6 - Friday, September 14, 1990 - North Shore News INSIGHTS NEWS VIEWPOINT Roadblock dead en HE FOLLY of erecting road blockades as a form of protest was tragicaliy underlined early Sunday morning. A member of the Burrard Indian Band was struck and killed by a car after he and six fellow band members attempted to establish an impromptu roadblock of Dollarton Highway. Burrard Band Chief Len George said the roadblock was a spontaneous action to protest against the continued problem of vehicles speeding through the band’s North Vancouver reserve. Whether spontaneous or otherwise, the action was ill-advised and foclishly ex- ecuted, especially in light of the national bitterness that has arisen over the Mohawk roadblock at Oka, Quebec. The Burrard Band roadblock was set up without warning, without barricades, without signs,in the early morning hours by -.seven Burrard Band members. They simply began redirecting traffic in the 3400-block of Dollarton Highway. Drivers coming upon the scene would surely have been caught by surprise; they would just as surely have feared for their safety. An accident was inevitable. While the reasons behind the roadblock were grounded in band concerns for the safety of its membership, the validity behind that action was likely based in the belief that roadblocks have become an ac- ceptable form of native protest. But to take the law of the land into one’s own hands is not acceptable in Oka, Quebec and it is not acceptable in North Vancouver. ‘ The tragedies in both actions have borne that out. LETTER OF THE DAY Natives fight for survival Political and economic power Dear Editor, Re: Doug Collins’ Aug. {5 col- umn: Native Indian land claims are a major issue in Canada. Doug Col- lins accuses the public of treating the Indians with ideological “daintiness."” He thinks white Canadians are diseased when they show sympathy to a nation that has been destroyed by greed and imperialism. This school of thought is dan- gerous. It promotes hatred be- tween our cultures. Historically, the white man’s disease has been carried about the continents like luggage. White ex- Publisher Associate Editor North Shore News, tounded in 1969 456 an independent suburban Newspaper and quaitied undue Schedule 117 Paragraph HI ot the Excise Tas Act is pubkshed eact Ind Sunday Dy North Snuce Free puted tO every dogs on tte North snore Second Class Stat Redstation Name Subscembons North and West Vancouver Maing cates avaiable an request Sup welcome dul we can angoliciied Mate: atcn ,nhould 00 4c: enenlope: MP AMe Oy + Peter Soeck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw Noel Wright ' Advertising Director Linda Stewart SPORSIDINT plorers opened this luggage 250 years ago in Canada. On the receiving end was the Indian. In fact, one-third of the West Coast natives died of smallpox and related complications. In some regions of B.C., 75 per cent of the tribes were decimated, others completely eradicated. Not a pretty picture, is it! To complete this injurious col- umn, Mr. Collins adds, ‘‘they (natives) should thank their lucky stars the whites arrived.’’ Ap- parently, history was not one of his strong suits. These low-calibre comments are those of an intellec- tual shallow-wader. Ft vOrCS 00 GUE AND WES? VANCOUYES SUNDAY © WEDNESDAY -FIDAY 1139 Lonsdaie Avenue. North Vancouver. BC V7M 2H4 59,170 (average. Wednesday Friday & Sunday) o_o at Display Advertising Classified Advertising Newsroom Distribution Suoscrptions has been denied to the natives of B.C. Cultural demoralization and the installation of unclear government policy has kept this heritage-rich people in stalemate. In the East, Oka Indians are fighting for their cultural survival. Can whites blame them for want- ing a piece of the economic pie? U find it hard to believe chat white society finds difficulty un- derstanding this side of human nature. It’s called the fight for life! Jeffrey Wallace North Vancouver 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 986-1337 985-3227 MEMBER North Shore owned and managed Enwe contents § 1990 North Shore Free Press Lid. All nights reserved ‘Turning blind eye to reality helps nobody! IF YOU’RE PUZZLED about the confusion afflicting Canadians ‘during this endless ‘‘Indian Summer,’’ Van- couver’s morning paper provided the answer on Tuesday. In an editorial with the quaintly bilingual headline ‘‘Drivel du jour’ it attacked Justice Minster Kim Campbell for doing her duty and Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon for ‘‘echoing’’ her. Campbell’s crime, according to the editorial writer, was her rejec- tion last week of any amne::y for the armed Mohawk thugs ai Oka — all Jiable to prosecution for breaches of the law, including murder of a police officer. “Campbell's statements that everyone is subject to Canadian law,"’ declared the editorial, ‘‘ig- nore the natives’ argument that they are a separate nation within Canada, subject to native law.”’ Even if she disagreed, it added, ‘she owes them a proper response."’ The only proper response, the writer indicated, was ‘‘goodwill and talking to the natives.’’ He recited the familiar litany of in- justices to Indians for over a cen- tury, leaving no doubt that he {and presumably his paper) sym- pathized with their claims to legal immunity. His apparent message, loud and clear, to 438,000 readers of Van- couver’s daily tabloid was that natives shouldn’t have to obey Canadian laws they don’t like. From this fantasyland let's re- join wicked Kim Campbell in the real world. In the real world a majority of white Canadians today sincerely want their governments to come to grips at long last with the rea- sonable demands of the native peoples for a more satisfying way of life than the outdated Indian Act provides. Even a_ lawless summer has not destroyed that fund of basic goodwill. Given such goodwill, many dif- ferent approaches to the problems are possible — from native municipal self-government to far better use of the over $4 billion a year now spent by taxpayers on Indian programs that don’t help Indians. That said, however, native peo- ples must also recognize that the concept of ‘‘sovereignty’? — if that means a ‘‘nation-to-nation’’ relationship with white Canada — is totally unrealistic, The result would be scores of minute ‘‘sovereign nations’’ scat- tered across sovereign Canada — each with its own system of law and thus claiming immunity from the law which guarantees the same protection to all who share the land. RODNEY GLYNN-MORRIS Dector in the House? Noel KIM CAMPBELL ... due process for everyone. Whatever the errors of earlier white settlers, the reality is that such a situation can never be ac- cepted by the non-native 97 per cent of Canadians. The reality in criminal cases is that the law must treat Indians like all other citizens. That’s all Justice Minister Campbell was saying. She was simply talking about due process -— which in no way detracts from the equally vital need to better the lot of native peoples. . Turning a blind eye to reality, the morning tab helped neither its white nor its native readers. A shorter headline for the editorial would have sufficed. Just ‘‘Drivel.’’ Period! tht WRAP-UP: A month ago — prompted by a question on the subject from an aspiring candidate — this column suggested voters might be better served by politi- cians with a sense of humor. On Wednesday West Van-Garibaldi Socreds seemed to agree, by nominating Dr. Rodney Glynn- Morris as their candiddate in the upcoming provincial election. The West Van family medic, who's khown for his own sense of humor and won comfortably over touted front-runner Margot Furk, was the questioner who sparked our August column... Taking over this month as new C.O. of West Van's 525 Pathfinder Squadron Air Cadets is Ian Muir, C.D.... And specially happy anniversaries today, Sept. 14, to West Van's four latest members of the “Golden Club’? — Norman and Dorothy Faiers, and Alfred and Mildred Mitchell — who tied the knot on this date 50 years ago.