Who will lead?

Circle of Trade Show Guide Supplement

Page 1

From the very beginning, even before it was called the Assembly of First Nations, the organization that represents status Indians and treaty nations in dealings with the Canadian government has been on a mission-to enhance the position of the First Nations people in Canada and help them claim their rightful place in this country's future.

More than 630 First Nations communities in Canada are represented by their chiefs at the Assembly of First Nations. The organization is designed to present the views of First Nations people through their leaders in the areas of Aboriginal and treaty rights, economic development, education, languages and literacy, health, housing, social development, justice, taxation, land claims, environment, and other issues that arise from time to time.

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) came into being in 1982, but was born out of the National Indian Brotherhood, whose first fight was to battle the much-reviled 1969 White Paper, a federal Liberal government Indian policy, the core philosophy of which was assimilation. That policy was defeated, and the brotherhood went on to press for other changes in provincial and federal Aboriginal policy.

By the time the National Indian Brotherhood reinvented itself as the Assembly of First Nations, Canada had developed a home-grown Constitution that recognized and affirmed the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Indian, Inuit, and Metis peoples of Canada.

Soon after a 1982 AFN general assembly held in Penticton, B.C. where the first national chief of the AFN, David Ahenekew, was elected, the organization set its sights on Ottawa and the first of four First Ministers Conferences on Aboriginal rights. The AFN was charged with representing the status and treaty Indian point of view on what was meant by "existing rights."

The battle raged over whether section 35 of the Canadian Constitution meant inherent Aboriginal rights or contingent Aboriginal rights. By 1987 at the last First Ministers Conference on Aboriginal rights, positions had galvanized with many provincial and territorial leaders refusing to accept the position of First Nations that the right to self-govern was inherent and proved out through history. There has been little resolved in this matter since that time. Still, the AFN made the position of its members clear, and continues its work in this regard. In fact, the inherent right to self-govern is central to its mandate.

A declaration made in 1985, and a part of the Assembly of First Nations charter, states that the chiefs of the Indian First Nations in Canada declare that "the Creator has given us the right to govern ourselves and the right to self determination" and that those rights cannot be taken away by any other nations.

There have been other battles, but the most current one waged by the Assembly of First Nations has still, at its crux, the matter of governance.

In 2001, Minister of Indian Affairs Robert Nault introduced the First Nations governance act, and debate about the proposed legislation has occupied much of the Assembly of First Nations' time and energy over the past two years.

The act, known as Bill C-7, died when the House of Commons broke for summer on June 13, but it could be resurrected when the House resumes in fall.

While it may have a short respite on this front, the Assembly of First Nations has before it another weighty issue when it holds the 24th annual general assembly in Edmonton from July 15 to 17, and that is the question of who will lead the organization for the next three years.

Three contenders have thrown their hats into the ring for the job of national chief-Roberta Jamieson, current chief of Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations from 1997 to 2000, and incumbent Matthew Coon Come.

The election will take place July 16 beginning at 9 a.m. On the evening prir, the candidates will partcipate in an open forum.

Each member of the assembly has one vote. The winner of the election is the person that first gains a majority of 60 per cent of the votes of the representatives of the members registered at the assembly.

If any candidate fails to get 15 votes, he or she is eliminated. After each ballot, the candidate who gains the lowest number of votes is also eliminated.

As soon as the winner is announced, that person takes the oath of office before the assembly and assumes office from that time.