Canada

George. Erasmus is the leader of the
Assembly of First Nations, the aboriginal
organization representing some 400,000 sta-
tus Indians from 575 first nations across the
country. He spoke with the Tribune’s Paul
Ogresko about current issues facing aborigi-
nal people in this country: federal government
— aboriginal relations; Meech Lake from the
aboriginal perspective; and roadblocks in the
path towards self-determination.

2 How would you assess current rela-
ations between the Assembly of First
Nations and the federal government?

= There are not a lot of positive signs.

» We need major radical things to
occur before we could even say things are
improving. For example, in the constitu-
tional process (to entrench aboriginal right
to self-determination in the Canadian Con-
stitution), we just had a meeting with Lowell
Murray (minister of state), Pierre Cadieux,
(Indian affairs minister) and Doug Lewis,
(minister of justice), and the Native organi-
zations. .

First, this meeting was a year late in
occurring on the federal side and second, in
terms of talking with the provinces about
establishing a climate for constitutional
process on. aboriginal matters — they
hadn’t carried that out at all. There is a need
for work to be done, to look at options, to
look for models of self-government that
would work and the need for resources and
dialogue in this area, but it’s been a com-
plete desert in the last two and a half years.
There have been no discussions at
all — nothing — and there’s no potential
for the climate to change.

The only conclusion we can draw is that
what the prime minister means when he
says we will meet when the “climate is right”
is he seems to be waiting for us to concede
everything and say “we'll accept anything

the first ministers will give us in the area of

self-government.”

Oo , And policy-wise?
-

Awe you look at what they are
» doing in education — capping fund-
ing — making untrue statements that treaty
rights do not include post secondary educa-
tion funding, then promising a process, like
this past summer when, at the end of the
(student demonstrations), Cadieux came to
the national assembly of chiefs and prom-
ised a process that if the demonstrations
ended we could sit down and talk about
education rights.

It seems they made promises just to end
the demonstrations but that the actual
mechanism needed to resolve the issue on a
long term basis is not being delivered.

2 The question of Meech Lake is very

= much in the news these days. There
must be a certain level of frustration among
aboriginal organizations about their total
exclusion from this process?

a Yes, very much. We have been encou-
» raging people who are pushing for
changes — including amendments that
would allow for much easier creation of
provinces in the North and the recognition

of first nations as a distinct and fundamen- —

tal characteristic of Canada.

(The AFN) wants a direct relationship
with the federal government, we don’t want
to lose our power to the provinces. In some
cases, we want to be regarded as the equi-
valent of provinces. In the United States
that model is already becoming more and
more a reality (between AmerIndian
nations and the U.S. government).

. In what direction is the federal
» government going here?

« Lhe tendency for the federal govern-
= ment over the past six years has been

‘Meech Lake threat to Native rights’

to hand over federal responsibility for indi-
genous peoples to the provinces. You have a
situation where provinces will be able to opt
out of federal programs and for aboriginals
that is very scary and going in the opposite
direction of aboriginal self-government.

We argue for a strong federal govern-
ment that has the capacity to have a direct
relationship with first nations.

Finally, there has to be a constitutional
process to deal with aboriginal peoples. But
it’s very frustrating not to be considered a
primary player and to continue to listen to
this debate between French and English-
speaking Canada as if we don’t exist.

It’s hard for me to believe that the Cana-
dian consciousness has got to the point
where they either don’t recognize indigen-
ous people anymore or we are just part of
the landscape, the wilderness out there.

= How do you feel about incidents like
« the raids in Quebec, the dismantling of
the Lubicon blockade, Temagami, the arrest
of the Innu, things like this across the country?

2 Lhose actions, that kind of lack of

= respect and sensitivity, is a result of
people’s hatred, and I don’t think that’s too
harsh a word, towards aboriginal people.
What any of the inquiries showed, whether
they are in Manitoba, Alberta, or Nova
Scotia — that the reality is that there is
both fear and hatred for the Canadian jus-
tice system and what it represents.

2 And what about the creation of the

» “Woodland Cree Band” (a band
created by the federal government from dis-
senters who disagree with the Lubicon Cree
and Bernard Ominayak)?

