make your minds up and to choose for or against it and to discuss with the Indians - our answer is 'no' . . ."
More on link

 

[Good2Golf]

...and P.E.T.'s right hand man was......as viewed in the context from the eyes of the First Nations:
(interesting historical forensic trail of promises to address the issue)

Resolution no. 32

Special Chiefs Assembly

November 19 & 20, 2002
Ottawa, Ontario

Moved By:
Chief Sol Sanderson
Chaskastaypasin Band of the Cree Nation, SK

Seconded By:
Chief George Minde
Ermineskin Cree Nation, AB

Decision:
Carried

Subject:
Call for Prime Minister Jean Chretien to Stop and Withdraw His “Suite” of First Nations Legislation, including Bill C-6, Bill C-7 and the Proposed First Nations Fiscal Statistical Management Act

WHEREAS in 1969, Jean Chretien, as Minister of Indian Affairs, proposed a “White Paper on Indian Policy”, which had three major objectives;

• The termination of Aboriginal and Treaty rights by altering the legal and political status of First Nations; and
• The elimination of First Nation Reserve lands and severing the connection to traditional and treaty territories; and
• The assimilation of First Nations into Canada’s mainstream municipal, property and tax systems; and

WHEREAS in the early 1980’s, Jean Chretien, as Minister of Justice, attempted to trade-off to the provinces the inclusion of the recognition of Aboriginal and Treaty rights into what became Canada’s Constitution Act 1982; and

WHEREAS the First Nations consistently struggled for Aboriginal and Treaty rights, which forced governments to recognize and affirm those rights in Canada’s constitution, despite Minister of Justice Jean Chretien’s efforts; and

WHEREAS in 1993, Jean Chretien, as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, made numerous promises in his “Red Book I” and Aboriginal Electoral Platform, which he reneged on as Prime Minister of Canada; and

WHEREAS in 1997, Prime Minister Jean Chretien, shelved the vast majority of the Final Report and Recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples’; and

WHEREAS from 1993 until now, Prime Minister Jean Chretien has consistently refused to meet with the Chiefs-in-Assembly; and

WHEREAS Prime Minister Jean Chretien is supporting the current Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Robert Nault, who is trying to force a “suite” of legislation, including Bill C-6, Bill C-7 and the First Nations Fiscal Statistical Management Act, through Parliament, which is in violation of the Inherent right to self-government, the Treaties and the Constitution Act 1982 and is designed to amend and replace the Indian Act, as necessary, in order to, impose the objectives of Chretien’s “1969 White Paper on Indian Policy”; and

WHEREAS this is no “legacy” to leave to First Nations or Canada; and

WHEREAS First Nations have not been properly consulted on any of the Bills making up the “suite” of draft legislation;

THEREFORE BE IT IS RESOLVED that the Chiefs-in-Assembly hereby reject Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s proposed “suite” of First Nations legislation, including Bill C-6, Bill C-7, the FNFSMA, and other proposed Bills, directed towards First Nations; and

FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that the Chiefs-in-Assembly hereby call on Prime Minister Jean Chretien to immediately withdraw his proposed “suite” of legislation including Bill C-6, Bill C-7 and the FNFSMA, and commit to a fresh start on a partnership and nation-to-nation basis working with First Nations in Canada; and

FINALLY BE IT RESOLVED that the AFN seek Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s response in advance of the AFN Confederacy of Nations meeting December 10, 2002, and that the Confederacy of Nations shall present and consider alternatives for a course of action to protect our Inherent and Treaty rights from the offending “suite” of legislation.

"...Will the Honourable Interim Leader of the 'No-Longer-the-Opposition' please tell us how his party would like to see the Government take action in the Attiwapiskat situation as well as that of the larger issue of the First Nations and their place within Canadian Socitey, such that the broken promises over decades of past Governments are not repeated, and so that the issue is resolved once and for all?"

 

[Rifleman62]

Lets go up there in May to see the condition of the housing that was moved there just recently, as well as the sweat lodge.

