Maria Canton
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 18/99) - In a surprisingly quick judgment, the Western NWT Aboriginal Summit was denied the right to appeal the Friends of Democracy electoral boundaries case.

The unanimous decision was carried Wednesday morning by three NWT Court of Appeal justices after listening to counsel for the Aboriginal Summit for two hours.

"In our view, the questions and solutions (in this case) are related more to political forums than legal ones," said Justice R.P. Foisy, who delivered the decision.

"That is not to say or imply that the factors in sections 25 and 35 are not important, it means we are not satisfied with the material before us and therefore, leave is denied."

Section 25 of the Charter and Section 35 of the Constitution Act deal with aboriginal rights and were heavily relied on by the summit's counsel in pleading for the appeal.

The summit, which is made up of five intervenors -- the NWT Metis Nation, the Dene Nation, the North Slave Metis Alliance, the Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated and the Lutsel K'e Dene Band -- feel the collective rights of aboriginal peoples will not be properly represented by the proposed bill.

Speaking as counsel for the summit, Charles McGee said that aboriginal people find themselves to be in a slight minority situation, following the April 1 division of the NWT.

"The applicants (the Aboriginal Summit) want to freeze this re-distribution because it may create an unsatisfactory balance," McGee said.

In the March 5 Supreme Court ruling, Justice Mark de Weerdt ruled the 14 NWT ridings do not provide equal and fair representation by population. After the April 1 division, two Yellowknife ridings, the Hay River and Inuvik ridings were ruled under-represented.

The justices said they did not need to hear from council for the Friends of Democracy to arrive at their decision.

Friends of Democracy member and city counsellor, Robert Slaven, was present when the court made their decision.

"We aren't surprised that Justice de Weerdt's decision holds, but we're pleasantly surprised at the speed of things," he said.

"We thought the court might want to hear the appeal and take longer to make a decision. We're pleased things are over with quickly."

If Bill 15 is passed, Slaven said an election based on fair boundaries will follow as scheduled.

"There are different ways the boundaries can be changed to meet the requirements of Justice de Weerdt's ruling," he said.

"Presumably that's what the standing committee is doing," Slaven said. "One way or another we're going to have an election on new boundaries and that's what we were looking for."

Also after Wednesday's ruling, North Slave Metis Alliance president Clem Paul said he was relieved that the court case is over.

"The division and the fighting this has caused has got to be put behind us," he said.

"We can't be putting aboriginals against whites, that's not the way to build the West. It's time to develop a political solution that will address the concerns of everyone involved -- it's time to compromise."

The Standing Committee on Government Operations has until July 22 to review Bill 15 before the House sits again on July 26.

Bill 15 proposes to add five new seats to the NWT legislature -- three to Yellowknife and one each to Hay River and Inuvik.