Congress seeks to rival AFN in influence

Dwight Dorey has big plans for the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. His plans are so far-reaching there’s little doubt that he will be looking to turn the one year he was recently elected to serve into a full term.

“There’s certainly a distinct possibility of that. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, but for the time being I want to focus on what I can get done now, in this year and at least get things rolling,” he said.

Dorey defeated Kim Beaudin, president of the Aboriginal Affairs Coalition of Saskatchewan, a CAP provincial affiliate, and Chigal Wightman Daniels, daughter of former CAP leader Harry Daniels, in an election held at the end of September. The vote was forced when Betty Ann Lavallee resigned with one year left in her four-year term. She had held the position of national chief since 2009.

Dorey, a Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia, is no stranger to the role. He led the organization from 2000 to 2006.

Since that time, he says, CAP has seen its profile as a key national Aboriginal organization decline. He maintains that a combination of factors have played into that loss. First is the lack of focus on the political agenda, and second, is the loss of funding.

“Human resources diminish and you’re not in the best position to be doing the political work-up,” he said

Under Lavallee’s leadership, CAP has been left in a strong financial position administratively, despite federal funding cuts.

Now, Dorey intends to focus on strengthening CAP’s profile. His first step will be to rebuild the organization by adding more provincial and territorial affiliates. To that end, he will be travelling out West to drum up interest. CAP has no affiliates from either British Columbia or Alberta. At this last general assembly, an affiliate from Manitoba was brought in. Considering Manitoba has the highest urban Aboriginal population in Winnipeg, that province’s lack of affiliation in CAP was glaring. Edmonton has the second highest urban Aboriginal population and is set to eclipse Winnipeg.

“I want to fill those gaps. This is something I started doing three years ago when I was vice-chief,” said Dorey.

Lack of western affiliation, he says, is partially due to lack of federal funding, which makes it difficult for organizations to hold meetings, get interest started, and do the necessary work to become a CAP affiliate

Dorey sees the addition of affiliates as an important move forward for CAP to rival the Assembly of First Nations as a strong Aboriginal voice.

“I certainly see the potential is there, provided we can do justice to coming up with a structure at the community or provincial urban areas that is going to be accommodating to the people, that they’re going to feel comfortable associating with and getting involved and that we’ll be able to accommodate them under the national structure,” said Dorey.

Under the current structure and bylaws, CAP can only have one affiliate organization per province or territory, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador because of the geographic split. Other current affiliates are located in Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

“I think we need to look at how we can have any number of organizations affiliated with the Congress, as opposed to only one purported to represent all off-reserve people in a particular province,” said Dorey.

But, he admits, that could be a struggle with current affiliates, who may be worried that their vote won’t carry the same weight.

“There’s got to be ways of addressing those concerns in such a way that everybody can have effective participation without taking any power (away),” he said.

But Dorey believes that CAP’s struggle to attract membership is not unique.

“We’ve been hearing it all across the country, often that people don’t feel that any of the organizations represent them, whether it’s the AFN, the (Metis National Council) or the Congress. So it’s our job to try to respond to those kinds of feelings and hopefully be able to come up with the ways and means so people do feel that they belong,” he said

Dorey said that if the Supreme Court upholds the ruling in the Daniels case that sees both Metis and non-Status Indians as federal responsibility that will also help to put CAP on a more level playing field with the AFN and give the organization a “stronger base for arguing and advocating our issues.”

As it stands right now, he says, the federal government is focused on addressing the issues of First Nations people on-reserve, which not only gives the AFN more funding but more access to the federal government.

Photo caption: Dwight Dorey returned as national chief for the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples after almost 10 years out of top job.