Brazeau targets chiefs and Indian Act

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The leader of one of the five federally-recognized national Aboriginal organizations has launched a campaign to scrap the Indian Act and get rid of some 500 chiefs.

Patrick Brazeau, leader of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP), made national headlines in November when he told the Globe and Mail there are "too many chiefs."

He followed that up with an appearance on the popular CBC Radio One public affairs show The Current, but there was no chief on the panel to debate Brazeau.

"The Current phoned the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), as well as a number of individual Native chiefs to invite them to be on the program. The AFN told us they were interested in the discussion and wanted to be on the program, but were unable to provide anyone because of scheduling conflicts," said the show's Gord Westmacott, in response to our inquiries.

Brazeau's comments triggered a variety of opinion pieces and editorials in various newspapers across the country and he has clearly started a public discussion on the future of the Indian Act system and its 633 chiefs.

Pro-assimilation commentators such as the National Post's Jon Kay and University of Calgary professor Thomas Flanagan were suddenly back in the news, along with others.

Brazeau told Windspeaker the Indian Act chiefs have no connection with traditional governments but they won't get out of the way and let real Indigenous governments be re-formed.

"It's the same people who also hide behind [the Indian Act] because that's where they get their power, control. The power to spend the money the way they please. They don't have to be accountable to their citizens," he said.

"[The report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples] recommended instead of having 633 reserves you'd have between 60 and 80 true historical First Nations."

And that would mean only 60 to 80 chiefs. When the AFN, the group that represents the chiefs, was contacted for comment on Brazeau's remarks, a release quoting Union of Ontario Indians Grand Council Chief John Beaucage was issued.

"Since colonial times, all colonialist governments have had their domesticated, tame Indians who speak in favor of the government and their assimilationist policies. Patrick Brazeau is Minister Prentice's tame Indian. The federal government is lining this organization's pockets in order to deliver messages which heavily favor assimilationist and paternalistic values they share with right-wing Conservatives. I challenge the legitimacy of the so-called "national chief" Brazeau who has himself never been elected by our people and whose organization itself is wrought with corruption."

The Chiefs of Ontario and the chief of Brazeau's home First Nation, Kitigan Zibi (Quebec), also issued critical letters.

CAP has had its problems in establishing a clear constituency. It's also seen its share of problems in its financial dealings and of a legal nature recently in some of its provincial affiliates. But CAP now seems to have the favor of the federal government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Brazeau said his relationship with Minister Prentice was tough at first, because of the problems some of CAP's provincial groups have been experiencing, but now he and the minister are working through the problems.

"The relationship is a good one and hopefully we can elaborate on that. I have met him about four or five times since the election and I've spoke with him on several occasions, got to meet with the prime minister last month alongside with Minister Prentice," Brazeau said. "It was basically part of an outreach campaign that we're doing. We're also meeting with Members of Parliament of all stripes to try and sell this idea and give our position with respect to where Aboriginal issues, programs and services and a rights-based agenda should go."

But there were only 120 people at the most recent CAP assembly held from Nov. 2 to 4 in Ottawa, and only one of the three regions where CAP has no provincial affiliate?Ontario Alberta and Saskatchewan?has been sorted out. A new organization in Saskatchewan, the Aboriginal Affairs Coalition of Saskatchewan, joined the fold at the assembly.

Brazeau said the new federal government has said it approved of the First Nations governance act, brought forward by Chretien-era Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault in 2002, but it intends to take a different approach in getting the job done.

"Now we all know that this Conservative government is going in a different direction. But at the same time, I think they're being very cautious because again it's the old problem about consulting the chiefs.

"I mean, if we go out and consult the people, that would bring about a different spin, and probably a different result than just consulting the chiefs," the CAP leader said. "That was the mistake with respect to the First Nations governance act, and it's a system that provides too much power to the chiefs who basically control the people in their communities. That's what we have to get rid of. Let's consult the people and never mind the chiefs."

Brazeau noted that the AFN renewal commission report recommended giving grassroots citizens the vote for national chief, but the chiefs beat that initiative down. He doesn't expect the AFN to provide any assistance in getting back to Indigenous nations because it means more than 500 of its members would lose their positions of authority.

"I don't think the AFN will do anything about this. We know that this organization is an organization that represents the chiefs and therefore not the people," he said. "But I think at the end of the day, if we were successful in launching something to have this outright debate, I think that the grassroots people across this country, both on and off reserve, would support it. Who knows? Maybe they'll start demanding from their chiefs, put them in a corner to a spot where they have no choice but to start talking with one another."

The Indian Affairs minister spoke at the CAP assmbly and announced an increase in funding of $1.3 million, a 26 per cent increase that brings CAP's annual government funding up to $6.3 million. That prompted one AFN source to suggest Patrick Brazeau was "singing for his supper" when he made his public comments in support of the government. Brazeau rejected the criticism.

"Yes, we've got an increase of $1.3 million. But let's not forget our total budget is $5 million, and of that $5 million in a given year, half of it is dispersed to our provincial affiliates across the country. So the $1.3 million is a modest increase. So to the critics out there that might have said that we've been bought for $1.3 million, well I'm not as cheap as some people might think," he said. "If people start criticizing in that fashion and taking personal shots that must mean that you're doing a good thing."

Windspeaker asked Brazeau to go on the record in response to the allegations that he was part of a government strategy.

"The efforts to raise the bar on public debate around Indian Act abolition is entirely CAP's own pursuit. There is no hidden agenda or attempt to mask any other endeavor. Let me make it clear, we are not the government's messengers. We are, however, hopefully, serving as a catalyst to get things moving towards seeing an end to Canada's most repressive, archaic, prescriptive piece of legislation.

"And who could question the wisdom in that? Let's face it, the yardstick on Aboriginal policies has only moved forward after healthy debates and that is what our intent is," he responded.

He was asked why he was doing this now. He said he had seen a report commissioned from an ethnologist by the department of Indian Affairs that showed that by the year 2129 there may not be any more status Indians due to the provisions of Bill C-31 which denies status to children who have some non-Native heritage.

"If you look at 2129 as opposed to when the Indian Act was first implemented in 1876, we're almost at the halfway point righ now. So if we're going to change the wave with respect to the status Indians in this country, we've got to start acting now. And the way to do that is to try and offer up a solution, which is the elimination of the Indian Act and the reserve system; create those nations so that we can turn the tide," he said.

Brazeau also supported the federal decision not to proceed with the Kelowna agreement.

"To me Kelowna was just a means to pump some significant dollars into, I'll call them the three major organizations, which they are not, the AFN, Metis National Council and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and just putting more money into the reserve system and that just doesn't work anymore," he said.

"I mean, 130 years and what's the result? So what's putting more money into the system going to do?"

He insists he is simply trying to kick-start a long overdue discussion that will lead to action that will benefit all First Nation people.

"The reason why I'm doing this is I'm sick and tired of the rhetoric.

It's time to act and let's try to unite people," he said. "That's my biggest hope, to unite the people, even though right now it might not seem as though that's what the purpose of this is."