Trip offers’a glimpse
of the struggle from

northern Saskatchewan

I recently had the chance to return
to my home province of Saskatche-
wan on a tour sponsored by suppor-
ters of the Tribune. I was asked to
speak on the struggle for aboriginal
rights in this country and I did so at
several events. But I suspect the trip
was far more a learning process for
me than a chance for a communist
journalist to impart what knowledge
he has gathered over the past few
years. ee

It was an opportunity to visit my
mother’s reserve, to see family rela-
tives, reacquaint myself with the See-
seequasis clan, or extended family if
you will, and to try and regain a pers-
pective that often gets lost when writ-
ing from an editorial office in an
urban centre 2,000 kilometres away.

But most of all it presented the
priceless experience of meeting abo-
riginal activists and leaders who are
directly involved in the day-to-day
struggle for aboriginal self-determina-
tion and justice.

One of those people was Keith
Goulet, an aboriginal MLA who
represents the northern Saskatche-
wan riding of Cumberland for the
NDP. Over coffee he gave me an edu-
cation about the politics and social

Devine budget: “What the people (of
northern Sask.) are saying is that we
have experience with privatization
already ... We hope that the people
of southern Saskatchewan hear our
story at a time when the government
is giving away our assets; at a time
when this government is throwing
away our jobs; at a time when our
government is giving away our
forests; at a time when the govern-
ment is giving away our mines ....
We will lose our land; we will lose
everything ... we want to work but
even that the government is taking
away.”

Prince Albert is called the “Gate-
way to the North.” It is a city of only
40,000 yet it has three large jails —
two for men, one for women. These
prisons are filled with Native people
— aboriginal incarceration being
part of the Tories’ “revitalization” of
the North.

In Prince Albert I met more abo-
riginal activists. Women like Priscilla
Settee and Vicki Wilson who are
involved in the struggle for aboriginal
women’s rights — both inside and
outside of the aboriginal community.
It is a struggle that has at times put
them into conflict with an entrenched

rte

Paul Ogresko

reality facing aboriginal people in
northern Saskatchewan. I heard
about communities which less than
two decades ago were healthy, self-
sufficient, and where everyone worked
by hunting, trapping, fishing or in
some other way earned a living off
the land. Now they have been turned
into northern ghettoes where unem-
ployment reaches 95 per cent and the
chief source of income is welfare.

Fruits, gas, vegetables and other
essentials are exorbitantly priced
while the Devine government subsid-
izes the cost of alcohol. Booze and
substance abuse are tearing the heart
out of whole communities while pri-
sons are becoming the north’s grea-
test growth industry.

While the Tory government resists
recognition of 1.5 million acres of
aboriginal land entitlement, it gives
Weyerhaeuser, the American corpo-
rate pulp and paper giant, 12.5 mil-
lion acres of northern Saskatchewan
land. And the same hand-outs are
going to the uranium companies, the
diamond companies, the mineral
extracting corporations, whether they
are American, Japanese or South
African. The bucks flow out while the
communities get poorer.

What’s taking place in northern
Saskatchewan bears a lesson for us all
in this free trade climate or as Goulet
put it in his response to the recent

COMMENTARY

male Native leadership that draws
privilege from internal sexism and the
parameters put in place by the Indian
Affairs-imposed system.

I felt encouraged when I was taken
to aboriginal schools where a new
generation of Indian and Metis youth
are learning skills that will enable
them to help their communities but I
also felt anger thinking of the thou-
sands of other students who will be
denied this opportunity because of
the recent federal cuts. In Regina I
met a young Native man, formerly a
drug addict, who is now working at a
self-help centre for Native street kids,
helping them cope with life on the
streets and instilling in them a sense
of pride about being aboriginal.

As my plane left Saskatchewan I
already felt anticipation about going
back. There is much more to see and
do. In particular the North, which
has become a kind of third world
exploited by the corporations and
ignored by the mass media, needs
coverage in the Tribune. Financially
the Tribune cannot compete with the
corporate dailies but by being billeted
with readers, sleeping in tents or in
hostels, corners can be cut. Finally, as
a journalist covering aboriginal
issues, it struck home how much
more I have to learn and the knowl-
edge given by the supporters I: met
was a priceless education.

