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Nault's Governance Initiative

Former Toronto-area NDP MP Don (Dan) Heap and his wife Alice have been reading up on the Minister's new governance initiative. Looking, in particular at information provided by Abenaki activist Roger Obonsawin (get more information from him by sending an e-mail to:oigroup@oigroup.ca), Don has neatly summarized this project: "Trudeau's old Minister of Indian Affairs [Jean Chretien] intends, in his third term as un-elected king, to wipe out the Aboriginal peoples in Canada legislatively and reduce them all to Canadians with individual rights but almost no means to access them."

This initiative is supported by an aggressive and VERY sophisticated media strategy, and will be "in the bag" by September, if Minister Nault has his way. Attractive buzz words like accountability, democracy and responsible fiscal management are the cover for legislative changes primarily intended to make reserve communities better risks for private investors. This does NOT appear to be about improving quality of life, but rather to be about providing greater political stability with longer terms for elected officials, better accounting systems, etc. (just like there is in Ontario and Ottawa!?!). Paving the way for multinational resource industries hasn't worked to the advantage of other Third World Peoples. Will it work here? It could if the investors care about anything other than the bottom line, but we know they don't.

Look for Ottawa to use all its smoke-and-mirrors and divide-and-conquer techniques to move ahead this globalization initiative. Keep reading the fine print and between the lines to see if they will prove this prediction right or wrong. It says here that this so-called governance initiative will rapidly move First Nations from colonialism to the kind of post-modern-colonialism that can be evidenced today, for example, throughout the Caribbean: i.e. from the hunger and deprivation caused directly by colonial powers to those they cause by proxy, through their friends in business.

Mi'kmaq Fishing

Stand by!! It sounds like the lobster season will again bring choppy waters in the east. ARC Atlantic and Christian Peacemaker Teams are sending trained violence-reduction observers at the request of both the Esgennoopetitj (Burnt Church) and Indian Brook communities. TISG's own Robin Buyers, who is also Facilitator for the Coalition for a Public Inquiry into Ipperwash, will be there as an invited observer in mid-August, so we'll all be getting firsthand reports from her. Be prepared to again send letters, cards, bodies and cheques to help with this important campaign for recognition of the treaty and resource rights of the Mi'kmaq and other nearby First Peoples.

To get information directly from Burnt Church/Esgenoopetitj, send e-mail to: miigkis@nbnet.nb.ca. More information on CPT can be found by visiting CPTnet. If you want to get some information from down there about travel, and how to support, from a longtime TISG supporter, send e-mail to: willi@web.net.

Aboriginal Rights Coalition

Up 'til now, the national Aboriginal Rights Coalition has benefited from funding from Canada's major churches, but it has functioned fairly autonomously from Church mandates. Networking for and with Aboriginal and community partners, it has brought energy and prominence to important Aboriginal Rights issues. Some of the campaigns that ARC has taken up include: the Lubicon land negotiations, the struggles of the Innu Peoples, support for the fishing rights of the Mi'kmaq Peoples, the long legal battle of Delgamuukw, the fight for a public inquiry into Ipperwash, and much more. Currently the major funding partners of ARC (Roman Catholic Bishops and religious organizations, as well as United, Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and other Protestant denominations) have decided that it is more economical and will better address their policy needs to bring all the inter-church coalitions together under one umbrella board, which they have named "Canadian Churches for Justice and Peace" (CCJP). Affected organizations include inter-church groups that have been working for many years on human rights in Latin America, Asia and Africa, as well as refugee issues, corporate 'responsibility' and ethics concerns, etc. There is some recognition that ARC is a different kind of coalition from the others... but it is not yet clear how much of ARC's autonomy will be lost in the process of this amalgamation. As an activist network member group, which is NOT affiliated with any Christian or other faith group, TISG has endorsed a letter to the new CCJP Board asking that they take into account many concerns that we have about these proposed changes.

Gathering Women's Voices for the WCAR

The GTV Circle of Women met in late June to develop a format for the report that Spokeswoman Darlene Ritchie will take to South Africa for the World Conference Against Racism at the end of August 2001. This report will be released in the community and then to the media prior to the conference. It chronicles issues, examples and ways to address the racism experienced by Indigenous women in Canada, and sets these points in an historical and cultural context which points directly to both causes and means of resolution. For further information on this topic, contact Darlene by e-mail: atlohsa@on.aibn.com or Bev, e-mail: bearclan@netcom.ca

Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DDRIP)

As previously announced by TISG, Montreal-based Rights & Democracy, the international human rights organization headed by Warren Allmand, has decided that their project for the World Conference Against Racism is to gather political support for the in Canada for the DDRIP. Many people in the TISG network have already responded to our request to endorse the open letter by Rights & Democracy on the DDRIP. If you haven't yet done so, you can find information about their campaign and how you can join it on their website, URL: http://www.ichrdd.ca or by emailing Marie St. Louis, mstlouis@ichrdd.ca

Coalition for the Advancement of Aboriginal Studies

A relatively new national organization, the CAAS is focussed on improving what is taught about Aboriginal Peoples in Canadian classrooms. The need for this is known to all Aboriginal persons and what stated repeatedly in the RCAP report. The CAAS welcomes anyone interested in education - academics, anti-racism activists, classroom teachers, parents, Elders, traditional teachers, and more to its mixed network of Aboriginal and Canadian [Newcomer] members. Your support can be useful to this new group in many ways. Check out their website, which is loaded with links and resources, including direct access to professional development supports for teachers, URL: http://www.yorku.edu.ca/caas. In particular, CAAS can use your help with administering their Student Awareness Survey (find out more on their site). You can email their Summer Coordinator, Anika Altiman, e-mail: caas@edu.yorku.ca.