Visit the Carving Studio of Alert Bay

Carving a Crooked Beak in Alert Bay, B.C.

Feeding the trout

Huge breakthrough coming for Prince George First Nation students

Marlene Erickson is vice-chair of the Aboriginal Education Task Force and chairperson for the Aboriginal Education Board in School District 57, which runs schools in Prince George, B.C., and surroundings, "We reported on the task force findings Feb 26 08."

The report was delivered to the school board and the Aboriginal Education School Board. Erickson has been working for over a decade to bring about the fundamental changes required to make education an acceptable opportunity to these youth from First Nations.

She began to work to bring about change in the previous decade when Erickson volunteered for Native Student Services Committee in the school district, which was a precursor to the Aboriginal Education Board. The Aboriginal Education Board was formed in the area in the mid-1990s and Erickson joined as a board member, then two years ago she was appointed to the chair.

The recommendations made by the Aboriginal Education Task Force, which Erickson vice-chaired, "will take several years and we certainly hope to get started right away." For Erickson the priority is simple, "The biggest issue is to increase the Academic Achievement levels to open the doors for First Nations kids to enter post-secondary institutions and get higher learning.”

The process of designing a program and building relevant curricula will take advantage of research done by other jurisdictions where Aboriginal education engages students with cultural acknowledgements and practices within a protected learning environment.

"We are discussing a 'choice' school and eventually it will deliver an Aboriginal-specific curriculum," said Erickson. "We think we can make rapid progress because the initiatives have SD57 trustee support and results of the task force indicate strong community-level and grassroots support for program changes and design."

Erickson said a city like Prince George needs to work as a community to help struggling kids, "We want a choice school so other kids from non-Native families can access the program. We want the program to emphasize cooperative learning techniques, which seem to benefit the First Nation student more than the learning model that demands high grades and forces ambition into a fiercely competitive mode."

All students in this particular choice for Aboriginal-oriented education will benefit from added levels of support, and, no, “this is not a return to Residential Schools," which Erickson said has been one of the criticisms.

As Aboriginals, "We are already at 25 percent of the school enrolment and it is increasing every year. We have some schools in the city of Prince George already at 75 percent Aboriginal students in the population," and, she said, this will make the development of a 'choice' school a reasonable alternative.

Why hasn't it happened before now? "There are a whole bunch of reasons why the proposal is new," because, she said, "it is essentially new again." They tried proposing a choice school five years ago but the city wasn't ready to listen to the suggestion.

If Prince George's polity thought it had bigger problems and perhaps bigger fish to fry, well, "We are trying to impress on the community that the education system in the city is failing the student population and it amounts to a crisis. We will face mounting social costs, strains to the justice system, and continued dependencies on social welfare programs."

In order for the recommendations to come to pass, including the one about an Aboriginal choice school, community consultations are impending and they could become noisy. The SD57 board has approved the idea, nevertheless, the community needs to be consulted, and consultations can become noisy, especially when the topic is what to do about Indians in the city.

The SD57 area of jurisdiction covers more than the city of Prince George and includes east to Valemount, north to Mackenzie and McLeod Lake, and west to Vanderhoof. Some of the district's schools contain a vast majority of Native kids in their population.

"Our plans for Prince George will possibly benefit places like McLeod Lake and they will be watching closely because they sit on the Aboriginal Education Board.”

Erickson knows the grassroots includes the teachers, "I think the teachers and support workers in the existing school system are seeing the problems up close. Many are performing duties above and beyond the call, and they are really looking forward to a lot of these recommendations."

She hopes adoption of the recommendations will ameliorate against the burnout being experienced by teachers under the present circumstances.

Marlene Erickson comes by her concern honestly, "I am at the college (of New Caledonia) as the First Nation Coordinator of Aboriginal Support Services, and one of my jobs is to recruit students to the college from the community. I found myself on the Native Student Services Committee trying to recruit from too shallow a pool of students."

