By Clint Buehler

EDMONTON – The discovery of human remains has halted the extension of this city’s light rail transit (LRT) lines after Native activists intervened.

When the remains were first found, city officials claimed the remains were “historical,” and said there was no reason to halt work on the line.

But Native activists protested.

Gerald Delorme, a 48-yeart-old Cree, said that the bones probably belonged to one of his ancestors, and charged that authorities have a moral obligation to determine if any other bodies are buried in the area before continuing with their multi-million dollar transit project.

He said he wanted the area fully investigated. “Why do our ancestors have to have roads built over them, why do they have to have power plants built over them?”

Initially, the city said that construction would resume.

A day later, the city relented and halted construction until an archeologist can be hired to supervise the work. That news was met with relief by Joyce Bruneau, a councillor with the Papaschase First Nation, which claims the area and much of southwest Edmonton as its historical land. She also fears that the remains may belong to one of their ancestors.

Papaschase descendants claim the federal government forced the band to dissolve through a series of manoeuvres beginning in 1880, mostly by making them members of other bands with reserves of their own.

Bruneau says genealogical studies show there may be more than 5,000 direct living descendants of the original Papaschase. Those descendants go before the Supreme Court of Canada in February to fight for compensation and a new reserve outside of the city. “Because there may be other bodies around, they should be very careful when they’re excavating,” Bruneau says.

In announcing the stoppage of construction, Wayne Mandryk, the city’s transit projects manager, said they are “erring on the side of caution so that, should any further remains be discovered, they will be handled with dignity. Regardless of the ancestry of these remains, the city is respectful of the history and meaning of the area,” Mandryk said.

The stoppage will be restricted to the area where the remains were found and will be under the scrutiny of an archeologist. Mandryk says crews will be careful not to remove any more earth than necessary, and the first six feet of excavation will be closely monitored by the archeologist.

The situation is reminiscent of the discovery of graves with both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal remains during road construction a few years ago in the city’s Rossdale Flats area in the midst of the city.

After numerous protests by Aboriginal activists and lengthy negotiations with the city, the road was rerouted around the site, the remains were reburied, and the city agreed to erect a $1.5 million monument to those buried there which is not yet fully completed.

By Bernie Bates

How time flies – another three hundred and sixty four in the books.? Bang, pow, poof … this last year disappeared faster than a fart in a wind storm.? Some of us had a disappointing year, some had a banner year – that’s life.? But, for yours truly, the part that really gets to me is: Bad things happen to good, kindhearted, hard working people.? And good things happen to the round, brown holes, who profit from society – like a tick on a dog.

Call me (or email my editor) a nut, but I think I’ve come up with a solution to all of societies problems.? Looking back into Native history – we where led by strong, fearless, warriors who protected our homes and families.? And they where counseled by wise, experienced and revered Elders.? If you reflect on why this ancient system worked back then, you’ll realize, it could work just as well in this millennium.? Two thinks are, and will always remain the same: “Our youth and the elderly need each other.”? Most Elders in our society have something that teenagers need: patience and wisdom.? Which works out great, because most teenagers have none.? And to be fair, teenagers have something most elders don’t have: strength and fearlessness.

Back in the day of bow and arrow – Natives had to think of the ‘greater good.’? Everyone had to pull their own weight, utilize their strengths and help each other to overcome life’s adversities.? For instance, if a big, blood-thirsty bear came into the camp, you didn’t trip an Elder and run like hell.? No, of course not, it was up to the brave, the strong and the swift to protect the circle of life.????

…. NEWS FLASH: We interrupt this column, to give you an up date on another bombing, another murder and another home invasion!? I thought that? last few years were bad, and that it couldn’t be topped, but it was.? What can we, as every day human beings, do?? If I may suggest something: “Let’s form a club, with real clubs!”? And the next time some ignorant fool breaks into some poor Elder’s house, our ‘club’ can hand out some swift brutal justice!? Who’s with me?? Dream on … I’ll tell you what will happen, we’ll be saying the same thing next year: “Wow, was that a bad year; violence, war, hunger, I hope next year is better.”??

It’s said: “A coward dies many deaths, whereas, the brave die but once.”? Are we, as a society, becoming so fragmented, so individualized, that we could care less what happens to a person in another town?? How about someone down the street?? Maybe, next door or even within your own family?? Where do we finally draw the line?

When we hear of an injustice, we cry out to law enforcement: “Please, serve and protect!”? And then in the next breath we proclaim publicly for; tempered justice, cruel and unusual punishment … “Have pity!”? When I was a kid I knew four big words: Telephone, television, elephant-shit and consequence.? I couldn’t spell any of them, but I knew what they meant.? A telephone meant: news.? A television meant: entertainment.? And consequence meant: I was a bad boy and I was going to get my backside spanked.? I can now spell consequence and I still remember what it means.? It’s hard to forget the sting of a leather strap!

I also remember another time I was a bad boy – my crime – I had stolen five cents worth of candy.? When my Dad found out he dragged me back to the store, made me confess and ask for forgiveness.? If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, he paid the clerk a dollar, and said it would come out of my weekly allowance.? And to drive the point home, he also told the merchant that I’d be back every day after school to sweep his sidewalk … for a whole month!? For thirty days I swept that sidewalk and for thirty days my schoolmates walked by and giggled as I hung my head in shame and looked at my dusty shoes.

If you just thought: “Ah, poor little guy.”? You’re the problem with today’s society!? I did a bad thing and I paid a high price for that candy, but to this day I haven’t stole another damn thing.? If a person commits a crime against the laws of a society, then I have no problem with public punishment.? Humiliation, set me straight – that and a good whack on the ass.? I hope next year gets better – don’t you?

