#c-33

A long dormant governing body within in the Assembly of First Nations is set to hold its first meeting in a decade this week in Ottawa, says the head of Manitoba’s largest chiefs organization.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak said the Confederacy of Nations is set to meet Wednesday.

“I have put out a notice to the Manitoba chiefs that there is a Confederacy meeting happening and there will be a number of chiefs going to Ottawa,” said Nepinak.

Nepinak said he also expects delegates from Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Quebec and the Northwest Territories to attend the meeting.

The Confederacy last met in 2004.

The chiefs in Ontario initiated the call for the Confederacy of Nations meeting. Over 40 chiefs signed a letter addressed to AFN CEO Peter Dinsdale asking him to find a venue and provide logistical support for the meeting.

“At least five regions of the AFN whose total membership consists of well over 50 per cent of the membership population have agreed to call, convene and participate in a meeting of the Confederacy of Nations,” said the letter, dated this past Friday. “They have also confirmed that the number of official delegates they will be sending will be well over the 50 per cent quorum specified in the (AFN) charter.”

The AFN executive, however, decided against Ontario’s request during a conference call Friday. Quebec regional Chief Ghislain Picard wrote Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy the same day informing him of the decision. Picard said the meeting could only be called by the AFN chiefs in assembly.

AFN CEO Peter Dinsdale also wrote Beardy saying the Confederacy did not have quorum and could not trigger an official meeting.

“Other regions have not identified a process for identifying their duly selected members, so I am unable to achieve quorum for a call from Confederacy of Nations members. It is for these reasons that I do not have the authority to comply with this request as it has been submitted,” wrote Dinsdale.

The executive’s decision, however, is based on one interpretation of the AFN’s charter and proponents of the meeting see it another way, said Nepinak.

“The onus is on the (AFN’s) members,” said Nepinak. “There will be different interpretations.”

Serpent River First Nation Chief Isadore Day said he hopes the AFN executive, some who will be present at the meeting, won’t try to subvert attempts to make the Confederacy gathering an official event.

“It would be in the best interest of the executive to make this work. If the executive is smart what they will do is they will find a way to make it work,” said Day, whose community sits in Ontario. “We don’t have time to jockey this thing back and forth or play politics on this issue.”

Day said the push to hold the Confederacy meeting is driven by a desire by some of the leadership and grassroots to get back to the “roots” of the AFN.

“What the Confederacy of Nations wants is to get back to the spirit and intent of the AFN,” he said. “This really is I believe a turning point for the AFN.”

The Confederacy of Nations is separate from the AFN executive and, under the AFN’s charter, has oversight role over the executive. Under the charter, the Confederacy is supposed to meet quarterly. [...]

Nepinak said the AFN executive could not stop a decision to hold a Confederacy meeting. Nepinak said a situation deemed to be an emergency by a member of the AFN is enough to trigger a Confederacy meeting.

He said the Harper government’s First Nation education bill, which is currently on hold in Parliament, and the recent resignation of former AFN national chief Shawn Atleo met the threshold of an emergency.

“I can’t speculate as to who in the (AFN) executive is making attempts to try to prevent the meeting from happening,” said Nepinak. “It is a really bad political maneuver. It will come out.”

The AFN chiefs committee on education is also meeting on Thursday to discuss Bill C-33, the First Nation Control of First Nation Education. A special AFN chiefs assembly is scheduled for May 27, also in Ottawa.

The Confederacy of Nations has the powers of an oversight body within the AFN charter and it has the authority to direct the national chief and demand accountability. The body is separate from the “chiefs in assembly” which includes the chiefs and their proxies who attend the organization’s bi-annual assemblies.

It met quarterly from 1982 to 2004 and then faded from use.

CBC News has learned the Assembly of First Nations national executive committee has decided against convening a long-dormant governing body called the Confederacy of Nations.

The Confederacy is a mechanism by which chiefs can give direction to the AFN in between scheduled annual assemblies, but it hasn’t been used in about 10 years.

Some First Nations leaders saw the call for a confederacy as an attempt by those who want to kill the education bill to influence the AFN’s response to the legislation.

While there is widespread opposition to the government’s legislation, known as the First Nations control of First Nations education act, some aboriginal leaders say it can be improved without throwing it out, particularly because it came with nearly $2 billion in funding with yearly increases.

However, the decision on the confederacy means the May 27 special assembly of chiefs meeting the executive has called will be where the official response to the education legislation will be drafted. It is also where chiefs will decide when to elect a new national chief.

On May 1, Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy called for the confederacy. Beardy said it was urgent because the federal government’s controversial First Nations education reform bill was at second reading and the next AFN assembly was not until July.

But Beardy’s fellow executive members have said no, telling him the situation has changed.