It was impossible to meet quotas. "First Nation kids do not see grade 12 graduation as a goal." Asked why, she said, "Poverty issues are first, and they are urban as well as rural," and First Nations are transplanting reservation-like poverty and social flux into poor city neighbourhoods.

"Look at all the urban areas of Canada and you will find Aboriginals living in the poorest conditions. Another problem is the sense of identity and pride of culture. We need to find the ways to deal with it, break kids out of the cycle. When you ask the kids, for instance, if their parents went to residential school most of them do not know the answer."

Erickson said the Aboriginal Education Board will have an important role to play in the implementation of the AETF recommendations.

Lois Boone is the chair of the AETF and elected as a trustee of SD57 and she said, "A new school is a different scenario for us. An Aboriginal ‘choice’ school would be based on First Nations philosophies of learning and would be open to everyone in the community," said Boone.

"Our thinking is that we would get a mix of students in the school," and, furthermore, "it would be possible to turn one of the existing schools into the 'choice' school that we envisage."

The task force contained a cross-section of community members totaling 13, and including Boone and Marlene Erickson, then two principals, two teachers, two Aboriginal education workers, an assistant school superintendent, two First Nation parents, and an Elder.

"We had a tight time frame and wanted to have a report done in February so we could meet budget discretion for the next school year," because, ideally, they would like to open an Aboriginal 'choice' school in Sep 08.

In fact the SD57 board is already hiring a 'district' principal for the Aboriginal Education program, whatever form it takes.

"We have to change the way we do education,” said Boone. “We need more cultural stuff in the classrooms, more cultural education and background for teachers and assistants, more interaction with Elders, music, regalia, and other cultural identifiers. What is there now is not working. The higher rates of failure are too much."

Boone said the SD57 board will meet with the Minister of Education Shirley Bond to go over the report. It is a matter of good fortune perhaps that, "Ms. Bond was elected in 2001 to represent the riding of Prince George-Mount Robson and re-elected in 2005."

The government website said, "Before her election to the Legislative Assembly, she served three terms on the Prince George School Board, the last as chair. She also worked with the continuing education department of the Prince George School District."

Trustee Boone said, "There are going to be some costs associated with setting it up," and because of the constraints of population this proposal includes only Kindergarten to grade 7, for at present there are not enough Aboriginal high school students to fill seats in wider high school program.

"We are open to suggestions, however, and if we could somehow fit a choice program into an existing high school," this may become an option.

Fish farms are the economic drivers in Klemtu

 Klemtu, B.C., is found on Swindle Island, alongside the north-central Pacific coast of Canada, and this town is residence of a First Nation called the Kitasoo/XaiXais, and they have recently authorized a change of location for two of their fish farm sites situated nearby.

Their partner in fish farming Marine Harvest Canada moved circular net-pens into position at Kid Bay and Sheep Pass farm sites to receive a delivery of a boat-load of Atlantic salmon smolts in late January 2008.

These sites have started to grow groups of fish to be harvested in processing plant facilities of Kitasoo Seafood Ltd., the company belonging to the Kitasoo/XaiXais First Nation.

These locations will be supervised by MHC area manager Terry Smith who has a 20 year history of growing fish including a recent two year stint in Norway.

Terry worked for one of the first industrial-scale net-pen fish farms on the west coast of Canada in the 1980s. Royal Pacific Fish Farms charted new territory in the world of net-pen fish farming by pioneering new economies of scale for growing fish at a profit.

Royal Pacific may have failed on the management side, Terry surmises, but they brought the operational standards up by investing millions in net-pen and float and anchor technology and research.

It was obvious by this time (early 1990s) that aquaculture and fish growing industry had to work within the regulatory environment for marketing food in the modern Canadian and world economy.

The standard for food commodities is regulated by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/index_en.jsp), which was,  "created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme."

The food standards website continued, "The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations."

The Marine Harvest Canada operation comprises about 50 percent of the production of farmed fish on the Pacific coast of Canada (see video 'slide #X). This makes MHC a good company to observe.

