By Lloyd Dolha

A federally funded study by the Congress of Aboriginal People says the majority of First Nations’ band elections are undemocratic has outraged a Saskatchewan First Nations leader, who is now questioning the sincerity of Ottawa’s recent apology to residential school survivors.

Chief Lawrence Joseph, leader of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) condemned the federal government for funding the study.

“This flies in the face of the residential school apology,” said Chief Joseph, in an interview. “Shame on the Congress of Aboriginal People. Shame on Indian Affairs.”

Joseph called the study, conducted by the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) and financed by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) “baloney.”

CAP leader Patrick Brazeau said Saskatchewan chiefs likely refused to cooperate with the study in band governance “because they have something to hide.”

“We received the most resistance from the FSIN and it’s chiefs,” said Brazeau. “ The FSIN has rejected us. If they don’t cooperate, it’s probably because they have something to hide.”

But Joseph condemned CAP as little more than an extension of the federal government that isn’t credible. He noted the “duly elected chiefs” of the FSIN have passed three resolutions stating that the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples is not a legitimate aboriginal organization.

But Joseph said that he was never asked to be a part of the study.

“They never tried. They’ve never come to us,” he said.

CAP, which claims to represent some 150,000 off-reserve aboriginal people, received funding and technical expertise from INAC to produce the study Justice is Equality: Post Corbiere Report, which was released on Monday, July 14.

It states that many First Nations still have rules in place that exclude their off-reserve membership from casting ballots in band council elections because their written codes do not give them the right or specifically exclude them in some cases.

The codes in question, called custom electoral codes, follow the traditions of individual First Nations’ communities. These custom codes do not fall under the Indian Act, which was amended in 2000 to give off-reserve voting rights to aboriginals as set out in the 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Corbiere.

The report says that many of the 344 of Canada’s 600 band councils follow custom codes that reveal “Upon close scrutiny, many of the codes revealed fundamental flaws either in their substantive or procedural elements.”

Justice is Equality sought to review electoral codes in 60 select First Nations communities to determine the extent of their compatibility with several federal statutes, including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and international human rights standards.

The study also undertook to determine the extent of First Nations’ compliance with the 1999 Corbiere decision. It’s findings identify several areas where improvements in democratic governance and compliance with federal law. It says that despite the affirmation of off-reserve voting rights through Corbiere, residency on-reserve is still an eligibility requirement for voting in far too many instances.

The CAP study further revealed that in the very few cases where off reserve members are not prohibited from voting in custom election codes, they are still not provided a reasonable opportunity to do so because there are no mechanisms in place to assist them in exercising their right with such as a transparent mail-in ballot.

“The right to vote is a fundamental human right. It cannot be denied to First Nations citizens, whose communities rely in large part on the equal respect for the dignity of each individual,” states the report.

As a result, CAP is advocating that aboriginal residency be added to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination identified in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

The study also notes that while the Canadian Human Rights Act contains the section 67 exemption from its applicability to aboriginal peoples, there is currently the federal initiative to repeal that section in the legislation contained in Bill C-21. Should that become law, custom band election codes may become vulnerable to human rights complaints.

In fact, CAP argues that the Canadian Human Rights Commission already has jurisdiction to hear such complaints because, under the human rights act, a narrow interpretation must be given when dealing with exceptions and the commission must hear all complaints that are not “directly pursuant to the Indian Act.”

“Since custom codes are in essence removed from the Indian Act, we believe the Canadian Human Rights Commission Tribunal has full jurisdiction to hear these complaints,” states the report.

“The most fundamental element of building sustainable and prosperous communities is the application of fairness and accountability inherent to effective democratic governance,” said Brazeau. “Yet there appears to be an obvious reluctance by many chiefs and councils to respect and reflect their intended purpose of these measures at the community level in their own back yards here in Canada.”

INAC released the information on the condition that First Nation bands involved would remain anonymous.

