AFN boycotts meeting

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OTTAWA - The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is boycotting this week's round of meetings on the constitution to protest the fact that none of the organizer's main items of concern are to be addressed.

"We were not given sufficient reason to believe that if we attended this meeting, it would be worth our while," says AFN National Chief Georges Erasmus. "We had to make it very, very clear that we're not satisfied with the process."

While the issue of self-government is on the agenda at this week's meetings in Frobisher Bay, NWT, the impact specific issues of land, resources, fiscal relations, jurisdiction and treaties on self-government is not.

The present process of administrative meetings setting up ministerial meetings "isn't going anywhere and until it is going somewhere we don't intend on participating - giving any credence to the process," says Erasmus.

He says that there is still hope for progress on Aboriginal constitutional issues,"

if the players start taking the process seriously."

Erasmus stated that the AFN's actions were an effort to get the talks back on

track rather than derail them. "Weighing all the things we could do, we felt we had to do something which would make the situation clear and it's better that we did this sooner rather than later, because time is of the essence."

Chief Erasmus says that he hopes that the wrangle between the provincial and, in particular, the federal governments can be worked out before the ministerial conference next month.