Fontaine says travel expenses 'above board'

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Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine did not act like a man on the run from the press.

Windspeaker met up with him at a ceremony Feb. 6 celebrating the relocation of the Alberta AFN office to Tsuu T'ina First Nation territory.

Just two days before, there had been allegations made in a national newspaper that the Liberal government had aided his election victory last July over Chief Roberta Jamieson and incumbent national chief Matthew Coon Come.

The story said Fontaine's $182,000 in travel expenses during the months before he resigned as chief commissioner of the Indian Claims Commission to run for national chief was an indication the feds were funding that travel to help him campaign against Coon Come.

It reported that government wanted to unseat Coon Come because he was seen as a troublesome national First Nation leader.

Fontaine did not seem to be at all troubled by the article.

At an Alberta chiefs' reception in Calgary Feb. 5, Fontaine joked about the front-page National Post story.

"I want you to know one thing. I didn't fly here," Fontaine joked with the chiefs. "I drove here. It was a long drive."

He later told Windspeaker, that all of his travel was according to Treasury Board guidelines.

"I didn't arrange my own travel. It was done by central office. Everything was approved by Privy Council. It was all above board," he said.

Windspeaker asked Fontaine if he would take legal action to defend his administration's legitimacy.

"No. We're fair game. I don't object to coverage from the media as long as it's fair. I have no expectations that every story that comes out is going to be a glowing report about the work we're involved in," he replied. "But we do expect to be treated fairly."

Richard Powless, Matthew Coon Come's former political chief of staff, was concerned about one aspect of the story, however.

"Yes, I saw that article. I also saw a response to it from AFN," he said in an e-mail obtained by this publication. "The AFN has no business responding on behalf of Phil Fontaine. He did this travel when he was a candidate for national chief and was not yet national chief. If anything, they should ask for an investigation if he has breached AFN charter, constitution or election regulations. If this travel was paid for by the federal government for him to campaign then it is political interference of the highest and also way above campaign expenditures allowed under AFN rules."

AFN communications director Don Kelly said the response quoted in the story did not come from the AFN. It was formulated by Fontaine and his personal lawyer Jack London and faxed to the Post from AFN headquarters.

Chief Roberta Jamieson, who took second place at the AFN election, said she believes the government needs to look closely at those expenses to see if its policies were broken.

"A question about Phil Fontaine's expenses under a government appointment is a matter to be addressed by the government. If later there proves to be any implication of the government using funds to influence First Nations politics, or any reflection on the AFN, I'll make my comment then," she said.

Fontaine was in Calgary for the AFN's first executive meeting of 2004. He told delegates the Speech from the Throne delivered by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson on Feb. 2 made a compelling argument to "convince Canadians and our communities that the way we have been conducting business for the past while is not good enough. We've experienced too many failures."

As he has lobbied in Ottawa for more activity on First Nation issues, Fontaine said he has come to see that First Nations have a serious image problem.

"Governments are influenced by what people think, what the electorate has to say. Governments poll and survey their people. So we have to be able to convince the people on the streets. And every single penny that reaches our communities, every dollar, must bring aout a return on investment. That's what people understand. What that means then is, while it's important for us to talk about the horrible social and economic conditions in our communities, I believe we have to spend far more time talking about the achievements and accomplishments-the good in our communities," he said.

Talking about achievements and accomplishments, said Phil Fontaine, tells people that First Nations are not victims and are in control of our own destiny.

"The problem with being a victim is that we end up blaming someone else. When we blame someone else we allow that person we blame to control us. That's the problem. It's so very important, particularly for our young people."

He urged the chiefs to emphasize positive messages in addition to dealing with the negatives.

"If we talk too often about the way things are, the desperate situations, people start to believe it too much and people end up in despair. That's why, in my personal view, so many of our people end up committing suicide. Suicide is a plague in our communities. "I spoke to a chief in northern Ontario about three weeks ago. He came to my office in Ottawa and he was telling me about the situation and it is desperate. The government has completely taken over control of his community. It has dismissed or marginalized the leadership. The control of the affairs of that community rest in the hands of a person who has yet to set foot there. He's making all of the important decisions that have to be made from an office in southern Ontario."

Fontaine later told Windspeaker that community is Pikangikum.

"The people in the community are forced to drink water that's so polluted, a woman that was forced to drink that water, a pregnant woman, had to have her limbs amputated. The situation's far worse in my view than what we read about in Walkerton. The fact is there are too many Walkertons in our communities.

"The chief told me about suicides. They've lost about 50 young people o suicide over the last few years. Can you imagine the loss, the way the future's been affected by so many young lives being lost," he said. "So we have to figure out how to lift up that community. We hope that there's a turnaround as soon as it is possible. Chief and council have to be recognized as the legitimate voice for that community. [Third-party management] has completely emasculated the leadership. In my view, one of the most effective ways of taking control of things like that is to convince the community that the power is in their hands. The change that needs to take place is entirely within their grasp. They just have to exercise the power that belongs to them."