Mushkegowuk Council turfs Canadian Wildlife Service

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Last week, the Mushkegowuk Council banned the Canadian Wildlife Service from entering the lands of any of its five member bands. The coun-cil says the ban will remain in effect until a dispute between the First Na-tions and the government over proposed amendments to the Canada-U.S. Migratory Bird Convention of 1916 is resolved.

The wildlife service is an arm of the federal government, and it negotiated changes to the migratory bird convention with American representatives at Parksville, B.C., in April. In a press release, the Mushkegowuk Council says that the amendments "attempt to restrict our Aboriginal and treaty right to hunt and harvest migratory birds by subjecting that right to provincial conservation regulations."

"What we want to do is revitalize the traditional laws that have pre-served the birds for thousands of years," said council chairperson Roseanne Archibald. "But these modifications to the convention have been pushed through without any real input from treaty First Nations leaders."

The Mushkegowuk Council represents five Cree Nations along the west coast of James Bay; Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, Kashechewan, Moose Cree and New Post. Canadian and American negotiators met for three days to tinker with the convention in Parksville. Canadians attended with four key changes in mind, according to Canadian Wildlife Service director of wildlife conservation Steven Curtis, who headed the Canadian delegation; year-round access to migratory birds for Aboriginal people, access by non-Native subsistence users in the territories, reclassification of the murre to allow for traditional use, and advancing the sport-hunting date into August in the North.

The wildlife service made an effort to get input from Native people, Curtis said.

"Three members of the negotiation team (of nine) were Native people. Plus there was a group of advisers which reviewed every word of the changes before they were made."

But Curtis admits that the selection process for the treaty Indians was a question, and that's where the troubles seemed to begin. The other two Native groups represented, the Inuit Tapirisat-represented by Rosemarie Kuptana--and the Metis and non-status Indians-represented by Jim Burke-seem relatively satisfied with the process. But treaty rep Phillip Awashish of the Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec had no mandate further than that of the Grand Council.

"Ironically, the goal, or one of the goals, was to open up the season for Native people," explained Curtis. "The 1916 convention obviously didn't recognize the importance of the Aboriginal take of migratory birds, especially in the spring."

The problem with the modifications, claimed Archibald, is that they were done without consulting a representative of all treaty Indians, and the requirements of the various First Nations vary depending upon the treaties to which they are signatory.

"A lot of these people have conservation agreements that name the convention,: Archibald said. "Others have no agreed conservation regime in place. Still others are subject to the details of their numbered treaty."

By making First Nations subject to the convention except where it is overridden by specific clauses of treaties, the amendments essentially try to make First Nations without a signed treaty or without a conservation clause in their treaty subject to provincial and federal conservation law. Archibald is adamant that neither Canada nor the U.S. has the right to legislate in this area, the countries must negotiate with the First Nations.

As a step towards a solution, the Mushkegowuk Council has invited federal Environment Minister Sheila Copps to their territory along the west coast of James Bay to see for herself. Copps is responsible for the operation of the Canadian Wildlife Service.

"We want her to come to the area," said Archibald. "It's hard in letter form to explain the importance of the spring hunt."

"We're certainly going to be considering any invitation e might re-ceive," said the minister's press secretary Duncan Dee. "However, the only invitation we've received to this time is by way of the press release." The key to the controversy is the agreement to amend the migratory bird con-vention, however.

And, while the new protocol is, according to Curtis, designated to al-low Aboriginal people access to their traditional food sources, the wording doesn't necessarily convey that.

"Changes to the convention are required to ensure conformity with the Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada," reads the document, but it clearly fails to account for First Nations without specified treaties.

That's not the case with the next clause, an American one, which pro-vides for the "customary and traditional taking of certain species of migra-tory birds and their eggs for subsistence use by Indigenous inhabitants of Alaska."

That's more like what Archibald had in mind when she travelled to Parksville. Although she was able to have a brief say, she was then ex-cluded from the meetings. In so doing, a Canadian Wildlife Service official allegedly assaulted her, pulling her hair. The Mushkegowuk Council has demanded that disciplinary action be taken against the employee. Charges were investigated by the RCMP but were turned down by a Crown attorney in B.C.

"That issue is secondary, although it's really indicative of the federal government's lack of respect for First Nations leaders," said Archibald. She doesn't want the issue of the alleged assault to cloud the issue of Aboriginal rights in conservation issues.

Dee was surprised at the actions of the Mushkegowuk Council. He said that they had been one of the most, if not the most-consulted Native or-ganization in the three years leading up to the Parksville meeting. But that wasn't enough for the council, which wants direct input at the negotiation table, nation to nation.

"We understand that the birds are migratory," Archibald said. "They're not our proprty, nor are they anybody else's. But at the same time, when they are in our territory, we have a responsibility to look after the birds, and a right to make use of them.

"There are traditional limits that are not written down," she continued, explaining that the First Nations in the James Bay area have always followed sound conservation policies. "This is an opportune time to do it."