Native leaders take action to re-open FMC talks

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Though the new year has hardly begun, progress already made toward entrenching the Native right to self-government with in the Constitution is making up for 1987's dismal performance when the first ministers' conference ended in failure.

This week, Smokey Bruyere, head of the Native Council of Canada, said he and leaders from the other three national Aboriginal groups will meet Jan. 22 to discuss new strategies to place constitutional talks back on track. He indicated leaders will adopt techniques and lessons learned from observing the negotiations which led to the Meech Lake agreement that brought Quebec back into the Constitution.

The Meech Lake Accord recognized Quebec as a "distinct society" and Native leaders hope to present Canada's Native population similarly.

Georges Erasmus, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations; Jim Sinclair, Metis leader; John Amagoalik, a co-chairman of the Inuit constitutional negotiation group; and Bruyere, will meet to try to agree upon five principles important to the signing of a future constitutional amendment agreement.

According to Bruyere, the idea is to ensure concerns of all groups are met before sitting down at a first ministers' conference bargaining table. And, as in the Meech Lake negotiations, there will be two conferences ? one to first ensure all parties agree on the principles on self-government, and another to "work out what these principles entail in terms of signing an amendment."

Leaders hope to reach an agreement in Ottawa next week concerning their requests for recognition of Aboriginal rights to self-government, constitutional entrenchment of the agreement, funding and resources to carry out self-government institution, jurisdiction involved in instituting self-government and provision for further constitutional reform on Aboriginal matters.

Georges Erasmus indicated he is anxious to begin preliminary meetings to encourage "serious momentum" toward a future first ministers' conference. If the Aboriginal leaders can agree upon a self-government proposal, they will next meet with Justice Minister Ramon Hnatyshyn, Indian Affairs minister Bill McKnight and Senator Lowell Murray, the minister of state for federal-provincial relations, Erasmus said.

The next step will involve "discussions with executives within our own organizations" followed by attempts to "bring provincial governments on our side", explained Bruyere. He predicts a major conference on Native rights will take place some time in 1990.

Erasmus, who met with federal officials in December, said he has seen "positive signs" that government is receptive to the idea of resuming self-government discussions.