By Morgan O’Neal

A former principal of Grandview Elementary in inner city Vancouver (a very troubled school where aboriginal kids made up a good of the student body) Caroline Krause was quite frankly appalled by what she witnessed when she moved into her office to begin work in what she knew would be a challenging job. As principal of a school that was supposed to be training kids for rather unpredictable future, she realized in the first few days that it was almost entirely off the rails. She now sat in the swivel chair of localized ultimate authority in terms of both curricular and administrative duties. She would be responsible in the end for any meager success or disastrous failure resulting from any serious and substantial changes she might seek to initiate in order to get the train back on the tracks. At the time, what was spilling out of derailed classroom cars were scores of aboriginal students embarrassingly uneducated in the basics, totally unprepared for adult life in an economy controlled by the difficult dominant culture, and still nursing precisely the same resentments with which they had begun school in the first place, the resentments now multiplied in quantity and quality by however many years they had managed to stick it out in a fundamentally racist institution.

According to Krause, the system needed a complete overhaul. The British Columbia Ministry of Education is of course mandated to provide basic funding for public school education but this funding does not cover after-school programs. Krause and her allies at Grandview also lobbied the Ministry of Children and Family Development to help out financially, but were not successful. Their only alternative was corporate sponsorship in order to put together the money to be able to offer academic and athletic programs during and after school hours. Krause managed to bring several businesses, including Royal Bank, Home Depot, Starbucks and Nike, in as corporate partners who donated thousands of dollars in money and equipment to the school. She convinced University students, teachers and support staff workers to lead after-school programs that provided positive role models. These volunteers spoke to the students “about the importance of working hard in school and making it all the way through to high school completion and beyond.” According to Krause, “the atmosphere in the school began to change dramatically” after establishment of a ‘Homework Club,’ where students could receive academic support and complete their assignments at school.”

Contrary to what we might assume about a systemic problem such as this Krause is convinced that “the cultural component was not the problem. It was the fact that these students were placed in what we might call a “deficit” program, which was set up with the best of intentions to try to help them catch up academically. Since the students were not part of a mainstream program, they were unable to achieve a sense of belonging to the school, generally felt marginalized, and acted out often because they were frustrated.

Most of the mainstream classes had significant numbers of aboriginal students (up to 50%). Aboriginal culture was honored and incorporated into the curriculum and daily routines whenever possible. For example, School Elder, Ramona Gus, worked on art and carving projects with most classes. A First Nations Student Support Worker, Kwakwee Baker, started each day with drumming in the foyer of the school and taught drumming to groups of students. The First Nations Resource Teacher, Daphne Wale, created a First Nations novel study class for Grades 4, 5 and 6 students.

Grandview School had an army of volunteers helping: parents, adults in the community, and university students, as well as a core of dedicated and caring teachers. In addition, the corporate sponsors were very generous. For example, since the Read Well primary reading program implemented early in Krause’s tenure, 95% of Grade 1 students and older non-readers, who have transferred into Grandview, are successfully reading at or above grade level expectations by the end of the year as measured by the Canadian Test of Basic Skills. At Grandview/?Uuquinak’uuh the numbers (90 to100 Aboriginal students) have remained fairly consistent over the past decade. The rest of the students are from various countries and many speak English as a Second Language. The school celebrates National Aboriginal Day as well as Black History Month and Chinese New Year and usually hosts a multicultural celebration at the end of each school year. Aboriginal authors, storytellers and performers are invited to come to the school. One important subject that is still missing in most schools is authentic aboriginal history.

The Vancouver Board of Education is currently working on an Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement, which is an agreement between the Ministry of Education, the School Board and the local aboriginal community to work together to help students experience greater academic success. The Indian Act of 1876, which made aboriginal people “wards of the state,” is still in effect. In his excellent book, Dances with Dependency, Calvin Helin not only explains how this dependency came about over the past 300 years, but also offers solutions and gives examples of some amazing success stories. We cannot continue to throw money at a system that is not only not working but one that is keeping a significant number of aboriginal people living in Third World conditions. Since the young aboriginal population is one of the fastest growing in Canada, this is where we should focus our time and energy. In a little school in the heart of Vancouver’s inner city, a start was made by teaching children to read at an early age, by encouraging them to take responsibility for their own learning, and by giving them healthy alternatives to street activity. If this can be achieved against all odds in a public school like Grandview, the same thing can happen across the country in practice at every level of education.