In reality Marine Harvest Canada made a number of acquisitions to become this big in Canada, the last one occurring in 2007, when Panfish Canada was sold to Marine Harvest Canada. This means Marine Harvest Canada runs about 40 fish farm sites on Canada’s Pacific coast.

The net-pens for these farm sites are situated on the Inside Passage on the top half of Vancouver Island, by and large; in addition Marine Harvest Canada owns a group of sites operating within the Kitasoo/XaiXais First Nation traditional territory.

Those sites give jobs 350 kilometres north of Port Hardy to Kitasoo/Xaixais members, and crops of fish are processed in a plant owned and operated by the folks in Klemtu, B.C..

Critics of fish farming in Canada come from a variety of sources and state a variety of offenses by the industry and hardly any of the opposition arguments can be proven, nor can the industry state with a lot of authority that the practices of net-pen fish farming are not deleterious to the ecology surrounding the sites.

The Broughton Inlet at the northeast tip of Vancouver Island is a treasure of culture and history, also, a present-day showcase of the Namgis Nation's survival as a people. People in the area have been party to a  fight with fish farming since the beginning.

With each industrial advance the Namgis and people like the recently deceased Pat Alfred ramped up their opposition shown to the fish farmers. Today it is the Broughton Inlet where much focus has been placed especially regarding the issue of sea lice. (see video 'slide #X)

While everybody has concerns about the growing conditions for animals that fill the food baskets of the world, those who monitor the growth of salmon in net-pens on the west coast are called fish technicians.

These people receive direct training in the employment on farm sites, some generic and some specific training for the jobs on the sites. The tech-training includes small motor maintenance, farm math, insights into feeding rates, watching for plankton blooms, and monitoring fish health (biopsies).

It is a six-month course which includes CPR, first aid, WHMIS, forklift training, and EMS (internal); and employees are trained for spill response, risk assessment, and operation of marine-vessels like small boats and other watercraft.

Terry Smith, aforementioned area manager for the Klemtu North farm sites, hires people who show the requisite enthusiasm for the work. What is missing on the west coast, according to Terry, is a working post-secondary education research and training facility.

This kind of an investment is made in other countries like Norway that engage in the industrial production of a protein base in seafood. He suggests that the ministry of post-secondary education making an investment in research could discover new directions to take with these agriculture/aquaculture/mariculture developments.

The reality is developments are necessary in that they are constructed to fill a gap in the supply chain of seafood to the food basket (see video 'slide #X, Ian Roberts of MHC explains how aquaculture fits into the food supply).

If things are changing beneath farm sites, it behooves public authorities to seek an understanding of what is happening. Canadian fish farmers cope with harmful plankton (and algae called heterosigma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosigma_akashiwo and this way, whereas farm sites in Norway and Chile do not have the same problems with plankton.

The fact remains that fish farms make adaptations to the environment in order to make fish thrive, in other words, the farm sites are 'created' environments. "We are close to creating aquariums in the ocean by using aerated water, moving preferred water by lifting it to displace harmful plankton from the net-pens,” Ian Roberts explained.

Steve Cross of Aquametrix Research (http://www.aquametrix-research.com) is investigating the potential for a 'polyculture' to develop around fish farm sites.

If the sites are changing area ecology perhaps it could be put to commercial use. Cross intends to grow black cod in net-pens and seaweed, scallops, and sea cucumbers near the pens, and monitoring the growth (and biological condition) of prawns.

"We call it integrated multi-tropic aquaculture," and Cross is experimenting with black cod. kelp, scallops, and other species, "It hasn't quite kicked off yet," but he has spent the past year putting it together. Now the net-pens are in place and the fish will be moved within a few weeks.

"We have about one kilometre of kelp laid in this month, and we are moving in half a million scallops (in Feb, 2008). When the fish are moved into the pens we will move sea cucumber into the site under the pens.

