UN Human Rights Offical Visits Indian Reserve

[MichaelP]

UN Human Rights Offical Visits Indian Reserve

Author: Barry S. Marjanovich
Email: marj...@cadvision.com

The Calgary Herald
November 28, 1998

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights spent Friday
eating venison stew and travelling the dusty roads of a central Alberta
Indian reserve.

Mary Robinson avoided the first of an international rights conference in
Edmonton in favour of a first-hand view of Canada's aboriginal peoples
in their home setting.

"We have had to go to the international community for support in getting
our treaty promises fulfilled," siad Chief Leo Cattleman of the Montana
Cree Nation in central Alberta.

He also made a public speech asking for help to prevent the Canadian
government from transfering programs and costs on to already
impoverished aboriginal communities.

Robinson spent a busy day visiting several reserves an hour's drive
south of Edmonton.

They're not exactly representative of life for many of Canada's
Aboriginal Peoples. The First Nations that surround Hobbema are among
the richest in Canada.

But the world's top human rights official also got a brief glimpse of
the other side of reserve life. Her government car drove past
burned-out houses, shattered and abandoned school buildings and stray
dogs hunting along the dirt roads.

During the past two days, Canada has been publically embarrassed by a UN
committee on economic, social and cultural rights in Geneva. The
government of Canada has been accused of fighting its deficit on the
backs of the poor and underprivileged.

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