At the extreme other end of the broad spectrum is the theoretical initiative taken at the University of Saskatchewan in the College of Education with the establishment of the Aboriginal Education Research Centre founded in 2003 in order “to build research capacity and nourish leadership in a new generation of scholars as they take their place in the Canadian academy, in the administration of schools, colleges, and universities and in advancing Aboriginal education.” The overall plan is to collaborate and innovate to ensure that research undertaken at the Centre has a significant social impact, that it translates from the theoretical realm to the practical. According to Dr. Cecilia Reynolds, Dean of the College of Education, the research should develop a better understanding of “the needs of the Aboriginal student populations and develop successful teaching methods which will enhance the delivery of education to Aboriginal students in both provincial and band schools.”

The College of Education in the University of Saskatchewan has a strong history and important role in advancing Aboriginal education including the establishment of core course requirements for all teachers in addressing social justice, gender equity, multicultural and Aboriginal education, specialized Aboriginal teacher education programs, and Aboriginal faculty to provide the needed expertise and research to develop this area. More focused research is needed, however, on diverse systems of learning, community based approaches to Aboriginal pedagogy, Indigenous knowledge and the needs of Aboriginal student populations. The Research Centre provides expertise in development, collaboration, and coordination of action on the ground in Aboriginal education and provide mechanisms for knowledge dissemination. AERC engage researchers in improving the success of Native learners in different learning environments, and in improving teacher education in applying Indigenous knowledge systems in diverse school environments and curriculum.

In its first year of operation, AERC developed and hosted the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre for the Canadian Council on Learning. AERC and the First Nations Adult and Higher Education Consortium in Calgary are now co-leading a three-year national project concerning First Nations, Métis and Inuit learning. AERC is also involved in projects within the health sector and with the study of indigenous knowledge and science, seeking to expand in areas of Endowed Graduate Scholarship Awards, a Research Chair Professorship and diverse projects to support scholarship in Aboriginal education at the U of S. The Aboriginal Education Research Centre (AERC) is located in the central prairies, in the land of the treaty First Nations and Métis. No comparable centre exists in Canada and AERC is at the very forefront in working to prepare future teachers, administrators and staff who should help generate a systemic transformation in education that will go far toward a remedy for the current crisis in Aboriginal schooling and learning. For information on the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre see www.cclcca.ca.

By Clint Buehler

EDMONTON – The cross country walk to draw attention to missing and murdered women is proving to be an eventful journey for the women who walk and for their supporters.

The Walk 4 Justice was organized by Bernie Williams and Gladys Radek, whose niece, Tamara Lynn Chipman has been missing for almost three years. It began as a way to raise awareness of the 18 women who have gone missing or been murdered on British Columbia’s Highway of Tears to Prince George, but soon became a national venture.

The 20 or so women making the trek left Vancouver on June 21 and arrived in Edmonton at the beginning of July. They plan to reach Ottawa by September 15 when they plan to hold a rally on Parliament Hill and demand a public inquiry into the “scandal” of missing Canadian women, estimated to number about 3,000.

“I look at this as Canada’s dirty little secret,” Williams told an Edmonton Journal reporter.

“It was particularly emotional for us—we know that there have been women in the Edmonton area who have fallen prey to whoever’s out there. We understand the pain of their friends and families.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Dean Brown, acting executive director of the Canadian Native Friendship Centre:

“It’s really important to honour all of the murdered and missing women from across Canada,” he told the Edmonton Sun.. “There needs to be awareness around this and we need people doing stuff to help end this.

The stop in Edmonton took a dramatic turn when two Elders were struck by a vehicle and were taken to hospital to be treated for minor injuries. The incident occurred at the River Cree Resort and Casino on the Enoch Reserve on Edmonton’s western outskirts, when the lead car carrying the Elders collided with another vehicle when it swerved to try and pass them as the group was leaving after a welcome hospitality break.

The group then proceeded to the Canadian Native Friendship Centre, arriving about an hour behind schedule, where they were greeted by about 40 supporters for an evening of “sharing, solidarity and music.” The walkers were also offered food and a place to sleep by the Centre.

There was one final uplifting postscript to the Edmonton visit:

Elana Papin and her three teenager daughters had been forced to stop walking in memory of her sister, Georgina Papin, due to lack of funds for food and lodging on the two month journey. Georgina was one of the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton, and Elana felt it was essential she be represented on the journey.

When Elana’s dilemma was publicized, an anonymous donor came forward to cover expenses so could rejoin the walk with daughters Erica, 15, River, 14, and Summer, 13.

