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Elijah Harper: One voice and history

As we noted in our news story obituary in the Nickel Belt News May 24, Elijah Harper, the Ojibwa-Cree former Manitoba NDP opposition MLA for the constituency of Rupertsland from Red Sucker Lake, will always be best remembered historically for a singl

As we noted in our news story obituary in the Nickel Belt News May 24, Elijah Harper, the Ojibwa-Cree former Manitoba NDP opposition MLA for the constituency of Rupertsland from Red Sucker Lake, will always be best remembered historically for a single act, and quite properly so.

Harper, who died May 17, sitting in the back row of the Manitoba legislative assembly on June 22, 1990, held an eagle feather in his right hand, rose from his seat, and simply said 'no' in refusing to grant the unanimous consent necessary to dispense with public hearings in the province and thus decisively helped block the passage of the proposed Meech Lake accord, although all parties in Manitoba had agreed to it, and the Manitoba legislature adjourned.

Newfoundland Liberal Premier Clyde Wells, in response to Elijah Harper's action, refused later in the day on June 22, 1990 to bring Meech Lake to a vote in the Newfoundland House of Assembly, arguing Manitoba had made any further legislative action irrelevant, sounding the death knell for the Meech Lake Accord.

Harper was born on March 3, 1949 at Red Sucker Lake. He was educated at residential schools in Norway House, Brandon and Birtle and attended high school in Garden Hill and Winnipeg, later studied at the University of Manitoba, linking up with future aboriginal leaders, including Ovide Mercredi, Phil Fontaine and Moses Okimaw.

Later, he worked as a community development worker, supervisor for the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood, and program analyst for the Manitoba Department of Northern Affairs.

In 1978, at the age of 29, he was elected chief of the Red Sucker Lake Indian Band (now Red Sucker Lake First Nation). In 1990, the Red Sucker Lake First Nation bestowed on Harper the title of Honorary Chief for Life.

Harper was the recipient of the Commemorative Medal of Canada and awarded the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1996, and the Order of Merit from St. Paul's University in May 1998 (Canadian Institute of Conflict Resolution).

Harper's other awards included the Order of the Sash from the Manitoba Métis Federation, and the Gold Eagle Award, an outstanding citizen recognition from the Indigenous Women's Collective in Manitoba.

Thompson NDP MLA Steve Ashton, who was elected at the same time as Harper in the provincial election of Nov. 17, 1981, as part of the Northern caucus with Jay Cowan, Jerry Storie and the late Harry Harapiak in the Howard Pawley government, and who was serving as NDP opposition house leader in 1990, recalled in a tribute he made to Harper from the floor of the Manitoba legislative assembly May 21, "I will point not just to his having said 'no' in 1990, but the degree which he said 'yes' to a vision of hope, Mr. Speaker, for aboriginal people." Quite so and Ashton makes an important point. Ashton also said in the same remarks that as the "first treaty MLA" and the "first First Nations cabinet minister" in provincial politics in Manitoba, "We knew that Elijah was all about history."

In his "MLA Report" column in the May 24 Nickel Belt News, Ashton wrote that Harper "embodied an inner personal strength combined with humility and respect for others. An outlook on life that we could all learn from.

"Today we mourn the loss of someone who made history, who gave hope to a whole new generation of Canadians that you can make a difference for Aboriginal peoples and for Canada.

"A great Northern Manitoba, a great Manitoban, a great First Nations leader and a great Canadian.

"He will be missed."

Again, quite so.

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