 

[GAP]

Lets go up there in May to see the condition of the housing that was moved there just recently, as well as the sweat lodge.

More importantly....let's take pictures of the people presently without housing or within the tents, and once the housing is built, take pictures of the residents...................wanna bet they won't be one and the same......

 

[GAP]

read the comments.....

Attawapiskat chief says reserve can’t pay bills under third-party management
Postmedia News  Jan 5, 2012
Article Link

By Linda Nguyen

TORONTO — Essential services and operations in the troubled Attawapiskat First Nation may stop this month if the federal government does not relax its control over the community’s finances, its chief warned Thursday.

Chief Theresa Spence says the northern Ontario reserve is at risk of not making its January payroll if Ottawa does not release funds currently overseen by a recently installed third-party manager.

“Chief Spence and her council continue to feel as if they are being punished by the minister for the crisis that exists in her community,” according to a statement by Mushkegowuk Council, which manages Attawapiskat and other neighbouring communities.

The manager was appointed in December amid outcry from Attawapiskat leaders, who say it was an unnecessary expense that will cost $20,000 a month.
More on link

Lorne Gunter: Fixing First Nation reserves is an inside job
Lorne Gunter  Jan 5, 2012
Article Link

Jeanette Peterson and Kirk Buffalo live more than 3,600 kilometres apart, almost on opposite ends of the country. Yet the two are connected by their desire to improve their respective First Nations communities.

Ms. Peterson is the newly elected Chief of Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley reserve, while Mr. Buffalo is a new Councillor at the Samson Cree band on central Alberta’s Hobbema reserve. Chief Peterson wants to bring financial accountability to her tiny community of 112 people, while Councillor Buffalo is attempting to clean up his community of 3,000, which has been plagued by murders, drive-by shootings, gang activity and drug dealing.

If Canada’s First Nations citizens are ever to lift themselves out of squalor, addiction, corruption and violence, the Petersons and Buffalos in their midst have to succeed.

More on link

 

[GAP]

Q&A: Stephen Harper’s record on First Nations
Kathryn Blaze Carlson  Dec 10, 2011
Article Link

A decade has passed since former Liberal Indian and Northern Affairs minister Robert Nault tried to overhaul the Indian Act with his First Nations Governance Act. Now a consultant still firmly plugged into the aboriginal community, Mr. Nault spoke with the National Post’s Kathryn Blaze Carlson about the lessons he learned as minister and his views on the current prime minister’s approach to First Nations policy. An edited transcript:

Q How is Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s approach different from that of former prime minister Jean Chrétien? Paul Martin?
A There’s no doubt in my mind that the strategy of the current government — which is different from the strategy when I was there — is to go very slowly, very carefully down the road to incremental change without causing too much ruckus.

Q What ideas has the Harper government borrowed from your First Nations Governance Act, which never passed?
A If you look at what they’ve started to implement, they were all in the First Nations Governance bill. Maybe they’re wiser than I was by doing it piece by piece, which seems to be allowing them to get these things through.

Q Do you think Mr. Harper has been more successful in advancing the First Nations file than the prime ministers before him?
A I think he’s doing as much, if not more, than most prime ministers. Most prime ministers — the Liberals in particular — did everything with money. They didn’t do a lot of work on structural, legislative change. Harper is moving more on the incremental change of institutions that in my view may perhaps in the future have an impact. I don’t believe any of this is near good enough, though, to make a serious difference in the lives of the people you’re seeing on TV.

Q What do you make of National Chief Shawn Atleo’s relationship with Mr. Harper? Do you think Mr. Harper puts as much power in the Assembly of First Nations’ hands as Mr. Chrétien or Mr. Martin did?
A I think [Chief Atleo’s] relationship with Mr. Harper is a much more professional one — it’s not as cozy as the other national chiefs tried to have with previous prime ministers. The relationship is different. The clout is not the same.
More on link

 

[ballz]

"Harper sees jobs as key to better future for first nations"
BILL CURRY AND GLORIA GALLOWAY
OTTAWA— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-sees-jobs-as-key-to-better-future-for-first-nations/article2312916/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Politics&utm_content=2312916

Stephen Harper is pushing ahead with an agenda focused on practical steps to boost the economies of Canada’s reserves, pointing to a promising new generation of native leaders and entrepreneurs as examples of a brighter future.

