Media.Knet.Ca

SLARC press release ...

SLARC Youth Centre announces Sports Nights (2007-2008)

Sioux Lookout (July 17, 2007) – The Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee announced today that it is hosting sports nights for youth ages 11 to 18, commencing next Tuesday, July 24, 2007.

Supported by a Safer and Vital Communities Grant, SLARC Sports Night will take place Tuesdays at the Sioux Lookout Recreation Centre in the gym from 7-9pm. Weather permitting, some evenings will be hosted outdoors at various locations for different activities. Activities are free to the youth of the community and include floor hockey, badminton, soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball and frisbee-golf. Once a month the youth will organize a tournament with the sponsorship of local businesses and community organizations and with the involvement of the local police. 

“This is a great opportunity to enhance the programs at the Youth Centre,” said Youth Empowerment Coordinator, Daniel Fraser. “This grant enables us to provide a safe environment for youth to interact positively with each other and with adults.”

In the first tournament, coming up August 14th, youth will challenge the SLARC board. “The board better start practicing now, the youth are sure to be a challenge” said Amy McDonald, a SLARC summer student who is helping to organize the Sports Nights.

The Safer and Vital Communities Grant is offered through the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (http://www.mcscs.jus.gov.on.ca/). It encourages communities, business and government to work together, forge new alliances and build safer, healthier communities in which to live. This partnership approach provides an opportunity to build an increased sense of belonging and community spirit across Ontario.

The Sioux Lookout Anti-Racism Committee was established in 1988 as a means of promoting cooperation and understanding within Sioux Lookout.  SLARC is dedicated to helping all residents and visitors to our community learn to work and live together while respecting and celebrating our differences. The goal is to develop a just community where the future will be better for us all.

For further information, please contact:

Daniel Fraser, Youth Empowerment Coordinator (807) 737 0161
Amy McDonald – SLARC Summer Student (807) 737 1501

Please note the new dates (Aug 20-24, 2007) for this gathering in Garden River First Nation. Visit http://www.threefiresconfederacy.org/ for all the information about this gathering of nations.

From the Prince George Citizen ...

Ont. tribal council launches human rights complaints over aboriginal policing  
by Scott Paradis, Timmins Daily Press (National News) , 16 July 2007

TIMMINS, Ont. (CP) - A northern Ontario tribal council has slapped the federal and provincial governments with two human rights complaints for what it says is inadequate funding for Aboriginal policing.

Mushkegowuk Council calls the problem part of the “systemic racism” that exists within the government.

Mushkegowuk Council launched human rights complaints Monday on behalf of the First Nation communities it represents, five of which are on the isolated western James Bay Coast.

The complaints come after years of negotiations with the upper levels of government, which have failed to provide First Nations with appropriate funding for policing, Mushkegowuk Grand Chief Stan Louttit said.

“We have never been able to acquire the proper resources like any other town in (Canada),” Louttit said. “We've sought legal opinion and what we've been told is that it's a form of racism.”

Many of the First Nation towns represented by Mushkegowuk do not have a police force that can actively patrol the communities 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week.

Instead officers with the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service in some of these areas revert to on-call status for parts of the night.

In Attawapiskat, officers are typically on-call between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.

This is unacceptable and fails to protect the residents' property and personal safety, Louttit said.

“There's a big difference between on call and (active) patrol,” he said. “Come 3 a.m. (criminals) know the police aren't around, they know the police aren't on patrol.”

Municipalities across Canada don't have this problem, he said.

Even on the James Bay Coast, the municipality of Moosonee enjoys between 10 and 11 police officers, a state-of-the-art police station and new police vehicles.

That's in sharp contrast to the state of policing in Attawapiskat, or much of the other James Bay Coast First Nations.

In those communities only a handful of officers are available and they typically work out of a dilapidated, make-shift police detachment, Louttit said.

Ontario and Canada began funding First Nation policing in Mushkegowuk territory in 1994 when Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service entered an agreement with the two levels of government.

The spending framework in the agreement calls for the province to pay 48 per cent while the federal government takes care of 52 per cent of police funding.

From The London Times ...