“As you are aware, some circumstances have changed since these letters were submitted. On May 2, 2014 Shawn Atleo resigned his position as national chief and on May 5, 2014 the minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development stated that Bill C-33 is being placed ‘on hold’ until the Assembly of First Nations ‘clarifies its position,’” said AFN executive spokesperson and Quebec Regional Chief Ghislain Picard in a letter to Beardy on Friday.

Under the AFN charter, it takes a majority of regional chiefs to agree to the confederacy. The confederacy also requires a certain number of regional representatives to attend. Sources tell CBC News that since the mechanism has not been used in a decade, many of the regions wouldn’t have had those people selected in time to go.

And sources tell CBC News that the logistical challenges of putting together a confederacy by May 14 were just too many.

But Nova Scotia and Newfoundland regional chief Morley Goo Goo said that doesn’t mean there can’t be a meeting on that day even if it isn’t be a full-fledged Confederacy of Nations.

“I understand the importance of listening to all points of view from all regions,” Goo Goo said when contacted by CBC News. “And we’re committed to doing that.”

Today, only 3 days after Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Shawn Atleo resigned, Prime Minister Harper’s Conservative government has made its move. Contrary to Harper’s usual backroom politics and secret meetings with the National Chief, Harper has switched it up. He has decided to play this political game out in the open for all to see. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) Minister Bernard Valcourt offered a statement to the press today saying that it will put consideration of Bill C-33 First Nation Control of First Nation Education Act on hold until the AFN clarifies their position. [...]

This is a very calculated move on the part of Harper’s government which serves a three-fold purpose. Firstly, this move serves as an indication to the AFN that Harper will give it another chance to get back in line. The carrot being offered is the promised funding attached to the bill (post-conservative-election funding). If the AFN confirms their support of the bill, they’ll all kiss, make up and move on as they were pre-Atleo. Atleo’s resignation would go down as a minor hiccup for Harper.

Secondly, this move could serve to cause internal chaos at AFN. Harper is essentially casting his line to see which member of the AFN executive will take the bait – i.e., who will step up to replace Atleo and maintain the status quo relationship between the AFN and Harper government. Saskatchewan Regional Chief Perry Bellegarde has been front and centre in the media supporting the Atleo-Harper education deal – at least until Atleo’s resignation. Then, there’s always New Brunswick Regional Chief Roger Augustine, who recently wrote an open letter trying to convince Chiefs to support Bill C-33 – so maybe it will be him? It’s hard to say at this point.

However either of these two scenarios turn out – they both miss the point. It simply doesn’t matter if the AFN Executive jointly issue a statement clarifying their support for the bill, or one of the Executive is appointed as interim National Chief and supports the bill. The AFN has no legal or political authority to allow, approve or in any way provide permission for this bill to proceed through the legislative process. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the AFN is not a rights-holder – it is an advocacy organization. To those with Aboriginal, treaty and inherent rights to education, it doesn’t matter what the AFN says, except in so far as the AFN has the power to negatively impact our struggle to preserve those rights. We are the rights holders and we are the only ones who can decide. Our strong opposition to this bill is what’s really scaring Harper and motivating this move.

Finally, and perhaps most ironically, what this recent move by the federal government does is focus attention away from the education bill and place it back on the AFN. Harper is hoping to reduce the building momentum against this bill by directing our attention to the AFN. Many people are now waiting to see what the AFN will say. The media is fixated on the AFN election and who the candidates might be. Some have even commented that AANDC’s announcement to put the bill on hold is a sort of victory.

But perhaps that’s the idea? Maybe in putting this legislation “on hold” Harper hopes this will be enough to snuff out the fire that has been lit in our communities to defeat this bill?  Keep in mind, First Nation leaders and citizens, together with Canadians, have organized major rallies for May 14 in Ottawa to voice their opposition to this bill. Maybe Harper is hoping we’ll see no need to rally, now that the bill is on hold – but they’d be wrong. We have to use every single day to our advantage to oppose this bill.

Bill C-33 is still in Parliament, still in Senate pre-study (though on hold) and could be re-animated and rammed through Parliament at a moment’s notice. We have to maintain our focus on killing this bill and worrying about the AFN later. We need to ensure that our voices are heard and that we do everything we can to ensure this bill does not pass. We all want to change the status quo and address the crisis in First Nation education – but giving up control over our education to the Minister is not the way to do that.

AANDC could start addressing the crisis by providing fair funding and addressing the cumulative deficit in education. AANDC could literally address the chronic underfunding TODAY. It’s a choice they make - against every study, domestic and international law, our treaties and even economic recommendations - not to do so. Look at the lengths Canada will go to in order to defer, deflect and deny the problem of purposeful, chronic underfunding of First Nation education. All of these many decades of studies, reports, and meetings, followed by more studies, reports and meetings are meant to delay the inevitable conclusion – First Nation education must be funded.

But if Harper has his way – this bill will pass and so too will our chance to protect our future generations from Harper’s assimilation plans.