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Chiefs favor "tinkering" with act, says CAP's Dorey

Article Origin

Author

Paul Barnsley, Sweetgrass Writer, Edmonton

Volume

8

Issue

10

Year

2001

Page 4

Dwight Dorey, the chief and president of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP), wants to introduce some new ideas to the First Nations governance debate.

"Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples' recommendations envisioned reducing the number of First Nations from 633 to 70 or 80 across the country," he said. "The 55 or so Mi'kmaq bands in Eastern Canada are not First Nations. There's only one First Nation and that is the Mi'kmaq Nation."

A return to traditional tribal governing entities, the things the original Indian Act set out expressly to break up and destroy in the name of assimilation by imposing the band council system, Dorey believes, is something the government must be willing to consider if Indian Affairs minister Robert Nault's decision to consult Native people - and his promise that his government will listen - is to be taken seriously.

"We don't have any assurances," he said. "But the fact we're in this process and we have this [consultation funding] agreement indicates to me the minister is willing to at least listen to us."

The lobby group that speaks for non-status and off-reserve First Nations residents and some Metis people signed an agreement to accept $985,000 in consultation funding from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in late June.

Many of the most pressing issues facing First Nation people occur off reserve. Statistics Canada numbers for 1996, the most recent data available, show that 73 per cent of the people of Aboriginal ancestry in Canada do not live on reserve. Dorey expects his membership will use the consultation sessions to tell the minister that he has to reverse government policies towards off-reserve people in any legislation that can legitimately be said to reflect the needs of grassroots people. One policy the government has arbitrarily clung to -the idea that the department is responsible only for status Indians living on reserve - will definitely have to go, he said.

Nault has said repeatedly that he has no hidden agenda, that he is only interested in improving life for First Nations people by strengthening their governance structures. First Nations leaders doubt that claim. They say they disagree with the government on so many fundamental points they can't see how the government can be trusted to do anything that won't do irreparable harm to Aboriginal and treaty rights. Nault counters by saying the chiefs have a vested interest in keeping things the same. Assembly of First Nations national chief Matthew Coon Come has accused the minister of "tinkering" with the Indian Act and dealing only with the federal government's needs without trying to address the issues that matter most to Native people.

Dorey is willing to give the minister a chance to prove he is sincere. "I believe from meetings I've had with him that he has a different approach and it is results-oriented," he said when asked if he believed the minister sincerely wanted to help improve life for Native people.

After originally boycotting INAC's consultation process, at the AFN's Halifax meeting in mid-July, the chiefs changed their approach, deciding to set terms under which they would agree to participate in the consultations. Dorey believes the chiefs will try to limit the scope of any possible changes to the Indian Act.

"They like the system," he said. "The Indian chiefs and councillors like the system. They want minor changes and that's it. That's all the chiefs want, a little bit of tinkering and that's it. I want to send a clear message to chiefs and councils at the band level. If you're serious about self-government, take a look at nationhood, not this band council thing."