And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 08:03:05 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: SCRAP INDIAN ACT
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Saturday, September 11, 1999
Senators want special court for aboriginals
Scrap Indian Act, report recommends
Rick Mofina
Southam News
OTTAWA - A confidential report being drafted by the Standing Committee on Aboriginal
Peoples recommends the creation of a new aboriginal court with powers equal to a
federal court and guided by aboriginal culture and tradition.
The draft report, to be tabled in the Senate by the end of November, also recommends
that the powers of the Department of Indian Affairs be dramatically reduced and the
Indian Act be abolished.
Established by the Senate in December, 1997, to examine and respond to the report of
the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples from the previous year, the committee's
study encompasses testimony from some 40 groups in public hearings that began last
November and concluded in June.
The Senate committee, chaired by Liberal Senator Charlie Watt, is prohibited from
commenting on the study, which fine-tunes scores of studies and reports that have
preceded it.
Excerpts of the committee's recommendations obtained by Southam News call for the
relationship between aboriginal people and the federal government to be radically
rebuilt.
They urge the creation of new government bodies and the near destruction of existing
ones.
They also call for a new special judiciary with justices appointed by Ottawa similar
to the way Supreme Court justices are appointed but with the additional approval of
aboriginals and representative bodies.
"The committee recommends that the government of Canada create an Aboriginal and
Treaty Rights Court of Canada," states the draft. The role of this specialized court
would be to adjudicate cases of aboriginal, and treaty rights' issues arising from
existing federal law, treaties, self-government and other agreements.
The new court would have powers equal to federal criminal trial court, and be composed
of judges appointed by the federal cabinet.
"In all its proceedings and operations, the court must consider aboriginal customary
law, perspectives, culture and traditions," the draft says.
Tom Bressette, a vice-chief with the Assembly of First Nations said, "There should be
a different court because they [whites] are over-represented in the current judicial
system."
Mr. Bressette said the committee's recommendations were "a step in the right
direction" but that they did not go far enough.
On treaty issues, many native people do not trust the current justice system and are
fearful of taking their issue into a courtroom. "It would be like Canada going to the
U.S. to defend its rights."
There is no question the treaty rights of aboriginal people have to be respected by
the Canadian government, but there is no need to establish a second specialized system
to do it, said Mike Scott, Reform's native affairs critic.
"The expansion of those treaty rights is not going to be beneficial for aboriginal
people in the long run," Mr. Scott said yesterday. "And setting up special courts or
bodies seems sort of patronizing with the tacit suggestion that the current systems
are not working, or are not fair. "
Mr. Scott said the successful negotiations of recent treaties in British Columbia are
a good indication the system is working.
Still, the idea of a new court specializing in aboriginal issues is long overdue, said
David Nahwegahbow, president of the Indigenous Bar Association, which represents some
450 aboriginal lawyers across Canada.
"One of the problems when we go into the regular court system is you have judges there
who are not that knowledgeable about aboriginal legal issues and also not sensitive
about the unique aspects of aboriginal people -- culturally or otherwise," he said.
In addition, the Senate committee calls for the death of the Indian Act. Passed in
1876, giving Ottawa responsibility for Indians and Indian lands, the act is based on
policies developed in the 1800s and remains largely unchanged.
The committee also wants the Department of Indian Affairs to be reduced to a
department that administers services, removing its powers of treaty negotiation and
implementation, which members of the committee regard as a conflict of interest.
In its place, "the committee recommends that legislation in the form of a Treaty
Implementation Act be introduced by the government of Canada for the purposes of
providing a statutory framework to guide new relationships with aboriginal peoples."
The new law would be subject to review every 10 years, to determine whether amendments
are required. The Treaty Implementation Act would also include a Treaty and Aboriginal
Rights Implementation Review Office, to "act as an oversight body for relationships
involving aboriginal peoples and the government of Canada."
The committee also recommends that the office be given a broad mandate to handle "new
political relationships in a manner which promotes, respects and upholds the
aboriginal treaty rights of aboriginal peoples, the honour of the Crown, and the
spirit and intent, as well as the terms and provisions of treaties, self-government
and related agreements."
Robert Nault, the Indian Affairs Minister, could not offer his opinion on the
recommendations. "Unfortunately, the minister cannot comment on a draft document," a
spokesman said.
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine
of international copyright law.
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http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE
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