“It is a natural habitat for them and they are eaters,” of all the biomass fallout. (Sea cucumber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_cucumber)

"We are getting set up and licensed," Cross explained, including fitting into base-line environmental regulations and other arrangements. By this summer the site will be thriving with activity, and possibly with polyculture.

"We are a pilot-scale test around the issue of fish farm waste management," Cross, added, and the task is to find out if there are uses for the organic nutrient loads that are obviously generated by fish pens.

Cross agreed the research is lacking at present, "We think this is an important avenue of research," investigating the commercial potential for farm sites to develop polyculture seafood developments.  We are designing a balanced system and will report the science," in the usual publications.

"We have a lot of interest in the research," from a cross section of organizations, said Cross, "including the World Wildlife Federation and Greenpeace expressing interest in the outflow of reports. We are seeking a solution to some of the problems perceived to be associated with raising commercial quantities of fish in net-pens. We are trying to address the waste issue," because no one seems to be convinced that closed bags offer alternatives.

If the results prove positive fish farms will suddenly represent a new economic opportunity and research may provide further incentive to develop commercial polyculture sites in the west coast aquaculture/mariculture scheme of things.

"We may find a commercial solution," to mitigate against the purportedly deleterious ecological presence of stand-alone fish farms. Cross promised to get www.firstnationscanada.com onto the polyculture site sometime this coming summer.

Birch Bark Biting preserved by coincidental names

"I was born at Midnight Lake, Manitoba," explained Angelique Merasty Levac, about the far northern reaches of central Canada. "It is bush and nobody lives there. Once in a while a few of my siblings or family members traps there." Angie holds close memories of a distant place spent with her grandparents in the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. It was a Cree people’s playground and belonged to no one else.

Angelique Merasty Levac

"I lived beside a nice lake," and enjoyed the company of loons going 'co-co-op' in the morning hours. Angie recollects, "My grandparents tried to teach me how to trap when I was six years old." It was a tiny squirrel trap set under a bundle of roots at the base of a tree near the lakeside, not far from the family dwelling, a large canvas tent.

Her grandmother, she recalls, provided explicit instructions about the patience of trapping, leaving the site alone to permit the process to take its course. Little Angie waited till grandparents went to sleep and approached her fledgling trap line to see if she was enriched.

She stuck her six year old hand into the squirrel-sized cubby hole and trapped herself, snap. Ouch. So she hollered with an affinity for the squirrel that wasn't there and recalls a painful few minutes by inspecting her long, feminine fingers on both hands. It was the end of Angelique Merasty Levac's life as a trapper and a few families of bushy tailed squirrels have reason to chatter in gratitude.

Those years in the lakes district straddling the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border were similar to a nomadic way because Angie’s grandpa found it necessary to break camp and find a different place every few weeks. He was a trapper, "My grandpa never lived in one place," and packed the large tent and barrel stove to set off looking to camp at the right spot. It was a lean existence.

"I used to help my grandmother gather branches she used to make a floor inside the tent," and, "there was nothing to play with when I was a child. Do you know what my toy was?" She told her grandmother she wanted a doll. “We had a flour sack and she tied up the bag into a rag doll, eyes made from the soot of the fire; that was my doll.”

At nine years of age Angie began to spend more time with her mother and less time with her grandparents, because she would be more help to her mother raising 12 children on the Lynn Lake railroad line in northern Manitoba. She went out with ladies on berry picking sojourns, blue berries found in burned out areas, cranberries found in forested places.

It was the cranberry picking trips where she saw the women take a rest and conduct little competitions. They would peel birch bark and make pieces of art with their teeth but Angie was too young to think much about it. It was a first impression of the way the ladies made social exchanges while causing artistic impressions by birch bark biting that she adopted as a fast disappearing cultural practice.

Angelique Merasty Levac has become a Cree cultural icon and reigning queen of a disappearing form of First Nation culture. Over the past three decades Angie has garnered a lot of attention for the artistic skill at birch bark biting. She has beautiful straight teeth with which to take on the task of an ancient artistic craft.

