Action considered to prevent access

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SARCEE RESERVE - The minister of Indian Affairs is considering changing the Indian Act to allow bands to side-step the Access to Information Act which impels the government to hand over financial documents to the public.

In a news conference held on the Sarcee Reserve west of Calgary Friday, Bill McKnight said discussions were being held between his officials and representatives of

10 Alberta bands who are currently embroiled in a court-case with the Calgary Herald. "The Indian Act is very old and has not changed," said McKnight. "We are considering changing the legislation that affects Indian people because of they way the act is written. We want Indian people treated with the same degree of confidentiality as other Canadians," he added.

McKnight pointed out that there are no proposals at the moment but consideration is being made over whether to change the Indian Act or the Access to Information Act.

The Calgary Herald made an application through the Access to Information Act for the financial records of the 10 resource-rich bands earlier this year. According to the federal act, the government has an obligation to release documents detailing programs paid for with public funds.

However, the 10 bands - Stoney, Sarcee, Blackfoot, and Blood from Treaty 7; Enoch, Samson, Ermineskin, Montana and Louis Bull bands of Treaty 6, and Sawridge from Treaty 8 launched a lawsuit in July claiming the financial records should be exempt from certain federal laws because of the treaties.

The bands say that because or the treaties, which were signed between sovereign nations, they are separate entities and governments in their own rights.

Last week the department of Indian Affairs was ordered to produce the financial records for examination by the Herald lawyers in order that they can argue it would be in the public interest that the information be published.

However, the documents will be sealed from public view and kept in strict confidentiality. The Herald lawyers now have three months to prepare court papers before an all-party conference scheduled for mid-February. Hearings are expected to commence in the spring of 1987.