Is it turf protection?

Page 4

One very interesting and, at times, very troubling theme kept coming up this month as we went about the business of trying to keep up with the hectic pace of life in Indian Country.

Whether it was a question of who will coach the national Junior Indigenous hockey team or who speaks for Indigenous nations at the United Nations, the people who work in a number of fields are starting to feel threatened by a growing and more aggressive Assembly of First Nations.

In a speech in Vancouver in July, National Chief Phil Fontaine boasted that his organization is growing in terms of budget, number of employees and effectiveness. And it's true that there doesn't seem to be any area where there's activity that fails to quickly attract the AFN's attention. That could just mean they're doing a darn fine job. We had hoped to speak to the national chief about this issue. He even called and left a message on Dec. 22, we called back and waited, but we didn't quite connect.

Now here's the problem. When the AFN established a women's secretariat, the Native Women's Association of Canada cried foul, claiming that Fontaine was attempting to scoop them on their funding. Ditto with off-reserve organizations when the AFN finally got around to dealing with off-reserve issues. And now WIN Sports is incensed that the AFN dared to announce that Ted Nolan would be coaching their hockey team without working something out with them beforehand. They hope that it was just a misunderstanding.

And in Regina in mid-December, the many people who have made careers out of representing their communities at the United Nations declared they are more than a little antsy about the AFN's sudden interest in the international arena, as well. They suspect it's all about that 10 per cent administration fee the funded body gets to keep out of program dollars.

We feel that if the only motivation for this AFN growth spurt is to get their hands on more cash, then it's a pretty cynical and suspect exercise. Likewise, if the AFN critics are only barking to protect their own turf, then we have to question their dedication to putting the public interest ahead of their own interests.

During the 1997 campaign for the national chief's job, unsuccessful candidate Larry Sault, now the grand chief of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians in Ontario, said the national chief must always remember that he is elected to speak for the chiefs but the chiefs are the bosses.

If Phil Fontaine subscibes to that approach, then the individual nations will know who the boss really is. And they'll know that the AFN is acting in their interest at all times.

But if they worry that the national chief is building the profile of the national organization in order to pad his own pre-election resume, that would seem to be a legitimate concern. After all, the national press treats the national chief like he's the equivalent of the prime minister in Indian Country. It's a bully pulpit that any savvy politician would be foolish not to exploit for political purposes.

But should politics come before the public interest?

We don't think so.