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THURSDAY, February 26, 2015
www.kamloopsthisweek.com
NATIONAL NEWS
Devil in the details Canada considers joining U.S.at roundtable on led training mission in Ukraine missing, murdered aboriginal women UKRAINE CRISIS
MURRAY BREWSTER
THE CANADIAN PRESS
STEVE RENNIE
THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Getting Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples, the provinces and territories and the federal government to gather together in the same room is no small feat. But familiar sticking points are sure to return during this week’s roundtable meeting on the issue of murdered and missing aboriginal women — particularly when it comes to deciding who will pay for and administer the parts of a plan to end the violence. That could result in some “challenging discussions’’ among the groups when they gather tomorrow (Feb. 27) in the ballroom of a downtown Ottawa hotel, Assembly of First Nations national chief Perry Bellegarde said. “It’ll be the jurisdictional piece — who’s paying from the feds and the provinces, who’s responsible, you know, in terms of financial investments, that’s going to be an issue and ongoing, where the resources are coming from,’’ Bellegarde said in an interview. “The who, what, when and why, when it comes to the administration of it.’’ Both Bellegarde and Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod, who is chairing the meeting, say most of the details of the plan have already been worked out and the meeting will mostly be about putting on the finishing touches. But, there are still big question marks — including who pays for what. “We haven’t gotten to that detail,’’ McLeod said. The roundtable will bring together families of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls, groups representing First Nations, Inuit and Metis, and representatives of the provinces, territories and the federal government. Four premiers — McLeod, Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne, Greg Selinger of Manitoba and Yukon’s Darrell Pasloski — are scheduled to attend. The Conservative government, meanwhile, has tapped Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt and Status
of Women Minister Kellie Leitch to take part. The agenda has been whittled down to three key themes: prevention and awareness; community safety; and policing measures and justice responses. That’s still a lot to pack into a seven-hour meeting — especially considering each person is only allowed four minutes to speak on each topic. Talk will inevitably turn to a full-blown national inquiry on murdered and missing aboriginal women and girls — something that most people in the room agree is needed, but which remains a no-go for the Conservative government. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and some of his cabinet ministers have insisted that enough people have studied the problem and that the time has come to take action. Still, calls for a national inquiry have been growing since RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson revealed last year that nearly 1,200 aboriginal women have been murdered or gone missing in Canada in the last 30 years — hundreds more than previously thought. One of the challenges for McLeod and moderator Marie Delorme is to keep people from straying off the agenda and into what would probably end up being a fruitless discussion about a national inquiry. “In my view, we have to guard against that,’’ McLeod said. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t have a number of different activities going on. One doesn’t preclude the other. “I don’t see why we should preclude having a national roundtable or national roundtables at the expense of a national inquiry. I think we can have both a national roundtable and also continue to call for a national inquiry.’’ There’s already talk of the groups meeting again in a year’s time to take stock of their progress. “It’s not just a roundtable to dialogue and talk,’’ Bellegarde said. “It’s all about getting something done.’’
OTTAWA — The Harper cabinet is actively and seriously considering whether Canada should join the U.S. and Britain in a military-training mission to shore up embattled Ukrainian troops, Defence Minister Jason Kenney said yesterday (Feb. 25). The notion drew a lukewarm response from opposition parties, who seem reluctant to see Canada venture further into the tinderbox of Eastern Europe beyond the delivery of non-lethal military aid and satellite intelligence. Britain said it would send 75 military trainers to Ukraine next month to provide instruction and training in military intelligence, logistics and battlefield-medical procedures. Kenney, who had already dropped broad hints of further Canadian involvement in concert with allies, said Canada is considering a similar commitment, with an emphasis on combat-medical evacuation and trauma care. “That’s the kind of technical training that we can offer,’’ he said. “We are in discussions and looking at options, and we’re open to — as I’ve been saying for two weeks now — open to participating in training missions.’’ Kenney would not, however, rule out combat training, saying he “can-
Canada has been policing Baltic airspace as the crisis in Ukraine continues — and now Canadian forces may help train Ukrainian troops.
not be more specific at this point.’’ The U.S. has committed 800 troops to train three battalions in western Ukraine. Canada’s defence department has made two deliveries of defensive military gear, including flak vests, helmets and coldweather clothes. The Harper government recently concluded a deal to provide radar satellite images to the Ukrainians in order to track Russian troop movements in its border region. Canadians would be uncomfortable going beyond that, suggested NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, who insisted such a military-training mission should be carried out as part of an alliance and approved by the House of Commons. “If we are going to work
towards anything different than what we’re doing now, which is non-kinetic flak jackets . . . we could send night-vision goggles,” he said. “That’s been agreed to and we’re on board with that.” “Anything beyond that requires two things. “One, concerted NATO action. Two, a decision by the Parliament of Canada.’’ Deploying the military is strictly the prerogative of the federal cabinet, but the Conservatives have made it their practice to put combat deployments to a vote in Parliament. The Afghan troop-training mission and the initial positioning of special forces with Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq were not voted on by MPs. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said he wants to see more details of the gov-
ernment’s proposal. Kenney suggested military training, if approved, would be a logical extension of Canada’s involvement in NATO reassurance operations, which have included CF-18s flying Baltic air-policing missions and the deployment of a frigate as part of the alliance’s standing naval task force. “We’ll be doing more later this year in NATO exercises, all of which is designed to send a message to Russia that Canada, together with our NATO allies, stands with our eastern European friends against any intimidation or territorial aggression on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin,’’ he said. “And the message we’re sending to him with respect to Ukraine is to get out of Ukraine now.’’
Keystone XL ‘roller-coaster’ ride ahead THE CANADIAN PRESS
WASHINGTON — Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. predicts a wild ride ahead in the Keystone XL debate, with this week’s presidential veto of a pro-pipeline bill just one more twist in the journey. “We expect a rollercoaster here and we expect setbacks,’’ Gary Doer said. He said lawmakers will probably move on to other issues for a while, then return to Keystone. Congress is in a dispute over immigration rules — which has gotten so bitter that it’s prompted a
standoff that could throttle funding after this week to the Department of Homeland Security. Soon, Doer said, there will be more occasions to discuss the long-delayed Alberta-to-Texas pipeline. He said there’s already talk in Washington of attaching a pipeline provision to a big infrastructure or budget bill. It could be a lot more difficult for the president to veto that kind of legislation. “We believe people are going to work towards getting broader proposals,’’ Doer said, adding that he didn’t want to wade into a
domestic political debate. A first bill to build the pipeline landed on President Barack Obama’s desk this week and he immediately vetoed it. He said it’s up to him, not Congress, to make decisions on cross-border pipelines. Doer also addressed a suggestion laid out in a public letter yesterday (Feb. 28) by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Now a United Nations special envoy on climate change, Bloomberg suggested that Canada and the U.S. strike a bilateral
climate deal in conjunction with Keystone XL. Bloomberg floated the idea in a piece titled, Keystone Solution Runs Through Canada. He said that pipeline gives the U.S. great leverage to extract climate commitments from Canada and could help the economy while lowering emissions. Doer saluted the idea of a Canada-U.S. climate arrangement, noting the Canadian government has repeatedly offered to regulate oil and gas with the U.S. the way it did with other pollutants.