Title: RIGHTS: Indigenous Canadians Demand Better Housing By Mark Bourrie OTTAWA, May 4 (IPS) - Indigenous Canadians in Manitoba province are trying to shame the federal government into building more houses on native reserves, by sending a video of their squalid living conditions to the United Nations and foreign governments. Grand Chief Francis Flett of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimkanak (MKO) tribal group says that people in the 27 reserves of northern Manitoba are living in substandard housing - crowded together on an average of 14 people in one dwelling. There is a backlog of 4,500 houses for the 46,560 people of the MKO First Nations, and more than two-thirds of the people on the reserves have no running water or sewage facilities, Flett says. "Our government is forgiving billions of dollars of third world debt, while our people live in third world conditions," he complains. "It has been nearly three years since the government of Canada released the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report (which recommended a huge native housing program), and yet housing conditions on First Nations continue to worsen. "Whenever the UN tries to publicly chastise the Canadian government over First Nations living conditions, the government of Canada claims the UN relies on out-dated statistics. It's time to show the world what it is like to live on the reserves in northern Manitoba." The video is called "Wrapped in Plastic", after reserve a house that has walls of black sheet plastic. The tape shows houses that are barely standing and in some dwellings, pillows are stuffed into holes in walls to keep out the cold. Flett says that it would cost 2.7 billion dollars to build adequate housing and 200 dollars million for sewage treatment for the reserves. The total capital budget for all 62 of the reserves in Manitoba is 60 million dollars, to cover roads, schools, housing and other infrastructure. "At this rate, it will take over 12 years to meet today's needs,'' Flett says. "The United Nations and the world must tell Canada that their treatment of the First Nations is unacceptable and no longer will be tolerated. We are asking the UN Committee on Human Rights to hear from MKO at its next sitting and we will bring direct evidence of the deplorable living conditions on reserves," he added. "We are inviting members of the UN Commission on Human Rights to visit our reserves and see first-hand the deplorable living conditions our people must deal with on a daily basis." Vern Joseph, a housing expert for the Assembly of First Nations, adds pointedly that the same sort of conditions that existed in South Africa in the apartheid era, resulted in UN sanctions against that country. The Assembly represents most of Canada's native communities. "The increase in tuberculosis and the fact that native people die, on average, 20 years sooner than non-natives, shows that these housing conditions are dangerous and unsafe," he says. The indigenous leaders say they will send their video to the nations of all governments in the world if the Canadian government or the United Nations fails to respond to their pleas. Canada's Indian Affairs minister Jane Stewart says she has seen the video when it was played for her during a visit she made to Manitoba with health minister Allan Rock. She insists the government has made progress dealing with the housing shortage on reserves, but admitted there was a long way to go. "There are improvements, if you look at the stats broadly," she said. "Having gone to communities in Northern Manitoba, I can tell you that they are, in some cases, deplorable. I don't know how anybody can support them. " The thing that I can take as my responsibility is looking at the circumstances, addressing how we got there, and trying to determine the best ways to move forward. I don't think the right way is for a continued relationship where it's a one-way, where the federal government is the only partner." Instead, she wants more efficient use of the money the government spends "There are those that say that it's strictly a question of money. From my point of view, I think it's perhaps a question of more money, but more importantly, we have to look at the billion (canadian) dollars (USD 680 million) in capital investments that we make every year in First Nations communities, and I'm not convinced we have the approach right. "One of the things that we've all been talking about are whether or not there are better ways than just allocating money First Nation by First Nation." She said the government is considering giving housing money to provincial or national native organizations that, she says, can handle the money more efficiently. (END/IPS/mb/mk/99) Origin: ROMAWAS/RIGHTS/ ---- [c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved May not be reproduced, reprinted or posted to any system or service outside of the APC networks, without specific permission from IPS. This limitation includes distribution via Usenet News, bulletin board systems, mailing lists, print media and broadcast. For information about cross- posting, send a message to . For information about print or broadcast reproduction please contact the IPS coordinator at . Conf?