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Four hundred people, including dozens of celebrities, community leaders and
politicians, gathered in Toronto's historic St. Lawrence Centre, May 11,-to
welcome the new Canadian representative of the African National Congress,
Peter Mahlangu. Among the many welcoming Mahlangu in his new post were
Gordon Peters, Ontario leader of the Assembly of First Nations, Wendy
Brathwaite, a U of T student on behalf of youth, Gord Wilson, Ontario
Federation of Labour leader, Lois Wilson of the World Council of Churches and
former UN ambassador Stephen Lewis.

Filmon in spotlight
over Meech hearings

Confrontation and anger highlighted
three weeks of Manitoba public hearings on
the Meech Lake Accord. It wasn’t the sce-
nario expected by Premier Gary Filmon
when he called the hearings, following the
withdrawal of his support for the accord last

WANE ervneee naneeeigummememmenahimamenies

Meech Lake has followed a rocky road in
Manitoba. Initially endorsed by the New
Democratic government of Howard Paw-
ley following its introduction in June 1987,
it was also backed by the then Tory opposi-
tion headed by Filmon. But the NDP’s
defeat, coupled with the unprecedented rise
of the defunct Liberal Party on an anti-
Meech platform, put the amendment in
jeopardy.

Filmon subsequently turned his back on
the accord following the Quebec govern-
ment’s use of the notwithstanding clause to
protect its language laws. His righteous
indignation rang hollow given the vicious
attack led by the Tories against an NDP bill
giving minimal language and cultural gua-
rantees to Franco-Manitobans.

Under pressure from his caucus to
denounce the accord, Filmon seized the
Quebec events to split with the federal
party. He hoped to utilize the rise of anti-
Quebec, anti-French sentiment generated
by Quebec’s response to the Supreme Court
decision striking down its “French only”
commercial sign law. But he also saw an
opportunity to capitalize on legitimate anti-
Meech sentiment coming from women’s,

‘ immigrant and Native people whose rights

were ignored or over-ridden by the amend-
ment.

It was a public relations failure. While
criticisms of Quebec did surface. Over-
whelmingly the record number of briefs
called for Meech Lake to be improved to
meet the needs the ignored constituents, or
scrapped. Central to the criticisms was the
undemocratic process which brought the
accord into being.

In the tradition of backroom politics, 11
men sat in a room where no women, Native
people, visible minorities, northerners or
disabled people were present and used the
desires and aspirations of the people of
Quebec to barter an increase in power for all
provincial government at the expense of
social programs and future constitutional
changes.

It was in this setting that Chief Louis
Stephenson, provincial leader of the
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs addressed
the legislative committee on the final day of
hearings.

Stephenson called the Meech Lake

~ Accord.‘an insult anda betrayal of the First

Nations.” :

The accord followed on the heels on a
failed Aboriginal Constitutional Confer-
ence in March of the same year. The main
reason the conference ended was because
some of the first ministers could not accept
the idea of Indian self-government, calling it
too undefined and vague.

“Canada must come to terms with the
First Nations of this land,” Stephenson
stressed. “We must bury the myth that the
French and English are the two founding
nations of Canada. The Anishnaabe, the
Indian People, must be accorded the recog-
nition that they are the original owners of
this country and in fact the first founding
nation.

“Our rightful place and relationship to
this land must be recognized, respected and
protected in the Canadian constitution.”

Stephenson’s submission highlighted the
frustration Native leaders confront as suc-
cessive governments, federal and provincial,
ignore or purposely undermine treaty
agreements and obligations.

For Native people, Meech poses a partic-
ular threat since it sees transferring federal
cost sharing programs to the provinces. The
legal obligation of the federal government
to provide programs to Native peoples
under treaty arrangements could thereby be
voided.

Stephenson called for a series of amend-
ments to Meech involving the “explicit
recognition of the right to self-government
and self-determination for First Nations in
the accord.”

He called for recognition of Indian peo-
ples as a “distinct society,” ensuring the
preservation and protection of Native land,
language, culture, religion, lifestyle and her-
itage.-

Proposed amendments also included a
Native appointment to the Supreme Court
of Canada, guaranteed representation of
First Nations in the Canadian Senate and a
place for First Nation participation in all
constitutional and First Minister Conferen-
ces.

Pacific Tribune, May 22, 1989 « 7