Commission Will Help Assert Jurisdiction: FSIN

Commission Will Help Assert Jurisdiction: FSIN

Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 13:04

The FSIN says creating a gaming commission is a step towards reclaiming jurisdiction over gaming.

The organization announced it’s creating a gaming commission that will be made up of chiefs and senators.

The commission will be responsible for gaming jurisdiction, the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority, the First Nations Trust Fund, and Community Development Corporations.

Former chief and now senator Roland Crowe signed the initial gaming agreement with the province in 1994.

He says nowhere in that document did First Nations surrender jurisdiction — the issue was to be discussed — so he believes there is a case is to be made to give First Nations jurisdiction over gaming on their lands.

“I’m just talking from a (place of) pure common sense, courtesy and respect for each other. We don’t intend to try and take jurisdiction off-reserve for the province in regards to gaming, and on the other hand, that same courtesy should be (extended) to us, that they don’t take the jurisdiction on First Nations territories,” Crowe says.

The province has expressed a willingness to discuss jurisdiction with the FSIN, but hasn’t given an indication on where it stands on the issue.