[Editor's note: Last week's Assembly of First Nations convention played out in the media as sputtering fireworks and sound-bite treatments of varied issues, the most notable being Prime Minister Harper's stated opposition to "racially divided fisheries." In an attempt to bring some light to so much heat, The Tyee offers here a reporter's notebook from the session. Included as well is a full transcript of the question-answer period that placed Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice on the hot seat with native chiefs.]

Last Thursday, the federal Indian Affairs minister was publicly grilled by native chiefs on the lack of clean water and adequate housing, as well as on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's opposition to "race-based fisheries." Other chiefs were more generous, quietly voicing their belief that the minister Jim Prentice was being kept on too tight a leash by Harper, and was trying his best.

The chiefs at the 27th annual convention of the Assembly of First Nations http://www.afn.ca, July 11-13 at the Canada Place centre in Vancouver, also re-elected Phil Fontaine to another three-year term as AFN national chief. After a tough, bitter campaign, Fontaine garnered 76 per cent of the chiefs' votes, winning 373 to 117.

THE ELECTION

In 1997, Fontaine, of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, first succeeded Ovide Mercredi, who had been national chief since 1991. In 2000, the chiefs replaced Fontaine with the feistier Matthew Coon Come, during whose term relations between the AFN and Ottawa nearly broke off. The AFN convention in 2003 re-elected Fontaine to repair relations with Ottawa.

For his campaign, Fontaine cited his accomplishments, which included a first minister's meeting that promised to tackle native poverty, and a $1.9-billion compensation package for former students of residential school abuse. After the vote, Fontaine said his first task is to revive the Kelowna Accord. Fontaine appears extremely shrewd and cautious (overly so, for some), weighing each word at length before speaking.

Fontaine's only challenger was Bill Wilson, whose aboriginal name is Hemas Kla-Lee-Lee-Kla, a lawyer and hereditary chief from the Cape Mudge band on Vancouver Island, who now lives in downtown Vancouver. Active in native causes for four decades, Wilson made national news in 1983, when he wrangled with then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau but helped draft an amendment to the Constitution that secured aboriginal and treaty rights.

He ran for national chief, he said, because topics such as aboriginal suicide, land title and treaties were being bypassed in the leadership campaign, and Fontaine had become too chummy with the Liberals. Wilson claimed the support of four former AFN national chiefs, including Ovide Mercredi, Matthew Coon Come, Del Riley and Noel Starblanket.

Wilson's words

It seems that AFN delegates preferred a more tactful leader; some of Wilson's rhetoric has made headlines. During a 1990 speech to a group of non-aboriginal lawyers, Wilson said it was a "stupid mistake" for aboriginals to have welcomed the first European colonizers.

"For the most part, they were the people from the ghettos in London and Liverpool and all over Europe who simply couldn't make a living there," he said. "Why would they leave if they were doing so well? Realistically, you're nothing but a bunch of dirty, smelly, white people who fell off the boats and had we known what you were going to do to us, perhaps we should have considered killing you all." (Wilson said the lawyers then applauded him.)

Speaking to the Vancouver Sun in 2002, Wilson chastised some B.C. native leaders as "token niggers," explaining that the federal government was using them in much the same way the U.S. southern states would give particular jobs to blacks as a political facade during the segregation conflicts.

THE ISSUES

Fisheries rights

The convention was abuzz over a letter by Prime Minister Stephen Harper published in the Calgary Herald on July 11. It read: "In the coming months, we will strike a judicial inquiry into the collapse of the Fraser River salmon fishery and oppose racially divided fisheries programs."

Grand Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit, and other AFN speakers angrily countered that the Constitution recognizes native fishing rights, and added they have been upheld by the Supreme Court in a 1990 ruling. As well, the B.C. Court of Appeal recently ruled that federal regulations do not violate the constitutional rights of non-aboriginals.

Yet disputes continue on whether the courts explicitly meant commercial fishing rights for aboriginals, or only cultural fishing rights. Although non-native fishermen applauded Harper's comments in the press, some AFN delegates warned that the initiative could be a serious threat to treaty negotiations in B.C., and could even spark violence amongst competing fishing groups on the waters.

Health

Diabetes resulting from poor diets is overrunning Canada's First Nations at a rate three to five times that of the general population, according to a report released to the AFN and based on an aboriginal health survey.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell was cordially welcomed to the convention, in contrast to his reception four years ago, when he was promoting a province-wide referendum that would have limited the powers of future aboriginal governments. Introducing him, Musqueam band leader Ernie Campbell called the premier "cousin."