19 mins, -1.8C: the first swim at the North Pole
Alan Hamilton - July 16, 2007

Had it been just one degree further down the thermometer, not even the polar bears could have managed what Lewis Pugh achieved in the early hours of yesterday.

Mr Pugh, a maritime lawyer and environmental campaigner from London, swam a kilometre (.62 miles) at the Geographic North Pole to highlight the effects of global warming. At -1.8C (28.76F), it is believed to be the coldest water a human has ever swum in.

Clad only in his Speedo trunks, cap and goggles as required by the rules of the Channel Swimming Association – which also forbid any buoyancy aids, swimming caps that offer any thermal protection or trunks cut above crotch level – Mr Pugh spent just under 19 agonising minutes in the melted sea ice navigating a path in a crack between broken floes.

The feat would not have been possible ten years ago, when the water was entirely frozen over, even in summer.

Mr Pugh, 37, confessed afterwards that the pain was so excruciating he almost gave up several times. At dead of night, but seeing his way in the permanent Arctic summer daylight, he entered the water at 2 am and reemerged at 2.18 and 50 seconds, perished but ecstatic.

“The water was absolutely black – it was like plunging into a dark black hole,” he said as his body temperature slowly returned to normal. “It was frightening. The pain was immediate and felt like my body was on fire. I was in excruciating pain from beginning to end and I nearly quit on a few occasions. It was without doubt the hardest swim of my life.”

He had been inspired, he said, by his friend and fellow environmentalist Jorgen Amundsen, the great-great-nephew of the first man to reach the South Pole.

Mr Pugh, who trained in a glacial lake in Norway, said: “I will never give up in front of a Norwegian, let alone a relative of Roald Amundsen.”

Because of its salinity, seawater freezes at a slightly lower temperature than fresh water. But the surface water at the North Pole is of relatively low salinity, and at -1.8C was on the verge of turning to ice that not even the bears could have swum in.

Most people who attempted such a feat would drown within minutes as the intense cold disabled their muscles. Mr Pugh believes that he can raise his normal body temperature by one degree by concentrating on raising his heart rate.

Tim Noakes, of Cape Town University, an expert on the effects of cold water on the human body, monitored the swim and found that on leaving the water Mr Pugh’s body temperature had dropped to 36.5C. Twenty minutes later it had fallen even further to a dangerously low 35C, but within an hour it had recovered to a normal 37C.

“To swim at the North Pole is an incredible achievement, and is the culmination of years of unique endeavour by an astonishing individual,” Professor Noakes said. “At the end of the swim, Lewis was showing obvious signs of distress but he never faltered and his performance was the best yet.”

Mr Pugh holds the record for the world’s most southerly swim, on the edge of the Antarctic ice sheet, and last year became the first person to swim the length of the Thames. He claims to be the only person to have completed a long-distance swim in each of the world’s five oceans.

He has already attracted the nickname “Polar Bear” for his cold-water swimming. He trained for his latest feat by eating five meals a day for three months and putting on 24 lb. Mr Pugh reached the Geographic North Pole by hitching a lift on an icebreaking ship sailing out of Murmansk in northern Russia.

The North Pole challenge was organised by the Worldwide Fund for Nature to raise awareness of environmental issues.

Scientists predict that by 2040 the Arctic could be virtually free of ice in summer. Mr Pugh said yesterday that his achievement was a bittersweet victory. “It’s a triumph and a tragedy – a triumph that I could swim in such ferocious conditions, but a tragedy that it is now possible to swim at the North Pole.”

National Indian Treaties 1-11 Gathering

July 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 2007
July 22 - Elders Ceremonies
July 23 - Elders Forum

Open Letter to Chiefs

We have been given another opportunity to gather up about our Treaties One to Eleven.

At each gathering we are able to reach a consensus on how we can and must take action to protect our Treaties for future generations. Each gathering gives us the understanding and commitment we need to take the action needed to have Canada honour the Treaty Obligations of the Crown.

At this gathering we will need to understand how the failure to honour our Treaties on the part of Canada means that our hand has been strengthened, not weakened. Canada’s failure to honour The Numbered Treaties only weakens their claim to our lands and resources as well as their claim for full and exclusive sovereignty on our Traditional Territories.

