Favorable decision claims commission may not sway Ottawa

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Ottawa has a couple of new commissioned reports about the lives of Natives to consider this month.

The first one was handed down two weeks ago the Indian Claims Commission. The ICC decided, after less than a year of meetings, inquiries and community hearings, that Ottawa was way out of line in commandeering a vast stretch of traditional hunting grounds from two bands in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

The commission ruled that both the Cold Lake and Canoe Lake First Nations were unceremoniously ousted from their trap lines, fishing and hunting grounds in 1954 to make way for the Primrose Lake Air Weapons Range, an 11,000 square kilometre bombing and artillery arena that straddles the provinces' border.

The bands' members were never adequately compensated for the lost land, Commissioner Jim Prentice said, nor were they even provided with any other means of subsistence, and so quickly slipped into poverty and despair while Ottawa turned a blind eye.

In spite of two valid land claim submissions in the last 30 years, the federal government denied the bands had any right to the lands, denied any responsibility for the two bands, refused to accept the blame for the bands' unenviable positions and continued to bomb and shell the sites of the old villages.

A response concerning the commission's finding from either Prime Minister Kim Campbell or her new Minister of Indian Affairs, Pauline Browes, had not yet come forth. The range is still being shelled and bombed and both bands can probably count on things staying pretty much the way they are for the next long while. As commissioner Prentice pointed out, Ottawa is under no obligation to take any of the recommendations to heart.

The federal government will probably ignore the Canadian Human Rights Commission's report, released last week, which found that Ottawa showed poor judgment in abdicating its constitutional responsibility to the Innu of Labrador. The CHRC blasted the feds for not giving the Inuu access to any of the federal programs normally available to Aboriginal Canadians. The commission also found fault with Ottawa for refusing to allow the Innu at Davis Inlet to move their community when their isolation and ensuing poverty were clearly responsible for the community's disorder and disintegration.

The Innu said they are going to push the commission's report all the way to the United Nations to keep it from being shelved. Chief Mary Francois of the Cold Lake First Nations said she needs to consult the band's Elders before deciding how to approach Ottawa with their land claim request. Common sense and experience suggests that both groups of Natives are probably being somewhat optimistic.

As Canada edges ever closer to a fall election, where the Conservatives are practically guaranteed to be the government's leader (albeit in the minority), the concerns of two groups of Aboriginals doesn't amount to a hill of beans in Ottawa.

Certainly, Kim Campbell need not appear sympathetic to garner votes because she's already won the election. And help from Minister Browes is out of the question as well. Browes has demonstrated that, even when she does know what's going on, she doesn't care. Her callous dismissal of constitutionally recognized Native self-government during her first press conference in Inuvik as Indian Affairs minister was proof enough of that.

This leaves the Innu and the Cold Lake Band in a bit of a lurch. Two independent government bodies ruled in their individual favors and yet nothing will probably be done about it. But that's just the bitter irony of federal commissions and the Canadian government. Even when you win, you lose.