By Clint Buehler

EDMONTON – Convicted murderer Thomas Svekla is appealing his conviction for the murder of sex trade worker Theresa Innes, 36.

Svekla, 40, has filed notice of appeal from the maximum security Edmonton Institution where he is serving a life sentence with no chance for parole for 17 years after being convicted of second degree murder.

He was also found guilty of offering an indignity to a human body.

He was acquitted on the same charges in the murder of Rachel Qinney, 19.

In his appeal, Svekla claims that Court of Queen’s Justice Sterling Sanderman erred in law when he ruled that post-offence conduct was capable of proving the necessary intent required for a murder conviction.

He claims the judge was wrong to admit similar-fact evidence given by two women. A former high school girlfriend testified Svekla choked her and tried to sexually assault her. (She could not be identified because of her age when the incident occurred.)

Rebecca Kroetsch, another close high school friend of Vekla’s who visited him at the Edmonton remand centre after his arrest, had even more damning testimony. She said he told her the high school girl friend had been the first person he had hurt, “the first to see the bogeyman..”

She said her hour-long visit was a “bone-chilling” experience which left her convinced he was guilty of the charges . Although she said Svekla had been good to her in high school, in visiting him in jail she said she felt like Clarissa visiting Hannibal Lecter is Silence of the Lambs.

Svekla indicated in his notice of appeal that he might have further grounds stemming from the conviction, that he wanted to attend the appeal in person, and if successful, he did not want a trial by judge and jury.

He has been advised that he is required to include a transcript of the trial with his appeal documents, and that he should hire a lawyer to handle the appeal.

Transcripts of police interviews with Svekla reveal he was a suspect in six more such killings.

The six other women were Bernadette Ahenakew, Edna Bernard, Debbie Lake, Monique Pitre, Melissa Munch and Sylvia Ballantyne.

Police also suspected Svekla in the disappearances of Corrie Ottenbreit and Delores Brower.

He has not yet been charged in those eight deaths or disappearances. Meanwhile there have been more missing and murdered women in the Edmonton area since Svekla was taken into custody.

All of the 10 victims are believed to have been drug addicts and involved in the sex trade.

In the Innes case, court was told that Svekla killed Innes in High Level in northern Alberta, bound her body in wire, wrapped it and transported it in a hockey bag to his sister’s home in Fort Saskatchewan, just outside of Edmonton. He told her the bag contained compost worms.

When the sister became suspicious and reached into the bag and felt limbs, she called police.

There was also testimony at Svekla’s trial that he may have kept Innes’s body in a freezer in his High Level apartment before transporting it to Edmonton.

In the Quinney case, Justice Sanderman said there was insufficient evidence to link Svekla to Quinney’s death despite the fact that he, in the company of another sex trade worker, found Quinney’s body in a field on the outskirts of Edmonton.

By B.H. Bates

What do these three things have in common: A let-go balloon, the weather and the person standing next to me, waiting in a lineup? You’re a smart cookie if you said, unpredictable. How about these three: exasperating, whimsical, and the person standing next to me, waiting in a lineup? If you answered: weather. Give yourself twenty bucks out of petty cash.

I love people of all shapes and sizes, colors and creeds and I care not of a person’s station in life – I’ll talk to anyone. And I guess folks can read that kind of openness in my mannerisms. And as stated, I’m a people person; but, why is it, that I attract people who spontaneously burst into conversation with statements like: “Hot enough for ya?”

Just once I’d like to have the person standing in line with me, say: “Do you think that global warming has any correlation with the temperature of today?” or “What interesting stratus cloud formations – wouldn’t you say?” or “Wow, you’re a damned handsome man.” But, that kind of thing just never happens – pity.

Nope; I always seem to stand in a lineup next to some yahoo with a t-shirt that reads: I’m with stupid! “Hot enough for ya? My wife has a t-shirt just like this’un. We ain’t from these parts; does it always get this hot in the summer time? Does it cool down at night after the sun goes down? My name is Burford, what’s yer name, fella? Hey, where ya going?.”

