Grassroots candidate wants to unseat Fontaine

Page 12

Joe Nolan wants to be the next national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), so he can make the national organization more directly accountable to First Nations grassroots people.

The 51-year-old Garden River (Ontario) First Nation citizen announced his candidacy in early April. At the moment, he and incumbent Phil Fontaine are the only declared candidates.

"Yeah, I'll give it a shot; probably won't win, but I've got to be optimistic. " Nolan told Windspeaker when contacted by phone in Orillia, Ont. "I just want to give the First Nations people a voice that right now they don't have because the chiefs are calling the shots."

He noted that the chiefs in assembly in Gatineau, Que. chose to go slowly on the AFN renewal commission's recommendation that all First Nation citizens be allowed to vote for national chief. Once again, only the chiefs will vote for national chief when the election is held this summer. Nolan said he believes the whole renewal process was "a sham."

"Phil doesn't want the universal vote. If they had the universal vote, I'd win. But it's not going to be the universal vote. It's going to be the chiefs voting in July. Hopefully, if I can turn around these chiefs to have some sort of a conscience, I might win. You never know," he said.

The election is scheduled for July 12, the middle day of the AFN's three-day 27th annual general assembly, which this time around will be held at the scenic Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. The three-week-long period of time when candidates must formally file their nomination papers doesn't even start until May 17, but Nolan is already out there looking for media exposure and seeking political support.

He admits that he is saying all the wrong things if he expects to get much support from the chiefs, but he intends to shake up AFN politics as much as possible with his campaign. Despite taking that approach, he said he is confident he'll be able to get the required signatures of 15 chiefs on his nomination form.

"I don't think I'll have a problem at all. I'm talking to the chiefs from Manitoulin Island in Ontario and on the north shore between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. I'm also talking to people in New Brunswick and in Manitoba and some people in British Columbia. I'll get 15 no problem, but it's hard to do because I'm just me. I'm on a shoestring budget," he said.

He readily admits his biggest problem will be finding the money that will be needed to mount a national campaign. The AFN charter puts a spending limit of $35,000 on candidates. Critics wonder just how closely that limit is supervised, given that candidates submit their campaign spending lists to the AFN's chief electoral officer the day before the vote and, so far, no candidate has ever been chastised for over-spending. In previous AFN elections, the spending figures have not been released to the press or public.

Nolan said the federal system, where losing parties get so much money per vote and that money is used to cover operating costs, should have some sort of equivalent in First Nations politics. Without funding for opposition parties or candidates, the incumbency factor is unfair and stifles the debate, he said.

"Phil's got the whole organization behind him. He's got a lot of money, a lot of contacts. I know. I worked there. But it's not real what they're doing. They're neglecting the youth; they're neglecting a lot of people," Nolan said.

Nolan, who has a degree in political science from Laurentian University, is the older brother of former NHL player and coach of the year Ted Nolan. He recently completed an employment contract at the AFN. He said that what he saw there helped him make up his mind to run. He's never been elected to any office, but he has some experience in government and administration.

"I worked for about 12 years with INAC [Indian and Northern Affairs]. I was a planner, a fiscal planner, in Sudbury and Toronto. I was a band anager for my reserve for about a year in Garden River First Nation near Sault Ste. Marie. I was the tribal director up in the Yukon for about a year with Burwash Landing and Old Crow. After that I went to work for Phil for two years. I was a liaison officer. I just finished there in July. They didn't renew my contract," he said. "I worked there for two years and they paid me well. But I felt like taking a bath or a shower every day after I left there. It's so dirty, so filthy. It's not clean. They're hurting the average Native person. Why can't our people have a decent home, decent drinking water and a decent education?"

Ground level issues are being ignored while First Nation leaders spend their time dealing with governance issues and building bureaucratic institutions, he said.

"The youth are still hurting. A lot of Native people are still getting incarcerated. Residential school people still haven't got any money. 'It's coming ... in the mail.' What I see is that the AFN is not real. They don't represent the people they're supposed to represent," he said.

And Nolan said he doesn't believe the chiefs when they say they believe in accountability.

"Stephen Harper wants accountability. He didn't pinpoint AFN, but he said he wants accountability for all politicians, anybody who takes federal money. They're saying they represent First Nations people. They don't. They represent 620 chiefs," he said.

Nolan has been in touch with a man who is said to have the new prime ministers' ear, a man who is despised by Aboriginal leaders across the country.

"You know Tom Flanagan? I'm e-mailing him. He's got my seven-point plan. I think Harper will mess Phil up. They're in big trouble," he said.

Since he has little money and is intent on angering all the people or groups that usually support candidates for national chief, Nolan is reaching out to grassroots people and organizations.

"I do want to make it public that I will go out to speak. I'll speak at univrsities or anywhere they want me to speak, provided they'll just give me airfare and a hotel room. I don't want money," he said.

Nolan's seven-point platform:

1) Implement universal voting by creating an Internet voting system for all eligible First Nations members (both on and off reserve). He will also create a special elections committee to govern all aspects of this Web-based voting system. This elections committee will consist of First Nation members who hold positions in Canada such as bank chief executive officers, law enforcement officials, university professors, etc.

2) Create a new National Indian Brotherhood act for the purposes of holding the AFN and First Nation chiefs and councils accountable to their membership and government funding agencies.

3) Negotiate the transfer of non-dangerous First Nation inmates to the custody and care of First Nation rehabilitation and correctional institutions.

4) Implement various programs and services to work with First Nation youth (education, culture and sports, etc.).

5) Dismantle the department of Indian Affairs and replace it with sovereign Indigenous governing structures.

6) Relocate the AFN's Ottawa office to a First Nation community, to be owned by the First Nations people. The location will be determined based on a universal vote.

7) Develop young Native professionals in the administration and governing structures of the new AFN.