THE END

Dear reader: Please feel free to contact, B. H. Bates at:? beeinthebonnet@shaw.ca

By Clint Buehler

EDMONTON – The leaders of the Alberta Metis are not buying the efforts of the province’s Minister of Sustainable Resources to subvert Metis constitutional hunting rights—confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Powley case in Ontario—by instituting policies that grant hunting rights to all Albertans whose circumstances justify them to hunt wild game to feed their families. Metis Nation of Alberta (MNA) President Audrey Poitras says Alberta Sustainable Resources Minister Ted Morton’s new policy “misses the mark.

In December, Morton announced changes to Alberta’s hunting subsistence license, a special license for Albertans who rely on moose, elk or deer to feed themselves or their families, that he hoped would be viewed as a “gesture of goodwill” by Metis hunters who had protested his scrapping of an Interim Metis Hunting Agreement (IMHA) the MNA had negotiated with his predecessor.

In July 2007, Morton replaced the IMHA with the subsistence hunting licenses that were only available to people living north of Highway 16 and outside of towns and cities, and could only be used in winter. And government officials would decide who qualified for the licenses.

With the rule changes in December, the license may now be used anywhere in the province, any time of year. The new rules were also criticized by MNA Vice-President Trevor Gladue, who said they were “a slap in the face of the needy. “It sends a poor message to Albertans at large that if you are really poor and really hungry you can run out in to the bush and try to shoot something.

“I don’t know how many people who are really poor or really hungry first of all can afford to go and get a FAC (firearm acquisition certificate), to go get (rifle) shells, to get in a vehicle and get the gas to drive out to the bush to get a moose or a deer. It’s really sent a poor message to the poor people.”

Alberta’s Metis have been fighting to hunt year-round, arguing that it’s their Constitutional right, just like other Aboriginal people.

That, he says, is an inherent right of the Metis and this latest change is only a misstep in the right direction to restoring the year-round hunts.

Hunters who fought against the Metis don’t have a problem with letting poor people do the same.

“Metis do not have constitutionally protected harvesting rights because we are poor or handicapped. We have these rights because harvesting is integral to our unique culture as an Aboriginal people. Harvesting has been an historic tradition of our people since before Canada was formed,” Poitras says.

“Our people continue this practice today as a means of sustaining our distinct identity and nurturing our special relationship to the land. That is why our rights are protected in Canada’s Constitution.

“Based on this constitutional recognition, the Alberta government has an obligation to accommodate our rights within its fish and wildlife laws. The Supreme Court has said these accommodations cannot be arbitrary or discretionary..”

Naturally, oitras says, “since our rights are affected, we must be involved in how these accommodations are arrived at. In order to avoid conflict and costly litigation, partnership and compromise is required on all sides.”

Poitras says the Metis Nation has consistently shown its willingness to work in collaboration with the province to arrive at a mutually agreeable accommodation.

“In September 2004 we signed the Interim Metis Harvesting Agreement with the province that worked well for more than two years. In August 2005, we agreed to renewed negotiations towards a final agreement. In May 2007, we arrived at points of agreement with Guy Boutilier, the minister for Aboriginal Affairs, who led these renewed discussions on behalf of the Alberta government.

“Unfortunately, these joint points of agreement were rejected by Morton, and he implemented a unilateral harvesting policy effective July 1, 2007.”

As a result, Poitras says, the Metis Nation is defending its harvester against Alberta’s “unconstitutional laws and policies” in the courts.

“The Metis, as taxpayers and citizens of this province, believe in, support and abide by Alberta’s laws. However, Alberta’s laws must accommodate our harvesting rights in order to be constitutional.

“Metis rights have been recognized in Canada’s Constitution for more than 25 years, but our harvesters are still treated like criminals when they are exercising constitutionally protected rights. Understandably, our people become frustrated when they see politics trump our rights.”

Poitras says challenging Alberta’s laws in court is not the MNA’s preferred choice in resolving this issue, but “what other option do we have when negotiated points of agreement are ignored and Metis harvesters are being charged?”

The managing director of the Alberta Professional Outfitters Society says the change makes sense. He admits only a small percent of the population, mostly in remote areas, would make use of it.

“I don’t see someone from inner-city Edmonton being equipped and knowledgeable enough to go hunting,” said Colin Reichle. Subsistence hunting isn’t a bad idea, said Todd Loewen, owner of Valleyview’s Red Willow Outfitters. However, he added that hardly anyone relies on game as their sole supply of meat.

“There’s very, very, very few anymore,” said Loewen. “I think with all our social programs and everything we have, it’s not done. I’m sure there are some families that could use it, but it’s very limited.”

Reichle said hunters were upset about the old Metis agreement because there was no reporting mechanism to determine how many animals were being hunted. Gladue said last summer the Metis Nation of Alberta drew up its own policy for a self-regulated hunt where tags would be issued to Metis.

Loewen said he would want to see the new hunting rules limited to does. That would prevent people abusing the system by using it for trophy-hunting males and not for subsistence. Deer are also in overabundance right now, he said.

By Morgan O’Neal

British Columbia’s aboriginal youths are taking to the city in increasing numbers and at an accelerating rate, giving the Provincial government something to think about. According to new data pulled from the 2006 Census, 60 per cent of the province’s aboriginal population – 196,075 persons in all – are living off-reserve in urban areas.