In an oddly important coincidence her teacher of the art was also named Angelique Merasty. The elder Angelique Merasty has passed away and almost miraculously passed the legacy to Angelique Merasty Levac under the most difficult conditions imaginable.

The reason the younger Angelique was found to return to the art form is partly owed to bingo, for the mentor Angelique Merasty was one day sitting waiting for a ride to bingo and was, miraculously, in the company of an anthropologist while she waited. To pass the time she reached over and peeled a piece of birch bark off a log and bit into it until the art was born. The taxi arrived and she cheerfully left it to the professor, who promptly sent it to an archivist and writer.

Soon an article appeared detailing the art and the artist, who had been interviewed and expressed a wish to pass the craft onto someone before it was forgotten. Angelique the student saw the magazine article when she was 24 years of age. It is important to realize where our Angie grew up. She did not speak English until she was about 12 to 15 years of age, and only spoke Cree. (This was prior to Bill C-31 and she had no access to school for her mother had been stripped of her status by her marriage to a Metis man.)

Our Angie did not read English until she taught herself by reading the Holy Bible. By the time she was 24 she was able to read and stood amazed to see her name described in  a magazine at a store. She stared at the magazine story about Angelique Merasty, not herself, but her name, who was a practitioner of an ancient art form, a Cree culture artform, and this same Angelique Merasty described in the article how she, "would like to pass this Native art form onto another."

Our Angie had those recollections of the ladies in the berry patches taking a respite to bite into the birch bark and she decided thereabouts that the passing ought to be to herself.

She credits her worship of God, "The Lord put that in my heart. Since I did it, it opened doors that I never dreamed of," including a visit to Bill Cosby in Philadelphia, USA, with a guest appearance on his remake of the TV classic 'You Bet Your Life.' She was interviewed by Keith Morrison on CTV, and appeared on BCTV, APTN, the Knowledge Network, and in numerous print articles, including this one in the nationwide Native Journal. (For more information about Angelique’s art email her at angeliquesnativearts@yahoo.ca)

Fraser River Salmon Table Society meetings devise long-term strategies for sustainable salmon returns

The Fraser River Salmon Table Society is working toward consensus, said Richard McGuigan, PhD, co-chair of the salmon table (along with Marcel Shepert, Pacific Salmon Treaty) during the meeting in Prince George, BC, Sep 18 07, at the Prince George Native Friendship Centre.

Dr. McGuigan said, “Cooperative Decision Management is the way to achieve consensus,” for the fledgling table society.

By this emerging method interest-based negotiations are conducted through (three) stages and everybody abides by a final consensus. Cooperative Decision Management allows no veto to any party, and is not co-management, which, “has a negative reputation and gives regulators a lot of power,” said co-chair McGuigan.

The salmon table process must respect the ability of First Nations to represent their constituencies, said Doug Kelly, Sto:lo Tribal Council, “especially regarding the inter-tribal treaty process.” The table is open as long as Aboriginal rights and title are respected.

David Moore worked on table planning, “One goal of the salmon table is to create transparency in marketing, ultimately to resolve problems like selling caviar for as low as 11 cents per pound and finding out it fetches $15 a pound in the US food market.”

This transparency is the goal of a Siska First Nation demonstration project, to, “catch, process, and sell their fish harvested from a fish wheel,” with approval of CFIA, BC Food Safety Act, and BC Centre for Disease Control.

Salmon is a commodity from the wild realm, and salmon is still largely misunderstood in terms of behaviour and even physiology

Moore explained, “We have learned colour of the flesh is not determined by how far up the river the fish has gone,” a previous assumption, “rather, maturity is the determinant in quality and colour of the flesh.”

This is interesting because the old view was the farther up the river salmon were caught the less red and more dark the flesh would be (and dark is inedible). Now upstream fishers can join the mainstream market.

“The key is flexibility in marketing,” said Moore to the table society meeting.

