Native tribe will petition Ottawa to remove its Indian status

Too exciting not to blog about! Bold and daring or short sighted with disastrous outcomes. I think this should open up the stodgy claims process. Imagine the confidence to say - "I don't need the "Indian Status" to know who I am." It's so true. They won't stop being Gitxsan but they will stop being "wards of the state."

I bet you Strahl is wondering - how can I make them give it up and retain control of the resources at the same time.


JUSTINE HUNTER

VICTORIA — From Monday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Nov. 09, 2009 5:00AM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009 4:03AM EST

A delegation of the Gitxsan people from northwest British Columbia is set to meet with Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl next month with a groundbreaking proposal: That the 13,000 members of their tribe be allowed to abandon their status as "Indians."

The group is willing to relinquish reserves, tax exemptions, Indian Act housing and financial supports in exchange for a share of resources. Unlike most contemporary efforts at treaty-making, it would also abandon the ambition of a separate level of government.

B.C.'s new minister of aboriginal affairs and reconciliation, George Abbott, has met twice with the Gitxsan treaty team and has put his senior negotiator on the file. Mr. Strahl agreed to the meeting after Mr. Abbott sent a letter to Ottawa last week urging him to take a look at the proposed governance model.

In an interview, Mr. Abbott said he has given his negotiators "a mandate to talk and explore." He said the proposal still has many hurdles, including the question of whether elected chiefs or hereditary chiefs can claim to speak for the Gitxsan people. The concept is far outside of the standard treaty model, and it presents a series of constitutional questions about the possibility of taking away, even with consent, the rights accorded to status Indians.

* Can you enfranchise a status Indian?
* Can the government recognize the authority of hereditary chiefs?
* Can you give them a share of resources beyond what's been offered in the past?

And the proposal is by no means universally endorsed by the Gitxsan people, having touched off a power struggle between the hereditary rulers who trace their authority back thousands of years, and the elected band officials who have earned their power through a system created by the Indian Act.

The first nation's treaty team, led by hereditary chiefs, proposes the Gitxsan would become regular, enfranchised Canadian citizens, governed by municipal, provincial and federal governments.

What would the Gitxsan get in exchange? The upfront price tag is some land ownership and cash, but the bigger prize lies down the road: The Gitxsan want a share of the resources that are taken from their 33,000-square-kilometre traditional territories, to be managed by their traditional system of clans and houses.

Read the Gitxsan Reconciliation Alternative Governance Model (pdf)

Download this file (.pdf)

Taiaiake Alfred, director of the University of Victoria's Indigenous Governance Program, said one aspect that is likely troubling Canada and B.C. is the notion of handing over any control to hereditary chiefs who are not governed by elections. "But it's a form of democracy that is participatory and direct. There is constant dialogue between the people of that community that generates consensus."

The step forward comes as the province's attempts to settle land claims over virtually all of its Crown lands seems deadlocked. As well, earlier this year, an effort led by Premier Gordon Campbell to enact Recognition and Reconciliation legislation collapsed.

"There are some elements to this that make it a very difficult discussion to conclude," Mr. Abbott said.

A key sticking point for the province is that the hereditary chiefs want some measure of control over their entire traditional territory. Most treaty settlements involve some small fraction - often 3 per cent - of a first nation's traditional lands. As well, Mr. Abbott said, the concept of "enfranchising" a status Indian creates a legal quagmire. "The Gitxsan collectively may say they want to be like everyone else. But whether, on an individual basis, their constitutionally entrenched rights around fishing and hunting can be terminated is questionable and needs to be explored."

The Gitxsan's chief negotiator, Elmer Derrick, said the proposal was initially rebuffed because the treaty negotiators for Ottawa and Victoria have tried to fit it into their standard treaty model. He is encouraged that there may be some political will now to see that this will result in better living conditions for his people who currently live in desperately poor conditions - and that it will cost Canadian taxpayers less.

"Every time we sit down with politicians at every level, I make a point of saying the Gitsxan don't want to be a burden on the Crown and we don't want the Crown to be a burden on us," said Chief Derrick, a hereditary chief of the Gitsegukla, one of seven communities of the Gitxsan nation.

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Australia apologizing to kids in state care

I have to run but wanted to post this - will be back later to comment as I have much to say!

Australia apologizing to kids in state care
'It caused an enormous amount of pain'
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 | 12:55 PM ET Comments6Recommend13
The Associated Press

Australia's government will follow its historic apology to Aborigines for past injustices with a similar apology next month to people who suffered as children in state care during the last century.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will lead the apology on Nov. 16 for neglect and abuse of children without families, Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin announced Tuesday in Canberra.