More than 400 native chiefs from across the country arrived in Ottawa with wide-ranging demands for the one-day Crown-First Nations Gathering, but the Prime Minister quickly made clear that his priority was the economy.

His message: Canada’s resource sector is expanding, skilled labour is in short supply and the government is ready to make incremental changes to land and education policy that will boost first nations employment.

“This is a new day,” he said. “New generations are arising, generations that seek a common vision, that have common goals.”

A growing number of first nations communities are striking their own direct land-management deals with Ottawa that make it easier to create businesses on reserve and attract non-native investment. Industrial parks, golf courses, hotels and residential subdivisions are becoming more common on reserves, bringing in new revenues for band governments – a trend Ottawa is determined to encourage.

But Mr. Harper was quickly reminded by many chiefs – including the influential old guard of first nations leaders – that this approach ignores the fundamental legal questions around land rights that still hang over large parts of Canada.

Further, some chiefs bristled at the idea of sending their young men and women away to work in resource projects far from home.

“There was discussion about training my people to have jobs to work for somebody else,” said Stan Beardy, Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation in Northern Ontario. Mr. Beardy’s region includes Attawapiskat, where a state of emergency was declared in the fall over deplorable housing conditions. “We want to develop [the land] so somebody would work for us and make money for us,” he said.

With the Prime Minister seated in the front row, two former national chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations – Ovid Mercredi and Matthew Coon Come – each passionately argued why Canada must sign nation-to-nation agreements that share natural resources revenue.

Mr. Coon Come, now grand chief of the Grand Council of the Crees, noted the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec resource deal shows how forestry, energy and mine development on traditional territories – which are outlined in treaties and are much larger than reserves – can produce steady revenue for first nations governments.

“This arrangement provides the Cree with stable, predictable revenues over the long term,” he said.

Ottawa and the Assembly of First Nations released a statement at the end of the day hinting at further action on reserve funding and accountability, education, economic development and treaties, but the 2 1/2-page statement contained little detail.

When asked after the summit to explain how the government felt about revenue-sharing, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan said the focus is instead on education, skills training and assuring that first nations are job-ready.

But National Chief Shawn Atleo – who called the day an important first step – said the government has committed to implement treaties and that includes “the notion of resource revenue sharing.” He said a new economic task force will also have to look at the issue.

Mr. Harper was originally expected to depart at noon, a schedule that angered many of the chiefs who came to Ottawa expecting to have the opportunity to air their grievances face-to-face. In the end, he stayed the full day.

Watching all of this unfold on television many hours away was Chief Clarence Louie, of the Osoyoos Indian Band, whose business success in land development is often cited as the way of the future by the Conservative government.

A second page is at the link.

 

[GAP]

Well, they're there....now to see how long it takes the band to set them up......I figure....Oct, maybe Nov.................

(watch how long it takes for "someone" to pinch appliances and other such removables included in the homes.....)

Attawapiskat gets final shipment of modular homes, government says
Postmedia News  Feb 23, 2012
Article Link
By Teresa Smith

Trucks bearing the last of 22 long-awaited new homes rolled into the Attawapiskat First Nation in northern Ontario on Thursday morning, according to a statement from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Nothern Development.

The government said the homes will be ready for families to move into once the community completes the necessary foundation work and installation of the modular homes on lots; electrical, sewer and water hookups are completed; and inspections are performed.

It was not immediately clear who would hook up power and water lines or perform the inspections, or when the homes would be ready to house families.

Many families in Attawapiskat have been living in tents and overcrowded sheds or houses, some of which have black mould growing on the walls and ceiling.

