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“They set the criteria, they set the terms of reference, they developed the process, they opened the door for people to apply and when they weren’t satisfied with the outcome they changed the rules of the game,” Hector Pearce, the group’s vice-chairman, said Friday in an email to the Post. “Typical bureaucratic bungling.”

In May, Mr. Pearce said the government would never have lowballed the number of applicants if it had realized there was a high rate of intermarriage between the Mi’kmaq and European newcomers.

“If the federal government had done their homework on this … I think they might have gotten some hint that there was a lot of Mi’kmaq blood mixed in among the people,” he said.

Gerry Byrne, a Newfoundland Liberal MP who has championed the cause of the 70,000, has said the government’s shock at 80,000 unexpected Indians is due to “”incompetence, negligence or an outright lie.”

Ryan Cleary, a New Democratic MP from St. John’s, says some of the ballooning application numbers are the result of the longtime Newfoundland practice of keeping quiet about Aboriginal lineage.

“For generations, Aboriginal roots were often hidden in Newfoundland & Labrador by those who preferred to pass as non-Aboriginals because of discrimination,” he told the House of Commons in May. “People now, finally, are coming forward.”

One contentious issue arising from the changed process is the fact up to 70% of applicants do not live in Newfoundland, something the Watchdogs says is irrelevant.

“My native roots in NL trace back as far as anyone else’s,” wrote Ward Jones, a Ontario resident applying for Q’alipu status, in a May email to thePost.

“To me, your heritage has nothing to do with your address.”

National Post

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