It is my hope that at this gathering we will find consensus on how we can collectively attack by legal and international action the territorial legitimacy of the State of Canada.

Lets us put our minds and hearts together to rekindle the True Spirit of Treaties One to Eleven.

For Treaty Justice,

Chief Ovide Mercredi
Misipawistik Cree Nation
National Spokesperson, Treaties One to Eleven

Please Click Here for further details, poster and docs.

From CTV online ...

Kelowna not an 'expensive press release', says chief
Canadian Press - Jul. 12 2007

HALIFAX -- Native leaders condemned the federal government's assertion Thursday that the defunct Kelowna accord was nothing more than an "expensive press release," saying the comments do nothing to improve already strained relations with Ottawa.

Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations said the remarks by a parliamentary secretary for the minister of Indian and Northern Affairs reflect the Conservatives disregard for a document he says could have improved the lives of natives across the country.

"It's wrong to suggest to Canadians that the Kelowna accord is just an expensive press release," Fontaine, national chief of the assembly, said on the last day of the organization's annual meeting in Halifax.

"It's simply wrong. It's irresponsible (and) too dismissive. We deserve better from the government."

Fontaine was responding to a comment by parliamentary secretary Rod Bruinooge who, when asked by reporters why the government shelved the accord, said the arrangement was a mere public relations exercise by the Liberals before the last federal election. "The previous government made an election promise at the last hour," Bruinooge said. "This was later dubbed the Kelowna accord. ... There was no agreement. It was a press release."

The comments echo those made by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice who recently referred to the accord as a "very expensive press release."

A dismayed Fontaine rebuffed the claims, saying the creation of the accord involved 1,000 people, 18 months of work and the agreement of the provinces, territories and aboriginal leaders.

"Once again the government has dismissed this important arrangement," he said. "The accord represents an opportunity to finally turn the corner to make things right."

Rick Simon, an Atlantic regional chief with the assembly, said the reference could further damage aboriginal relations with Ottawa as they try to move ahead with a backlog of stalled land claims and overall improvements to living conditions on reserves.

"For him to say there's nothing there, I think it's terrible," he said as the meeting wrapped up.

The wide-ranging Kelowna accord, signed with the former Liberal government of Paul Martin in November 2005, would have seen $5 billion go toward native education, employment and anti-poverty initiatives.

The Conservatives had said they were committed to meeting the accord's goals, but did not support a private member's bill backed by the Liberals, Bloc Quebecois, and NDP that passed in March. As a result, the government wasn't obliged to support the accord financially.

The Tories say they are taking a more "targeted approach" to dealing with specific land claims, concluding the residential schools settlement agreement and extending human rights protection to natives living on reserves.

Some native leaders wondered why Prentice didn't attend the annual meeting to explain the government's position.

Bruinooge said the minister was in Belgium attending ceremonies marking the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, where his great-uncle fought in the First World War.

Prentice's office sent a release stating he is also there to honour Cpl. Francis Pegahmagabow, Canada's most decorated aboriginal soldier who served at Passchendaele.

"We think we were snubbed by him not making the time to come here," Simon said. "It just shows where the priority is, and we're not."

Both Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and NDP Leader Jack Layton addressed the conference Thursday and decried the Tories failure to revive the Kelowna accord.

"I saw the work we did to come to this accord," Dion told hundreds of natives at the meeting. "It did not come overnight - it took a lot of work - but it seems that overnight the current government decided to get rid of this accord, and I share your disappointment."

The assembly passed more than 30 resolutions over the course of the meeting, many dealing with ways to improve conditions on reserves that have become so bad in some cases that international aid agencies have had to provide help.

++++++++++++

From the Globe and Mail ...

Natives upset by MP's comment on accord - Disparaging the Kelowna deal amounts to a snub from Ottawa, leaders say
OLIVER MOORE - July 13, 2007

HALIFAX -- Native leaders reacted with dismay and anger yesterday upon learning a representative of Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice had dismissed the Kelowna accord as "an expensive press release."

