Urban Natives are organized

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Giving a voice to urban Aboriginal people is the goal for a new council being formed in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

On May 5, the membership of the Aboriginal People's Council of Toronto (APCT) will vote for 18 people to represent them in discussions on a variety of issues affecting them.

"Basically Native people in Toronto don't really have a political voice-not political representation-but a political voice on issues that impact them," said Joe Hester executive director at Anishnawbe Health in Toronto and an APCT committee member. "The APCT is trying to fill in that void and build a sense of community in this big city."

Topics such as housing, the economy, police brutality and school programming are a few items that Roger Obonsawin, who helped form the organization and who is a nominee for president, plans to investigate after the elections.

"Those are the kinds of things we'd address," said Obonsawin. "We'll hold community forums to hear from the people what issues are at hand, and then address those issues with the proper authorities."

Discussions regarding the formation of the urban council began several years ago when those who were trying to deal with problems and concerns became increasingly frustrated with not being heard.

"People get frustrated in Toronto because, well, it's difficult to be recognized and sometimes they feel left out," said Obonsawin.

"It's felt that when issues are being decided, they are being done so by people who don't really know about it."

Obonsawin added that it doesn't matter whether these decisions are being made by the provincial government or by band councils, because Aboriginal people's needs in urban centres differ from those living on reserves.

That was a view echoed by Hester, who said, "In all honesty, urban Aboriginal issues are very different, and when issues for Aboriginal people are discussed politically it's not about the Aboriginal urban population."

APCT hopes to bring an urban Aboriginal voice to the forefront, but not take away from the bands.

"The APCT is not to replace a band, but to have a council to represent band issues in the GTA," said Obonsawin.

This is the reason a public forum held by 200 people in May 2002 nominated and voted in a 12-person committee to research the process of establishing a council.

The work so far has been done on a volunteer basis, and as APCT grows it will continue to operate without government grants.

"We are not going to accept government money," said Obonsawin. "We feel we can't represent the people with government funding. We have to break the cycle; we can't be controlled by them."

Obonsawin emphasized how making a choice such as refusing funding will emphasize how APCT is ultimately a people's council.

"That's very important, it's got to be accountable to the community, not the government," he said.

In order to meet that objective, it was discussed as to which type of council the people would like to see represent them.

"The response was divided between an elected system and a traditional clan system."

The process was long, and much consideration had to be put into what the people attending the forums were requesting.

Commitee members were very interested in how Winnipeg's Urban Aboriginal Council has been running for the past 12 years, and after extensive studying have borrowed from its approach.

"It tries to combine, into one council, both ways," said Obonsawin.

In November 2002, an announcement was made throughout the GTA that from Feb. 17, 2003 until March 14, 2003, nominations could be put forward for an 18-person council. Nomination forms were placed in First Nation offices across the GTA.

APCT will have a four-member executive committee, as well as four female and four male regional representatives, four clan representatives, one Elder and one youth representative.

It will include both elected individuals and selected clan members from the four directions.

The APCT membership, who will vote peopl into the elected positions, is currently sitting at 500, but Obonsawin expects close to 5,000 by the time the process is complete.

"They (clan members) may decide for their own election process for their representatives," said Obonsawin.

He also thinks there may be an election process put forth by the clans for the Elder representative-who is to be more than 59 years old-and for the youth representative-who is to be at least 16 years old.