Two views, one meeting, says AFN

Page 14

A national coalition of First Nation's activists demanding greater accountability from chiefs and councils across Canada say they have finally received assurances from National Chief Phil Fontaine that he will present the group's concerns at a meeting of Canada's 600-plus chiefs slated for later this fall.

"It really surprised me to hear him [Fontaine] finally admit that there is corruption and mismanagement on reserves and that he was prepared to act on the issues we've been raising," said First Nations Accountability Coalition spokesperson Brenda Everett. "Only last year he was telling everyone that we were blowing a few cases out of proportion and simply fueling anti-Indian sentiment."

Everett and co-spokesperson Leona Freed say they received the commitment from Fontaine during a private meeting last weekend in Winnipeg during the coalition's first annual assembly.

But officials at the Assembly of First Nations were caught off guard by reports of the meeting. They later confirmed that an hour-long discussion between the three had occurred, but said Fontaine's account of the talks is substantially different.

"He [Fontaine] says he made no such promise during their meeting. What he told the coalition members was that the chiefs had already instituted a number of initiatives and reforms aimed at providing greater financial accountability and transparency," said AFN spokesperson Jean Larose. "The national chief simply agreed to meet with them [Everett and Freed] again provided that they refrain from using innuendo and unsubstantiated allegations, and stop wallowing in a negative attitude."

The coalition has recently been lobbying Ottawa to appoint an independent Native Affairs ombudsman to investigate allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement on reserves.

The group has received the political backing of the Reform Party, which has hammered the performance of the Indian Affairs department in a number of recent high profile cases where financial mismanagement is alleged, most recently in the case of the Sagkeeng First Nation, which has racked up a deficit estimated at nearly $10 million.

Although claiming a membership of about 3,000 members, less than 100 coalition delegates attended the three-day assembly held at Birds Hill Park, Man. However Tyrone Tootosis of the Poundmaker reserve in Saskatchewan says the low turnout was simply a reflection that the group is comprised of the "least economically advantaged First Nations' people."

"We are not funded by any political or governmental body. We are the disenfranchised, the poor and the ones who have been cast aside by our own leaders," he said. "Everyone that made it here paid for this trip from their own pocket. So I think the fact that we have people here from B.C., Alberta and Ontario shows there is a lot of support for our cause at the grassroots level."

The three-day event featured speakers from across Canada, including the Reform Party's deputy critic of Indian Affairs, Myron Thompson, who urged coalition delegates to continue their demand for greater accountability for the nearly $7 billion spent annually by the federal government on Aboriginal programs and services.

"You need to continue to pressure your MPs to make the government accountable for the money the chiefs and councils receive," he said. "As long as they are able to avoid being accountable they can trample on your treaty rights and continue to deny the rights of off-reserve First Nations people."

It was a point not lost on Frances Roulette, a single mother of three now living in Portage la Prairie, Man., who says she was forced off the O-chi-chak-ko-sipi reserve by its former chief and council.

"They got angry with me because I kept demanding my right for a proper house, because I challenged them over their misuse of funding in our community that should have been going to helping the people."

Since she left her community, Rouellette says the band continues to punish her by denying her chidren access to programs and funding for education.

"That's why I'm here. Because it has to change somehow for the sake of the future, our children."