When Don Rusnak came home to support his father through cancer in 2008, the economic health of his childhood Westfort neighbourhood was gone.
“When I was at Sacred Heart (School), all my friends, their parents either worked at the mill, the grain elevators or Can Car, the sawmills or in the woodlands and they had a great life,” he recalled. “You don’t see that today. My friends had to go out west just to make a living for their families.”
Rusnak’s father was the vice-president of the Canadian Papermakers Union and if his “fighting for the little guy” made him his son’s political inspiration, beating cancer made him Don’s hero.
Grand Council Treaty 3 hired Rusnak as its interim executive director after he finished law school. Treaty 3 was years behind in its reporting and Rusnak was responsible for “cleaning up the mess.”
He oversaw the chiefs restructuring the organization as he cut programs and jobs that ultimately balanced its budget and fostered its growth under a narrowed mandate.
Rusnak believes only a government with the courage to treat First Nations as partners with an “equal seat at the table” will make real change.
“Ultimately, it’s the First Nations communities themselves – their leadership and their grassroots – who are going to decide how they want to move forward with Canada,” he said.
“Amending the Indian Act as they see fit and how the federal government sees fit in cooperation is a bridge to get to the next level. What that is, I don’t know but we have to start that discussion. If we don’t, Canada’s still going to be in this quagmire of ‘them and us’: First Nations people versus the rest of Canada.”
Rusnak is seven years into owning a private law firm of one. He sees the judicial system cycling troubled youth in with those living with mental health and substance abuse issues.
“Tough on crime doesn’t work,” he said.
“In Thunder Bay, where we have a high crime rate, if you’re seen to be tough on crime, it’s politically popular but I think we need to be smart on crime and investing in programs that keep kids out of trouble. You spend small amounts of money there and you save big on the tail end.”