The comment added to a sour note caused by Mr. Prentice's absence from the 28th annual meeting of the Assembly of First Nations that wrapped up in Halifax yesterday. Rick Simon, a Mi'kmaq chief from Indian Brook First Nation, said it was a "snub" that showed how important the minister considered native issues.

The government said that Mr. Prentice was in Belgium helping to honour Corporal Francis Pegahmagabow, Canada's most-decorated aboriginal soldier, at a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of fighting at Passchendaele.

Appearing here in place of Mr. Prentice was his parliamentary secretary, Manitoba MP Rod Bruinooge.

Mr. Bruinooge was uncontroversial in his prepared remarks but, while meeting with reporters, he was asked about the Kelowna accord. It was then that he made the comment later called "irresponsible" by AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine.

In his remarks closing the meetings yesterday, Mr. Fontaine noted that it took 18 months of work before agreements aimed at improving the lives of natives were finalized in November, 2005, only days before the Liberal government of Paul Martin fell.

"We deserve better from the government," he said. "To suggest that this was just something that was crafted on the back of a napkin ... [I'm] really disappointed in Mr. Bruinooge."

Echoing a comment the day earlier by Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald, Mr. Fontaine likened native displeasure with the stillbirth of the Kelowna accord to anger on the East Coast over the Atlantic Accord.

"They've experienced the same disappointment that we've experienced," he said. "A deal is a deal ... when someone makes a deal, the deal must be honoured."

Saying that "we deserve better from the government," Mr. Fontaine spent a good part of his wide-ranging closing remarks discussing the problems facing native communities. Touching on suicide, poverty, the lack of housing and the unreliability of drinking water, he argued that such conditions would never be tolerated in non-native communities.

Speaking later to reporters who asked him about Mr. Bruinooge's characterization of the Kelowna accord, Mr. Fontaine reiterated that it was "much more" than a press release.

"It's unfortunate that it's taken this very political turn," he said.

Asked what such comments would do to the AFN's ability to work with the government, he acknowledged that the relationship has already been strained.

But he also commended the Tories for advancing several files, singling out for praise the residential schools agreement and the proposal for a tribunal to assess so-called specific claims.

Mr. Bruinooge was unruffled by the response his comment had received.

"I did refer to it as an expensive press release by the Liberal Party in their dying days," he said by telephone from Toronto later in the day. "I'm the kind of guy who calls a spade a spade."

Mr. Bruinooge said he believes that the $5-billion plan has been afforded undue status for political reasons.

"It's begun to [be seen to have] qualities of an accord, a signed agreement," he added. "It was a goal-based document ... this Kelowna press release does not have an accord behind it."

From UNESCO news ... 

New youth internet radio initiative in the Caribbean
11-07-2007 (Kingston)
 
CYPCC Information Officer, Robert Bazil, broadcasting live from the Container Project in Jamaica.
© Commonwealth Youth Programme 

On 26 June, the Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Centre (CYPCC) began broadcasting live on its new internet radio station.

Youth Vibes Radio, which has been launched in association with the Caribbean Internet Radio Portal (CIRP) and UNESCO, is currently in its testing phase but is already providing audio to millions of listeners around the world. It uses the m3w software, one of the best in the world in terms of quality.

CYPCC Regional Director, Henry Charles, hailed this new development as one of the most significant achievements in the history of the Centre. He noted that the radio station will provide an excellent avenue for collaboration with other Commonwealth organizations to deliver open and distance learning education for youth leaders and youth development professionals.

In the coming months, CYPCC will be developing a programme schedule to be posted on its website so that listeners can keep abreast of youth development events in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

The new internet radio station will broadcast live from the Information Department at the CYP Caribbean Centre in Georgetown, Guyana, and will have the capacity to transmit from other locations throughout the region by simple use of a laptop computer and other accessories.

The Regional Director has also stated that "this new initiative is an excellent tool to advance the youth empowerment agenda and to develop strategic partnerships with various strata of youth."

Under this initiative, CYPCC will be able to provide live and delayed coverage of its projects and events. The Centre also proposes to use the station to produce regular news clips, conduct interviews with programme staff, policy makers, partners and other stakeholders in youth development in the region.

