Introduction

Good Morning! Sehkon! Skeno! Bonjour! Greetings!

Six Nations of the Grand River Territory has a population of 21,474 peoples from the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora Nations. We have the largest population of any First Nations community in Canada. Professions, standards of living, sports, social activity, economic opportunity and political perspective all attest to our great diversity and talent.

Because of certain events of the 1920s, our community has both a traditional government with long historic ties to the British Crown, and an elected council recognized pursuant to the Indian Act. Over the years, differing perspectives have caused contention, and it is our challenge and opportunity to reconcile issues and concerns amongst ourselves. Our children are taught both systems of governance in our schools. How do we explain to them that the Parliament of Canada is planning to pass legislation that will not recognize the existence of traditional governance and which makes repugnant impositions on the elective system?

As Chief of the elected council of Six Nations of the Grand River with a platform of “Healing The Wounds, Uniting the People,” I welcome this opportunity to present the views and concerns of our council to the Standing Committee regarding an initiative of the Minister of Indian Affairs, Bill-C7 - The First Nations Governance Act (FNGA). We are here to re-state our position clearly for the record and to offer alternatives that reflect who we are as Ongwehonwe people.

It is with sadness and firm resolve that our peoples are forced to return to this table, once again, now in the 21st Century, to repeat what has already been stated over and over again – the federal government has no right to intervene in the affairs of the Six Nations of the Grand River.

The Government is proceeding in the face of well-considered recommendations from the highest levels, and instead is acting to keep its colonial claws in the flesh of the Six Nations and First Nations across Canada. It is now shamefully asking Parliament to put its stamp of approval on its mechanisms of control.

In 1983, the predecessor of this committee, the Standing Committee on Indian Affairs, of which I was an ex officio member, tabled its report on Indian Self-Government, a report unanimously supported by all parties represented on the House of Commons Standing Committee. Its recommendations called for, among other things, a fundamental shift in First Nations-Canada relations and government-to-government fiscal transfers to support First Nations governments.

The Government for two decades has ignored those recommendations. Parliament has failed to give life to its own principles. If you have not read that report of this Committee, known as the “Penner Report”, I urge you to do so and to put it on the record of your proceedings.

In 1996 the Report of the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), provided 440 recommendations based on its extensive consultations with First Nations, experts, and the public across Canada. It provided a blueprint for a new era of cooperation and respect between Canada and the First Peoples of Canada. It too called for fundamental change in the relationship between First Nations and the federal government.

This vision included rebuilding our Original Nations, supporting our effective and accountable governments; establishing government-to-government relationships between Canada and our Nations, and taking practical steps to improve the living conditions of First Nations people.

It called for a partnership based on four principles of mutual respect and recognition, responsibility and sharing”. We have to ask: “Why and how these important recommendations ended up being dismissed and shelved?”

Indeed, that is a question all Canadians should be asking. Why, in 2003, should Six Nations and First Nations across Canada have to be on high alert? Why is the relationship between First Nations and Canada so badly tainted? We can look at the Bill for much of the answer. Unfortunately, this legislative invasion is teaching us valuable lessons. We have been exposed to the true attitude and intent of the government – sneak out of obligations, avoid moral duties, ignore the law.

Our position is that Bill C-7 is so fundamentally flawed legally, Constitutionally, and morally, that it cannot be amended – it must be adamantly and utterly rejected. The Bill is before you at First Reading. You can and must speak to principles, not clauses. You cannot dignify this colonial, objectionable legislation by pretending a few adjustments will fix it.

The real purpose of the legislation is not about providing Six Nations – or any First Nation – with effective “tools of governance”. It is about limiting and restricting our peoples in the exercise of our inherent, aboriginal, and Treaty rights, all recognized and affirmed in section 35 Constitution Act, 1982. It is about restricting our inherent rights to govern ourselves. It is about unilaterally offloading and limiting Canada’s fiduciary liabilities and controlling costs. It is about more Government control over the lives of our peoples.

We can no longer accept the pitiful offerings of the Minister of Indian Affairs. The status quo is not acceptable. What the Minister offers is worse than the status quo. If you want to know if something isn’t better than nothing, if C-7 is the “something”, the answer is no.

I say again here what I have said elsewhere at every opportunity: “We cannot build our future on the crumbling foundation of the Indian Act or furnish it with the Nault legislative suite we are being offered as the Prime Minister’s legacy. We must build our own strong foundations for the legacy our children are entitled to as the First Peoples of this land.”

This means that we must take action to put the brakes on colonialism and put our efforts towards nation building and rebuilding – colonialism is hazardous to our health and fatal to our future. We must insist that our Treaty partners comply with their promises – the honour of the Crown requires nothing less.

C-7 pretends to be about democracy and accountability, responding to the wishes of the people. If this Committee is interested in those high principles, it has no choice other than to support the Six Nations position and the near-unanimous First Nation position, in the name of democracy.

A Six Nations video entitled “A Call to Action” and a CD entitled “No Way to the FNGA” are being submitted as part of our presentation as a means to solidify our statement to you.