Without running water, many families use pails or buckets as toilets and have to haul their drinking water from a central community tap.

“They’re very small, very narrow,” Attawapiskat resident Martha Sutherland said of the new homes. “But, they’ll be great for a small family, maybe with one or two kids.”

Sutherland hadn’t confirmed for herself that all the new homes had arrived Thursday — she said she’d been too busy making pancakes for 12 kids, some hers, and some she was looking after while their parents were away. But, Sutherland said she had seen some of the homes that were placed nearby.
More on link

 

[alocin]

(watch how long it takes for "someone" to pinch appliances and other such removables included in the homes.....)

Does this not fall under the same oft-repeated mantra of "innocent until proven guilty"... ?

 

[my72jeep]

“They’re very small, very narrow,”


Yep. let the complaints about the freebies start.

 

[Remius]

“They’re very small, very narrow,”


Yep. let the complaints about the freebies start.

Lets not be guilty of what we accuse the mainstream media and various journalists of doing.

"They're very small, very narrow," "But, they’ll be great for a small family, maybe with one or two kids.”

If you are going to quote what she said quote the whole thing.

Have you seen them?  They are narrow.  She stated a fact.  I didn't see a complaint.

 

[my72jeep]

Lets not be guilty of what we accuse the mainstream media and various journalists of doing.

"They're very small, very narrow," "But, they’ll be great for a small family, maybe with one or two kids.”

If you are going to quote what she said quote the whole thing.

Have you seen them?  They are narrow.  She stated a fact.  I didn't see a complaint.

Sorry I see a complaint, as most families up there have 2-4 kids. I have seen them and yes they are narrow they were delivered on a truck then a train then an Ice road. All I'm saying is yet again its a freebie and the first quoted thing is that there very narrow, not Ah gee thanks Canada this will be a great start at re building my life,
My$0.2

 

[Strike]

Have you seen them?  They are narrow.  She stated a fact.  I didn't see a complaint.

I also see that as a complaint.

Are they small by North American I-Must-Have-the-Largest-and-Most-Expensive-House-in-the-Neighbourhood status?  You bet.  But will they be good enough for a family of 4-6?  Well, My Aunt and Uncle raised their 2 in the same sized house and never had any issues when my family (5 of us) came to visit over Christmas or for several weeks in the summer.  So, yes, they will be fine.

 

[lethalLemon]

Sorry I see a complaint, as most families up there have 2-4 kids. I have seen them and yes they are narrow they were delivered on a truck then a train then an Ice road. All I'm saying is yet again its a freebie and the first quoted thing is that there very narrow, not Ah gee thanks Canada this will be a great start at re building my life,
My$0.2

Quite precisely.

Not even a thank you. Never a thank you. It's always "we're in a crisis, we demand X Y Z, and NOW!" The government could have easily said, "No, get off your fat salary and do it yourself." but instead they were generous enough to being the process of rebuilding a community and the lives within it.

Never a single, thank you.

(Or the CBC is trying to hide those too now?)

 

[Remius]

I don't know.  I saw it as a matter of fact statement.  First Nations' people tend to talk that way.  If it had been "why didn't they send us something bigger with a tv in it?" then maybe.  I don't blame the little woman who bakes pancakes on the reserve for kids for the town's predicament.  I also don't expect her to thank the government either.

 

[Sythen]

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20120405/attawapiskat-students-120405/

OTTAWA — The federal government is pulling the third-party manager who had been handling the finances of the troubled northern Ontario reserve of Attawapiskat after the community improved health and safety conditions for its residents.

Jason MacDonald, a spokesman for aboriginal affairs minister John Duncan, confirmed Thursday evening that third-party manager Jacques Marion is being withdrawn because of progress in reserve management.

MacDonald said a transition of power will take place over the next two weeks, and the band will revert to "co-management" of its affairs and finances on April 19.

That means the band and council will have more control over money and local decisions, said a letter sent to the band from Joanne Wilkinson, an official with Aboriginal Affairs.

More on link. Slight update to the story.