"It is not acceptable to me, nor to you...that there is a 400 per cent greater incidence of Type 2 diabetes. It is not acceptable that life expectancy is seven and a half years shorter," the premier said. He proudly noted last week's B.C. educational-jurisdiction deal that gave bands control over their children's education.

UN Declaration

Fontaine asked all native leaders to join in the fight to convince the Canadian government to agree on the United Nations Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Canada and Russian were the only two of 30 voting states who opposed the statement that recognizes the rights of native peoples around the globe.

Representation

An old sore point remains. "The AFN has been almost irrelevant in terms of urban aboriginal issues," the Toronto Star this week quoted Joe Hester, who runs an aboriginal health clinic in Toronto. "There's a claim on their part that they represent First Nations members living off-reserve, but it just isn't true."

Asked about this longstanding perception, the Grand Chief's son Michael Fontaine told The Tyee wearily that "The AFN represents every First Nation person in this country regardless of residency. There has been legislation passed that if you live off reserve you can vote in your own community. That tells me that wherever you are, you are a citizen of your First Nation. If outside organizations claim to represent them, that's a myth. You can't compel somebody to vote, but it's far easier to be critical.

"First Nations people vote for their chiefs," he added. And those chiefs can then vote at the AFN, just like the Canadian system. The idea that people can hold native politics to a higher standard of democracy than the Canadian system is an o ffensive fallacy. Everybody has a role to play, and all First Nations people are in this together."

THE GRILLING

On the last day, Jim Prentice, the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, addressed delegates, the first time a Conservative government spokesperson had done so in 13 years. He apparently tried to set a new "tough love" tone for a political relationship with native peoples.

Jim Prentice, born 1956, the MP for Calgary Centre-North, is a developer, lawyer and newspaper owner. He was first elected to the Commons in 2004 and served as the opposition critic on the ministry. He was nominated in 2001 to run in Calgary Southwest, but stepped aside for Stephen Harper, and in 2003, he ran for the Conservative leadership, coming second to Peter MacKay. He later voted in favour of the Liberals' same-sex marriage bill. Prentice was saddled with the unpopular task of cancelling the Liberals' $5 billion election-eve Kelowna Accord. He tried to fill the Kelowna void by targeting money at drinking-water problems and violence against aboriginal women.

He has pledged to confront the problems facing urban natives -- a massive but often-neglected subject -- with $600 million from any unexpected surpluses. After years of Liberal stalling, Prentice finally got cash moving to the survivors of native residential school abuse.

'Not the Prentice I knew'

In his speech, Prentice appeared quite dedicated and well informed of his portfolio, but utterly hard-nosed, rigid and humourless -- maybe uneasy under the prime minister's constraints, and the embarrassment of having to defend Harper's blunt comments on "race-based fisheries." The question-and-answer session that followed was far from congenial. (Find a transcript of the full session at the end of this article.)

Perhaps it could hardly be otherwise. As Calgary Herald columnist Don Martin noted: "[The ministers] are not generally allowed to think outside the tight little box Harper hammered them into right after the swearing-in ceremony. So they mostly taunt the Liberals about the 13 years they had to fix nagging problems the Conservatives inherited."

"In that room was not the Jim Prentice I knew a year ago," Alberta regional chief Jason Goodstriker later told The Tyee. "It seems that the prime minister is hanging a big stick over the ministers' heads, so I have only sympathy for him. Mr. Prentice is the best and most qualified person we have in the Conservative party for that job. He does have compassion, and he lobbied to have the job, but if he doesn't fall into rank, the PM might replace him with someone else."

Hustled out

One consistent Tory theme is accountability: "Citizens want good value for their hard-earned tax dollars, and governments must do their best to meet this demand," said Prentice. "Aboriginal governments are no exception. For First Nations communities to become more self-sufficient, First Nations governments must be more accountable to their constituents."

As Prentice left the meeting hall, a disquieting scene ensued. Security guards barked at people to clear a path for the minister, and Prentice was hustled out within a bubble of aides down long hallways and out a backdoor like a hunted man (to catch a plane, he said, as he was scheduled to visit the Calgary Stampede rodeo the next day). Media ran to catch him, shouting questions in vain, typical of the Tories' strained relations with the press. Even Fontaine followed the scrum without finding Prentice, and reporters voiced astonishment that the minister had not posed for a photo with the national chief.