And when almost half of that population is aged 24 and under, advocates say it’s time for government policy to reflect this new demographic shift. “We’ve been seeing this trend for a while but urban aboriginals have been largely left out of government agreements. That’s going to older people who are living on reserves,” Lynda Gray, executive director of the Urban Native Youth Association in Vancouver, stated. Big cities with large aboriginal populations will inevitably place added pressures on already overstressed service agencies. “The government is not putting money where the most need is.”

With 40,310 aboriginals now living within its boundaries, Vancouver has the third-highest aboriginal population of any Canadian city, after Winnipeg and Edmonton.

But when it comes to accessing native youth programs in the city, Gray says the buck stops at the UNYA. “We’re the only provider,” she said. “My guess is that at least half [of native youth in Vancouver] have no access to relevant services.” The lack of services – coupled with the lower standards of housing, education and health in the aboriginal community – is taking its toll on the city’s native population.

“The system hasn’t done a good job protecting them,” said Evan Adams, the province’s aboriginal health advisor. “Young aboriginal people are at risk of not completing Grade 12, of being underemployed and disenfranchised.” That leads to abnormally high rates of stress, mental health issues and addiction, according to Adams. “People have to realize that these are systemic social issues.”

The 2006 Census B.C. concluded with these numbers in relation to the Aboriginal population. 1) B.C. is home to the second largest aboriginal population in Canada with 196,075 people. Ontario is first. 2) The aboriginal population in B.C. grew by 15 per cent between 2001 and 2006, three times the rate of the non-aboriginal population. 3) 60 per cent of aboriginals live in urban areas, 26 per cent live on reserves. 4) With 40,310 native people, Vancouver has the third largest urban native population in the country. 5) The median age of the aboriginal population in B.C. is 28. The median age of the non-aboriginal population is 41. 6) 46 per cent of aboriginals in Canada are 24 or under. 7) Six per cent of aboriginals live in crowded homes. 21 per cent live in dwellings in need of major repairs Canada’s aboriginal population is growing by leaps and bounds, according to the latest census information and has topped the million mark for the first time in the latest census, with slightly more than half the country’s 1.2 million aboriginals living off reserve. Fifty-four per cent who consider themselves North American Indian, Metis or Inuit live in or near urban areas, according to the 2006 national survey. That’s up from 50 per cent in the census taken a decade previous, say figures released Tuesday by Statistics Canada. But analysts say what appears to be a gradual urbanization of Canada’s aboriginal population does not mean reserves are emptying. On the contrary, there has been net migration back to First Nations over the last 40 years. And while many people enjoy good housing and jobs in cities, some of Canada’s roughest streets are disproportionately home to aboriginals. Overwhelmed and under-funded agencies say it’s a growing struggle to offer services ranging from job training and affordable rent to a bowl of soup. “Locally our friendship centre is facing incredible funding pressures,” says Susan Tatoosh, executive director of the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre in the city’s notorious Downtown Eastside. “We have over 1,000 people dropping in on a monthly basis. We keep stats. We have a constant turnover of staff, mainly because of burnout and leaving for better wages elsewhere.”

Winnipeg leads the way with the largest native population of 68,380 or 10 per cent of its total. Edmonton is second with 52,100 or five per cent of its total, and Vancouver has 40,310 or two per cent. Other cities with high proportions of native residents were Prince Albert, Sask., where native people account for 34 per cent of the population, along with Saskatoon and Regina with nine per cent each, says Statistics Canada.

Overall, the aboriginal share of Canada’s population – 3.8 per cent – ranks second in the world to New Zealand. The Maori people account for 15 per cent of New Zealand’s total, while indigenous people represent a two-per-cent share in the U.S. and Australia. An estimated 698,025 people identified themselves as North American Indian in the 2006 census – a number lower than the 763,555 people counted in the government’s official Indian Registry as of Dec. 31, 2006. This is in part because 22 First Nations, including Canada’s largest Mohawk communities, shunned the census process.

Those reserves report births and deaths regularly through the federal Indian Registry and are generally suspicious of how census data might be used. The most recent census finds that the proportion of status Indians living on reserve has held steady at about 45 per cent. The Indian Registry, by contrast, tells a different story. It says there were 615 bands in Canada as of Dec. 31, 2006 with 763,555 members. Most of that total – 404,117 – lived on reserves, while 335,109 lived off reserve and 24,329 were on Crown land. The discrepancy between the registry and the census is explained in part by the First Nations who refused to take part in the national survey.

But the registry is also a more static reflection of birth, marriage and death, says Jane Badets of Statistics Canada. The census is a five-year snapshot of where aboriginal people primarily live, she added. The Indian Registry along with census data are the prime sources of population data that help determine federal funds for native housing, education and health needs. Those agreements were historically negotiated between First Nations and the Crown.

There’s a political twist to any suggestion that an increasing number of First Nations people are living off reserve. The federal Conservatives have increased focus on off-reserve needs, most visibly by aligning themselves politically with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples. The Congress purports to represent off-reserve people across Canada, but its membership is disputed by rival groups like the Assembly of First Nations that are more closely identified with reserves. The Congress was notably the only native political group to openly endorse the Tories in the last federal election. Some critics of Conservative aboriginal policy note efforts to increase individual housing and other rights as piecemeal undermining of collective native rights.

In any case, observers stress that the gradual growth of native urban populations does not mean a mass exodus from reserves. In fact, since the mid-1960s more people have returned to First Nations and there’s been a good deal of “churn” back and forth, says Dan Beavon, director of strategic research for Indian Affairs. Much of the urban aboriginal growth can be traced to second-and third-generation population increases of existing native enclaves.