What Canada is now
doing is setting up
the mechanism to
sell off our energy
resources as quick
as possible — and
they are non-
renewable. I think it
is very short-sighted
for the country. The
oil and gas

resources in the
North are a non-
renewable wealth.

negotiating with a
gun to their heads.

2 | see that as an incredible act on the
= government’s part, where once again
you see a government abusing its responsi-
bilities. Here you have a situation where an
opposition group is being created and
funded by the federal government to delib-

_ erately undermine an existing community

that has very clear territory and a very

clearly defined people.

The federal government is bringing indi-

’ viduals together, they are giving preference

to people being reinstated through the C-31
process (due to changes in the Indian Act)
when you have people who have been wait-
ing for their status for years and their abo-
riginal rights have been put on hold.

It’s the same thing as the U.S. govern-
ment funding the contras to fight and
undermine the Sandinista government. Vir-
tually, that is the situation you have here.
It’s divide and conquer. The people that are
involved in the Woodland Cree Band have
said they’ll accept the first offer the federal
government provides them — that’s their
mandate and that’s exactly what they are
supposed to do.

» There has been renewed talk of the

s Mackenzie Valley pipeline project and
the export of natural gas and oil to the U.S.
What are the ramifications of this for the
Dene and Metis in the North?

2 Without a settlement of the land

P= « Claims there is going to be a further
undermining of the aboriginal people. Eco-
nomically they will be excluded from the
benefits of any development, the communi-
ties will be pushed aside. What the pipeline
is going to do is open up a section of the
Northwest Territories that has never been

— George Erasmus

opened up before — once again for outside
people to make money on — principally to
sell to the United States.

Right now energy prices are very
low — gas prices are going to have to triple
before they make any money — (the com-
panies) know that so they must believe there
is an energy crunch coming within the next
decade.

Once again we are going to have to con-
sider here are our own needs. What Canada
is now doing is setting up the mechanism to
sell off our energy resources as quick as
possible — and they are non-renewable. I
think it is very short-sighted for the country.
The oil and gas resources in the North area
non-renewable wealth.

It’s going to compromise indigenous
people once again — they are going to be
negotiating with a gun to their heads.

2 And what about the clash of
= values — the human cost of sudden
development?

2 It’s exactly the same thing as the

« Innu. Recently the Canadian military
establishment made a statement that the
low-level flights over the Innu are not going
to harm anybody and they increase them by
40,000 flights a year. That’s ridiculous but
they can’t sell that anywhere else in the
world.

So they are trying to do to Canadian
indigenous people what they can’t do to
European NATO allies.

Likewise, the same thing for the Dene
and Metis. What is going to happen is they
are going to suffer the social damage, they
are going to have the traditional community
and the tranquility of the North further
disrupted. The fragile social structures that
we have, that have been under stress many,
many times before, are going to be further
pressured — you’re going to have more
suicides, more alcoholics, more neglected
children and the benefits will be very min-
imal. There may be the odd individual that
may accumulate some wealth but the over-
whelming majority of indigenous people in
the North are not going to benefit but they
will suffer the consequences.

« There have been cutbacks due to the

a free trade climate. Do you see the
votential for a developing coalition response
to government policies?

» Lhe networks will continue to grow,
« I think solidarity will develop. But if
you look overall — companies are going
down every day across the country, labour
is getting it in the ear. Then you tie in free
trade with the central bank’s plans to keep
interest rates so high, the theory they have
that full employment is at eight per cent and
right now the unemployment rate is offi-
cially 7.2 so we have another full point to go.
That’s what we are fighting right now
and it’s going to take some time.

.» And your response to Columbus
s — the celebrations of 500 years of
“discovery”?

A It wouldn’t hurt for people in North
« America and around the world to
realize who this guy really was. He was
instrumental in bringing the slave trade to
the new world — he was a slave trader
himself — he was responsible for the the
destruction of millions of indigenous peo-

‘ ple.

We need to educate people. We need to
get curriculum material into the schools and
universities that, once and for all, tells the
true history of what has happened since
Columbus — the litany of injustices that
have been inflicted on Canada’s original
people — and all aboriginal people.

Most Canadians still don’t know the first
thing about Canada’s original people and
that is an ignorance about what Canada is
that needs to be addressed.

Pacific Tribune, November 27, 1989 e 7

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