He said, “Micro-processing can be done profitably without over-capitalization.” A boondoggle may exist in the changing provincial management of food health via Regional Health Authorities in BC.

The BC government says on the internet, “This structure, introduced in December 2001, modernized a complicated, confusing and expensive health care system by merging the previous 52 health authorities into a streamlined governance and management model.”

Today, said Moore, “these regional health authorities are charged with supplying permits required for the catching processing and selling of fish.”

The commercialization of fresh caught salmon may be advanced through a new process, noted Moore, now including a specific container for storing a fish, a card-board, wax-coat that preserves ice and fish together for the few hours required to get a fish a proper larder.

The problem is, however, a lack of fish to market. Teresa Ryan works in Vancouver as a fish biologist on the Pacific Salmon Commission and a scientist representing coastal First Nations. They were all asking the same question: where have all the fish gone?

A report in the Prince George Free Press said low salmon returns found along the Fraser River this year show nets producing a tenth the expected catch. As a result people are not going fishing.

Obviously this is a major concern in Canada’s North West Pacific where often the First Nations are losing of a way of life. Traditional salmon harvests unite communities but this year nobody goes to the river.

These people are facing a disappearing cultural diet, a staple food for the poor, and a lack of control over problems associated with the loss.

J-Leg -- Walk, Kayak, Hike | Invented Leg Prothesis

Multi-faceted Aboriginal Justice Plan from the UBCIC

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) released the ‘Draft BC First Nations Justice Action Plan,’ May 23 07, to create a dialogue on justice. It begins discussing pre-existing culture and ways of life, governance never ceded, and laws respecting peace and balance as inherent principles in justice. STORY continue after picture 

 

 Any justice plan must reconcile accused, victim, and community. Presently justice disseminates racial discrimination apparent from a disproportionate First Nation incarceration rate, in which, 3% of Canada is Aboriginal but Canada’s prisons hold populations averaging 18% Aboriginal (and 20% in B.C.).

 

The draft discusses collective responsibility for health and well-being of the First Nation communities and land. Justice is a primary concern of all the governance accords, including among these, a New Relationship signed with the province of B.C. in ‘05.

 

Agreements are based on respect, recognition, and accommodation of Aboriginal rights and title, in addition, adding parity to the First Nation standard of living lies at the heart of justice. First Nation legal standing is crucial, derived direct from law, and constitutionally recognized as an inherent right of First Nation governance.

 

In Kelowna, BC, in ’95, a Transformative Change Accord was signed by First Nations Leadership Council, the Government of Canada, and the Province of B.C., and focussed on closing the socio-economic gap.

 

"First Nations jurisdiction over justice programs within First Nations communities,” will reduce overrepresentation in prisons and eliminate ‘systemic discrimination’ within the justice system.

 

The draft said, the purpose of First Nation justice is to, "maintain peaceful relations and harmonious co-existence between all elements of creation.”

 

The draft said, justice aims at decreasing First Nations over-representation in prisons. The draft discussed holistic approaches in healing through recognition of First Nations jurisdiction.

 

UBCIC wants legislation to "establish our own justice system,” and increase the importance of First Nations (ancestral) governance in criminal justice. The draft discussed initiatives of shared decision-making based on governance, healing strategies, and justice programs within communities.

 

The draft calls for diversity and creative new processes using traditional knowledge and current research. The draft anticipates government-to-government agreements written with "common visions” about administrative capacity and infrastructure, legal recognition, and procedural integration of First Nations justice into policing, courts, and corrections.

 

The draft discussed the Aboriginal Justice Strategy: the federal justice website says, "The AJS was designed to help establish policies and programs that will be the foundation of long term administration of justice improvements within the framework of the Canadian law for Aboriginal people.”

 

The AJS was established in ’96 with five year mandate, and renewed in 2001, and UBCIC wants it renewed again. Aboriginal justice incorporates First Nations knowledge and mentoring, cultural awareness, and cross-cultural trained personnel, under direction of a First Nations Justice Council.