But bigger factors include “out-marriage” of aboriginal people with non-natives, along with a spike in cultural pride, Beavon says. People in cities have shown a greater tendency to cite native ancestry or identity from one census to the next, he explained. The latest census shows 1.7 million people reported having at least some aboriginal ancestry, up from 1.3 million in 2001 and 1.1 million in 1996. Higher birth rates also play a role, especially on reserves. And there’s the simple fact that more First Nations now fall within city boundaries because of amalgamation, Beavon says. For example, at least 20 First Nations border the sprawling Vancouver area, he says. “Reserves and cities are not mutually exclusive.”

Aboriginal people flock to cities for the same education and job opportunities as non-natives. “This is not a uniquely Canadian phenomenon,” says Fred Caron, assistant deputy minister in the federal office for Metis and non-status Indians. “It’s worldwide. No matter what region you go to, there are more indigenous people living in cities in every region of the world – and facing a lot of the same issues.” Decent housing, a job and schooling for their kids are the main hurdles for people making the huge cultural shift from remote reserves, Caron said in an interview. “Those three things, if they line up right, point to success – especially education.”

In the meanest parts of Vancouver, Winnipeg and Saskatoon the extent to which native people have fallen through social cracks is painfully obvious. Yet critics say federal and provincial governments aren’t doing nearly enough to help these relatively young and growing urban communities to succeed. Caron points to the federal Urban Aboriginal Strategy, a $14 million-a-year effort to co-ordinate an array of native training, transition and support services in 12 cities. He says Ottawa has forged partnerships and drawn funding from provincial, local and private interests. “It’s a small strategy. It hasn’t got a lot of money attached to it,” he conceded. But there are success stories, such as the BladeRunners program that trains young native workers for jobs in Vancouver’s construction trade.

Peter Dinsdale, executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres, says there’s a growing need for the most basic services in cities, programs for children, young parents and their families, food banks, drug and alcohol counselling. Dinsdale says that 117 friendship centres across the country tracked 1.3 million services offered to clients last year – up from 757,000 in 2002-03. “It’s growing exponentially.” And no one, he says, wants to take on the responsibility or the cost. “There’s this huge jurisdictional war going on between the provinces and the federal government as to who has responsibility for urban aboriginal people. As a result, very little is getting done.”

For the first time, more than one million Canadians identified themselves as aboriginal. The census counted 1,172,790 Indian, Metis and Inuit people. About 1.7 million Canadians reported having at least some aboriginal ancestry. Statistics Canada defines “aboriginal ancestry” as the ethnic or cultural origin of a person’s ancestors, usually more distant than a grandparent. The aboriginal population increased 45 per cent between 1996 and 2006. The growth can be attributed to a number of factors: higher birth rates than the non-aboriginal population, more people identifying themselves as aboriginal, census enumerators got better co-operation from some reserves this time.

The reported Metis population – those of mixed Indian and European ancestry – has almost doubled since the 1996 census. Those who identified themselves as Indian increased by 29 per cent, while the Inuit population went up 26 per cent. About four per cent of Canada’s total population is aboriginal. That’s the second highest total in the world, second only to New Zealand where the Maori make up 15 per cent of that country’s population. Fifty-one per cent of the status Indian population lives off reserve, up from 50 per cent in 1996. More than half of the country’s aboriginal people (54 per cent) live in urban areas. For those who don’t live on reserves, the urban figure climbs to 72 per cent. The aboriginal population in Canada is considerably younger than the non-native citizenry, with a median age of 27 compared to 40. Almost half (48 per cent) of the aboriginal population is under the age of 25

There has been a decline in the use and knowledge of Inuktitut, the major language of the Inuit, and less than three per cent of Metis under the age of 45 can speak an aboriginal language. But there are indications some First Nations groups are trying to retain their ancestral tongues: 12 per cent of those who spoke Cree in 2006 learned it as a second language. 29 per cent of First Nations people said they could carry on a conversation in an aboriginal language. There were 60 aboriginal languages recorded by census enumerators, with Cree spoken by more First Nation people than any other language.

The greatest increase in population was among the Metis population, which grew by 91 per cent during that period. 81 per cent of First Nations are considered status Indians because they are registered under the Indian Act. 50,485 identified themselves as Inuit. 389,785 identified themselves as Metis. 698,025 identified themselves as North American Indian. 1,172,790 of Canadians identified themselves as aboriginal and 1.7 million indicated they had some aboriginal ancestry in their family background.

By Morgan O’Neal

Ten years ago Frank Paul was just another aboriginal regular at the downtown drunk tank, unique only in that he was a Mi’qmac from the Big Cove First Nation in New Brunswick as far away from home as he could get without leaving the country altogether. He was deep in his cups and long out of work by the time he died on a frigid November night in 1998 and he had been in and out of that same tank on a regular enough basis to have become well-known to officers working the dreary Eastside beat. Paul was among many people helped by Barry Conroy who at the time worked with Saferide, a program run by the Vancouver Recovery Club that transports people suffering from the effects of alcohol and drugs to detox centres and shelters. He testified to Paul’s personality before the present public inquiry on November 16. “He was what I would call a gentleman,” Conroy said of the Mi’kmaq man. Paul, according to Conroy, was “polite,” and though he was usually drunk on rice wine, there was “dignity” in the way he struggled to raise himself from the pavement to get into the Saferide van.

