Support questionable for Nielsen Report

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OTTAWA - The Nielsen Report's volume on Native people has been getting a failing grade from almost every reader, and the rating continues to drop as groups are able to dig deeper into the 523 page volume.

Even the government has distanced itself from the report, saying that the 10,000 page, 21 volume review of government programs is only for discussion.

But opposition critics don't event want to discuss the document. "This is really offensive stuff," says NDP Native Affairs critic Jim Manly, "We shouldn't even have to look at it in committee. If the minister (David Crombie) really want so to discuss some

of the points that he thinks are important in the report, he should present them to the (Native Affairs) committee - not the whole document."

Quite apart from all the "offensive" suggestions in the study, the task force that threw it together didn't even bother to consult Native groups across the country.

For instance, while a letter was sent to the Assembly of First Nations here in Ottawa, the task force didn't even bother to reply to AFN"s lengthy return letter.

"They seem to have made up their minds (on what the report would say) before they started," says Konrad Sioui, one of AFN's regional vice-chiefs.

It appears, says George Erasmus, national chief of the AFN, that "the federal government has singled out Indian people - already on the low rung of the country's economic ladder - as a target group for financial punishment."

Vice Chief Sioui says that it seems that all poor people are given a beating in the report. "The whole of Canadian society has to reject this 'Great Blue Dream', that attacks all its disadvantaged peoples," he says.

The AFN is asking for a moratorium on implementation of any of the reports suggestions, pending resolution of the issues at Constitutional talks.