NCC gets new name, new leader, new deal

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The Native Council of Canada's annual assembly ended with a new leader, a new name and an important political accord with the federal government.

Jim Sinclair, as past president of the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan, was elected president of the council, renamed the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, at a convention in Ottawa Feb. 26 to 28.

The 60-year-old Sinclair defeated former president Ron George and Native Council of Canada (Alberta) head Doris Ronnenberg in two ballots following an emotional speech before more than 200 delegates.

Sinclair said in his impassioned address that his eyes were opened to "a new reality" by the 1990 Oka standoff and promised a revolution in the way Ottawa deals with Natives.

"(Oka) took the stereotype image away from Indians and Metis and made us into people, made us into soldiers and made us into revolutionaries," he said.

The election was Sinclair's second run at the presidency. The reformed alcoholic, who grew up on the edge of society in the "half-breed slums" of a Metis community near Punnichy, Sask., first ran on a platform of militant Metis nationalism in 1981.

Shortly after his defeat, the council's board of directors named him chairman of their constitutional committee. Sinclair later became the principal spokesman for the MNC during ministerial conferences in the 1980s.

Federal and congress officials closed the annual assembly with the signing of a political accord Feb. 28. The accord establishes a process for discussing promises made in "Creating Opportunities," the Liberal's agenda for action.

Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin and Federal Interlocutor for Metis and non-status Indians Anne McLellan signed the deal which also outlines a process to discuss treaty and Aboriginal rights and the inherent right to self-government.