In the past decade the Vancouver police (not to mention the RCMP) have been the focus of much public outrage for an abnormal number of botched investigations, brutal racist arrest tactics, and false and dishonest statements for which officers at the highest level of crisis management in the Force have arrogantly refused to take responsibility. The tragic case of Frank Paul is only one very blatant example of the systematic almost psychotic culture of denial under which the VPD operates. Originally, the police told Paul’s family that he had died in a car accident. Others were told he was killed by a hit-and-run driver. “So we never asked anything more,” Paul’s cousin Pauline Simon said, four years after Frank died. “That’s been the belief for years.” But many local observers were suspicious from the beginning and the word on the street was always closer to the facts. Frank Paul had died either in custody or left in an alley to breathe his last by one of Vancouver’s Finest. The “internal” investigation that followed upon the death of Paul resulted in a two-day suspension for seasoned Sergeant, Russell Sanderson, and one day for rookie Constable, David Instant. Police Complaint Commissioner Don Morrison shrugged off queries from the Paul family and others interested in justice and truth. The police never retracted their tall tale, nor have they apologized for the lies and fabrications designed to cover their butts.

Unfortunately, the recent inquiry into Frank Paul’s death will not find fault with the Force but only make recommendations on changes to policies and procedures. Crown lawyers who reviewed the case in June 2004 determined charges unwarranted. Two officers were “disciplined” and the department considered the case closed. But a corrections officer working the night Paul died claimed the internal police investigation was a sham, and took his concerns?to the new Police Complaints Commissioner, Dirk Ryneveld, who recommended a public inquiry into Paul’s death. This recommendation was at first rejected by the provincial government but that decision was reversed last February after CBC News reported on the corrections officer’s claim. Finally, after nearly a decade of cover-up and denial the long awaited inquiry began and one weak apology emerged from Constable Instant for the brutal neglect of Citizen Paul. The truth, long suspected, was that he had been dumped from a paddy wagon into a dank and dark alley and left to die on a near-freezing winter night. It took nine years and a subpoena to get Instant to speak at all; the truth only now escaped his lips when he owned up to his part in this thoughtless killing.

Perhaps he has learned from his mistakes. He was a rookie then and working in the worst part of town, given a task beyond his adolescent mind. He had no experience with this type of situation and should not have been left alone to deal with it. We can only wonder. what has been going on in his head for the past decade; serious soul-searching, remorse and guilt would seem the only thoughts appropriate. The same cannot be hoped of former Sgt. Sanderson. He has no excuses and offers no apologies. The man in charge, who just refused to let the wasted 47-year-old Paul sleep it off in a heated cell, ordered Constable Instant, fresh from boot camp, to yard the motionless, supine man stinking of rice wine and urine the hell out of his jail. The oblivious Sanderson swears to this day that Paul wasn’t drunk: some disability must have made it difficult for him to stand. He saw no reason to seek medical aid despite the fact that the homeless man was comatose. The better to distance himself from responsibility for Paul’s death, Sanderson, protesting that he wasn’t liable for what happened, testified that he had “meant” to tell Instant to drive Paul to a safe place, but didn’t say it then. There was no need to apologize to his family.

This is incredulous testimony from a seasoned officer whose version of events contrasts with colleagues and the pathologist who found that Paul died of hypothermia from acute intoxication. An autopsy confirmed Paul had a blood alcohol level of .35 — more than four times the legal level of drunkenness. But that’s just part of the tragedy. A former VPD wagon driver told the inquiry that when a senior officer gives an order, the junior officer is expected to obey. Retired Constable Brian Porter agreed that the officer who dropped Frank Paul off nine years ago would have had to follow orders. This deflects responsibility toward Sergeant Sanderson, bur it was a tearful Constable David Instant that apologized to Mr. Paul’s family, saying simply that his superior had said “the man wasn’t drunk”. During his last day of testimony, Instant tearfully apologized for leaving Paul in the alley, saying he’ll wear the scars of what happened to the man for the rest of his life.

On the night of December 5, 1998, Instant drove the chronic alcoholic into the same Vancouver alley where he was found frozen to death only hours later. Porter testified he had picked Paul up the day before and dropped him at the detox centre where he was admitted. Steven Kelliher, the lawyer for Paul’s family, asked what a driver’s options would be if ordered to “breach” someone in custody: breaching is a now-banned practice where officers would take someone from one part of the city and move them to another. “It’s very difficult,” Porter testified. “If he’s been given an order per se, then being that junior, I don’t think he would have much option but to obey.”

In testimony which was clearly contradicted by Constable Instant, Sergeant Sanderson denied knowing Paul was homeless. “I advised Sgt. Sanderson he [Paul] was found laying on a vegetable rack at Dunlevy [Avenue] and Hastings [Street] and Sgt. Sanderson said,?‘He’s homeless that’s where he sleeps,’” Instant said. Sanderson insisted his only mistake was in giving “vague” instructions to Instant to drive Paul to “Broadway and Maple,” where Sanderson said he believed Paul might take shelter in a “basement apartment.” Lawyer Cameron Ward, representing the United Native Nations Society told the Georgia Straight that the postmortem examination didn’t indicate the time of Paul’s death.”It’s a question of fact whether or not he was alive either when he was dragged out of the jail into the wagon or when he was taken out of the wagon and put where he was found deceased,” Ward said.

The police video clearly shows a “motionless” Paul being dragged into the jail elevator at 8:25 p.m. His condition was seen by a number of individuals, including the sergeant on duty, who determined that Paul was not intoxicated. Five minutes later, at 8:30 p.m., a police wagon driver and a provincial jail guard dragged “a still rain-soaked, motionless Frank Paul from the elevator to the police wagon along the floor of the wagon bay area”. The wagon driver delivered another intoxicated person in the wagon to a detoxification centre before placing Paul in a nearby alley. His lifeless body was found at 2:41 a.m. on December 6, 1998, at that same location.

