To the attention of Dr. Ken BrealeyAssociate Dean of Faculty, College of ArtsHumanities and Social SciencesUniversity of the Fraser ValleyDear Dr. Brealey:LETTER OF INTENTThank you for your reply to my message of April 2, 2013. I have read the syllabus for the Indigenous Maps, Films, Rights and Land Claims Certificate. I understand that this program has an abbreviated name of “Land Claims for Paralegals”. I am very interested in registering for this program. Below are a number of reasons for my interest, and some background as to why I have developed this interest.As I mentioned in my April 2, 2013 e-mail, I served as the facilitator for the Edmonton Committee of the UNESCO Culture of Peace International Decade. During that experience, I became very familiar with the results of the political impasse that has been eroding the sense of wholeness in a constitutional sense that has been afflicting Canadian intra-ethnic solidarity, due to numerous factors. The First Nations participation in events during the period that the Culture of Peace was commemorated, the year 2000, and the subsequent International Decade, made clear to me that there is a process required to establish a concept of rights and freedoms that proceeds from the pre-confederation ancestral culture. It has been clear to me that the Non-Aboriginal residents of areas that I have lived, in Kelowna, the Edmonton area, and Central Saskatchewan, have not developed a sense of being a part of a culture that has continuity with the time of Aboriginal pre-colonization.For several years, after I completed a legal office practice program at Alberta College [1981-82] I was very actively engaged with Human Rights and Civil Liberties activities within a number of community organizations in Alberta. I could see the illusiveness of a fully developed and ratified Canadian Constitution Act, which has not reached finalization within in the minds of many activists and law enforcement personnel. The exact weight that our Charter of Rights and Freedoms has in practice, resulted in many incidents involving oppressive clashes between law enforcement and residents of Alberta and BC. Basic constitutional assumptions have not been adopted by police for a variety of reasons; the main one cited in my experience has been that not all provinces have signed on – therefore there is a feeling among many police that Charter Rights can be regarded casually, rather than as supreme law.Having read John Ralston Saul’s book, “A FAIR COUNTRY”, it became quite ingrained in my thinking, that in order for there to be sufficient will among Canadians to want to finalize a working, ratified Constitution Act, it would be a primary need for First Nations and Rest of Canada (ROC) people to undertake an in-depth, long-term exploration of what grounds Canadian society with its origins, and how can all ethnic groups begin to visualize their role as being part of this continuum?My ultimate visualization of the best results of this process being formalized by the participation of organizations like Idle No More, and the Council of Canadians, as well as agencies that are working of specific acculturation goals for making protection of citizen self-determination rights, such as groups looking at implementation of practices that protect for example, the elderly, from financial abuse. These efforts will require consensus-building on how to internalize genuine customs of recognition of Criminal Code prohibitions against abuse of vulnerable populations. With the inadequate theory and practice of protection of fundamental rights due to the slide in the constitution ratification process, many serious problem areas such as the dehumanization of groups such as frail seniors by predatory investment dealers, has become an entrenched practice through phenomena known as “self regulation” and privatization of regulatory services. An example of this is the 2008 formation of IIROC, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, that is a self regulating body that is under contract by the BC Securities Commission, to provide enforcement, but has no willingness to get into issues that involve violations of Sections 361-363 and 380 of the Criminal Code on matters of deception in the sale of securities.This kind of practice of dehumanization of people who have been subjected harmed by the incomplete conception of why rights of citizens exist, has made the subject of getting into the historical genesis of colonial and depersonalizing exploitation of target groups, a matter of high relevance. The goal of getting to a universalization of basic standards of care and affirmation of the right of all citizens to be safeguarded from unethical and unlawful forms of abuse, requires a knowledge of the legal case of the First Nations to redress for the problems originating in the “Terra Nullius” precepts of some of the explorers and early settlers. The last 31 years of procrastination by the main political parties – suggesting that Canadians have no more willingness to delve into constitutional ratification – can, in my view, best overcome, by a wider understanding of the history of unresolved and conflicting definitions of the relationship of people to private holdings, the commons, recognition of rights of nature, and many other areas that would be best pursued in a long-term collaboration between citizens’ NGOs and more informal heritage participants.I would find the three courses that constitute the certificate program very useful as a way to understand much of the ethnographic components of the case that exists for resolving Aboriginal claims, and I would find it very interesting to apply for the alpha-numerically graded academic weighted Certificate program. I would find this to be a very valuable way to update my paralegal knowledge from when I took my program at Alberta College in Edmonton in the early 80s.I will be sending this Letter of Intent to Dr. Brealey’s e-mail address with some attachments, such as my activities that I collaborated with a volunteer with the World Social Forum in Paris, France, who I created a link between the Occupy Movement and the World Social Forum’s Open Website. I will also send my certificate in Legal Office Practice from Alberta College.Best regards,

Alan Blanes