CYPCC will use this medium to stimulate informed debate on such topics as effective youth participation, the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment, the CYP Youth mainstreaming agenda, youth empowerment strategies to create a drug and violence free society, etc. It should also be a useful tool for ongoing analysis of the global challenges facing youth in the 21st century.

Listen to Youth Vibes Radio at: http://www.mcclinks.com/cirp/index.html

From Saskatoon Star Phoenix ...

AFN calls for massive investment in languages
Charles Mandel, CanWest News Service - July 12, 2007

HALIFAX -- An Assembly of First Nations call Wednesday for $2.6 billion over 11 years to revitalize aboriginal languages resonated with Deborah Jacobs.

The 50-year-old educator and member of British Columbia's Squamish Nation is minimally fluent in her own language. But then that's not surprising when out of the Squamish Nation's 3,600 people, only 15 are still able to speak their native tongue.

The problem came into sharp focus during the second day of the Assembly of First Nation's annual meeting on Wednesday. Band chiefs and delegates from across Canada listened as Katherine Whitecloud, a regional chief from Manitoba and a member of the Dakota Nation, told the gathering: "Our languages are the cornerstone of who we are as people. Without our languages, our culture cannot survive."

Whitecloud blamed the decline of the languages partly on the residential school system, in which aboriginal children were removed from their homes and sent to live in the schools, where they were abused for speaking their own languages, among other things.

Whitecloud said when the children of residential schools became parents, they refused to teach their own children native languages because the ability to do so had been beaten out of them.

The residential school system remained in effect for more than 100 years in Canada and the intergenerational effect of their "destructive policies" continue to be felt to this day, Whitecloud told the assembly.

"We are in a state of emergency respecting our First Nations' languages. Statistics show that 50 out of 53 First Nation languages are declining, endangered, or in danger of extinction," Whitecloud said. "First Nations languages in Canada are in a desperate state."

Statistics on fluency and other data on aboriginal languages is currently limited. At the assembly, questionnaires on the languages were circulated in an attempt to gather more information.

Whitecloud criticized the Conservative federal government for cutting $160-million in funding for aboriginal languages in 2006. In its place, the government made available $5 million per year for aboriginal languages, amounting to $5 for each native in Canada to learn aboriginal languages, Whitecloud said.

"These funding levels are unacceptable for First Nations, especially when you consider that in budget 2007, the federal government announced that they were going to spend $642 million over five years for the promotion and development of official languages in Canada."

She said the federal government has a legal obligation through various treaties and legislation to provide adequate resources to support First Nations' language preservation. "Canada has no national policy or legislation that recognizes the distinct status of First Nations' languages as the original languages of Canada,'' she said.

The AFN wants $2.6 billion over 11 years to follow through on its National First Nations Language Strategy that would see the languages back in common use by 2027.

Jacobs believes the money the AFN wants for language funding is reasonable given the language needs in the many aboriginal communities. "I find it's a rather thrifty number that's been put out there."

Chief Lance Haymond of Quebec's Eagle Village First Nation also supported funding for languages. "We need the investment to maintain and recreate our languages. Most of our culture, our history, is related to language."

He said in Kipawa very few people spoke Algonquin, the native language, and those who did are over 50 years of age. Haymond himself is bilingual -- in English and French. He doesn't speak his own language.

After Whitecloud addressed the assembly, a number of delegates expressed their frustration with the state of education and negotiations over funding with the federal and provincial governments.

"We're not the second, third or fourth: We're the first government of this land," one said to loud applause, before adding his annoyance over band chiefs being unable to secure meetings with government representatives.

Ontario government press release ...

Ontario Strengthens Remote Aboriginal Communities - Business Centres Will Create Economic Opportunities

    QUEEN'S PARK, ON, July 12 /CNW/ - The Ontario government is providing more than $1.4 million in grants toward the construction of business centres to promote prosperity in two remote First Nations, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs David Ramsay announced today.

    "Our government is committed to initiatives that foster enhanced economic activity and job creation within First Nations," said Ramsay. "By creating local centres of economic activity, this investment will contribute significantly to the prosperity of these far north Aboriginal communities."

