Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 22/99) - When Mike Anderson logs onto the federal government's Web site, he sees a clock counting down to April 1.

Representing the time remaining before the official launch of Nunavut, Anderson said the ticking clock also means that time is running out for the rights of Canada's Dene over their traditional hunting and fishing grounds lying within Nunavut borders.

First Nations chiefs and elders met in Victoria, B.C., last week to discuss an Action Plan to affirm their treaty relationship with the Crown. In a Wednesday press release, the delegates stated that Ottawa is ignoring and infringing on their existing treaty and constitutional rights.

"On the one hand, Canada states...that they affirm the historic treaties, but on the other hand, they deny the treaty rights to the traditional homelands of the Syisi Dene Nation and the Northlands First Nation of Manitoba, the Saskatchewan Denesuline and other affected First Nations, who have been struggling for 15 years, to get Canada to recognize and protect their interests," the release reads.

Anderson is research director with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okinakanak Inc., or MKO, which represents the affected Manitoba First Nations tribes, Syisi and Northlands. But, speaking by telephone from Thompson on Wednesday, Anderson said the issue is not restricted to Manitoba Dene. The NWT Dene Nation is involved as are Dene in Saskatchewan, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation in Ontario and the Grand Council of Crees of Quebec.

Anderson said the 15-year struggle the Victoria delegates refer to is a law suit launched by MKO, at the government's prodding, in 1983 to settle the treaty issue but which has since stalled in court.

Anderson said that since 1989, successive Indian and Northern Affairs ministers have denied that the Denesuline have treaty rights north of the 60th parallel. He said traditional Denesuline territory extends farther north to include approximately five per cent of proposed Nunavut territory.

Anderson said the GNWT has never questioned the Denesuline's rights, but it is the uncertainty of April 1 that has the bands concerned.

A New Democratic MP who is helping provide the Denesuline with a voice in parliament is Churchill's Bev Desjarlais. She recently put the issue to Minister Jane Stewart during a Feb. 11 question period in the House of Commons, asking whether Manitoba Dene have rights north of 60.

Speaking from Ottawa, Desjarlais said Stewart's answer was ambiguous. She said her offer to assist Dene-Inuit talks is misleading since her predecessor insisted the matter go through the courts.

Desjarlais said the controversy has made her look at Nunavut differently. She said she is trying to attach an amendment to a bill currently before parliament, Bill C-62 on water management and surface rights in Nunavut, to include Dene concerns.

"As a party we have supported the Nunavut territory as an ideal move to recognize Inuit self-government," she said. "But...we believe the federal government has left these two groups pitted against one another, and it's very unfair."