Next up, Layton

A lively speech by NDP leader Jack Layton followed. "The NDP does not believe the fisheries is race-based, now or ever has been," he said to prolonged applause and whistles. "Just like we don't believe we're in a race-based meeting now. We are talking nation to nation!"

And yet Layton was not without native critics. "Mr. Layton is just as responsible as Mr. Prentice for us losing the Kelowna Accord," Michael Fontaine told The Tyee. "If Mr. Layton hadn't voted with the Tories, the Liberal government would still be alive, and Kelowna would still be alive.

After a lengthy policy discussion with panellists, Layton and aboriginal Liberal MP Gary Merasty (a Cree from Saskatchewan), the convention closed with a moving song and a long parade of chiefs into the hall, each holding up a distinct flag for each region, and all trailed by a half dozen red coated Mounties.

NOTES IN THE MARGINS

I recalled that in 1997 in the same building, I had attended the AFN convention that first elected Fontaine as Grand Chief (as background for my course in Aboriginal Politics at UBC). How odd it seemed that in a booming B.C. economy, the same issues -- basic housing, water, diseases, jobs -- kept recurring over and over, as time seems to stand still.

It was disconcerting to walk amidst people living in conditions that Vancouverites would never accept for themselves at home in 2006, if one tries to imagine not being able to get water from taps or flush a toilet, much less being unable to find a job, or a nurse for one's children.

I wonder if the same problems will be raised again at an AFN convention a decade from now. If so, it's not something Canadians could be proud of.

TRANSCRIPT: QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

July 13, 2006. Federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice and aboriginal chiefs, at the 27th annual convention of the Assembly of First Nations (http://www.afn.ca), July 11-13 at the Canada Place in Vancouver.

Male Questioner:

I am Chief Doug Kelly, from the Soowahlie First Nation of Vancouver Island. I want to thank Minister Prentice for joining us today, and making an effort to deal with a couple of important issues head on. I want to make one observation. It troubles me that the Conservative government insists on making aboriginal issues partisan. He knows the history well. Yes, there's been a Liberal government for 13 years. But there was a Conservative government for about a decade before that. These problems within our communities -- social, economic, poverty, education, issues around lands and rights -- they've existed since contact. There have been political parties of all stripes that share in that shameful history. [Applause.]

I met with [acting federal Liberal leader] Bill Graham not long ago and I asked him, "I encourage you to move away from partisan politics, when it begins to address the crushing poverty in our communities." I met with Jean Crowder, one of [NDP leader] Jack Layton's MPs and we asked her to move away from partisan politics. I did the same with you, minister, and a couple of your colleagues. I'm asking you again to move away from the shameful partisan politics where the game is played, and it doesn't change a damn thing for any of us. [Applause.]

On the issue of the Kelowna Accord, accountability, minister, is a two way street. That Kelowna Accord was signed by the prime minister, not by the Liberal leader. It was signed by the premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell, and the B.C. First Nations Leadership Council. The transformative accord, it's a made-in-B.C. arrangement, it flows from Kelowna. There are commitments made there that require new investment, new policy, a new significant commitment from you and your government. We're not seeing that commitment.

I want to also bring to your attention this concern that I have about the preoccupation with electoral process. There's a reason your government is a minority and not a majority. And it's about promises like that judicial inquiry. On one hand, the Conservatives talk about being wise and astute with hard-earned taxpayers' dollars, and then they throw it away on useless judicial inquires. [Applause.]

Put that money into basic research and the recovery of Cultus sockeye, and supportive partnerships, and not wasting time playing the blame game.

I want you to know, minister, we know what went wrong. I'm working with the commercial salmon advisory board, I'm working with others in the commercial fishing industry to move the agenda forward in a good way. When your prime minister makes policy changes off-the-cuff about First Nations fisheries, he threatens those kinds of arrangements. Thank you, Madame Chair. [Applause]

Minister Prentice:

Well, a couple of things I'd like to respond to very quickly. Firstly, on the issue of partisanship, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I understand how important these issues are. I also wish to make it clear, however, that you understand just how difficult is the situation that this government and I have inherited as a minister, and I should continue to draw the comparison between this government and the last.

