| Public Meeting in Vernon. The Okanagan Band will hold a Public Information Forum at the Performing Arts Centre in Vernon on April 28, 2004, prior to the planned Title & Rights Alliance conference in Victoria in May.
The desired audience for this Public Information Forum will be local politicians, community and business leaders in the North Okanagan. The general public is also invited. The purpose of the forum is to provide participants with:
- a brief history of the Okanagan Band and the Okanagan Nation;
- a brief history of Crown/Aboriginal relations in BC;
- a primer on the current legal environment in BC as it relates to Rights and Title;
- a priimer on what steps need to be taken to reconcile Crown and Aboriginal Title; and
- a statement of the benefits to the non-Aboriginal community of reconciliation.
The forum will consist of a short social, presentations by authorities in each of these areas, a question and answer period and a short film about the Okanagan Nation. The presentations will be fairly short and will supplemented by handout materials related to the presentations, the community and our specific claims. The forum will be held in the evening, starting at 5:00 pm, and will take about 3 hours. We intend to work with local community service groups to promote the event.
The timing is meant to help the public in our area to better understand the Title & Rights Alliance conference in Victoria in May. |
