Repeat performance of last summers' tensions can be expected if minster

fails Chippewas

Page 2

The ice is beginning to break around the Bruce Peninsula in northern

Ontario and with the open water comes the beginning of another season

for the native fishery.

But, instead of approaching the coming spring with enthusiasm, the

Chippewas of Nawash are worried. They are anticipating another season

of tension with the non-Native commercial fishery and sport anglers.

The Chippewas are so concerned, in fact, that they have issued a call

for help from the federal minster of Indian affairs. They want a

federal inquiry into the events of last year, which saw the burning of a

Native tugboat-- it was later sunk-- the sinking of a Native fishing

boat and the stabbing assault of four Native youths.

During the summer and fall of 1995, many native fishing boats were the

target of vandals. Thousands of yards of native nets were lifted from

the waters and stolen or damaged. The Chippewas of Nawash fear that

1996 will bring similar events.

But word from the minster's office has been less than encouraging. It

has, indeed, left the Chippewas in the hands of the organizations they

trust least.

"Because the events take place off reserve," said Lynn Boyer, a

spokesperson for Indian Affairs Minster Ron Irwin, "they come under the

jurisdiction of the province and local police services."

There have been no charges brought against the perpetrator of last

summer's crimes despite lengthy investigations by police into the

incidents. Chief Ralph Akiwenzie of the Chippewas of Nawash said the

police have not gone far enough in their attempts to bring these events

to a satisfactory conclusion.

Akiwenzie believes that the police have, in effect, sent a message to

the police of the Bruce: Ontario' police cannot, or will not, protect

the people or property of the Chippewas, and all actions taken against

the Nawash will go unpunished.

But police inaction is only part of a larger issue, said Akiwenzie,

April 27 marked the third anniversary of a provincial court decision

which ruled in favor of a constitutional protected priority Native right

to fish commercially in the waters around the Bruce Peninsula. In that

decision, Ontario was reminded of the province's obligation to uphold

this right under Canada's constitutional agreement and was directed to

take a new approach in its policies to live up to that obligation.

"What this "new approach" meant to the Chippewas was a negotiated

co-management agreement where the Nawash would have not only a fair

share of the fishery but also a say in how the resource is managed.

The failure of the province to negotiate on the co-management agreement

has left the Nawash commercial fishery in jeopardy and open to attack.

Anglers and official of the Lake Huron management unit of the Ontario

Ministry of Natural Resources accuse the Native fishery of depleting

fish stocks and ruining attempts to rehabilitate the trout fisher, said

Akiwenzie. such accusations have acted as the incendiary device which

has sparked tensions in the fishing community, he said.

Last summer, "a mob of 75 to 100 angers marched on the open market at

Owen Sound to protest Native fishing. 'That protest climaxed with a bag

of fish guts being flung at a Native woman trying to sell fish, "reads

the background information sent to Irwin.

"The minster has expressed his sympathy for the victims of these acts

and will support the Chippewas as he can, and ads much as the department

can, in their work with the province and local agencies to help resolve

the situation," said Boyer What form that help will take is less than

clear.

Today's political climate under Ontario's new Harris government is not

conducive to negotiation, said Akiwenzie. The chief doesn't believe the

new premier, Michael Harris, has the political will to reach negotiated

settlements with native people.

The Nawash are not alone in their contempt for how the crimes against

local native people have bee handled by the authorties. Renowned lawyer

Clayton Ruby said that the pattern of ineffetive local law enforcement

in crimes of violence that are racial in origin is not new. It's

something the world saw in the 1960s in America's deep South.

"It's just racism," said Ruby.