Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak has told AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo that his province’s chiefs are unanimously opposed to the AFN’s dealings with the Harper government on treaties.
“Chiefs of Manitoba have been very clear that our treaties cannot be negotiated away behind closed doors at high-level tables in Ottawa,” Nepinak wrote in a letter to Atleo on Wednesday.
Nepinak has been a leading advocate for a new National Treaty Alliance, arguing the Ottawa-based AFN has made little progress pressuring the federal government into honouring treaties signed long ago between First Nations and the Crown.
His letter to Atleo is a precursor to next week’s gathering of treaty nations at Onion Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan, which will partly focus on forming the new alliance.
The meeting is the same week as the AFN’s annual general assembly, which runs Wednesday to Friday in Whitehorse, meaning some chiefs will have to choose which to attend. It’s unclear who scheduled their meeting first, but Nepinak has said he advocated against changing the treaty gathering dates because it creates a chance for people to see “what platform their leadership are going to stand on.”
In his letter to Atleo, Nepinak says Manitoba chiefs believe “the AFN does not have the authority to carry out any activity on the alleged ‘implementation’ or ‘enforcement’ of treaty obligations,” and they oppose the AFN’s creation of a chiefs taskforce to work toward negotiations with the government.
“Negotiations at the highest level should not be between AFN and Canada but with the treaty holders and the Government of Canada, according to historical protocols,” he wrote. The Manitoba chiefs unanimously passed a resolution on the matter at its annual general assembly.
A commitment to high-level treaty implementation talks was a major outcome of a Jan. 11 meeting between First Nations leaders and Prime Minister Stephen Harper which took place at the height of the indigenous grassroots Idle No More movement.
Nepinak was a prominent voice among chiefs from several provinces who opposed that meeting, siding with then-hunger striking Chief Theresa Spence’s demand that both Harper and Gov. Gen. David Johnston be present. The Governor General later met with chiefs in a separate ceremony.
Atleo said last week that groups such as the Treaty Alliance shouldn’t be seen as threats; that he has attended treaty gatherings in the past and welcomes every effort to advocate for the rights of First Nations.
In a letter responding to Nepinak on Thursday, Atleo said he agrees with the Manitoba chiefs, and that the AFN “has always maintained and continues to maintain that any discussions on treaty must be treaty-by-treaty and nation-by-nation.” The AFN’s role, he said, is to support treaty nations in their efforts.
But others, such as Chief Isadore Day of Serpent River First Nation, who plans to attend the Onion Lake gathering, say even that is going too far.
“When the National Chief proceeded with the Jan. 11 meeting it really put into question the level of authority that the AFN was assuming around the treaty discussion,” he said. “People are saying the AFN is relevant in some areas, but on the issue of treaty the line had to be drawn.”
The AFN’s approach turns treaty talks into a “policy discussion,” which betrays the nation-to-nation approach, Day said. The AFN should take a “complete hands-off approach” and “not even try to coordinate or be a matchmaker,” he said.
Saskatchewan Regional Chief Perry Bellegarde, the AFN’s point person on treaty implementation, plans to attend both meetings. At Onion Lake, he will present some of his ideas for rethinking the treaty relationship, including a “national treaty commissioner” who reports to Parliament.
Bellegarde said there’s room for the AFN, the treaty alliance and other groups to work together to help open doors so treaty chiefs can meet with the Crown on a nation-to-nation basis.
“As leaders, we’ve got to avoid the acrimony and divisiveness amongst ourselves and stand shoulder to shoulder,” he said. “We should be directing our energies towards government.”
Bellegarde said he has sought clarity from the Harper government on what the mandate and authority of a proposed senior oversight committee on treaty implementation would be.
“Of course there’s frustration. But to deal with these things it’s not going to happen overnight,” he said.
Nepinak says the Onion Lake gathering isn’t about creating a split between AFN chiefs and a treaty alliance, and he has always refrained from criticizing Atleo personally. But he has also said the AFN, which relies on the federal government for about half of its budget, is structurally unable to manage individual treaty negotiations.
“Every dime that runs that organization is at the goodwill of bureaucrats and the Minister of Indian Affairs,” Nepinak said.
Last month, the federal government dealt a surprise 30 per cent cut to the AFN’s project funding.
“It’s very easy to negotiate with a thirsty man if you’re going to offer him water,” Day said. “That’s the situation that has played out; even more so now that the AFN is being gutted of its core funding. It’s quite clear that the concessions that have been made by this National Chief have essentially come back to bite him.”
Bellegarde acknowledged that the AFN will need to find alternate sources of funding.
“You can’t be a strong lobby organization when you’re dependent on government money. So we’ll look at that,” he said.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Michael Woods
No comments:
Post a Comment