ONE HOPE that was definitely not realized last year was a breakthrough in the constitutional talks between the federal and provincial governments and Canada’s native people. Yet it is too much to say there was a breakdown, strictly speak- ing, because the entire relationship between natives and the subse- quent waves of immigrants have been one long breakdown anyway. There was little left over from the Trudeau era, in my view, that was of any real value except the pledge reluctantly added to our shiny new repatriated constitution to give natives and the government three chances to straighten out their relations. Unfortunately, there was no penalty clause for the government in the event of failure. For the natives, the penalty was the same old one: continuing 90 per cent unemployment levels, their every move constrained by the dictates of: the very unegalitarian Indian Act, substan- dard smedical facilities, inadequate education, etc. , When the third stab at a.con- stitutional deal fell through, Ca- nadian Indians were left with nowhere to go, and Canada was left with the shame of a reserve system that amounts to soft apar- theid. a This is all familiar enough to thinking ,Canadians. What it amounts ;to is an apparent stale- mate. Yet it is a stalemate that cannot, last, tliat shows no sign of lasting, no mztter how hard certain politicians try to stonewall the process. | We . 1 For what has clearly happened among native people is a revolu- tion of rising expectations, quite similar in fact to the kind of change in attitude that occurred among the Quebecoise prior to the emergence of separatism as a polit- ical factor. The year 1987 may have ended in constitutional stalemate for Canada’s Indians — and the rest of us — but it was something of a landmark year in other ways for the natives, While Joe Clark was posturing righteously about human rights in South Africa, he was tapped on the media shoulder by touring Manitoba Indians, who invited him to come visit their reserves back home and make the same speeches he’d just made about places like Soweto. The amount of bleating from editorial writers when another Manitoba Indian band _ invited South African ambassador Glenn Babb to have a look at their reserve was a giggle. Why hadn’t the media been up there to have a look themselves before? These two events were just a taste of the hullabaloo to come. Not only have native leaders become extremely media-hip in the last few years, they have also achieved a level of national organization that is utterly unprec- edented in modern times. This, in fact, represents a circle completing itself more than a new height being achieved. Histoniaus lave recently un- covered an amazing link between the American Constitution and the Great Law of Peace, which gov- erncd the Iroquois Confederacy for possibly as long as 1,500 years. This would mean the con- federacy was the longest-standing constitutional democracy in the world. It was a multi-national government, with universal suf- ferage, referendum, recaJ! and ini- tiative, none of which existed in Europe at the time the white man first arrived in North America. An interesting twist, what? As the ‘‘Americans’’ took over, they may have absorbed the political forms of the defeated Indian na- tions just as Christianity, taking over the Roman Empire, became the empire. In any event, to think that In- dians somehow aren’t capable of the necessary feats of organization to puli themselves together is to miss this fine historic point. Since, in any political struggle, organization is absolutely essential, the elements are in place in Canada for a showdown. Don't forget that it has been barely 15 years since the first Indian picket lines ap- peared in Edmonton. Canada is ripe to start seriously coming to grips with the tragedy of our reserves, By staking out the impossibly high mora] ground that all federal governments since Diefenbaker have taken in regard to South Africa, Canada has set itself up. The Meech Lake Accord, | think, brings the moment of truth closer, because it recognizes Quebec as a distinct society but makes no mention of the far more distinct societies that existed long before Quebec was a gleam in his- tory’s eye. There’s a precedent now for recognizing distinctiveness. As native groups across the country gear up for the next stage in their struggle for self-govern- ment, we can expect to have the world’s media peering over our shoulders to see what exactly is go- ing on behind the facade of Cana- dian equality. | IQPlus" jComputers Inc. IQ Plu Computers Inc. 1083 Marine Drive .§ N. Van. ; f INCREDIBLE CARS AT INCREDIBLE YEAR-END SAVINGS!