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Dec. 16, 2005
B'nai Brith goes north
Delegation visits Manitoba First Nations.
MATT BELLAN JEWISH POST AND NEWS
For Alan Yusim, the most vivid memory of the day was seeing the
living conditions. For Rabbi Alan Green, it was learning how people
prevail in such "harsh" situations.
Yusim, Green and four others took part in a precedent-setting B'nai
Brith Canada visit to two northern Manitoba First Nations communities
last month.
The group had received a personal invitation from Grand Chief Arnold
Ouskan of the Keewatin Tribal Council and Grand Chief Dr. Sydney
Garrioch of Manitoba Keewatinook Ininew Okimowin.
The one-day trip to Oxford House and Tadoule Lake followed years
of relationship-building between his organization and First Nations
communities, Yusim noted.
The contacts started several years ago, but increased after David
Ahenakew, a one-time national First Nations leader, made anti-Semitic
comments at a public First Nations gathering in Saskatoon in December
2002. Over the past three summers, B'nai Brith has helped arrange
a series of First Nations clergy, educators and leaders missions
to Israel. Rev. Raymond McLean, pastor of the Winnipeg-based Southeast
Aboriginal Ministries, played a leading role in organizing the trips.
"While in Israel, we met with Israeli government officials
and NGO (nongovernmental organizations) experts," said Yusim,
who accompanied First Nations leaders on a summer 2005 trip.
"They joined us in talks with First Nations leaders on economic
development, infrastructure building and combatting poverty, based
on the Israeli experience."
The Nov. 10 trip to Tadoule Lake, west of Churchill, and Oxford
House, at the northern end of Lake Winnipeg, included Ronen Gil-Or,
deputy head of missions of the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, and Winnipeg-born
Vivian Silver, executive director of the Negev Institute for Strategies
of Peace and Development in Be'er Sheva.
"Each First Nations community has its own needs and is in a
unique position for opportunity," said Yusim. "Tadoule
Lake may be a location appropriate for eco-tourism and for some
sort of water purification technology."
Of 100 homes in the community, only 35 per cent have running water.
Enormous diesel generators supply power, but a community centre,
nursing station and other facilities have all been added since the
generators started operating, overloading the power supply.
"One of the homes we visited had no running water," Yusim
recalled. "They had a fridge and stove, but no available amps
to operate them. They had to use a hot plate."
Oxford House, on the other hand, sits on "abundant" resources
such as diamond deposits. In fact, said Yusim, the federal government
has licensed companies from Japan and Germany to mine those resources.
"The local people haven't been brought in," he said. "By
policy, they're not allowed to develop their own resources."
Current plans are for representatives of some Israeli-based NGOs
to visit Oxford House and Tadoule Lake and conduct a formal needs
assessment in each community. First Nations leaders might also visit
the Negev Institute, to study techniques developed there for water
purification and land reclamation.
"It will be similar in some ways to work the institute has
done with Bedouins in Israel," said Yusim.
Green, who is the rabbi of Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, Winnipeg's biggest
congregation, has also been involved in aboriginal projects in the
city, Yusim said. Organizers thought it would be appropriate for
residents of Tadoule Lake and Oxford House to meet "a Jewish
spiritual leader." Green, guest of the Keewatin Tribal Council
and Manitoba Keewatinook Ininew Okimowin on the trip, answered questions
about Judaism during meetings with local residents and leaders.
Green said he found the two communities not only isolated, but "beautiful"
in their isolation.
"The air is extremely clean," he observed. "I was
aware of a spiritual feeling in the communities we visited ... I
think there's much we can learn from them in terms of prevailing
under harsh conditions. They have reserves of patience, energy and
frugality, and a willingness to overcome obstacles. As much as we
can help them materially, they can help us spiritually."
As for Yusim, his most vivid impression of the trip is that "here
in Canada, there are entire communities that have been denied ...
the right to have their basic needs met. It's appalling that this
can be happening in Canada."
Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada and
another participant on the one-day trip, was singled out for special
honors. Ouskan announced a special ceremony at Oxford House next
February to install Dimant as an honorary First Nations chief.
"This is the first time that we are bestowing such honor on
one of Canada's foremost Jewish community leaders, in recognition
of B'nai Brith Canada's outstanding efforts to strengthen the ties
between Jewish and aboriginal peoples," Ouskan said. "We
are also grateful to B'nai Brith for bringing the plight of the
First Nations communities to the attention of the public."
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