The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
By Jonathon Naylor Arlen Dumas didn't get elected chief of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (MCCN) by accepting the status quo. In 2008, when he was just 31, a promise to lift the Pukatawagan-based band out of 'co-management' helped propel him to victory. It was a lofty pledge. Co-management, as explained by the Winnipeg Free Press' Don Marks, is the Ottawa-imposed system whereby an outside accounting firm helps manage a reserve. It's supposed to ensure conscientious fiscal administration, but it's a sore point for many First Nations people who view it as a needless cost and a blight on self governance. Chief Dumas and his council, wrote Marks, had Pukatawagan out of co-management in four quick months. In its place was a new, transparent and homegrown financial management system. Against all kinds of odds, Arlen Dumas had succeeded in bringing about a fundamental change. Now, five years later, he has set his sights on a new goal. Chief Dumas believes Hudbay is, and always has been, operating on the traditional territory of his people. He has thus called on the company to cease work at its newest mines, Lalor and Reed outside Snow Lake, until his band grants its consent. Chief Dumas feels that his band is owed a share of these highly profitable resources and has delivered speeches, granted interviews and, perhaps most notably, led two protests near Lalor to hammer home his point. His critics have painted him as a radical, but the slender, long-haired chief is undeterred. He seems to have a 'just watch me' sort of determination that fosters rigid loyalty in supporters and bubbling resentment in opponents. What Chief Dumas is attempting to do may seem foreign to us in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake region, but it's nothing new. First Nations have for some time been demanding a share of benefits from resource projects across Canada. 'Slowed or derailed' At least six mining and energy projects in B.C. have, as Reuters put it, been 'slowed or derailed' by First Nations opposition. In northern Ontario, protesters blockaded a diamond mine; in Alberta, they threatened to close a highway to oilsands projects. The list goes on and on, and the wheels for all of this were set in motion long before 'Idle No More' became a household phrase in late 2012. These sorts of protests have become incredibly polarizing, and that is certainly the case in our region. What should be debated as a legal matter _ whichever side you're on _ has instead been muddied by racially charged language. Do Chief Dumas and MCCN have a right to share in the riches of Lalor, Reed or other mines said to be in their traditional territory? Some say yes, some say no, but the fact is that the province's mining companies, through the Mining Association of Manitoba, already agree with resource revenue sharing for affected First Nations. If that's the case, what's really left for MCCN to fight for? Why not take this opportunity to sit down with Hudbay and work on a mutual agreement? MCCN was dealt a blow in court Wednesday when a Winnipeg judge ordered a temporary injunction against further protests at Hudbay properties. Where things go from here is unclear. It seems apparent that MCCN will in time benefit somehow, some way, from Hudbay projects. The question is whether the pending arrangement will be acceptable to all parties. Local Angle runs Fridays.
