ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 22, 1996 TAG: 9611220054
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOURCE: OTTAWA
A COMMISSION proposes an aboriginal legislature that would join the Senate and House of Commons in making up Parliament.
After spending five years and $43 million, a commission appointed to transform Canada's troubled relationship with Canadian Indians made its recommendations Thursday: an Indian chamber of Parliament, greater native autonomy, and a $27 billion investment plan for indigenous communities.
In a 4,000-page report compiled in the aftershock of a clash between Indians and security forces, the commission warned that without an all-out effort to transform native dependency into self-reliance, Canada risks more violence and ever-rising costs.
Indian leaders swiftly endorsed the commission's call for official recognition of their sovereignty, an all-aboriginal house of Parliament, and a 20-year investment plan that would pump an extra $27 billion into Indian communities.
``This is no time to waffle, no time to be cute. This is your last chance,'' said Ovide Mercredi, head of the national assembly of Indian chiefs. ``The work of the commission is too important to ignore.''
But Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin said it would be hard to come up with so much money at a time of deep federal budget cuts and increasing public skepticism toward Indian issues. He said the report would be studied, and he endorsed the goal of self-reliance, but voiced no enthusiasm for major constitutional changes.
The seven-member Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was created in 1991 after a lengthy armed standoff between Mohawk Indians and security forces in Quebec that resulted in the shooting death of a police officer.
Spending $43 million - more than any commission in Canadian history - the panel held hearings in 96 communities and took testimony from 2,067 people.
It was criticized for moving too slowly and spending too lavishly, even by one of its three non-native members, Allan Blakeney, who quit in 1993. He says the commission should have issued its report years ago, when the public was more sympathetic to Indian problems.
A recent government poll indicates a growing number of Canadians think Indians are to blame for their own problems. Whites have formed groups in British Columbia and Ontario to lobby against Indian land claims.
The commission's report touches on almost every aspect of native life. But all the proposals stem from a single assertion - that Canada's native people are a sovereign nation even though they want to be part of the Canadian federation.
The commission proposes an aboriginal legislature, to be called the House of First Peoples, that would join the Senate and House of Commons in making up Parliament. The new chamber's powers would be limited to providing advice to Commons.
The report calls on federal and provincial governments to increase annual spending on aborigines by 15 percent to improve housing, health care and jobs over the next 20 years. Indians would establish their own education, justice and social service systems.
The commission said the investment eventually would be offset by the benefits of more productive Indian communities.
Without new funding, the commission predicted a worsening of current problems, which include a 25 percent Indian jobless rate, Indian street gangs, pervasive substance abuse and family violence, and high rates of teen-age suicide and poverty.
Canada's aboriginal population is about 810,000, including Indians, 38,000 Inuits (formerly known as Eskimos) and 139,000 Metis - people of mixed Indian and white ancestry.
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