Hobbema woman heads youth parliament

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In a committee room on Parliament Hill, a group headed by an Alberta representative, discuss the highly contentious issue of immigration and refugee determination.

Located just yards from the House of Commons, the National Youth Parliament headed by Alberta's Carolynne Buffalo of the Montana band at Hobbema, this week drafted their own refugee bill many say is more humane than the current government bill.

Buffalo, 21, guided her committee through the bill, clause by clause, ensuring the meetings never developed into chaos or ground to a halt. This is the second year Buffalo has participated in the annual convocation of young Canadian parliamentarians and she says her experience has stood her in good stead this year as committees are the most difficult aspect of the young parliamentarians' work.

"I knew from before that a lot of work can get done when things get flowing," she says.

A fine handling of enthusiasm of her colleagues enabled her to do something other committee chairmen were unable to accomplish.

"The thing I'm most pleased with," says Buffalo, "is that we were the only committee that finished virtually dead on time . . . and we had the longest bill," she smiled.

And Buffalo had to face many problems this year as the summer session of the House and Senate squeezed the young parliamentarians into crowded meeting halls, and stimultaneous translation facilities often broke down making committee proceedings slow as Buffalo tried to ensure the French speaking delegates understood the English discussions and vice versa.

Buffalo, who is in her third year of political science at the University of Alberta was also able to catch the joint committee hearings on the constitutional accord.

She listened in on the recent Meech Lake discussions with Aboriginal leaders such as Georges Erasmus of the Assembly of First Nations and was able to hear Metis National Council president Jim Sinclair make his stinging denunciation of the accord.

In youth parliament proceedings, Buffalo was involved in two private members bills, one declaring that Treat rights may not be overridden by federal legislation or any other unilateral move by government, the other condemning the Meech Lake accord.

Buffalo is the third of nine children of Montana band councillor, Marvin Buffalo and his wife Velma. Recently she was the regional coordinator for the Alberta and N.W.T. for the Native Internship Program under Employment and Immigration. The Internship program allows young Native people to work on practicums and related job experience programs. She represented the riding of Athabasca in youth parliament.