| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
If it is proven the Da’naxda’xw aren’t following a First Nation tradition
Join us at unitedfirstnations.org
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt should pressure the Da’naxda’xw First Nation 
to end its 26-year “dictatorship” and hold an open election, said one of Canada’s leading experts on aboriginal issues.
“The minister would clearly be within his authority to intervene and terminate the current regime by requiring elections” if it is proven the Da’naxda’xw aren’t following a First Nation tradition and don’t have the support of most of the First Nation’s 200 members, according to Bradford Morse.
He was a top aide in the 1990s to Liberal Indian Affairs minister Ron Irwin and previously an adviser to various First Nations on treaty, governance and constitutional matters. He is now a University of Ottawa law professor on leave to serve as dean of law at the University of Waikato in New Zealand.
Morse said the federal government’s history of mismanagement and paternalism on aboriginal issues has meant that Ottawa is loathe to interfere with local governance disputes.
This is especially so for the 343 First Nations, out of a total of 617, who run elections under “custom” codes rather than using election rules under the Indian Act.
Bands who run their own custom elections are allowed to modify voting systems so they’re more in line with First Nation traditions. However, most tend to stick fairly closely to Indian Act-style elections with a few modifications, the most common being to extend the council’s term from two to three or four years, according to Morse and other sources interviewed by The Vancouver Sun.
The Da’naxda’xw First Nation has been ruled by Bill Glendale, his wife Anne, and their son Fred, who died recently, since 1987. That’s when the band passed a resolution declaring that Bill Glendale was the hereditary chief and his wife and son the sole band councillors. There hasn’t been an election since.
Morse said he believes that is inconsistent with North American aboriginal democratic traditions, which he said were once a global model for inclusiveness and helped inspire the drafters of the American constitution.
“Traditional systems didn’t have a leader who couldn’t be removed. If leaders were not responsive to the community, they were turfed.”
Morse said his first step, if he were advising the minister, would be to find a way to mediate a deal between the Glendales and off-reserve critics.
He said if that isn’t successful, the federal government could provide moral and financial support, research and documentation for a challenge before either the B.C. Supreme Court or the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
The government could also withhold financial transfers to the band as a pressure tactic and, if all else failed, force the band back into the Indian Act election structure.
Morse said the last step would be politically easier if a respected third party, like the B.C. First Nations Summit that represents B.C. aboriginal communities involved in the treaty process, helped organize a referendum of band members.
A Senate committee which looked into First Nations governance issues recommended in 2010 that First Nations continue to move away from Indian Act-governed elections.
The committee concluded that the federal legislation’s two-year terms were too short, and the system’s “administrative inconsistencies” resulted in frequent appeals.
The report was supportive of the general trend in favour of custom code systems.
Since 1988, according to a 2010 Senate report, First Nations moving to custom code have had to provide assurance that their new regimes were consistent with the Charter of Rights and had full community approval.
But witnesses, including federal officials, noted that Ottawa has taken a hands-off approach if leaders later amend its election system in a way that’s not consistent with the Charter of Rights.
They also noted that there are also more than 100 custom code First Nations who have never been part of the Indian Act provisions, and therefore didn’t have to meet the Charter-compliant test.
Independent Sen. Patrick Brazeau, the former head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and now embroiled in the Senate expenses scandal, told the committee in 2009 that as many as 80 custom code First Nations are not Charter-compliant.
But Brazeau said in an interview last week that he’s only heard of one or two other cases similar to the Da’naxda’xw, where elections have been avoided for a quarter-century.
Gerry St. Germain, the retired former Conservative chair of the Senate aboriginal affairs committee, told The Sun he’s never heard of a situation like the Da’naxda’xw.
“I can’t say that I have, but there is a possibility there are other situations similar to that.”
ALSO READ: where-the-tiny-village-lies/
Join us at unitedfirstnations.org
Source: http://unitedfirstnations.org/wp/2013/06/02/if-it-is-proven-the-danaxdaxw-arent-following-a-first-nation-tradition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=if-it-is-proven-the-danaxdaxw-arent-following-a-first-nation-tradition
