4 - Wednesday, Augus? 7, 1391 - North Shore News

The Cree are Canada’s Kurds

THE FUTURE of this country is now, [ believe, in the

hands of the Indians.

This isn't something that will be
immediately obvious to everyone.
Ridiculous, most will probably
say. But I believe this is exactly
the pass we have come to.

There are more than 600 Indian
reserves in Canada. They con-
stitute an archipelago scattered
across the length and breadth of
Confederation.

These reserves were all created
by the British after they had taken
over from the French. The British
were sticklers for legality and in-
sisted on getting everything in
writing.

When Canada came into ex-
istence as a legal entity, it assum-
ed responsibility for the obliga-
tions incurred by the Crown in
exchange for the treaty agreements
that paved the way for the
reserves.

B.C. was the exception. Only a
handful of treaties were actually
concluded.

Ninety-nine-point-nine per cent
of the territory was zapped by a
proclamation turning it into a
province, which was flipped over
to Canada without technical en-
cumbrances.

lt was unjust, immoral and
essentially criminal, but the white
men weren't much bothered —
until recent times, when uncer-
tainty over land claims started
spelling investment and develop-
ment paralysis. And even now, of
course, the white man's courts see
nothing wrong.

Apart from B.C., the reserve
system lies at the very heart of
Canada’s existence. For it was by
either purchasing it outright or by
deals trading hunting and fishing
rights for land that the British
wove an elaborate tapestry of
legalisms to cover up the
nakedness of their real estate
grab.

All that happened on the Plains
of Abraham was that one bandit

Bob
Hunter

STRICTLY PERSONAL

empire wrested the booty from
another. The inhabitants of the
lands in question — whom we
would refer to today as the
owners — were shoved off onto a
myriad of tiny *‘homelands."’

The crucial role of the reserve
system in the formation of
Canada was that it allowed the
local people to be rounded up and
herded off into the isolated cor-
ners — eternally divided, sur-
rourded, and cordoned off by
various levels of occupation
forces, including municipal and
provincial police and Mounties,
and when that fails, as we saw at
Oka, the army.

It has long struck me as stunn-
ingly arrogant — definitely to the
point of racism — for Quebecers
to insist on the one hand tha’ vney
have an inalienable right to
withdraw from Confederation,
while on the other hand denying
Indians in Quebec any similar
such right.

Why on earth would any sane
Indian want to be part of the
Republic of Quebec?

For one thing, most Indians in
Quebee speak English as a second
language, and frequently as a
mother tongue — not French. Ina
sovereign Quebec, they would be
strangers in a strange Jand.

They would also be at the
tender mercies of the Quebec pro-
vincial police and the Van Doos,
with no restraining hand from Ot-
lawa.

But above all, they would be at
the tender mercies of Hydro
Quebec.

For the James Bay Cree, this
would mean the final destruction
of the very land itself, land they
have occupied for 10,000 years.

Even with the weight of the
federal environment department
behind them, the Cree have not
had much fuck until lately in
slowing down the inexorable ad-
vance of the mammoth Great
Whale hydro megaproject.

The Cree are desperate. They
face being swept from their
forests, lakes and rivers, seeing
everything inundated behind them.

So f was not at all surprised
when Chief Ted Moses, speaking
for the James Bay Cree Nation,
recently told a UN Working
Group in Geneva that if Quebec
separates from Canada, the Cree
will in turn separate from Quebec
— taking with them half its ter-
ritory and provoking a civil war.

His exact words:

“Should Quebec unilaterally
declare sovereignty, it is not likely
that indigenous peoples will
passively surrender their lands and
rights to the new state. A conflict
will occur that, like it or not, will
involve the most fundamental
issues of international law.”’

Chief Moses warned that a Cree
declaration of sovereignty would
not be a bluff. It would have at
least as much stature in interna-
tional law as any similar declara-
tion by Quebec.

What the chief’s words mean is
that Quebec nationalists are going
to have to start finding some way

A DAY iN COURT

THE FOLLOWING people ap-
peared in North and West Van-
couver provincial courts recently
to face various charges.

Before Judge W.J. Rodgers in
North Vancouver provincial court
on July 31:

Bonnie Chow received a condi-
tional discharge and was placed
on probation for one year after
the 28-year-old Vancouver woman
pleaded guilty to stealing a bicycle
from Sears on March 9.

ees

Jacob William Osadchuk and
Robin Nicholas Gentile were each
fined $350 after the two North
Vancouver men pleaded guilty to
being in possession of marijuana
for the purposes of trafficking in
connection with a Nov. 21, 1990
drug seizure.

eee

Denis Bradaric was fined $200
after the 22-year-old North Van-
couver man pleaded guilty to fail-
ing to appear for a Nov. 6, 1990
court date as set out in a promise
to appear notice.

eee

Roger Visona was fined $200
after the 26-year-old Vancouver
man pleaded guiliy to failing to
comply with a condition set out in
a court appearance notice on
April 22.

Before Judge W.J. Rodgers in
North Vancouver provincial court
on July 30: .

John Raymond Wittenberg, 30,
was ordered to stand trial on one
count on break, entry and theft in
connection with an alleged Feb. 26
break-in at an 800-block East 16th
Street house.

The Richmond man will appear
Aug. 2} in Supreme Court to seta
trial date.

Before Judge A.J. Scow in West

Vancouver provincial court on Ju-
ly 29:

Mark Eugene Buyan was fined
$100 after the {8-year-old West

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to accommodate Indian claims,
something they have been loathe
to do.

And what the rest of us can
now begin to contemplate is where
our duty lies. Canada as a state
has treaty obligations to the Cree
of Quebec, including, incidentally,
the responsibility to provide them
with physical and legal protection
from harm.

In an all-too-real sense, the
James Bay Cree are Canada's
Kurds.

Once you begin to think about
it this way, the implications are
staggering. More later.

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