Vets threaten to end association with foundation

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The president of the National Aboriginal Veterans Association (NAVA) says the group is poised to publicly sever all association with the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards Foundation (NAAF) after repeated attempts by the group to actively participate in the Aboriginal Veterans Scholarship Trust Fund were rebuffed by foundation founder and chairman John Kim Bell.

"He trots us out at the annual awards ceremonies, but that's the extent of our participation. It's all show and we're tired of being dictated to by him," said veterans' group president, Claude Petit.

The dispute, he said, has been ongoing since the veterans scholarship was established in 1997 and the foundation was selected by the federal government to administer the scholarship program.

"Our organization was never consulted in a meaningful way about how the veterans wanted to see this thing done. We've been trying ever since to have someone from the NAVA executive sit on the board or even be part of the scholarship awards' selection committee but we've been denied a place at the table."

The foundation oversees the selection of recipients and disbursement of more than $100,000 in scholarships each year from interest received on the original $1.1 million endowment fund provided for the veterans' scholarship fund by the government of Canada.

The foundation and its president are not strangers to controversy, having been publicly rebuked by Aboriginal artist and political activist Buffy Sainte-Marie in the past for staging what she deemed to be a Hollywood portrayal of Aboriginal culture, as well as by several members of the Aboriginal media for playing exclusively to mainstream audiences while neglecting the grassroots Aboriginal constituency.

And like in those past public skirmishes, Bell dismisses the complaints as misinformed and misguided.

"I think they're [NAVA] manufacturing difficulties and that's unfortunate," he said. "We were selected based on our merit. We agreed to take several Aboriginal veterans on the board of directors, which we did, and those veterans serve on a rotation basis on the national jury."

However, none of those veterans are members of NAVA said Petit, who adds that his group's concerns over the foundation's administration of the fund run far deeper.

"They charge the scholarship fund a 15 per cent administration fee that goes directly into the coffers of the NAAF and they treat our group as if we haven't any right to be a part of something set up as a legacy for the Aboriginal veterans.

"Our voice is treated as if it were irrelevant and it's a slap in the face to our members who have faced this type of disrespect and discrimination when they returned from the service and were denied their rights or had their rights stripped away from them. This fund was set up by the government to make partial amends for the way Aboriginal veterans were treated and yet now we're being treated in the same high-handed fashion, but this time by another Aboriginal group - our own people for Christ's sakes."

Petit particularly bristles when discussing NAAF head John Kim Bell.

"He talks to me as if I don't know anything."

Proof of that, said Petit, occurred during last spring's annual awards ceremony when Bell demanded that Petit's remarks in announcing the scholarship award winners follow a pre-written script.

"That was it. It became clear to me then, finally, that he wants to use us whenever the publicity can be used to legitimize their work and the ego of Bell, but that's the extent of the involvement he wants from our group. He didn't even want me to make any of my own remarks. It's a sham.

We're tired of it and will be looking to publicly disassociate ourselves from the NAAF Veterans Scholarship Trust Fund."

But Bell says the veterans group's desire to claw back control of the scholarship fund ignores the reality that NAVA lacks the expertise to administer it.

"We are the experts at delivering that. We have professional educators and we do a lot o research. We do an incredible job. We've been in discussions constantly with the federal government who have evaluated that we do a very first rate job.

"The interest earned by the Aboriginal Veterans' Scholarship Trust was enhanced. In the first year out of $1.1 million, we earned about $130,000, but we actually gave out $263,000 in the name of Aboriginal veterans. And it's because we are a fundraising organization and no other organization including the National Veterans organization would be able to do that because we have the private support going for it."

Bell is clearly perplexed by Petit's complaints.

"There is no legitimate basis or reason that they should complain. We offered Mr. Claude Petit to be on our board and he refused. Instead they sort of made an interesting power play to go to the federal government to say 'take the fund away'."

Bell said it is doubtful any group could match his organizations level of success, citing the foundation's track record of fund raising $6 million a year and disbursing nearly $2 million in scholarships through the various funds it administers.

"We are perhaps the most successful Aboriginal organization in the country. I mean, we are raising $6 million a year. We are giving out almost $2 million a year in scholarships with a staff of only about 12," he said. "And we have about 300 regular corporate supporters. They [NAVA] simply want the fund to do with it as they please. When they realized that they gave it away they had a problem with it.

"Mr. Petit tried this last year and went to Indian Affairs, he made complaints and they investigated us and everything turned out that we were administering the fund properly."

The president of the Manitoba chapter of NAVA says it will support any move by their national office to disassociate themselves from the foundation.

"We don't have a real voice on the board that administers a veterans scholarship fund so why should we just go along with it all. If they don't want us to be part f it then fine. We just want everyone else to know it then, that we aren't involved or affiliated with the fund in any way," said chapter president, Dale Lamoreaux.

Petit says he will be making a formal motion to end all association with the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation at the group's next executive meeting slated for the end of this year.

"It could potentially hurt the foundation's image among the public and would take away from the tremendously important and vital work that the foundation does. We're willing to sit down and meet with them (NAVA) to try and address their concerns," said Bell.

Public relations consultant, Blake Donner, said a highly public row could erode some mainstream corporate sponsorship of the foundation.

"Let's face it, corporate Canada wants to be involved in things that don't have any negative whiplash so if this public split happens they won't want their company names associated with something the public might identify as negative," he said. "And if the NAAF sees that corporate support for them is either slipping or becoming more hesitant, they may decide to give up administering the Veterans Scholarship Trust Fund and turn it back over to the government because it becomes more trouble than it's worth."