Asked by Ward if he would have got medical help for a Caucasian instead of “an intoxicated, chronically alcoholic native man,” Russell Sanderson replied: “Anybody in a suit would get medically assessed,” Sanderson said. Instead, the comatose Paul was dragged like deadweight across the floor and back to the police wagon, soaking wet and dead drunk. Sanderson insisted that he was right to reject Paul, despite the report of world-renowned pathologist Dr. Rex Ferris, who found Paul died of acute alcohol intoxication and hypothermia. Ferris has also said Paul likely was hypothermic when Sanderson assessed him in the jail elevator. Sanderson vigorously denied a suggestion by Paul family lawyer Kelliher that ”Frank Paul was completely intoxicated and incapable of caring for himself, you didn’t want him in your jail and he couldn’t continue to use your jail as a hotel room.”

The truth is out, the facts are clear. A homeless alcoholic dumped in an alley would have been hypothermic before he died, according to the forensic pathologist who examined Paul’s body. Dr. Laurel Gray told the inquiry that hypothermia results because alcohol leads to rapid heat loss. The condition would have been accelerated because Paul was left out in the cold in soaking-wet clothes. Environment Canada records temperatures of 2 C that night. “He just basically lost a lot more heat than his body could generate,” Gray testified. “The conclusion that he died of hypothermia would be a valid one. We’re only looking at just a few degrees below the normal body-core temperature to become fatal, that the organs just can’t maintain life”. Gray said her examination revealed no irreversible damage to Paul’s liver, nor did he have cirrhosis. However, in the final stages of hypothermia, his brain, lungs, heart and kidneys would all have failed.

In his original report, Dirk Ryneveld noted that in choosing not to call for an inquest, the coroners service had relied on information provided by police “in what I now deem to have been an incomplete and therefore flawed investigation”. Two vital pieces of information were missing, one of which was a report made by pathologist Rex Ferris “that, among other things, indicates that Frank Paul may well have died in the police wagon itself”. Ryneveld noted that even if Paul was technically no longer in police custody when he died, “in my respectful view, the coroner still had a residual discretion to hold a coroner’s inquest pursuant to Section 18 of the Coroners Act.” Dana Urban, a former senior legal adviser to former commissioner Don Morrison, long ago suggested that “it is likely that his [Paul’s] fatal hypothermia developed over the course of many hours, and there seems no doubt that he was suffering from hypothermia when he was removed from the jail”. Urban said in his testimony: “He [Paul] died during or soon after his involvement with the Vancouver city police department.”

First Nations groups have blamed the B.C. government for not calling an inquiry into Paul’s death earlier. A decade has passed since they and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association began pushing for a public examination of this crime. Aboriginal leaders are hardly satisfied with the “apology” and feel Instant should have been charged. They also believe racism played a part in how Paul was treated. Clearly Sanderson bears the bulk of responsibility, yet admits no remorse even in his plump retirement. First Nations activist and organizer for the Indigenous Action Movement, Kat Norris told the Georgia Straight in an interview that the inquiry gave substance to persistent suspicions that there had been a cover-up. Norris pointed out that if police had reported that Paul had died while he was in police custody, the Coroners Service of B.C. would have had no recourse but to order an immediate inquest, a mandatory court proceeding with a jury that never took place in this case. Former RCMP officer, Vancouver mayor, and now Senator, Larry Campbell was chief coroner at that time. Norris noted that all that is known is that Paul died of hypothermia. “It’s important to know why they want to cover it up so badly. That changes things. It’s important for true justice to Frank and for anyone else who has died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody.

Sergeant Russell Sanderson refused to admit Paul, when Constable Instant brought him in, saying he’d been there only a few hours earlier and could not have had time to get drunk yet again. Sanderson ordered Instant to drive Paul to an intersection on the west side of Vancouver. But not knowing exactly where to leave Paul, Instant took him to an alley behind the detox centre on the east side after another senior cop told him that was the best place for the homeless man. Instant testified he propped Paul up against a wall and left, thinking he would soon get up and be on his way, perhaps finding shelter at one of two fast-food restaurants in the area. About six hours later, Paul was found dead on his back on a pile of gravel, some distance from the wall. A paramedic who arrived at the scene told the inquiry that the gravel underneath Paul’s body had shifted “like a snow angel” indicating he may have had a seizure before he died. Or he may have experienced an effect called “hide and die syndrome” (terminal burrowing behavior). People dying of hypothermia, according to Dr. Gray, “sometimes try to hide and may also attempt to remove some of their clothing because they feel hot.” A photo entered as an exhibit at the inquiry shows Frank Paul was found with his sweatshirt pulled up to his chest and his shoes off.

By Lloyd Dolha

Despite the findings of a study conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Alberta and Dalhousie University condemning the growth of parasitic sea-lice from open-pen fish farms, Pat Bell, minister of Agriculture and Lands, said BC salmon farmers are doing a good job meeting the “standards of the day” for controlling sea lice infestations and protecting the environment.

On December 14, 2007, one of the world’s foremost scientific journals, the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Science, published a study that concluded sea lice from salmon farms have been driving a rapid decline in wild pink salmon populations in the Broughton Archipelago off Vancouver Island.

The study, based on 36 years of fish survival data collected by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, concludes that 99 per cent of the wild pink salmon population will be gone in fours years, or two generations, if sea lice infestations continue.