With respect to the issue of the fisheries, I think I've spoken clearly about this. I have worked extensively with the prime minister on this issue, as has the minister of fisheries and oceans, and there is nothing whatsoever "off-the-cuff" about the indication that there will be a judicial inquiry. It was discussed in the last election, it was in writing in the platform on which the Conservative party ran to form government. And I don't agree with your comment that it is not important. It is important for the sake of aboriginal Canadians as much as non-aboriginal Canadians to get to the bottom of what is the problem in the Fraser River fishery before there's no fish left. Surely it's important that we have someone independent and respected, who will be respectful of aboriginal rights as well to get to the bottom of this.

With respect to Kelowna, you reference the agreement that the prime minister has signed. The prime minister never signed an agreement at Kelowna, and none of the dollars that were tabled in the closing moments were ever put forward to the Parliament of Canada in a budget. It just did not happen. And there is no document describing the financial commitments that have been approved by the government of Canada. Now, if you compare the budget that this government dealt with, it is a budget on a two-year timetable, and you compare it to the budget that was discussed in Kelowna at that time, at the first ministers' meeting, the numbers are quite comparable. So we've moved forward on the agenda that I've described in my comment earlier today. I look forward to doing that.

Male Questioner:

Mr. Prentice, I am Chief Harper of the Garden Hill First Nations of Manitoba. Today I'm hearing that you've given out billions and billions of dollars throughout various programs, with different resources. But today in my community, at this very moment, we're experiencing an epidemic of tuberculosis. And I've been to Ottawa to raise this issue, and I know for a fact that you're aware of this issue. What about housing? In my community there has not been one house delivered this past year, due to climate change. And today I want to challenge each and every First Nation in this room -- and I want you to witness this, Mr. Minister -- how many of you First Nations do not have running water in your communities? Raise your hands. [Many hands raised.]

I'll tell you, minister, in my community there is no such thing as running water, a community of 4,000. And minister, I want to invite you, along with national chief Fontaine to my community, to see firsthand the problems we have to live in every day. Prior to coming here, I got invited to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg to come meet an elder, 83 years old, a well-respected native elder with tuberculosis.

Time after time, your government will not face this crisis. We need community-wide screening, and housing. Something has to be done today. We won't see new housing, because it's a "winter road access only." So I'm asking you today two questions. What are you going to do about our housing? And when will you visit the region?

Minister Prentice:

Well, Chief Harper, I hear you, I understand what you're saying. If there's a way over the next year to visit your community, I will do that. I've visited many of the First Nations community over the past 20 years of my life.

You've raised three issues. First, water. We're doing the best with the circumstances that I've inherited with water. I think it's a pretty good job -- 755 First Nations water systems across Canada, 200 of them involve communities at risk. When I became the minister, we've reduced the number, and we'll continue to force those numbers down. I think the approach I've outlined with national standards and accountability is for everyone. That is the way to go.

With respect to health, I'm not the health minister, although I work together with the minister. I can tell you that in the last budget there was $220 million in additional money put forward for health, which was an increase of 12 per cent in the aboriginal health budget. So we've committed resources and the minister of health is committed to dealing with this issue, and we speak about it all the time. Again, there are difficult issues across the country that we're trying to wrestle with.

On housing, I can tell you that I've spoken with the national chief on this, and we look forward to working together, and we want to be able to leverage housing dollars, and we want to see more opportunities for people on reserve to own their own homes, to do so in a legal framework to encourage independence. So I appreciate your comments.

Male Questioner:

I am Dan Smith, Qualicum First Nation. Thank you Mr. Minister for being here. You talked about prosperity and quality of life.

Mr. Minister, from our perspective in our First Nations communities, prosperity and quality of life is culturally connected to our lands and resources. They are demonstrated through our crests, our songs and our dances. I'm not sure, Mr. Minister, if you fully understand or appreciate that we are culturally connected to the lands and resources. We want to protect that integrity. You talk about how much money is in the budget. Do you know how much money is in the respective First Nations across Canada to provide for that quality of life that you talk about? Do you know the statements that have been made by the prime minister in respect to the human rights of indigenous peoples? Do know what "race-based fisheries" comments do to our kids in the schools, at homes, in terms of interacting with the non-aboriginal communities? It fuels the fires of prejudice and discrimination. [Applause.]

