Plans To Change Indian Act Worry Treaty 8 Chief

Plans To Change Indian Act Worry Treaty 8 Chief

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 14:30

Proposed changes to the Indian Act will be getting a lot of attention this week at a national treaty gathering in northern Alberta.

Jaret Cardinal, the grand chief of the Treaty 8 bands, says he’s concerned to hear the federal government is forging ahead with plans to change the definition of who can and can’t be considered First Nations.

Ottawa was compelled to make the move after a B.C. court ruled certain provisions in the Indian Act are discriminatory and must be changed before April.

Cardinal says this fits with the government’s tendency to bring in policies whenever there’s a crisis.

He says all of the proposed legislative changes are a means of “crisis management”, rather an effort to deal with “the actual concerns and issues that come from our communities.”

Cardinal says at some point these jurisdictional issues must come to a head.