    The two investments are being made through the Aboriginal Community Capital Grants Program, which funds projects involving the construction, acquisition, renovation and expansion of community and small business centres. Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation will use a grant of $746,064 to build a facility on-reserve that will house several recreational businesses. Bearskin Lake First Nation is applying a grant of $750,000 to construct a new business centre, as well as expand an existing one.

    Located within a 400-kilometre radius of Sioux Lookout, the closest urban centre, these First Nations are accessible only by winter roads or by air.

    "The vast distances separating these communities from the nearest economic hub present a barrier to their development and prosperity," said Ramsay. "The business centres will help these communities overcome this challenge by providing new opportunities for business and employment."

    More information on the program may be obtained by contacting Tim Sim at 416-314-7217 or by visiting the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs website at www.aboriginalaffairs.osaa.gov.on.ca/english/economy/grants.htm.

For further information: Anne-Marie Flanagan, Minister's Office, (416) 327-0654; Sofia Sousa-Dias, Communications Branch, (416) 326-3187

The number of news articles from the AFN annual assembly in Halifax and the Native Women's conference in Kahnawake, near Montreal is highlighting the media's interest in Aboriginal affairs (for examples of this press coverage, see the five articles below).

From the Halifax ChronicleHerald ...

Native leader: No more handouts - First Nations should control their own lives, U.S. leader says
By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE, July 11, 2007

Indigenous people will be better off once they sever their age-old dependence on government assistance, a U.S. native leader told Canadian aboriginals Tuesday at a national conference in Halifax.

Joe Garcia said First Nations communities in the United States have been "conditioned" to accept handouts for too long and must find the resources to improve their lot in life on their own.

"The best resource we have is not the natural resources," he said, "but the resources within our own people."

Speaking to delegates at the annual general meeting of the Assembly of First Nations, Mr. Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said U.S. natives’ dependence on the largesse of Washington "is the wrong thing to do."

"What’s happened to us is we’ve been conditioned to think one way," he said. "That it’s always: ‘The government will provide for me, and so I don’t have to do a whole lot of work.’ And that’s so false."

Mr. Garcia, a Pueblo Indian from New Mexico, said U.S. natives have to "break away" from that mentality.

"The sooner we do it, the better off we’re going to be."

With respect to the new generation of Indians, Mr. Garcia said listening closely to the concerns of native youth is crucial. He encouraged elders and others to give young people the attention they deserve and not adopt a paternalistic attitude.

The paternalistic way of thinking is reminiscent of the relationship between government and natives in the U.S., Mr. Garcia said.

"Too many times, we act like the government" in dealings with native youth, he said.

"We tend to think that we know what the youth want (but) they may have some needs that we don’t know about."

Earlier, the assembly’s national chief, Phil Fontaine, told the conference that a national day of action on June 29 bolstered support for native rights in Canada. More than 100 events across the country helped draw attention to the substandard living conditions and other social issues that many indigenous people cope with.

Mr. Fontaine said his organization wants to keep the native rights agenda in the public eye. He noted the extensive media coverage the national day of action received in Canada and other countries.

"We have to make sure the momentum we’ve built continues to grow," he said in a speech.

The assembly’s executive hopes non-native support will lead to pressure on politicians to change public policy.

Mr. Fontaine said the protest day helped educate non-natives about the plight of First Nations people and raised the profile of many native communities.

Mr. Fontaine insisted that more Canadians now support aboriginals in their fights with government, citing a recent poll that suggested 77 per cent of people are onside with First Nations issues.

He also attributed Ottawa’s decision to reform the land claims process, just weeks before the day of action, to pressure linked to the June 29 events.

Some chiefs in Halifax suggested protests could become regular events and could take on a more aggressive tone if the federal government fails to resolve long-standing grievances that leaders said are leaving their communities desperate.

Today, delegates plan to discuss such issues as health care, education, housing and child and family services.

++++++++++

From CBC News ...

Funds for new land claim process 'chump change': chiefs
Jul 11, 2007

CALGARY (CBC) - The amount of money the federal government plans to dedicate to creating a system to streamline the settlement of hundreds of long-standing aboriginal land claims disputes is insufficient, some Assembly of First Nations chiefs said Wednesday.
 
