VANCOUVER MÉTIS ASSOCIATION
CRTC SUBMISSION NOVEMBER 30th, 2000
ABORIGINAL VOICES RADIO
Presented by:
J. Paul Stevenson, President
10th Floor
609 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
V6B 4W4 (604) 681-8556
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to appear before this hearing.
I am the elected leader of a Métis Community with over 700 active members in the Lower Mainland. I am also the Chief Executive Officer of a Mineral Exploration Company that is developing a Copper/Gold Porphyry deposit in north central British Columbia, within the Traditional Territory of the Lake Babine Nation.
I donate office space and my time to serve my community so in the traditional Métis way I have a foot in two camps. I have served on the Premier's Committee for Mining Initiatives and I am the Vice-Chair of Vancouver City Council's Special Advisory Committee for Cultural Communities. I served on the British Columbia Multiculturalism Advisory Council.
I learned quickly about the lack of sensitivity on important issues and the need to get our story to mainstream Canada. What you have before you is a Métis Social Activist who happens to be a successful
businessman.
You may be saying to yourself I thought the Métis were all on the prairies. Well there are 30,000 of us in BC and in the 1996 Census over 6,000 identified as Métis in the lower mainland.
If we had a national radio station you, the city of Vancouver and all of Canada would know we existed.
It is for this community and the Urban Aboriginal Community as a whole that I am supporting the Aboriginal Radio Voices proposal for a service for Vancouver.
The soul of Canada has been the CBC, a broadcast service that ties mainstream Canada together from Coast to Coast to Coast.
The time is now for Aboriginal Peoples to have their own easily accessible radio service as well. This will benefit our people and the people of Canada.
The Aboriginal people of Canada have a long and diverse cultural history in this land we now call Canada.
We are a primary force in the fabric of Canadian culture that is historically underrepresented. To understand the cultural fabric of Canada, people need to not only be educated in Aboriginal History, but to the powerful role that we as Aboriginal People will be
playing in the future of Canada.
The depth of Aboriginal Culture, including music, arts and insights continue to set the tone of a large percent of not only Aboriginal Culture but also mainstream culture, politics, and social dynamics.
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) recommended the CRTC "include in license conditions for public and commercial broadcasters, in regions with significant Aboriginal population concentrations, requirements for fair representation and distribution of Aboriginal programming, including Aboriginal language requirements."
The Royal Commission of Aboriginal People also recommended the CRTC be mandated to establish "… provisions for joint ventures as part of licensing
conditions to ensure a stable financial base for the production and distribution of Aboriginal broadcast media products, particularly in Southern Canada."
Canada's Broadcast Act states that radio must reflect in its programming and employment opportunities the "special place of Aboriginal Peoples."
Obviously the submission before you fulfills these mandates and more. You are probably more aware than I of the legal, cultural and historical need for such a station.
I will also speak from my heart-
I am a recovering addict/alcoholic and am president of an Aboriginal Society that manages a support house for Aboriginal men recovering from addictions. In my service to my brothers I have the opportunity to arrange schooling and job training. I also research cultural information to help our men recover their pride and place in our society.
The majority of our people cannot be reached through mainstream media. APTN requires access to cable TV and newspapers are not often read by those most in need.
With no effective voice across Canada Métis people and all Aboriginal People are feeling alone in their struggle to regain their sobriety, pride, and self-respect.
The establishment of an Aboriginal Radio Station will fill this need. At no cost to listeners a national radio service will unite our brothers and sisters in a way not possible today.
In the name of the Métis of this city and my
brothers and sisters in recovery I ask that you help us rebuild our Nation.
Please approve this application.
All My Relations,
J. Paul Stevenson, President
Vancouver Métis Association