OTTAWA REPORT

Page 2

In some ways, the battle between the Department of Indian Affairs and Manitoba Indian bands is a phony war. The fighting has been fierce and dirty, it's true. What's more, things are soon going to get even worse when several new investigations and a court case begin to unfold. The public skirmishes, however camouflage the real dispute - not to mention the necessary solution.

The public battle began a year ago when the bands launched a blistering attack on the department. Among other things, the bands accused the department of fraud, deliberate underfunding, falsifying records and misleading Parliament.

Little happened, though, until four months ago when an outside auditor, hired by David Crombie, found evidence to support some - but not all - of the Indian charges.

But again, little happened until Dennis MacPhee entered the fight recently. He quit his $50,000 a year job as the number two man in the Manitoba region because he was sick of the way the department treated the province's Indians. He took cartons of documents with him and began working for the bands.

He started by levellng a scathing indictment against the department. He said the department routinely and deliberate broke funding agreements, raided Indian budgets and lied to Parliament.

Dennis MacPhee's charges triggered an uproar and spawned three more investigations into the department's management practises. Here's a quick rundown of what's wrong with the upcoming investigations. The first will be made by Treasury Board officials. (They'll make a narrow investigation behind closed doors.) The second will be conducted by the parliamentary committee on Aboriginal affairs (Parliamentary committees have built-in political problems that limit their effectiveness.) The third will

be conducted by the R.C.M.P. (The Mounties admit that they don't know what they're looking for.)

So much for the investigations. They should all be under way by the end of the month - that's when the bands plan to expand the conflict. They're going to court to collect the money they say the department owes them. The department has broken as many as 100 of the 1,000 funding agreements in the province, they say. As a result, they say they've been cheated out of millions of dollars.

The department's reaction to the controversy has been interesting. David Crombie was angry when the first critical report was filed four months ago. Heads would roll, he indicated, if he found out who was responsible for the problems.

The department has adopted a different and much tougher stance since Bill McKnight became the minister, however. He, too, is angry about the mess but his anger

is not directed at the department. He's not talking about disciplining employees who've done wrong. Instead, the minister is leading the department's counter-attack to deny the Indian charges and discredit Dennis MacPhee.

It's almost impossible to determine who's right and who's wrong in the flurry of accusations and denials because both sides have not told all of the truth.

The department feels that it's won the latest round and it's daring the Indians to fight another one. However, the department has already lost the battle for the hearts

and minds of the tax-paying spectators. Several newspaper editorials have scolded the government. In fact, if the public relations side of the fight had taken place in a boxing ring, the referee would have stopped it long ago.

No matter how the court case or the investigations turn out, though, the events

of the past few weeks will haunt the government for years to come. Most Indian people

have already formed their own judgment. They've always believed the worst about the Department of Indian Affairs, and for them. Dennis MacPhee has finally delivered the proof. In fact, his actions and accusations will probably become a modern Indian legend. They will be remembered and recited whenever there is an argument between Indians and the department.

If the government reall wanted to get out from under the problems it's created for itself, it should call all the various investigations and hold a public inquiry instead. To root out the whole truth, the inquiry should require testimony under oath and be charged by a judge with the power of subpoena. The inquiry should also identify problems within the department and it should also assess the needs of the bands.

A public inquiry - similar to the Berger Commission- would bring to light the real dispute behind the headlines. That dispute is not so much about money as it is about power. What the bands are really fighting for is the power to determine and control their own financial and political future. A proper public inquiry would arrive at the one solution that Native people have long been demanding - namely, self-determination pure and simple.