Native people a distinct society says senate report

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A senate task force recommending Aboriginal people be recognized as distinct societies under the Meech Lake accord has met with mixed reaction from Aboriginal leaders. The task force also suggests Aboriginal and treaty rights and self-government become ongoing items on the agenda of constitutional conferences.

The Native Council of Canada (NCC) says the proposals are a "good step forward" but fall short of creating rights for Aboriginal people.

Chris McCormick, vice-president of the NCC, says the council would prefer to have the first ministers conference process (FMC) revived to deal with the issue of Aboriginal rights rather than have the issue treated "as just one item on a long agenda. I think the Aboriginal people are owed more than that."

The NCC, along with the three other major Aboriginal groups have been working toward reopening the FMC process which ended in failure in 1987.

However, Georges Erasmus, president of the Assembly of First Nations, says he's happy with the recommendation to have Aboriginal people recognized as distinct societies.

Windspeaker could not reach Erasmus for comment but he's quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying: "It's a further weapon that Aboriginal people can use in pressuring the provinces and the federal government."

Chairman of the task force, Senator Gildas Molgat, says if Quebec is recognized as a distinct society under the accord then how can Canada say the Aboriginal people are not a distinct society?

The task force made up of five liberal and three conservative senators held hearings in Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Igaluit to deal with Native grievances with the accord.

The report made seven recommendations in total, some include: allowing the territories the same right as provinces to nominate senators and Supreme Court judges, and giving the territories the right to decide their boundaries and province hood without involvement of the provinces.

However, the three conservative members of the task force have expressed a dissenting voice and state in the report: "The members who support the government are in disagreement with any recommendations that the accord be amended at this time."

"They are taking the position that the government and the 10 premiers take that you can't change the accord or it will all fall apart," says Molgat.

But Molgat says the accord needs to be changed, "in particular, that the issue of Native rights be included in the ongoing agenda."