AFN proposes expanding reconciliation commission panel

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081115.TRUTHANDRECON15/TPStory/National

JOE FRIESEN

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

November 14, 2008 at 9:45 PM EST

The Assembly of First Nations has suggested expanding the residential schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission to five members in an effort to extricate the panel from the mess left by Mr. Justice Harry LaForme's resignation. The parties to the settlement are still trying to find a new chair after Judge LaForme's resignation last month. Louise Arbour, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was approached, but declined to pursue it, said Ken Young, director of the Indian residential schools file for the AFN. Edward John, grand chief of British Columbia's First Nations Summit, a long-time aboriginal leader, lawyer and residential school survivor, is now seen as a leading candidate. The AFN proposal would expand the commission from its original structure of two commissioners and a chair to four commissioners and a chair. It would dilute the influence of remaining commissioners Jane Brewin Morley and Claudette Dumont-Smith, who Judge LaForme said had undermined his authority and tried to outvote him on every issue. Their determination to stay on as commissioners has become a source of controversy, as several native groups have called for a clean slate, and candidates for the top job have expressed reluctance to step into a dysfunctional situation.

Mr. Young, who has been an adviser to national chief Phil Fontaine, said some of the churches support the idea of a five-member panel, and Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl did not oppose it when the national chief raised it. “The chair has to be replaced and we have to do it as quickly as possible. If there's an appetite for five commissioners, we'll appoint two new commissioners and a chair and have five,” Mr. Young said. “It's beginning to look like more of a possibility as time goes on.” Mr. Young also said a movement has been launched among chiefs across the country calling for Ms. Morley, a lawyer, and Ms. Dumont-Smith, a native health-care worker, to be removed from their posts. He has urged the two commissioners to defend themselves against Judge LaForme's criticisms, but they declined to be interviewed Friday. Instead, a commission spokeswoman supplied a statement from Oct. 21 in which the commissioners said they were saddened and disappointed by Judge LaForme's resignation. A motion on removing the commissioners is expected to be brought forward at an AFN special assembly in Ottawa next month. Mr. Fontaine has so far expressed his support for Ms. Dumont-Smith and Ms. Morley, but if the resolution passes, he will have to accept the wish of the majority, Mr. Young said. “It's best that the two commissioners do something positive with respect to their interests as appointed commissioners. And they ought to do it quickly,” Mr. Young said. He added that the AFN at one point believed that Ms. Arbour might be interested in stepping in as chair, but was told she felt she didn't have time. Mr. John, who attended the Lejac residential school near Fraser Lake, B.C., said it's an honour to be considered for the job. “I've been involved in these issues in B.C. going back to the 1980s, so I have a good understanding of the issues,” he said. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has a five-year mandate to gather the stories of the 80,000 residential school survivors in Canada. The parties to the settlement have been meeting with former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci in an effort to negotiate a process for selecting a new commission chair. They are expected to meet again next week, but a new chair may not be named until 2009, Mr. Young said.

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For what it's worth ... http://allcreatorsgifts.blogspot.com/2008/08/when-pedophile-judges-fear-exposure.html Ed John, a native leader accused of using Mafia tactics, and running cocaine and child prostitution rings, was actually named Minister of Child and Family Services in the NDP (socialist) provincial government in 2000. ... Beautiful Vancouver B.C., site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, was described by the "Christian Science Monitor" in 1997 as "a pedophiles' paradise," a place known for its "notorious sex trade," with an international reputation "as a city where it is easy to find a child for sex." In 1999, UNESCO named Vancouver one of the world's top three centers for sex trafficking, child porn and pedophilia because of "suspected judicial protection for child sex offenders." In 1994, Renate Andres-Auger, an aboriginal lawyer and single mother of six girls, found irregularities in a land claim case that were very damning to the judicial process. She also charged certain judges and lawyers with a criminal conspiracy to aid and protect pedophiles. She and her own lawyer Jack Cram presented evidence, including photographs and eye witness accounts that two Supreme Court judges were engaged in pedophilia and were using their office to protect other pedophiles. She named the prestigious "Vancouver Club" as a center of this pedophile ring. (Kevin Annett, "Hidden From History: The Canadian Holocaust," p. 147-150) The Judge ordered Auger removed from the court. "The sheriffs dragged Andres-Auger out of the court and you could hear her thumping down the stairs behind the judge's bench." Then the Judge ordered the sheriffs to remove her lawyer Jack Cram. Police were called to clear the courtroom of about 80 supporters. According to a press release (http://sisis.nativeweb.org/clark/cram.html), this is what happened when Cram took the cause to the public: "One night at about 11:30 p.m., after finishing a radio interview, Mr. Cram returned home, parked his car, and while walking to his apartment building five policemen emerged out of the bushes and leaped on him. He was put in an unmarked van and as soon as they got him in they "shot him full of something" and he was transported to the psychiatric ward of Vancouver General Hospital -- as a "no information" patient. ... In Canada? You bet! Take off the blinders, folks. Indigenous children in Canada, their families and communities devastated by the ravages of residential school traumas and the poverty Canada imposes on them, have been 'apprehanded' from their homes and bought and sold as sex slaves whose lives were expendable since Europeans first arrived here. Live 'snuff' shows involving children have been reported. In Quebec, it is well known that the Catholic church sold children (of unwed Catholic mothers; 'Duplessis Orphans') into the MK ULTRA CIA mind control experiments ... SOLD CHILDREN FOR MONEY. If the Catholic church would sell 'their own' children in Quebec ... it stands to reason that Indigenous children in other provinces would also be treated as commodities to bring money into the Catholic church.

Studies show that in British Columbia, an aboriginal child is about six times more likely to be taken into state care than a non-aboriginal child.

Of all B.C. children in state care, 51 per cent are aboriginal, yet aboriginal people represent only about 8 per cent of the provincial population.

Ms. Fraser's office also called for better research on what happens to aboriginal children placed in the care of the state.

http://inshuckch.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!50E40D6025443FD4!1818.entry Until this situation is thoroughly investigated by external bodies, and it has until now only been shoved under the rug by threatening people who tell the truth, imo Ed John has no business holding the reins of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In addition ... In September 1992, when the tripartite agreement to create the BC Treaty Commission was signed Grand Chief John was one of the signatories to the agreement on behalf of the BC First Nations Summit. Grand Chief John was elected for a two year term to the three member political executive of the First Nations Summit, the Summit Task Group, in 1993, 1996, 1998, 2000 and again in June of 2002. The BC Treaty Commission process attempts to extinguish Aboriginal Rights upon negotiation of a treaty. This is illegal under Canadian and international law, and that fact has now brought the treaty commission to its knees as the courts uphold Aboriginal Rights regardless of treaties. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081017.RBRETHOUR17/TPStory/Business Ironically, Canada's courts uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples better than Ed John: Ed John signed away/gave up the rights of Aboriginal people in BC, without their consent. It is clear to me that Ed John does not represent traditional Indigenous Peoples, and thus cannot address their interests on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In fact, Ed John also would not represent the interests of Canadians in such a position either as we expect the whole truth. Ed John might represent the interests of some 'powerbrokers' like himself, but that is directly in opposition to representing the interests of ordinary people in Canada, aboriginal and not. IMO, granny

"It's how he keeps control - by terrorizing his own people." Anonymous 2008