"It's an opportunity for us all to recognize that what was done was wrong, that it caused an enormous amount of pain," Macklin told reporters.

A 2004 Senate report said more than 500,000 Australian children were placed in foster homes, orphanages and other institutions during the 20th century.

They are often referred to as "forgotten Australians." Many were emotionally, physically and sexually abused in state care.

A 2001 report said between 6,000 and 30,000 children from Britain and Malta, often taken from unmarried mothers or impoverished families, were sent on their own to Australia in the last century.

Both Senate reports recommended that the government apologize for the abuses and assaults that many suffered in institutions and foster care.

But then Prime Minister John Howard rejected those recommendations, as well as a government-commissioned report in 1997 that called for a national apology for Australia's treatment of Aborigines since European settlement in 1788. Howard argued that contemporary Australians should not take responsibility for mistakes made by past generations.

One of Rudd's first acts in Parliament after his election victory in November 2007 was to formally apologize to Aborigines.

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So, what if the Swine flu Mutated with the Avian flu?

I have a theory....

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National Post to close Friday without court support

Look Ward....Finally some cheery news.

National Post to close Friday without court support
Last Updated: Thursday, October 29, 2009 | 2:10 PM ET Comments0Recommend1
CBC News
Unless a court approves a plan to move the National Post into a company with Canwest's other newspaper holdings by Friday, the paper's owners will shutter the paper, court documents have revealed.Unless a court approves a plan to move the National Post into a company with Canwest's other newspaper holdings by Friday, the paper's owners will shutter the paper, court documents have revealed. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

The National Post newspaper will cease operations unless a Toronto court approves a new ownership structure for the paper by Friday, the paper's owners say.

A committee overseeing the company's restructuring "has made it clear it would not continue to allow the funding of the losses of the National Post past Oct. 30, 2009," a Canwest Global Communications Corp. court filing released Thursday says.

"In the absence of any funding for its operating losses, it is doubtful that the National Post could sustain its operations."

Earlier this week, Canwest announced it had reached a deal that would allow it to transfer ownership of the paper into its newspaper unit, to be known as Canwest Publishing Inc. The National Post has been segregated from the Canwest newspaper unit since 2005, when the other newspapers were spun out into an income trust.

Canwest still needs to get court and senior lender approval for the transaction it offered on Tuesday. The deadline for that decision is Friday, Oct. 30.

The company has been under court protection from creditors since last month. The newspaper has lost more than $60 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the last four years, Canwest CFO John Maguire revealed in the filing. The National Post Company currently has 277 employees.

The announcement comes amid speculation that Canwest, which is seeking court protection from its creditors, is preparing to sell its newspaper division.

Industry analysts say Canwest could fetch more than $1 billion for its newspaper assets as signs of life in the finances of the newspaper industry drive up interest in acquisitions.

Canwest newspapers include the Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Free Press, Winnipeg Free Press, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Vancouver Sun and the Victoria Times-Colonist.

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Shame on the liberals

Dr. Carolyn Bennett - I hate your guts. You made me agree with a conservative.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq wasn’t satisfied. She told the CBC, “We are in a pandemic situation where Dr. Bennett should know better. First Nations communities should not be used as punching bags for a political party.”
And ... Carolyn.. honestly.. Shame on you.

Liberal MPs apologize for offensive flyer
By Christina Spencer, SUN MEDIA

OTTAWA — Liberal MPs apologized Wednesday for distributing a household flyer that attacks the government’s handling of H1N1 among aboriginals with the slogan “No vaccines, just body bags.”

The flyer, mailed as a message from Liberal health critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett, features a picture of body bags in a lab and a sick aboriginal child.

Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs told a parliamentary committee the flyer was “very disturbing...it’s really troubling to our people.”

The pamphlet arrived on doorsteps after an investigation into an incident in which an official ordered 100 body bags for a First Nations community in Manitoba struggling with an H1N1 outbreak. The investigation concluded there was no ill will and the number was a miscalculation.

Evans said the fact the flyer was apparently sent after the incident was resolved suggested the affair is now being politicized.

Bennett apologized, saying her party’s intentions were honourable.

Using the Cree expression for “I’m sorry,” Bennett said, “We would never do anything to offend; we did believe that raising attention for the real dire needs that we saw when we were [in Manitoba] was uppermost in our minds.”

Fellow Liberal MP Rob Oliphant suggested the flyers had been printed before the outcome of the body-bag investigation was known.

But Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq wasn’t satisfied. She told the CBC, “We are in a pandemic situation where Dr. Bennett should know better.

“First Nations communities should not be used as punching bags for a political party.”

chrisina.spencer@sunmedia.ca

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The boy ain't right

I am all for gender equality, both ways, for men and women, and I know that the motivation here is to help men bond better with their children…. But something about this just ain’t right.

A male Swedish college student, Ragnar Bengtsson, 26, has begun pumping his breasts at three-hour intervals in a 90-day experiment to see if he can produce milk. If he succeeds, he said, it could prove "very important for men's ability to get much closer to their children at an early stage." A professor of endocrinology told the daily Aftonbladet that male lactation without hormone treatment might produce "a drop or two," but suggested that men instead consider offering their breasts to babies as a matter of comfort and warmth, rather than as food. Bengtsson, who will report regularly on his progress via Stockholm's TV8 channel and the station's Web site, acknowledged that his timetable would sometimes require that he pump during classes.

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Brazeau .........(tsk tsk tsk....)

Of course our favourite pretty boy would race to protect his man...it's not about THAT colonial practice. Geesh! Silly Indians..they just don't get "context".


Prime minister needs to apologize for colonialism denial: Native groups


By Jorge Barrera, Canwest News ServiceSeptember 30, 2009Comments (1)


Prime Minister Stephen Harper should apologize for saying Canada has "no history of colonialism," some First Nations leaders say. The prime minister made the statements during a news conference in Pittsburgh last Friday while talking about the virtues of Canada.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper should apologize for saying Canada has "no history of colonialism," some First Nations leaders say. The prime minister made the statements during a news conference in Pittsburgh last Friday while talking about the virtues of Canada.


Prime Minister Stephen Harper should apologize for saying Canada has "no history of colonialism," some First Nations leaders say.

The prime minister made the statements during a news conference in Pittsburgh last Friday while talking about the virtues of Canada.

"We also have no history of colonialism," said Harper during the G20 summit news conference in Pittsburgh. "So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them."

While there was no immediate reaction to the statement, the words stuck a nerve among some First Nations leaders who are now demanding the prime minister apologize. They said it contradicted Harper's apology for Indian residential schools and ignored Canada's origins as a colonial creation of the British and French. They also said the Indian Act and conditions on reserves are still living vestiges of Canada's colonial history with First Nations.

"It is not the truth. There should be a retraction for sure and an apology," said Ghislain Picard, grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador.

In a statement, Picard said: "Denying the history of colonialism in Canada is like denying the holocaust."

The Prime Minister's Office said the comments have been taken out of context and misunderstood.

"It was in response to a question from Reuters about Canada's voice and role in the international financial market. Basically, the prime minister was giving some context and saying that unlike past global empires, Canada does not have a history of colonialism with respect to the financial market," said spokeswoman Sara MacIntyre. "Past global empires have implemented policies that are colonial in nature. It was really focused on the international financial scene . . . I think it has been misunderstood and the prime minister stands behind his apology that was made last year."

Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, the former head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, also said the statement had been taken out of context.

"It is important to consider the context of (Harper's) comments last week," said Brazeau in a statement. "The prime minister sought to differentiate Canada's history with that of past global empires with histories of colonialism. (Harper's) apology for the tragedy of Indian residential schools last year clearly acknowledge the wrong doings and racist policies of Canada's past."

Canada's leading native organization, the Assembly of First Nations, the national arm, did not return requests for comment.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Ron Evans said he wanted to hear the AFN's new leader Shawn Atleo speak out about the issue. Evans said he was writing a letter to the prime minister about the matter.

"I am just shocked that someone would say something like that knowing the history of their own country," said Evans. "They tried to destroy a race of people."

Michael Cachagee, executive director of National Residential School Survivors Society, said the prime minister's statement undercut last year's seminal residential school apology.

"This man speaks with a forked tongue," said Cachagee. "He has mud on his face on this one. Colonial pie."

During the apology delivered last June, Harper never mentioned colonialism, but Evans referred to one passage he said offered a textbook example of colonialism.

Harper said: "Two primary objectives of the residential schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal."

With a file from Reuters

Here is Harper's full statement as quoted by Reuters:

"Canada remains in a very special place in the world . . . We are the one major developed country that no one thinks has any responsibility for this crisis . . . In fact, on the contrary, they look at our policies as a solution to the crisis. We're the one country in the room everybody would like to be . . . We're so self-effacing as Canadians that we sometimes forget the assets we do have that other people see . . . We are one of the most stable regimes in history . . . We are unique in that regard . . . We also have no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them."
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

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