Conducted by a team of six biologists, fisheries scientists and mathematicians, from the University of Alberta and Dalhousie, the study was based on the number of pink salmon returning to some 71 rivers on the central coast of British Columbia from 1970 to 2006.

The researchers then organized the data into four groups according to whether or not the populations were exposed to salmon farms before and during the sea lice infestations, and calculated population growth rates for each group. It is the first study of its kind to demonstrate the impact of sea lice infestations on wild salmon populations and reveal their pending extinction.

“In light of these results, it is clear that governments must take immediate precautionary action to stop open net-cage salmon farming from harming wild salmon,” said Jay Ritchin, a marine conservation specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation. “The evidence continues to be published in the most respected scientific journals and the B.C. legislature’s own Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture has called for a transition to closed systems.”

Minister Bell said the B.C. aquaculture industry, with nearly 3,000 direct and indirect jobs and annual sales of $300 million, is subject to “the toughest standards in the world.”

“There is no industry that is more publicly reported that the aquaculture industry,” said Bell.

Bell made those comments on Tuesday, January 8th, when he released a pair of 2006 reports on fish farm inspections and the health of farmed salmon through inspections of 60 to 80 active salmon farms . The reports showed fish farms generally complying with provincial regulations, and demonstrated sea lice numbers below the accepted level in most areas that year.

Now, with the fish farm industry coming under increasing scrutiny, Minister Bell acknowledged that those standards can evolve in months to a higher level of protection for wild stocks.

“We really are confident that the industry is meeting the standards of the day,” he said. “Those standards can, of course, change over time.”

Bell said the B.C. government continues to work with First Nations, fish farmers and environmental organizations to develop a provincial aquaculture plan. The plan, which was due to be released last fall, is now expected at the end of March and will stress the protection of wild salmon stocks.

“What the standards will be in the new aquaculture plan, I am not going presume,” said the minister.

Sea lice are natural parasites that feed on salmon skin, muscle and blood. In high numbers, they cause viral or bacterial infection leading to stress or osmotic failure or disturbed water balance, and ultimately death. Numerous studies have shown that where there are no fish farms, wild salmon have almost no lice. Fish farms, however, amplify the parasite on wild salmon migration routes. In the Broughton Archipelago, the wild juvenile must run an 80 kilometre gauntlet of over 60 fish farms before they make it to the open ocean. Critics scoffed at the report, saying the encouraging report card is a “red herring.

The article’s authors said sea lice infestation rates are 70 times higher among juvenile pink salmon from seven rivers in the vicinity of central coast fish farms, compared with fish whose natal streams are more remote, and the mortality rate among infected fish is “commonly over 80 percent.”

The report also notes that the impact of fish farms is far higher than that caused by commercial fisheries. Not only are the salmon and the ecosystem at risk, so too are the economies and cultures that depend on wild salmon.

“The region needs to have the source of the sea lice infestations removed,” said Ritchin. “We must get the open-net cage salmon farms out of the way of the juvenile salmon and ultimately into closed tanks.”

By Clint Buehler

EDMONTON – An Aboriginal leader in Edmonton has added a new dimension to the residential school debate. “Hastily buried bodies” at residential schools has been alleged by Dean Brown, executive director of the Alberta Native Friendship Centres Association.

“Everybody I know who went to residential schools knows about those hushed-up deaths,” Brown told the daily Edmonton Sun

“You hear stories, oh my God, like babies being born and disposed of just because they were the result of sexual abuse,” Brown told the Sun’s Daniel MacIsaac.

MacIsaac writes in the Sun that Bob Watts, interim executive director of the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is preparing to launch hearings this year.

Watts has been reported as saying former students will testify about alleged “criminal deaths” at residential schools and that the RCMP should be ready to investigate.

Brown’s allegations have been refuted by Christian Selin, a spokesperson for the federal department of Residential Schools Resolution.

She says “there is no specific evidence of criminal deaths in Indian residential schools. “Any criminal investigations will be carried out by the police.”

Brown told the Sun a residential school led to the death of his own mother, Rita Cardinal, in Grouard, 366 km northwest of Edmonton, and argues that money is only part of the healing process.

“The amounts are ridiculous,” he says of the settlements, “:–$13,000 for being robbed of your family and culture. “That’s a drop in the bucket for the pain and abuse that goes through your whole life.”

MacIsaac quotes two other residential school survivors in support of Brown’s allegations. He writes that Ray Harris and George Muldoe were both taken from Hazelton, BC, to attend the Edmonton Residential School, and tell of their own traumatic experiences in the 1950s and 1960s.

As adolescents, they said, staff directed them to bury Aboriginals who had died of tuberculosis and other diseases at the Charles Camsell Hospital in Edmonton in unmarked graves on school grounds. According to the MacIsaac article in the Sun, Harris said, “I had no feeling after my first year there, so when I was asked to dig a grave I was actually glad because I knew the older boys got paid to do it.

“But one that was really, really disgusting to me when I finally got my senses back was a baby—because I dug a grave for a baby.

“I was the one who carried the baby from the car in a small coffin, and we buried it right behind the principal’s office with no markings whatsoever.

MacIsaac says that’s why Muldoe wants the hearings process to continue and the bodies to be exhumed, even if it is too late for most school or government officials to be held criminally responsible.

Muldoe says the families of those in unmarked graves, today’s Aboriginal youth and Canadians should know.

“Why should we do this?” he asked.

“To find out the truth, I guess—exactly what happened.”

