Eastern Door Volume 4 Number 25

Volume 4 Number 25

July 21, 1995

Policing Agreement Open House
Low Turn Out But Big Cross section, say Organizers
By: E.J. Diabo

The Mohawk council of Kahnawake Fire Hall last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, to give the community an opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns about the proposed Kahnawake-Canada-Quebec policing agreement recognizing the status-quo of Kahnawake's Peacekeepers.

About 30 to 35 people showed up over the three day consultation and were greeted by Council Chiefs, Peacekeeper personnel, MCK Legal Services and the Canada-Kahnawake Relations team (C - K relations) who were there to provide information and hear all points of view.

Although turnout was low in numbers, organizers feel that a large cross section of "community thinking" was represented.

"In terms of the people that did show up, it was a good sampling of representation from within the community." said Michael Bush, Researcher/Analyst for the C-K relations team.

According to Bush, questions of independence, jurisdiction and financing were raised, but the majority of concerns from the community dealt with the establishment of an independent body to deal with justice issues in Kahnawake. Bush says this is something that the community must still decide upon, but is an internal matter and does not affect the agreement on the federal or provincial level. Judging by opinions expressed, Bush feels that an independently elected body would need to be created from the general population, and would operate separately from the MCK to oversee matters of justice, effectively giving control of the justice system to the community at large.

In the agreement, Canada and Quebec will contribute to the financing of the Peacekeepers on a scale of 52 percent and 48 percent respectively. It is the MCK's position that these figures will cover the entire cost of Peacekeeper operations, including officers, but does not give either government the legal right to intervene on any internal policing matter.

Optimistic with the results of the consultations, Council Chief, Phillip Jacobs, said that most of the people's concerns dealt with internal matters that could be handled on a community level, therefore leaving the door open for things to move ahead with Canada and Quebec.

In the area of jurisdiction, Jacobs said that steps were taken in the agreement to ensure that the Peacekeepers will not be considered a municipal, provincial or federal police force. Kahnawake Peacekeepers have been, and will continue to use the Canadian criminal code, the Quebec highway code, as well as community laws and bylaws, said Jacobs. He points out that these particular codes have all been officially adopted by the community at various times throughout the years dating back to the 1960s.

"The next step is to inform the Federal and Provincial Governments of our intent and the ball will be in their court," said Jacobs.

Both the Federal and Provincial justice ministers, Herb Gray and Serge Menard, must now take the agreement back to their respective cabinets for ratification.

"I don't know how long it is going to take - it could be a couple of weeks or a couple of months,' Jacobs said, although he expects it to be sooner rather than later, and with positive results.

Using what he calls "silent language", C-K relations Coordinator, Arnold Goodleaf, said the agreement is just as important for what it does not say, as for what it does.

"It doesn't say that Kahnawake is a sovereign Nation, but it does say that it (Canada and Quebec) recognizes the authority of the community to establish and create its own political government institution", said Goodleaf.

Goodleaf stated that a major precedent is being set with the policing agreement, because it forces Quebec to recognize Kahnawake's authority to establish its own police force and nominate and appoint its own peace officers. This, Goodleaf says, will open the door to negotiations on a number of other issues dealing with the province, citing health, social services and education as examples.

Admitting that retroactively is habitually very difficult to achieve, Goodleaf feels that because the wording in the agreement clearly states that "Kahnawake will continue to maintain their duly constituted police force," established in 1979, retroactively has been obtained.

Corporal Warren White said the general feeling among Peacekeepers is one of happiness, likening it to finally graduating from university, saying, "We've been doing the job and we will finally be recognized."

White is confident that once the message comes from the federal and provincial level that the PK's are a legitimate police force according to their criteria, the general public will have no choice but to accept it and they will show the same respect given to their own police forces.

White does not foresee any problems when dealing with police forces from the surrounding communities and says good working relations already exist. "That is something that has been built upon over the years," said White. "I think we've (PK's) shown that we can be an effective policing agency and we can do as good a job if not better."