And because I’m an approachable, happy-go-lucky type person, in addition to being a Native person – I get blamed for the damnedest things. An example would be; if it were to rain for more than three days in a row, I’d get: “Hey Chief, you can stop that rain dancing anytime, now.” The same thing applies with sun dancing, snow, cold, hail, sleet, land slides, forest fires, earthquakes and unforeseen pregnancies. Oh, but, only if it were true – I’d dance my heart out and it would forever be one long, hot, beautiful summer.

I’ve always been a boy of summer; give me hot dry days with warm evenings, anytime. And as equally, I’m sure there are those who yearn for the crisp air of an early Autumn morning, ski bums who ache for snowflakes and let’s not forget those budding nuts of spring. But, summer has always put a smile on my face. Even though, being a person of Native heritage, who has a year round tan; I still worship the great sun spirit, who turns my skin the color of my chestnut eyes. My wife, who is of English heritage, finds this to be an unfair ancestral advantage. As I slowly get browner and browner she gets redder and redder, then she begins to peel like an albino serpent on a barbecue.

It’s finally time to hit the beaches, swimming holes and cool pools. Time to lose last winters fat, so we can fit into those itty-bitty poke-a-dotted banana hammocks. And if you’ve been to the shore lately, you’re aware of the trend; less is more. The less you wear, the more people become aware of you and vise versa, the more junk you have in your trunk the less you want to be noticed. For women, the cruel word is; cellulite and for men it’s man-boobs.

Then there are those who couldn’t give a damned what’s hanging out. Some of them even seem to revel in their revealing, wallow in their wobble and are shamelessly, shameless. I say, good for them; screw the taunt little anorexic-like, cheese burger deprived showoffs. Incidently, have you ever noticed that the brazenly buoyant, babes and boys; always seem to have a drink in their chubby little mitts? Could a cool brew be the reason behind their cavalier, here’s my rear, attitude?

And summer is all about attitude; a time to shine, a time to lift your chin and get some sun on your neck. Get out of the house, go for a walk, spend some quality time on the deck with family and friends. Take a drive into the hills with your sweety-pie and do a little star gazing – I’ll do a little dance so you’ll have a cloudless night – enjoy!

THE END

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

North American Indigenous Games

The 2008 North American Indigenous Games are growing this year in the Cowichan Valley. This event, developing every year since its inception in 1990, drew over ten thousand people to Colorado last year. This year busy organizers and an army of volunteers are expecting twenty thousand to visit the warm land (or “Cowichan” in the local language Hul’qumi’num).

The famous Tribal Journey canoes should be off now. This journey is taken by a group of more than eighty canoes traveling for two weeks to the 2008 NAIG. The spectacle of their arrival (on July 28th) into the beautiful Cowichan Bay, for the games August 3–10, is a deeply meaningful event for many, but perhaps especially so for those that will be there to perform the traditional Coast Salish welcoming ceremony.

Communities stretching across all boundaries of Turtle Island (North America) are represented in these olympic style competitive games. Communities from Nunavut to New York, Oregon to Nova Scotia, have trained together for much fierce and friendly competition in field and box lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, archery, canoe races, basketball, badminton, running, golf, rifle shooting, wrestling, swimming and softball. The much-anticipated opening ceremonies will reveal a mainstage ready for a week of free cultural performances including the diverse sounds of blues, jazz, classical violin, and spoken word. The Tzinquaw Dancers are global ambassadors of the Cowichan Tribes, and they will be dancing in full force to the rhythm of their own earth shaking chants and beats at both opening and closing ceremonies.

At the opening ceremonies a Spirit Pole project that has acquired an inspiring amount of momentum will be revealed. This traditional Totem (has been transformed from an old growth cedar that fell in Stanley Park during the “great storm of 2006”. It has been transformed by thousands of people from forty-five communities up and down B.C. This is a project conceived and led by a young artist named Carey Newman.

The Cowichan International Aboriginal Film Festival is showing twenty-one hours of film from around the world. The films will be put forth for all to see at huge outdoor screenings, and in the beautiful Cowichan Theatre also.

by Lloyd Dolha

The Supreme Court of Canada has ended a ten-year legal battle over the federally-sponsored Aboriginal Fishing Strategy on the west coast, ruling that the exclusive aboriginal-only fishery did not violate the constitutional rights of non-aboriginal fishermen because the disadvantage of aboriginal people is indisputable.