Tribute and Photos by Danny Beaton

He painted human beings in their journey as a colourful family united with creation and the Spirit World with all the powers of the life forces. Morrisseau brought Native American culture, our way of life back in all its purity, onto paper and canvas in a way sacred art could be given life with Mother Earth and her children with the hands of it’s Ojibwa son, a Shaman, Copper Thunderbird.

Canada has lost its own son of Woodland native art, the chief and spirit of North American Native art is Norval Morrisseau. Master, legend and voice of colour, shape, image, even sound came from Norval Morrisseau’s work of cultural respect for the natural world and spirit world. An Ojibway from Ontario’s own Woodland, Norval experienced the devastation of his culture first hand, the dominating forces that had eradicated a big part of Ojibway ceremonial life. This generation of native peoples have experienced the culture shock especially for the past fifty years, because of this scenario, spirit brought an intense struggle back to the people in order to survive the phenomena of culture shock and environmental degradation. No one knew better of resources being extracted from Northern Ontario’s forests, hills, rivers, streams, even animals, fish, birds and human beings. Norval was a communicator for the natural world and spirit world, he was a messenger for Native ancestors, he carried his peoples intense pain and intense joy in a way that was unique. Norval painted our culture and world with awe, splendor, grace, power and beauty. He put the mystery of creation on canvass for the world to experience with their own eyes, he brought us the spirit of the bear in ways only a child, boy, man and elder sees with their inner world and maturity. That inner world of creativity, vision, hope, reality, wisdom, compassion, respect and understanding which only great leaders, teachers, healers and shamans possess.

Over the years, legends have developed around Mr. Morrisseau. According to one story, he became perilously ill at the age of 19. A visit to the doctor did nothing and a Medicine woman was summoned. A renaming ceremony was performed (Anishanaabe tradition holds that a giving powerful name to someone near death can rally strength and save a life). He was renamed Copper Thunderbird, and recovered. Later, he would use it to sign his paintings.

Master of Woodland Native American art has died leaving a legacy no other artist has left since Pablo Picasso. His ability to bring spirit to canvass obliterated art dealers around the world. His way of orchestrating flowers, birds, animals, fish, insects and reptiles with thin and thick black lines was pioneered by Norval and his Ancestors. His style is unsurpassed and his life if studied was a journey through colonization in which he witnessed corruption, intense pain, sorrow, loss, greed, lies and the degradation of our Sacred Mother Earth. Norval countered the obvious of his people and home land with a pencil and paintbrush. His art reflected his country and people in their magnificence, he demonstrated a world of healing with nature, and healing with the spirit world, and life of his people, his people being the Ojibway, Algonquin, Huron, Cree, even Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Cayuga and Hopi. Norvals work captured the life not only his own tribe but native American spirituality with the natural world. He brought life to the spirit world which Picasso could not match.

The genius of Morrisseau was displayed in the stories told by his paintings of Thunder Birds, the Sacred leader of the Winged ones, the Eagle, the Protector of the Ojibway Nation, the Bear, etc. etc., Morrisseau used colour in a way that brought life, awe, mystery and majesticity to our eyes and mind. Norval painted beauty and harmony within the one-ness of Native Culture and Mother Earth.

Norval witnessed the rivers, lakes and bush of Thunder Bay Ontario Canada long enough to be influenced for life to move through his veins, psyche, spirit, mind and completeness. He maintained his duty as a messenger, runner and worker for Native America for seventy years. Because Native American culture is based on ceremony Norval was also a historian in the way he captured our world, he also inspired a world of Native artists now many who are successful thanks to the work he layed down for others to learn from. One of Norval’s greatest achievements was to quit alcohol for many years. He had suffered alcoholism for many years as many of our people had. He was an example of purification and change. He struggled to be clean which we should honour him for.

America has a legend, Native people have a true artist, a Human Being, an artist of the Ojibwa Nation who will never and should never be forgotten, we should burn tobacco for his spirit as his love for his people and culture has influenced non-native people for ever of Native Spirituality and power with creation. Norval has helped bring respect to Indian people. Norval painted unity with the environment, Mother Earth, Human Beings and all the Earths creatures. He painted honour, strength and respect to Mother Earth, with all her creation.

On behalf of all Native Peoples, Elders, Chiefs, Clan Mothers, Medicine people, singers, healers and artists we say, “See you in the spirit world brother”. We ask the spirit helpers to take away your pain, we ask the four protectors to protect you on your Sacred Journey, we ask our great Creator to have pity on us.

Norval Morrisseau Speaks Out

I’ve been looking for books all my life – books about American Indians. Anything that I could find that was civil and worthwhile besides what my Grandfather was telling me about the Iroquois and others. There isn’t very much written about Natives in the art and history books we read today. The only thing that was written was about the Iroquois slaughtering the Jesuits somewhere and Sitting Bull and his followers being chased out of Canada. I guess I was increasingly seeking the art form and culture I was being taught, but there was none out there. My Grandfather told me once that nobody, no matter how hard they tried, could remember all of the legends, otherwise, the whole of North Western Ontario would be covered in Pictographs.

I started to do some painting. I guess I saw some art literature from Arizona or the South West somewhere, but I was hungry to learn more. I wanted to paint my house and paint the walls in traditional pictographs like the ones I saw from the rock paintings and birch bark scrolls our people used to make. I was told by some relatives not to do this- that I should not be tampering with these forms, because the Indians will ostracize you. Or the elders would not care for it, just like the Jesuits. Nevertheless, I was determined to do it, for it was my destiny. I would like to say that I am an artist so that I can beautify the world and battle the conditioned consciousness with the same tools used to condition it. My culture is my world.

Thank you for listening.

All my relations.

Danny Beaton
www.dannybeaton.ca