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Changes to the floor plan will delay opening of Complex
By: Reaghan Tarbell

The Kahnawake Services Complex, scheduled to open August 1, 1995, is now looking at tentative opening dates of the third week in August or September 1, says Project manager Joel Jacobs.

The changing of the date is due to several last minute changes made by Canada Post and the Caisse Populaire

Canada Post for example, added a washroom to the floor plan. "We had to dig the floor up, find the main pipe, cut it, re-splice it, now we have to go into the wall," explained Jacobs in a tour of the Complex. The decision of the Caisse Populaire to change the counter in their sector, led to subsequent changes of the lights and sprinkler system. "Every time you change something other things have to change," reasoned Jacobs.

The second floor of the Complex, housing the Social Services departments in on schedule but will not open to the public because of safety reasons. "There is a question of insurance and safety now," says Jacobs. "The Fire Chief here has some concerns that everything should be ready before everybody moves in."

The Kahnawake Services Complex will house the Caisse Populaire, Canada Post, Social Services, Hydro-Quebec, KJETA, KEDA and legal services of the MCK.

The Complex hours will be 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The building will be open on Saturday for Canada Post from 8-12. Caisse Populaire will be closed on Saturday, but the community will have access to the Automated Teller Machine.

An opening ceremony is planned when the Complex is completed but Jacobs is unsure of the exact date. "It's a day-to-day thing," he added.

"They haven't built a building yet where they didn't change something. The building would have been completed on time if there hadn't been any changes." Jacobs added that "Construction Manager Franklin Williams is doing one heck of a job."

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Editorial

Dan Goodleaf and his role for External Affairs
By: Kenneth Deer - The Eastern Door

The appointment of Dan Goodleaf as an ambassador for the Government of Canada raises the question of who best benefits from such appointments.

It would seem on the surface that any Native person who rises to such heights as Deputy Minister and ambassador would be a great benefit to the Native population of Canada. A Native person as Deputy Minister has opportunity to change policy and regulations that affect Native people. The Deputy Minister has the capability to influence the government's direction in Native policy initiatives, to speed up change, improve communications with Native government and to present a Native point of view at the highest level of policy development on a consistent basis. How Dan Goodleaf did in these areas has yet to be evaluated, but it is safe to say that he will get mixed reviews.

An ambassador is a different matter. An ambassador is the representative of the government. He is there to present the image, policies and positions of the government. He is not there to influence change or improve the conditions of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada.

However, Dan Goodleaf has been used by External Affairs before. While Deputy Minister he has represented Canada at the United Nations and the European Parliament. In each case, his schedule, appointments, and speeches were all arranged by External Affairs. The speeches he gave were not cleared by the Department of Indian Affairs but were written by External Affairs. To have a Native person, a Mohawk at that, as Deputy Minister to parade around Europe was to good a public relations opportunity to pass up.

One of the speeches Goodleaf made to a group of European parliamentarians was the cause some consternation among Natives in Canada. In his speech Goodleaf state that Native people were not above parking their Mercedes Benzes behind their teepees, putting down their leather brief cases, taking off their Italian-made suits and putting on buckskin and feathers for the tourists. What the purpose of this statement seemed to be was to confuse Europeans on the true state of the economy of Native people. Was the statement he made true? Possibly. But the instances of such statements are very rare, too rare to be worth mentioning to foreign diplomats.

Goodleaf probably did not write the speech, someone in External Affairs did in order to protect the image of Canada using a Mohawk Deputy Minister to its best advantage. Fortunately, not all foreign diplomats are so easily impressed. Many could see Canada's very obvious and sometimes clumsy attempt to use a Mohawk for propaganda purposes.

Now that the Department of External Affairs has Dan Goodleaf as its full-time employee, one wonders how they will use him in the future. Will he be limited to relations only with the Republic of Costa Rica or will he show up in other areas of external relations?

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