Anti-FNGA rhetoric reaches fevered pitch

Legislation's opponents continue to dodge accountability issue

By Len Kruzenga

Ottawa, Ont - Approximately 1500 people massed on Parliament Hill late last month to press their opposition to the federal government's proposed First Nations Governance Act.

Part of the highly touted anti-FNGA caravan that first nations political organizations and their leaders had organized over the previous several months to bring national attention to first nations' opposition to INAC minister Robert Nault and Bill C-7, the demonstrators wasted little time in hammering home their message.

The contentious bill would require 600 Native bands to develop codes to spell out how they choose their leaders, run their governments and spend their money. Bands would be allowed to develop their own laws in these three areas so long as they met certain minimum standards set out by the federal government. If after two years bands failed to develop their own codes, the federal government could impose default rules.

Union Of B.C Indian Chief's Stewart Phillip, who headed the western contingent of the caravan, said support for the protest was energizing.

"It's been an incredibly exciting experience and the way we were received indicates to us the grassroots people value what we're doing and they understand the need for our communities to mobilize...this caravan symbolizes the re-awakening of the spirit of our people."

And Phillip reminded the crowd that "once again we're forced to take our message to Parliament Hill because the government of Canada is violating our inherent aboriginal treaty rights and attempting to 'municipalize' our communities which we find totally unacceptable.

"We all need to understand that the future of our children and our grandchildren is in jeopardy and we need to give physical expression to our opposition to this legislation that seeks to terminate and extinguish our rights...It's time for our people to rise up and take political action such as rallies and caravans to show we are vehemently opposed to what the government of Canada is attempting to do to our people."
However the protest failed to capture sustained media attention and did little to budge the government's position on the legislation.

Although conceding the right to protest for those opposed to the legislation, INAC Minister Robert Nault said such protests had become "passé."

Other members of the protest caravan, including Southern Chief's Organization leader Grand Chief Margaret Swan and her entourage attempted to disrupt the Commons Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, which was conducting further review of the bill.
And the Assembly of First Nations held a Special Confederacy meeting at the Marriott Hotel in Ottawa to formulate more opposition strategy.

AFN leader Matthew Coon Come as well as others prominent chiefs, including Six Nations Chief Roberta Jamieson warned of the potential for widespread civil disobedience and violence if the bill was not withdrawn.

"It's not something we want or wish," said Coon Come. "But the people's frustration with this government is starting to boil over and I can't control what may happen."
And the AFN published has an analysis of the presentations made to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, concluding that the presentations were overwhelmingly against the legislation.

"Our message is that there should not be federal legislation without consent," said Russell Diabo, of the Assembly of First Nations Implementation Committee (AFNIC). "The government is trying to manipulate that they did consult and that there is consent. But, this is not the case."

Diabo said that of all the witnesses who went before the SCAA, " 191 witnesses opposed C-7 and 10 were in support, the Minister being one of them."

But the failure by the AFN to even admit there is any support for the proposed legislation was best typified by an April 30th appearance by the National Chief on CBC Newsworld's Counter Spin program.

During the segment Coon Come was visibly angered by contentions made by Congress of Aboriginal Peoples leader Dwight Dorey and Drum columnist Don Sandberg that the legislation would increase accountability from band councils.
"Our first nations are already accountable. Ninety-seven percent of our first nations comply with the reporting requirements that the government imposes," huffed Coon Come.

Sandberg, when pressed to provide examples of the accountability grassroots first nations people were hoping to realize under the new legislation came up with several scenarios only to have them ignored by the AFN leader or dismissed out of hand by anti-FNGA panelist Patricia Montour.

"It was a dismal display by Coon Come and Montour," said April Okemah, who watched the show along with several other urban first nations people at her home.
"Coon Come and Montour are part of the first nations elite and can't admit to themselves or the Canadian public that most of their people are suffering and disadvantaged not only because of federal policies and our history but by our own supposed leader who have a standard of living not only beyond their own people but the majority of ordinary Canadians as well.

"When John Corbiere was fighting for his rights was the AFN or any of the so-called mainstream first nations leadership or groups behind him? No, they weren't, because there interests weren't at stake. CAP was there and so were ordinary people who have been abused by their own leaders.

"Listening to Coon Come and Montour speak you'd think that this happened rarely."
"Its moral dishonesty," chided William Moose, who says his Ontario band refuses to provide him with even basic information he's requested over the years. "Excuses is all we hear and blame. Blame the "colonizers blame everything and everyone else instead of doing something. I think most Canadians understand and believe we have special rights and would be willing to support them but if all our leaders can do is take a stick and poke them in the eye and say 'you are evil, you are bad' then of course mainstream Canada is not going to go with that. Isn't that what they told our people in residential school and look at where that led to.

"Our leaders are making the rest of Canada angry with the incessant complaining and blaming and they are making their own people angry because we know what hypocrites most of them are. I don't trust the government but I distrust the chiefs and the AFN and our supposed academic even more because they've grabbed the dollars and the prestige and the status by literally running over their own people to get it, " said Moose

Twenty-nine-year-old Ryan Bone says the debate on the program only served to reinforce his conviction that the chiefs are desperate to cling to the old act which has provided them with carte-blanche powers for decades.

"Anything that will make them accountable to the people and impose sanctions if they aren't absolutely terrifies them."

with files from Dan Smoke - ASAYENES (NNNC)