 

Improving public safety is the paramount concern of justice, said the draft. Policing and correctional services require meaningful input as to how First Nations obtain equal access to police services. Current pilot projects, like "Community Safety Constables” require adequate resources.

 

The draft suggested a provincial level First Nation Police Commission and Commissioner and called for more corrections officers.

 

Corrections services need facilities for the relevant cultural experience; reintegration to society must be accessible through Aboriginal representation on the National Parole Board. Sentencing panels must be composed of First Nations input, and directions in police priorities must enhance First Nation justice plans.

 

A strategy of transparent communication will allow justice to enter discussions on a high note of prevention. A First Nations Justice Council would include oversight of relationship-building; it would conduct open dialogue, both community-based and culturally relevant.

 

UBCIC wants business engaged in a dialogue, and the draft calls for cross-culturally trained police to assist First Nations in management of justice programs in their communities. These communities want direct input into selection procedures for police in their communities.

 

The draft pointed to common objectives about rehabilitation. Restitution for crimes on Indian Reserves should be arranged by revenue sharing fines as another step in harmonizing justice. First Nations crime follows the same trends as other communities, and they need assistance to prevent gang violence and organized crime or recovery from vandalism.

 

Public education must address systemic racism. The draft discusses importance of First Nations Police officers within communities on and off-reserve. First Nations officers of the court must be cultivated; only this way can equal access to justice programs and services be created.

 

Public safety is an overarching concern of justice. UBCIC intends their plan to be comprehensive community planning with locally-inclusive tri-partite agreements.

 

The draft said a lot of UBCIC First Nations are clamouring for justice in fisheries and wildlife, and the draft calls for restorative justice programs specific to these inherent rights. In the course of the past century people became hampered from protecting traditional and sacred sites.

 

The draft calls for participation on justice panels and the end of over-representation on fishing charges. Protection of First Nations fishing and hunting must include a dispute resolution protocols and a new jurisdiction of conservation courts.  An interesting gambit called for, "First Nations Title and Rights,” to be, "affirmed by government on occasions designed to mark the restorative/reconciliation process.”

 

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) must be enshrined in legislation, and policy changes to education must include revitalized First Nations languages. Strategies for community health and safety, of children and families, must become culturally appropriate.

 

First Nations need grassroots facilities like safe houses for women and children with programs providing mediation, counselling, and legal support. Youth interventions, restorative and traditional justice resolution, and rehabilitation, must all turn community-centred, culturally relevant, and restorative in character.

 

The draft discusses teaching First Nation children individual rights and listening to them to increase protective measures for children, which would build and improve community relationships beneficial to children. 

 

The development of justice, "must transcend spatial boundaries of the reserve.”  New capacities in urban centres will provide tools for crisis intervention on family traumas and reduction of re-victimization.

 

Research continues worldwide on Indigenous law, Canadian First Nations law, rights, title, traditions, values, and cultural preserves. The draft calls for hearing the Elders, whose influence and advice belongs at any table with conventional government policy-makers.

 

The UBCIC is concerned about justice in remote communities, their education, sensitivity training, disclosure, and reporting of statistics. These communities need access to understanding of their own cultures, insightful early childhood experiences, and an end to grinding poverty.

 

These communities also require peacemaking programs and parenting circles to bring children into awareness of justice mechanisms. UBCIC wants an end to duplication of services, but First Nations must increase dialogue about troubling and sensitive issues like Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, HIV/AIDS prevention, and other preventable conditions.

 

Reconnecting children to healing environments and providing professional delivery of justice programs and services stems from the development of the First Nation Education Steering Committee (FNESC).

 

Additional social measures include encouragement of First Nations to participate as jurors. Provision of information about programs and individual rights must occur in newly conceived and funded programs and services, to begin increasing the capacity of First Nations justice.

 

First Nation justice workers often serve multi-dimensional roles in a revolving door justice system. They need positive linkages and networks to organizations to establish communications and linkages for input on things like outreach services and probation services, especially for remote communities.