"With this $250 million that has been put forward, we see that as chump change," Chief Cameron Watson said on the second day of AFN's annual meeting in Halifax.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on June 12 that Ottawa was proposing legislation to create a new independent tribunal to settle disputes, and also allocate $250 million a year for 10 years to settle land claim settlements. The bill is to be tabled this fall and in place by early next year.

The assembly passed a motion Wednesday tentatively supporting Ottawa's land claims proposal, with Watson as the sole dissenter.

But he wasn't the only chief who felt the proposal is underfunded.

National Chief Phil Fontaine said the disagreement stems from the government's calculation that there are 800 outstanding specific land claims, the smaller community-based claims filed by individual reserves. First Nations leaders, meanwhile, estimate such smaller claims number 1,000.

Uncertainties about AFN's role

The amount of money proposed by Ottawa won't even cover the claims resolution process, says Joseph Knockwood, chief of the 108-member Fort Folly New Brunswick reserve.

"I've been at this ... since 1968," said Knockwood. "And when you've been at this for as long as I have - there's not enough money to take care of what we have here in Canada."

The settlement of claim currently takes an average of 13 years and must be investigated by the Indian Specific Claims Commission, which can make recommendations but has no power to rule on a dispute. The bill will change it into a mediation body.

"We think it's a significant development but there are some uncertainties around the proposal," said Fontaine, citing concerns over what role AFN will play in drafting the legislation.

The national chief said he wants the assembly to be involved in finalizing details, but they haven't even been shown draft bill recommendations from the federal cabinet.

"We need to be at the table. We have to jointly hold the pen. And the ultimate decision or decisions that will be taken, must be taken jointly."

The 28th annual general assembly wraps up Thursday.

++++++++++

From CBC News ...

Battle for fairness unites N.S., First Nations
CBC News - July 10, 2007

Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald and Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine united Tuesday in blasting the federal government for reneging on key agreements with them worth billions of dollars.

Speaking to the assembly's annual conference in Halifax, MacDonald said the provincial government and aboriginal leaders are engaged in a similar "battle for fairness and justice" with Ottawa, though he pointed out his fight is not on the same scale as that faced by native people.

"The federal government broke its promise to honour our right to be the full beneficiaries of our offshore [oil and gas] resources," the Progressive Conservative premier told hundreds of delegates as the three-day meeting got underway in downtown Halifax.

"They are forcing Nova Scotia to unfairly abandon the Atlantic accord in this year's budget. That broken promise is a barrier to Nova Scotia's economic independence. It seems like such a basic matter of integrity: make a promise, keep a promise."

'A deal is a deal'

MacDonald said he's only been engaged in a battle to restore the agreement for the past five months, so it doesn't compare to the decades of disappointment and frustration experienced by the First Nations communities.

Fontaine picked up on the theme, comparing the Atlantic accord and other provinces' fights over equalization payments — including Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador — with the AFN's battle to get the federal government to adopt the Kelowna agreement.

"The Kelowna accord is a deal that we struck with Canada — a non-partisan deal," said Fontaine. "In that regard, we take the same position as the premiers have taken with respect to the Atlantic accord. A deal is a deal."

The Kelowna accord, signed by then-prime minister Paul Martin's Liberal government, would have seen $5 billion go toward improved education, housing and anti-poverty initiatives for aboriginal people.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper backed away from the Kelowna agreement in 2006. Instead, he committed $450 million for aboriginals in that year's budget.

Day of action a success

Another key item up for discussion at this week's annual general meeting of AFN members is a post-mortem on the recent national aboriginal day of action and what methods will be used to raise awareness in the year ahead.

Blockades of busy Ontario highways and a major rail line by a group of Mohawk protesters marked one of the few exceptions to an otherwise peaceful day of protests on June 29.

First Nations chiefs gathered Tuesday agreed last month's day of action, organized by AFN to highlight problems facing native communities, was a success they'd like to repeat.

"We may have to do more. We may have to have another day of action," said Fontaine.

