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The Canadian Alliance thinks it can ride ignorance, hate and resentment all the way to the top of the Canadian government structure.

We can't think of any other explanation for the positions the party takes on Aboriginal issues. They say they respect treaty and Aboriginal rights, then they say everybody's equal. Alberta Chief John Snow nailed it when he said that "equality" in this context means everybody should have treaty rights or nobody should have them.

We agree with Chief Snow and - surprise - we agree with the Alliance.

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The members of the Burnt Church First Nation believe they have scored a victory in the battle for recognition of their treaty right to fish.

"I guess the victory, you could say, is we exercised our management plan from start to finish regardless of the amount of coercion or enforcement, if you will, by the federal government," said James Ward, a key figure for Burnt Church during the lobster fight.

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Police officers from just across Canada attended a national policing conference in Regina from Oct. 12 to 15 that focused on improving relationships with Aboriginal people.

Called "Building One Fire," the conference focused on giving police officers a better understanding of the factors that frequently bring them into conflict with Native, Metis and Inuit people.

One highlight of the gathering was a speech by Saskatoon provincial court judge Mary Ellen Turpel Lafond.

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Kevin Gover, the top official in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the United States, caused quite a stir when he apologized on behalf of his department for historical wrongs it had committed against the people it was set in place to serve. It was not so much the apology, which many would argue is long overdue, but the occasion he chose to deliver it.

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Thousands of First Nations hunters are preparing for a showdown with the government over the looming deadline for gun owners to get firearms licenses.

The federal Firearms Act imposes harsh penalties for firearm owners who don't have a license by Dec. 31, including fines, criminal charges and confiscation of weapons. The law also requires gun owners to register their firearms by Dec. 31, 2002.

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Economic prosperity for Aboriginal people is not only good for Aboriginal communities, it is also good for Canadians and Canada as a whole. This is the view of new Assembly of First Nations Chief Matthew Coon Come, and the message he brought to Yellowknife and the annual meeting of the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO) held at the end of September.

Coon Come addressed the economic developers at the conference and spoke of the challenges they meet and the contributions they make in their communities.

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Five First Nations organizations have come together to lodge official complaints against a Quebec Superior Court judge who they say discriminated against an Aboriginal woman in his handling of a case to decide custody of her two children.

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John Corbiere isn't very happy with the way he sees First Nations chiefs and councils responding to the Supreme Court of Canada decision that bears his name.

The former chief of the Batchewana First Nation (near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) dropped in on Windspeaker for a two-hour meeting on Oct. 23. He feels the Assembly of First Nations has embarked on a plan to maintain the status quo, in defiance of what the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the case when it struck down a section of the Indian Act that prevented off reserve members from voting in band elections.

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Many of you don't vote in Canadian elections because it would violate the ideas expressed in the Iroquoian Two Row Wampum - they stay in their boat and we'll stay in ours.

But many of you do vote, and we know the question of who forms the next government will matter a lot.

Considering the mess that would result from the election of a Canadian Alliance government, we wish we could be the second media outlet to declare the Liberals elected. CBC's This Hour has 22 Minutes beat us to the punch on that one a few days after the election was called.