 

The most important underlying long term strategy for social justice includes First Nation Early Childhood Development.

CBSA watching cross-border travel by air, automobile, and marine

 Faith St. John is communications  manager  for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on the west coast. Faith said training underway imminently for Canadian border guards to be deployed in the fall (with the Beretta Storm 9mm handgun) to fulfill the announcement of the federal government this winter. In Budget 2006, the Government of Canada provided $101 million over two years to begin the process of arming CBSA officers and eliminating work-alone sites.

 The total funding earmarked for the Arming of CBSA officers and doubling up officers at work alone sites is $1 billion over 10 years. Ongoing annual funding totals $126.3 million. This initiative will establish an armed presence at Canadian land and marine Ports of Entry by arming and training 4,400 existing officers, including those performing enforcement functions in-land; Hire 400 new officers, who will be trained and armed, to address all work-alone situations; (when fully implemented, the total of armed officers [existing + new] will be of 4,800).

The CBSA is on track with its plans to begin arming the officers. "We are currently working with the RCMP to develop a comprehensive arming training program tailored to the duties, responsibilities and work environment of CBSA officers." Many policies will have to be developed and revised. The policies currently under discussion include, but are not limited to: the use of force and the use of sidearms; the wearing of protective and defensive equipment; the safe transportation and storage of sidearms and other defensive tools; and the reporting and investigation of use of force incidents.

"Throughout the implementation process, we are consulting with key stakeholders, including union officials," said St. John. The arming of border services officers and the elimination of work-alone sites will provide greater protection to CBSA officers at the border, and to those engaged in specialized enforcement activities within Canada. Security at the border will be increased since CBSA officers will be trained and equipped to intervene and deal with situations where they are not currently in a position to respond.

"The introduction of sidearms will provide an additional tool for officers to protect themselves, their colleagues and the travelling public. The CBSA is committed to ensuring that this initiative is implemented properly, safely, and without undue delay," said Derek Mellon, CBSA media liaison in Ottawa. 

Armed officers will be able to respond to a broader range of situations before involving police response The first group of armed officers will be in the field by August 2007. By March 2008, between 250 and 300 officers will be fully trained and carrying arms. "We are currently reviewing and examining opportunities to compress the initial estimated timeframe of the initiative," said Faith.

In addition to sidearms, Faith also discussed dealing with the longest unprotected border in the world, and was forthcoming about the improved design of the NEXUS  program. The CBSA worked with US Customs and Border Protection (US CBP) to design a program to expedite border clearance processes for low risk, pre-approved travellers into Canada and the United States.  A NEXUS card is an approved alternative to the US passport requirements.

 

St. John said the NEXUS program uses advanced technology to verify a person's identify - NEXUS Air uses iris biometrics and NEXUS Highway uses digital fingerprints to verify that the person presenting themselves for entry is the same one who has been pre-approved to enter Canada and the United States. The usual procedures still apply around declarations and duty, "except you are approved to take a faster route through customs," a Nexus route.

 

The three seperate programs:  NEXUS Air, NEXUS Highway, and NEXUS Marine have recently been amalgmated into one program - NEXUS. The Nexus system applies now on the highways, the marine entries (done via  telephone approval), and the original Nexus air service, which began in Vancouver. The cost is $80 CDN or $50 US for five years  and is open to Canadian and US citizens and permanent residents.

 

Air mode was orignally in Vancouver  and is now available at Toronto's Pearson Airport.  It will be coming soon to: Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, Edmonton International Airport, Calgary International Airport, Winnipeg International Airport, and Halifax International Airport.
 
Nexus is offered at airports where they have US pre-clearance, clearing US customs in Canada before departing to the USA. Nexus has come to be considered the best alternative to passports and everybody is agreed it will work, "It was a joint initiative so of course we consulted closely."  For more information on NEXUS, or to become a member, visit www.nexus.gc.ca