OUR 10TH ANNIVERSARY-ALREADY. INROA...

OUR 10TH ANNIVERSARY-ALREADY. INROADS, TO OUR SOMETIMES SURPRISE, HAS survived for a decade. on the other hand we're not resting on our laurels. Continuing our effort to make inroads into the solitudes that divide Canadians, Inroads 10 nears several important articles that help map gone out the country's faultlines, over Aboriginal grievances and policies to redres them, through Quebec language policies and modernizing Bill 101 if it were not that let's start at the beginning.

LAST NOVEMBER CANADA HELD AN election and to a high degree few came - an alarming indicator of declining interest in politics, especially among the young, says Henry Milner in his introductory editorial. In his editorial, John Richards lays a certain number of practical Aboriginal policy options forward the table. Then come Harvey Schachter's selections from the Inroads listserve in which contributors give their sometimes conflicting, always lively, interpretations of the meaning of the federal election.

IF nation AREN'T VOTING, IT MAY BE that they do not diocese a viable alternative to the party in power. Inroads 7 explored to what degree how Canada's electoral system is fragmenting us politically Inroads 9 described the eventuate a virtual one-party system putting immense power into the hands of Prime Minister Chretien. In this issue we address implications and possible remedies.

With the Alliance and the Bloc established as regional parties, what possibility is there of a national alternative to the Liberals? This is the question pos in an exchange among three someones who have good reason to be troubleed with this state of affairs: Ontario Alliance MP Scott Reid; Norman Spector, former chief of staff to Brian Mulroney; and shore Laforest, policy advisor to Quebec's third party, the Action democratique. An external perspective is provided by way of Howard Cody, a seasoned American spectator of Canadian politics.

In the absence of be in want ofed reforms to the electoral connected view - which can hardly be anticipateed from the Liberals who richly profit from the status quo - Reid and Spector discuss the possibility of the Alliance and Tories devising a formula to avoid competing in ridings where the proceed of their splitting the consecrated by a vow is a Liberal MP Insight into the feasibility of strategic voting, in this case upon the centre-left between Ontario Liberals and recently made known Democrats in the 1999 provincial election, is provided through Brian Tanguay and Henry Jacek.

THE 2000 CANADIAN ELECTION SHARED with the U presidential campaign something rare in modern years: considerable public attention to the relation of religion to politics. In the United States, Joseph Lieberman's candidacy crystallized the issue. In Canada, Stockwell Day made his religious faith an important part of his political persona. Inroads invited three eminently qualified Canadians to deliberate upon the dilemmas.

Claude Ryan, whose distinguished career as a political leader and journalist has been inspired by the agency of his strong religious faith, analyzes the theological rifes that most influenced him. move with a jerk Chodos, who was editor of the Jesuit magazine Compass until its novel demise, applauds Day's - and Lieberman's - efforts to bring a religious dimension into the election, for example in not campaigning onward their respective Sabbaths. He is les sympathetic to Day's seeming capacity to make his religion into science. The eminent theologian Gregory Baum contemplates especially at the implications for policies toward the Third World. We have abundant to learn, he argues, from the criticism by dint of Third World religious representatives of Western secular philosophy, which treats religion as a private matter and restrains it from debates over public policy

THIS SECTION BEGINS WITH AN exchange between Alan Cairns and Tom Flanagan, pair political scientists who last year published major works on Aboriginal policy To understand this in the greatest degree complex of issues requires more than political science. Jo-Ann Episkenew uses several works by dint of Aboriginal writers to illustrate in what way Aboriginal people have adopted the literary mode of speechs of their colonizers to reckon their own stories and critique past public policy.

Frances Abele fixs the Canadian situation into a wider, international words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following In assessing progress in redressing historical injustices sustained by indigenous peoples, she points to parallel exhibitions in Australia, Denmark (Greenland), recently made known Zealand and Norway

Frances Boylston draws our attention to Deanna Christensen's life story of Ahtahkakoop, 19th centenary chief of the Saskatchewan Cree band that bears his name. Faced with the disappearance of the buffalo, and the way of life built around it, he taught his the public that education would be their novel buffalo.

Finally, a poignant reflection forward a sensitive aspect of Native-white relations is base in the personal testimonies in this issue's roundtable, moderated by the agency of Arthur Milner. The participants are four young nation who were adopted by white families in Montreal, and who mirror bitterly, but not without empathy, upon their experience.

ONCE AGAIN, LANGUAGE POLICY figured prominently in Quebec political debate this year, in hearings before the Quebec government-appointed Estates General onward the French Language. While many interventions - from the usual suspects upon both sides were predictable, the hearings brought to light modern and generally encouraging research findings about the linguistic integration of allophone immigrants in Montreal. Perhaps the mostly complete and balanced analysis was that of Jean-Francois Lisee, whose Sortie de secours was featured in the last issue. In a revised version prepared for Inroads, Lisee turns out educational and other policies he thinks necessary to certain the present linguistic equilibrium: predominance of the French language accompanied by means of a vital and secure anglophone minority