“The bands granted the benefit were disadvantaged in terms of income, education and a host of other measures. This disadvantage, rooted in history, continues to this day,” ruled the Supreme Court.

“The SCC clearly recognizes that the purpose of the communal fishery licenses provided to First Nations communities by DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) are to provide “economic opportunities through sale or trade” and that the government’s aim was to address the indisputable disadvantage of aboriginal”, said Grand Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit political executive.

The history of the epic legal battle is long and convoluted.

In the summer of 1998, a number of commercial fishermen conducted a protest fishery under the banner of the B.C Fisheries Survival Coalition, in protest of an exclusive 24 hour aboriginal-only fishery allocated to three lower mainland First Nations.

Despite reports citing global warming, rising water temperatures and destruction of critical habitat, the 1998 salmon season was characterized by confrontations between commercial, recreational and aboriginal fisherman who vigorously protested limitations on available openings in light of DFO’s attempt to save dwindling coho stocks.

In particular, the B.C. Survival Coalition, a loosely affiliated group of non-aboriginal fisherman opposed to the Aboriginal Fishery Strategy (AFS) and its policy of commercial fisheries for aboriginal people were bolstered in their militant activities by a January 8, 1998, ruling of provincial court judge Howard Thomas who found there was no legal basis for aboriginal commercial fisheries in the federal Fisheries Act. For that finding, Judge Thomas went back to the Magna Carta of 1215, which ended the Crown’s right to declare exclusive fisheries at its pleasure.

The case at trial was an illegal fishing charge against Reform MP John Cummins. First Nations leaders pointed out that the lawfulness of Cummins’ fishing was the only issue which Thomas had the need or jurisdiction to decide. They contended that Thomas made his ruling without the benefit of aboriginal fishing rights evidence because no First Nation was directly involved and it was only at the urging of Cummins’ lawyer that the judge ventured to give his legal opinion on the legality of aboriginal commercial fisheries.

Then on August 8, 1998, Judge Thomas stayed some 60 charges against 24 Survival Coalition members, including spokesperson Phil Eidsvik, for fishing in protest during aboriginal commercial fisheries in the 1997 and 1996 seasons, citing his own January ‘98 ruling as proof.

The Survival Coalition interpreted this as the end of the AFS, rendering his members immune from prosecution. Further bolstered by the stayed charges, at least 300 Fraser River gill-netters participated in a protest fishery on August 19, 1998, during an aboriginal commercial fishing opening. The gill-netters engaged in the illegal action despite an announcement on the previous day that additional openings would be announced for gill-netters, anglers, and trollers.

DFO officials later confirmed that the August 8, 1998 decision of Judge Thomas will be appealed and DFO expects to charge at least 140 gill-netters for their participation in the illegal fishery.

On July 28, 2003, Judge Kitchen of the Provincial Court of British Columbia entered a judicial stay of proceedings for all accused charged in the matter.

Judge Kitchen found that the pilot sales program was unconstitutional as it violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He found that the equality rights of commercial fishermen had been violated, as they were not treated the same as the aboriginal fishermen fishing pursuant to the pilot sales program.

Within twenty-four hours of Judge Kitchen’s decision DFO cancelled all aboriginal communal licences issued pursuant to the Pilot Sales Program.

The Crown appealed Judge Kitchen’s decision and several First Nations intervened in the appeal to argue that the pilot sales program was not unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Brenner of the BC Supreme Court heard the appeal and issued his decision on Monday July 12, 2004.

The Chief Justice has allowed the appeal and found that the pilot sales program and the aboriginal communal licences which allow the sale of fish caught do not violate the constitution or the equality rights of commercial fishermen.

The Chief Justice said that aboriginal people are disadvantaged in Canada and have been subject to historical inequality and prejudice. The aboriginal Fishing Strategy of DFO (which included the pilot sales program) has provided an economic opportunity to First Nations.

The Chief Justice further said that the pilot sales program did not result in denial or demeaning of the commercial fishermen. No commercial openings were displaced because of the pilot sales program. Hence, the Chief Justice found there was no breach of the Charter equality provisions. The appeal judge later sentenced the ten convicted accused. He suspended sentence for six months without conditions and he imposed a fine of $100 with respect to each of them.