A B.C. chief urged delegates to choose actions that will not alienate Canadians in order to keep from diminishing public support.

"Whether we're on the ground in our own First Nations community, whether we're doing it as a larger political organizational body, we need to make sure that we are very strategic in the action that we take," said Chief Doug Kelly.

The 28th annual assembly wraps up on Thursday. By then, the chiefs are expected to outline a plan of action for the next year to keep First Nations issues on the public agenda.

++++++++++

From CBC News ....

Native leaders call for mind shift to combat violence against women
The Canadian Press - July 11, 2007

Breaking the cycle of violence against native women will require a giant mental shift that includes rethinking approaches to the environment, language and human rights, said several prominent aboriginal leaders at a conference near Montreal.

With statistics pointing to alarming rates of sexual violence on Canada's reserves, delegates at an international conference for native women say fundamental cultural changes are needed before those numbers begin to drop.

"It's a constant struggle to have to address these issues in our community," said Beverley Jacobs, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, said at the meeting of the Indigenous Women of the Americas.

"Women have been specific targets of violence since colonialization," she said Tuesday.

More than 250 native women from 17 countries have gathered for the conference on the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve, just across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.

According to a 2006 report by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, aboriginals living on reserves were several times more likely to be sexually assaulted than other people.

Bev Oda, federal minister for the status of women, announced recently that Ottawa would spend $56 million over five years on family violence prevention programs.

Jacobs joined panellists from Canada, the United States and Colombia to discuss methods of dealing with violence against native women.

While some offered concrete proposals, such as continued legal challenges and increased funding, others suggested that wouldn't be enough to counter years of systemic abuse.

Anik Sioui, a Huron-Wendat from Quebec, was among those calling for new cultural perspectives.

"There was culture shock between the European and aboriginal cultures," she said.

"The first role of the woman [in aboriginal society] is to care for the children … and she has been deprived of this role," Sioui added, pointing to child-care services that take aboriginal children from troubled families and raise them in non-native environments.

"That is the greatest violence you can commit against a woman."

Jacobs, a Mohawk from Caledonia, Ont., went further, linking careless attitudes towards the environment to a lack of respect for women.

"The raping of our Mother Earth is the same issue that is impacting our women, the rapes and the violence that are occurring," she said.

Others maintained that their perception of violence has been shaped by their communities using non-traditional languages like English and French.

"When we use those languages we have to be mindful of the meaning of those words that we use, because those words have been used … to colonize us," said Peggy Bird, an attorney with the U.S.-based Native Women Advocacy Center.

"We don't have words for rape, sexual violence, domestic violence. Those are new words for us."

But Bird also stressed it is important for native groups not to only turn inward to solve their problems.

"Not everyone out there who is not indigenous is bad," she said. "We have a lot of allies out there who are wanting to help us."

As for Jacobs, the ultimate solution to violence against native women lies in a return to more traditional forms of governance.

"We have to reclaim our traditional roles as decision-makers."

The conference wraps up on Wednesday.

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From CBC News ... 

Native women want Canada to support UN aboriginal rights declaration
CBC News - July 10, 2007

Canada has a duty to support a United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Aboriginal Peoples, say women gathered at an international conference in Kahnawake, Que.

The delegates from First Nations across North and South America say Canada's Conservative government erred when it announced it would not  support the UN declaration, which upholds Aboriginal Peoples' land rights and ways of life.

The previous Liberal government had said it endorsed the declaration but Stephen Harper's Conservative government has backed away from the UN document.

Canada's lack of support sends a strong international message about aboriginal rights, said June Lorenzo, a lawyer from New Mexico who is attending the conference.

"It's really disappointing, not only for Canadian indigenous people, but all indigenous people, because Canada played such a critical role in getting the draft declaration adopted by the human rights commission [at the UN]," she told CBC News.

More than 250 women from 17 countries have gathered in the Mohawk community for three days, for the fifth Continental Meeting of Indigenous Women of the Americas.

They say violence against native women in Canada is also a pressing concern, with reports reaching crisis proportions.

The delegates say Canadian government policies restrict the role native women can play in their communities.