May 2007 ISSUE
From Trap Line
To PowerPoint
To the Pages
Of The PEGG
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Robert Laboucane |
Robert Laboucane is a Métis businessman originally from Fort McMurray. The president of Ripple Effects Ltd. – also known as RippleFx – has for 23 years delivered Aboriginal awareness training seminars, and workshops on Aboriginal outreach, recruitment and retention for Aboriginal employment. The company also offers a full awareness training program online.
Many of the individuals and corporations in his client base are APEGGA members or permit holders. His dozens of clients also include federal and provincial government departments, educational institutions and Aboriginal organizations.
For three years Mr. Laboucane was district superintendent for economic development
and employment with the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
He was also executive director of the Calgary Aboriginal Awareness Society for
three years and of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business for seven.
In 1995 Mr. Laboucane received the Garth Leask Award from the Interprovincial
Association for Native Employment for his outstanding achievements in Aboriginal
employment initiatives. In 1996 he received an award for his outstanding service
to the Métis business community and in 2001 the Métis Nation of
Alberta recognized Ripple Effects Ltd. as the Entrepreneurof
the Year.
Mr. Laboucane volunteers with the Calgary Aboriginal Professional Association. He is the former secretary-treasurer of the National Aboriginal Business Association, a member of the Interprovincial Association for Native Employment, and an associate member of the Northeast Alberta Aboriginal Business Association.
In addition to his government and Aboriginal awareness work, Mr. Laboucane has a varied background. Over the years, he’s worked a trap line, attended school in Germany, graduated from Cariboo College in Kamloops with an agricultural sciences diploma, owned a real estate and land development company, and even managed a 600-head cow-calf operation.
Those who’ve attended Ripple Effects seminars and workshops might fondly recall an overhead projector and transparencies. Mr. Laboucane informs The PEGG, however, that the old system is no more – he’s officially graduated to PowerPoint.
GLOSSARY
You hear the words every day, but do you know what they mean? If you call every
Native you meet an Indian, you’ve got some learning to do.
Here’s a glossary of some of the terms describing Aboriginals in Canada.
Aboriginals, Natives, Indigenous Peoples – these are synonymous.
They refer to the same large and diverse group that represents Canada’s
founding peoples.
Indians – this one gets complicated.
1.The most accurate definition is that an Indian is someone from India.
2. We can thank early European arrivals for the second definition – the misnomer that Natives in Canada are Indians. They really aren’t Indians at all, by the first definition, because they aren’t from India.
3. Despite the above, the terminology is ingrained in Canadian law and culture. Legally speaking, Indians are one subset of three that fall under the broad term Aboriginals. The others two are Métis and Inuit.
There are three categories of Indian – Status, Bill C-31, Non-Status.
Status (First Nations) – registered in the Indian Registry, this is the only group made up of “Indian bands” or “tribes.” It is not necessary that status Indians live on their home reserve or any reserve at all to maintain their status. There are two types of status Indians (First Nations) – Treaty and Non-Treaty.
Treaty and Non-Treaty –Treaty Indians have a home reserve
within a treaty area. They are considered treaty even if they don’t live
there. Only about half of the First Nations peoples in Canada are actually treaty
Indians. The non-treaty Indians (First Nations) are band members living in areas
where no treaty has been made.
Bill C-31 – Indians who lost their status, Aboriginal
and treaty rights, but through legislation received them back, albeit with limitations.
Some have been accepted back to the reserve they originally came from and have
become “band members.” Many have not been allowed back.
Non-Status – Indians not registered in the Indian Registry and are not referred to as First Nations. No Aboriginal rights, no treaty rights, no benefits.
Métis – popularly means people of mixed North American Aboriginal and European blood. Legally speaking, the Constitution Act 1982 recognizes the Métis as one of Canada’s founding Aboriginal peoples. The Supreme Court has accepted a definition of Métis as a person who self-identifies as Métis, is accepted by the Métis in the community they live in, and is from the historic Métis homeland.
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