The commercial fishermen appealed the decision of the BC Supreme Court to the BC Court of Appeal, and raised non-Charter constitutional issues concerning the creation of exclusive “race-based” fisheries that were not authorized by Parliamentary legislation or, if so authorized, were beyond the authority of the federal government.

The BC Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal on June 8, 2006, all five judges agreeing that there is no merit to either the non-Charter constitutional issues argument, or the 15(1) Charter arguments. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada for the unanimous final ruling.

“This is a compelling case for the government to renew this program,” added Chief John. “Previously, DFO immediately cancelled the “pilot sales” program following a provincial court decision. We welcome the SCC decision that ‘‘ameliorative programs targeting a disadvantaged group do not constitute discrimination.” said John.

The BC Survival Coalition, which spent some $2 million on the case says it will look at its legal options, but will continue its political fight against the ruling.

By Michaela Whitehawk

For Inez Jasper of Chilliwack, B.C. June 21, 2008 was an unforgettable day. The 27 year-old singer and community health nurse began the day by receiving the National Aboriginal Role Model Program (NARMP) Award, presented to her by Governor General Michaelle Jean. Later that same day Jasper earned first place for her vocal performance in a talent show at the Summer Solstice Aboriginal Arts Festival.

Jasper, who was nominated by her peers for the NARMP Award, said she was overwhelmed by the entire experience. The timing of the award ceremony, which was held in Ottawa shortly after Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s residential schools apology, made the experience even more meaningful for Jasper, a member of the Skowkale First Nation.

“When Michaelle referred to the residential schools, it reminded me that the work I do as a community health nurse is significant,” she said. “I have family members and people in my community who were affected by residential schools so that made me realize the importance of working in the community to promote healthy lifestyles and healing.”

The NARMP, which is administered by the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) honours 12 outstanding aboriginal youth, aged 13 to 30, for their leadership in the community. The goal of the program is to create positive public images of Aboriginal Peoples and to promote aboriginal inspired leadership. Jasper was selected because of her leadership in the aboriginal community as a community health nurse and music artist.

“Some of the strong aspects about Inez are that she is focused on her education and giving back to the community. She is also musically talented and draws strength from her First Nations background for her music,” said NARMP Program Coordinator, Karen Kettler.

Jasper believes being a role model means honoring her ancestors and the traditions that have been passed down for countless generations. Through her music, the singer does her part to keep aboriginal traditions alive. She has already put the $10,000 award money she received from the talent contest towards the production of her first solo album to be released at the end of this summer.

Jasper, who writes and produces her own music, describes her sound as a “blend between hip hop and traditional Stó:lō music,” a fusion she hopes will inspire aboriginal youth to return to their First Nations culture.

“A lot of aboriginal children and youth identify with hip hop because true hip hop is a form of art and expression. It is a way of sharing messages with our people. I see how proud they are to be Native and I am proud to use my music to be a positive role model.”

Jasper’s music is strongly influenced by her personal experiences as a First Nations woman. “The women in my family have taught me to be proud of who I am, to hold my head up high,” she said. That sense of pride in her heritage manifests itself in her unique style of music.

That is not to say that discovering and embracing her own distinct genre of music was easy. “Identifying what I want to achieve, finding my own style and going down an unbeaten path has been difficult,” admitted Jasper.

Taking the ‘unbeaten path’ has lead the artist to write songs such as “Stick-Game Jam,” which features Phillip Lockerby singing a traditional stick game song he composed as the chorus. Like many other songs on Jasper’s upcoming album, “Stick-Game Jam” references Stó:lō culture within the context of a youthful hip-hop beat.

The album is also influenced by Jasper’s work relationships and experiences. “A lot of people think they are love songs, but many of my songs are inspired by my experiences working as an aboriginal nurse,” said the multi-talented Jasper, whose other hobbies include war canoe racing, running and sewing.

What is next for Inez Jasper? Now that she has reached her goal of several years of releasing a solo album, she hopes to start a family with husband of three years, Otis Jasper. The couple plans to build a home on their reservation in Chilliwack, B.C. Developing her nursing career is also a priority for Jasper, who is considering medical school.

Whatever paths she takes in the future, music will continue to be an important aspect of Jasper’s life. For Jasper, music is more than a form of expression, it also keeps her sane. “Writing and singing are good for my health,” she said. “Music is my self-care.”