Mr. Minister, I want to talk for a minute about systemic attitudinal barriers that have been created by rhetoric. The barriers have been there since 1763, and since first contact, reinforced in 1867 when the federal government said, "We will look after the Indians and their lands." When are you going to start looking after all First Nations peoples? That barrier is reinforced by statements like "we are not going to support a segregated fisheries across Canada. That's not segregated, that's a right that's recognized in the Constitution of Canada. [Applause.]

[Madam Chair: Could you please ask your question because he has to leave in 10 minutes, and there are many people waiting at other mics.]

Yes Madame Chair, my question is, "Do you know how many financial resources are in each of the communities, and if you do, could you tell us, please."

Minister Prentice:

I'm not sure I fully understand your question, but I can tell you that the government of Canada at this point spends $9 million a year on aboriginal programs and services, which, however you calculate it, is in the range of $15,000 for each person who lives on reserves. I appreciate your frankness but I'm going to be frank with you as well. When you talked about the fishery, there is an aboriginal right to fish for food and ceremonial purposes. There is no constitutional right to have commercial fisheries segregated on a racial basis, and no court has ever said that. There's no suggestion that any court would ever say that. We're talking about the commercial fishery and how it should be organized in the best interests of aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. We're committed to economic opportunities for First Nations to participate in the commercial fishery, but it will have to be as a commercial fishery. And frankly that's the approach that's been followed on the east coast of Canada.

Male Questioner:

My name is Robert, chief of a band in the interior of British Columbia. I'm here to pass on a message to the Indian agent that was sent here by the Prime Minister. [Applause.]

You come here and talk big. Not much comes to our community, but a lot goes to pensions and payoffs for bureaucrats. [Applause.]

Some of your forked tongue DFAO officers send the wrong messages from us to Ottawa. I just want you to know that you don't have a friend here. Our children can't borrow money to live on, but some of the bureaucrats are getting too rich off Indians. [Applause.]

I have just one more thing to say. You better listen to what we're saying because I think we'll be able to take over this country Canada some day, hopefully soon, and when we do that, the resources are going to be flowing from us to you, and you're going to be getting the same treatment that you've been giving us. [Long, loudest applause.]

Female Questioner:

I'm from the Deh Cho First Nation near Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories. On your comments on the MacKenzie Gas Project. In the 21st century you're still expropriating our lands, to build a pipeline with or without the Deh Cho. Those comments are disheartening to me and my six-year-old daughter. How can she sustain herself if you continue to give away our lands for nothing? [Applause.]

I'd like you to tell the chiefs in this hall that you are not prepared to give away our lands, because how can we sustain ourselves if the government will give everything away to industry? That land is rightfully my daughter's, and her children's, and her grandchildren's. We've been negotiating in this Deh Cho process for years.

We don't want to call it "land claims." We want to call it shared stewardship of our lands, and that should be acceptable to the government because both of us will win. But your government continues to push us on land claims, giving us a small percentage of what is rightfully ours. How can we as a First Nations government sustain ourselves with what little land you will give us? How can you say "build this pipeline with or without the Deh Cho"? That is my question. [Applause.]

Minister Prentice:

I'll deal with that very directly, and I think it's very important that everyone have the facts straight. Shortly after I became the minister, I instructed the department to make a fair offer to the Deh Cho. We have tabled an offer that is consistent with every other land settlement north of 60. I know the Deh Cho do not think the offer is acceptable. But we have tried to be fair.

With respect to the pipeline, there are four First Nations communities along the pipeline including the Deh Cho. The other three First Nations are owners of the project, they own 30 per cent of the pipeline. It is one the largest pieces of oil and gas infrastructure in the world. I hope the Deh Cho will see their way clear to become owners also, because the revenue stream from that pipeline is enormous. But we can't have a situation in Canada where any single group has a veto over the best interests of other aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples. That's what I've said and I stand by it. Thanks very much, ladies and gentlemen.

Madame Chair:

Monsieur Prentice, on behalf of the Assembly of First Nations, you have a gift. [Hands him an engraved wooden box.] It's an empty box, and when you come back, it means you'll have some money in there, some agreements, some good stuff. [Applause.]

Minister Prentice:

Thanks very much, ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate your honesty. I'm aware of the responsibility on my shoulders as the minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, and each and every day I do my best to discharge that. [Applause.]

Stanley Tromp is a journalist based in Vancouver.