Constitutional agreement flexible, say officials

Page 3

Native leaders and the communities that disowned last month's constitutional accord will not be left out in the cold in self-government talks, senior federal officials said.

Advisers to Constitutional Affairs Minister Joe Clark said self-government agreements can still be negotiated outside the constitutional framework under existing Indian Affairs programs.

"The answer is 'no.' They don't have to enter agreements, said one official speaking on condition of anonymity. "(The constitutional agreement) leaves a lot of room for flexibility."

At least two Native groups have expressed serious doubts about the agreement negotiated by the premiers and leaders of four national Native organizations.

Quebec Mohawk Chief Billy Two Rivers denounced the deal as a sell-out on the eve of the final agreement. He said the deal won't fly in Quebec's communities because of provisions requiring Native law to conform with provincial laws.

The Indian Association of Alberta, which represents the province's treaty bands, dropped out of the talks in June in a dispute over the process they said threatened treaty rights.

If the inherent rights is constitutionally entrenched in its current form, Ottawa will be forded to negotiate self-government with communities who want to enter talks. Potential court action must be delayed for five years once negotiations have started and the courts can order further negotiations if they are deadlocked at the end of the ban.

But self-government negotiations based on the constitutional recognition of the inherent right can only be initiated by Native communities.

And communities rejecting the agreement can still take over powers now held by the federal government under other programs, the officials said.

Programs like the Indian Act Alternatives, which has been used to negotiate community self-governing deals in the past, will not be affected by constitutional deal at this time. But the officials said such options might not be permanent if Ottawa changes the Indians Affairs mandate or winds down the department as more communities become self-governing.

Nor does the constitutional deal rule out using the courts to pursue rights, as long as the cases are based on rights recognized outside the constitution, like treaty rights or aboriginal rights.

Regena Crowchild, president of the financially strapped Indian Association of Alberta, said it's too early to discuss existing alternatives to the constitutional deal. Her organization wants to review the final draft of the agreement before commenting publicly.

"We are still waiting for the legal text," she said in an interview from the association's offices just outside Edmonton. "At the moment we feel the agreement does not reflect the views of our people."

Meanwhile, Assembly of First Nations Chief Ovide Mercredi said he expects unanimous support from the assembly's member chiefs when they meet to vote on the accord. But he said the deal will not be "imposed" on individual communities who reject it.