First Nation unrest is "hot" topic in Ottawa as Senate Committee studies Kelowna Accord bill
Tory approach to natives could mean protests, Martin says
BILL CURRY - April 8, 2008
OTTAWA — The Conservative government's “too bad, so sad” approach to Canadian aboriginals will be to blame if natives increasingly turn to confrontation and protest, former prime minister Paul Martin warned yesterday.
Mr. Martin was testifying before a Senate committee that is studying a private member's bill he had put forward. The bill calls on Ottawa to honour the 2005 Kelowna Accord, one of the last official acts signed by the Liberals before the Conservatives took office.
Mr. Martin argued the 11/2 years of negotiations leading up to the $5-billion accord stirred hopes that federal action was on its way to raise education, housing and health standards for aboriginals.
“When that happens, and then all of a sudden the federal government just simply says, ‘Too bad, so sad, we're walking,' I think it has an enormous amount to do with their credibility,” he said.
Conservative senators disputed Mr. Martin's comments, suggesting the “supposed accord” lacked appropriate detail and arguing that Tories decided to focus on such issues as land claims and water.
Liberal Senator Roméo Dallaire, a former commander with the Canadian Armed Forces, argued in committee that the issue is taking on a national security dimension as the aboriginal youth population grows.
“We've heard about the aboriginal day of action,” Mr. Dallaire said, in reference to plans to repeat last year's demonstrations.
“Isn't there an internal security risk that's raising itself more and more as the youths see themselves more and more disenfranchised and, in fact, that they could actually, if they ever coalesced, bring this country to a standstill?”
Mr. Martin said that aboriginal leaders have shown enormous restraint, and he hopes Ottawa acts before it gets to that point.
“There is a degree of hopelessness and it's partly been brought on by the refusal to implement Kelowna,” Mr. Martin said.
“The best way to avoid what you have just said is to show that in fact we understand, and we are going to deal with those issues.”
While Mr. Martin and the senators were debating the issue, one provocative native leader was in town vowing a novel approach to raise the stakes.
Chief Terry Nelson of Manitoba's Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation had a meeting scheduled yesterday with the Venezuelan embassy in Ottawa.
Mr. Nelson said he was submitting a direct request to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for political and financial support to Canadian native communities that are in legal battles over resource rights.
He noted that six native leaders from the KI First Nation in northwestern Ontario were recently jailed because they could not afford financial penalties, nor could they afford further legal battles, in their attempt to block access to mining prospectors on traditional lands.