Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 16/99) - Diane Taylor's problems started when she overheard a co-worker tell an aboriginal client that aboriginals have no right to hunt and trap.

Taylor worked as a family violence counsellor at the YWCA's Alison McAteer House and the client who Taylor was referring to was an aboriginal woman.

"I told the casual worker (who had made the comments) from down south that aboriginal people do have the right to hunt and trap," Taylor said.

"That's one of the only cultural things the natives here have left."

Taylor lost her job at the women's shelter in October and has filed a discrimination complaint based on race with the fair practices office.

After the incident with the casual aide from the south, Taylor says a different co-worker overheard the shelter director say Taylor would be "gone by December."

"Non-native staff who were not qualified nor experienced were retained as family violence counsellors even though I was terminated," Taylor said in a letter to the fair practices office.

"One non-native person was hired without qualifications, without previous experience working in a shelter and without experience working with aboriginal people."

YWCA executive director Lyda Fuller responds that Taylor's dismissal has nothing to do with race.

"Unlike what Ms. Taylor says, none of the trainees had prior experience working in a shelter in a counselling capacity. Some of the trainees had prior experience working with aboriginal people, others gained this experience while they were trainees," Fuller said in a letter of response. According to Fuller, nine permanent shelter staff had been hired in the 20 months prior to April 1999: five were non-native, three were Metis and one was aboriginal. Of those nine employees, four were currently on staff in April: one non-native, two Metis and one aboriginal.

Further, Fuller said the shelter had recently hired an additional family violence counsellor who is aboriginal. She said not only is the YWCA hiring more aboriginal people, but it is also looking for ways to be more proactive in providing services to the aboriginal community. Since Taylor filed her discrimination complaint in January 1999 several letters have gone back and forth.

As for the future, Taylor said she is waiting for one more response from the YWCA before the matter goes to mediation.